Star Wars Discussion Post

I'm doing something a little different- I've noticed in my analytics that this old Star Wars discussion post seems to get a LOT of attention. It came out right around the time of Star Wars: The Force Awakens so it's a little dated, especially since some of my criticisms were addressed in later movies or whatever. But I thought I'd re- present it here to see what people think now- about 5 years later. Also I had to edit and clean it up a bit. You can find the original post here if you want to see what people thought at the time.  

Since I thought Star Wars The Force Awakens sucked I thought it would be fun to imagine where the Star Wars story could have gone. But where would I have liked to see it go? Well, I'll tell ya. Keep in mind this is just a selfish for- me exercise so if my ideas seem terrible that's fine. You can let me know in the comments. Better yet, I'd love to hear what your ideas are. What would you like to see in Star Wars?

Here's a few things I wish they had done. 

Have Luke actually in the movie. For more than a minute. After all the hype, to have him only show up at the end was ridiculous. 

Ditto for Artoo and Threepio. They are the heart and soul of the original trilogy in some ways, and I think they are the ideal way to bring humor into the story. If you watch the original movies they were the comic relief, and could have played that role again, as well as providing a bridge to those earlier stories. 

Leia should have had more to do. She does nothing in Force Awakens, and she was sarcastic and badass in the originals that that was sorely lacking here. Find a way to keep that spark while at the same time acknowledging that she's older, wiser, more measured perhaps. Leia had no fire in Force Awakens. 

Han Solo is (sadly) getting older so having him revert to smuggling is silly. It just doesn't look realistic. He was a general in Return of the Jedi, he should have still been with the Alliance or whatever- have him lead from a position of authority and experience and pass the torch to Rey that way. It took me out of the story a bit to see a guy in his 70's trying to run around like the old days. 

Skip Maz Kanata. After Han warns Rey that she is unpredictable she turns out to be like someone's sweet grandmother. Nothing mysterious or dangerous about her- remember how Yoda was kinda mysterious at first? I yawned pretty much at that whole scene. 

Have the cast interact on some important worlds. Have you noticed that, except for the prequels, we never see Core worlds or important Imperial/ Republic worlds? Like Coruscant. I would have liked to see Leia be an important person in the Republic on Coruscant, with Han there grousing about incompetent bureaucrats or some such, and waxing nostalgic about his days gallivanting about in the Falcon. Since Rey is a pilot she could have taken the Falcon with Han's blessing and you pass the torch. It's not like Han did anything on the ship that Rey couldn't do anyway apparently. 

We could have seen Lando too maybe and Luke. Having them all on Coruscant would have been cool- Luke could be researching the old Jedi ways and if they're going with the "search for the Jedi temple" angle, like they alluded to, where better to start than on Coruscant? Imagine Luke exploring Vader's residence or finding hidden secrets in the Emperor's palace- the possibilities are endless! 

Instead our heroes hang out on places like Jakku and other places in the middle of nowhere. 

If we are going to revisit familiar worlds, how about Dagobah? Yoda lived there for years and Luke had an important test in the Dark Side cave. Maybe there's something there (an old Sith temple?) that plays a role in the story and Luke has to return. Maybe Rey has to go in and have her own test while Luke remains outside. 

Forget the Starkiller stuff. A third superweapon was too much. 

Regardless of how they do it, they should have had Luke, Leia and Han together. One last hurrah with the banter and camaraderie we remember. You could have had tension between the Republic and Luke, showing how maybe the Jedi and the secular leaders don't see eye to eye. Putting Leia in a tough spot opens up lots of dramatic opportunities. 

Show us cool places like maybe Corellia or a space station or the shipyards where they build Star Destroyers. Whatever- just something new. Science fiction means you can do anything- wow us. Don't just show us Tatooine and name it Jakku. they did some neat things, like the crashed star destroyers but I would have liked to see more. We used to get Cloud City, asteroid fields, stuff like that. 

And lastly more Jawas.