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There is this weird thing going on regarding the main plot of Star Wars. And when I say "main plot", I mean the movies, just so we're clear on the whole "Extended Universe" nonsense. Look at the prequels, for example. Buckets full of abuse have been heaped on them for their storylines, some rightfully so ("I hate sand"), some less. Sean and I did a podcast about that back in the day (BLAH 57, to be precise).
But I don't want to talk about the prequels in isolation today, nor about the prequels in exclusivity. Rather, I want to look at them through the lens of the Matrix movies. This might be an odd angle, but bear with me.
Back in 2002, when "Matrix Reloaded" hit the cinemas and redefined cool for a generation of 16-year-olds, the Wachowskis had an ambitious plan: They also released a whole package of supplemental material. A DVD with some animated shorts of very varying quality ("The Animatrix"), a mediocre video game, some comics and other stuff.
Now, when I say supplemental, this is how they were perceived back in the day. However, one should phrase them more in the sense of "required reading material", as a professor would do in your English lit course. They provided essential backstory that filled bewildering holes in the main plot, like who the boy was and what his connection to NEO was, how the Flight of the Osiris went down or what was up with Niobe.
This backfired. Most people didn't know all or any supplemental material and were confused by a lot of the plot. This worked better in Reloaded, where the foundational movie structure held the thing together. It came crashing down on Revolutions, and it hasn't been tried again ever since. When Marvel constructed their Cinematic Universe, they made damn sure every movie had legs to stand on its own and to keep references to their other movies to a minimum.
Now, Star Wars did something similar. However, they did it the other way around. The prequels didn't really have much supplemental material. The official novels, based on the screenplays, provided a tad more information, but nothing dramatic. The whole context of the prequel stories changed retroactively, mostly through the release of the Clone Wars series.
The Clone Wars, aired from 2003 to 2006, was an animated series set between "Attack of the Clones" and "The Revenge of the Sith", filling you in with the actual Clone Wars you were promised since "A New Hope" and didn't really get in either of the prequel movies, where you were witness to the lead-up and the conclusion, respectively. It was primarily aimed at kids, but had a high enough bar to be also watchable by adult fans.
The Clone Wars thereby fleshed out the characters of Obi Wan and Anakin, introduced a whole lot of new ones (including several Clones and the fan-favorite Padawan of Anakin's, Asoka Tano, who of course goes unmentioned in the movies proper) and gave screentime to other Jedi. The same has been done by other supplemental materials, comics mostly. (They're not good, keep away.)
By doing that, it also did something maybe unintended. Every time you watch the prequels, if you know the Clone Wars series, every character now also carries with him a whole lot of backstory that they didn't carry before. The friendship between Obi Wan and Anakin, more told then showed in the movies, suddenly had the weight of dozens of daring missions behind it. Their banter about saving each other's necks is real rather than, you know, just there.
It's even more pronounced with the supporting characters. After getting to know the Clones for six seasons, their forced betrayal of the Jedi feels a lot more problematic (and will come back around in "Star Wars Rebels", the other big animated series). After getting to know the Jedi for six seasons, seeing them killed by the Clones in that haunting montage carries a lot more meaning.
Thereby, the supplemental material suddenly changes the context in which you watch the original. The same happened for "A New Hope". After seeing "Rogue One", can you ever watch the Trench Run without thinking about the sacrifices made on Scarif? The few fighters attacking the Death Star, can you not feel a pang of pain for the whole fleet lost over the planet? It changes the context. I'm sure they wanted to do the same thing with "Solo" for some iconic phrases - think of the Kessel Run or the card game -, but in that, they largely failed.
The story gets a bit more complex when it comes to the sequels. Here, supplemental material was baked in the pudding from the get-go, and that has proven problematic. How so?
There is a whole series of comics and novels, for example, that fleshes out the character and backstory of Captain Phasma. Now, this may be a curious little detail, but these also show what happened in between scenes. And let's be honest, not a lot of Captain Phasma's actions and plot beats from "The Force Awakens" makes a whole lot of sense.
The same goes for the Republic and the Resistance. How do they interact with the First Order? What planets does Starkiller Base blow up? What the fuck is going on?
It always feels like they cut scenes. And actually, they did. You can read them. Isn't that great?
However, here's the rub. The literary quality of all this stuff ranges from sub-par to mediocre. So, I don't usually read it. And that leaves my experiences watching these movies unfulfilled. That's rather bad, and you shouldn't do this. As the MCU taught us, every movie needs to be able to stand on its own legs.
Right now, the sequels haven't yet managed to garner the same interest in their universe - First Order vs. Resistance - as in the original trilogy or the prequels. The latter one is instructive, as it was more or less seen as dead and buried only a few years ago. My bet would be that as Disney continues to milk the IP - as they are known to do - the universe will be flashed out in retrospect as well.
Already, we can see traces of this. The animated series "Star Wars Resistance" fleshed out a bit more of the backstory and why they're actually resisting, as well as giving Poe Dameron more screentime. I'm certain there will be other stuff besides it. The Mouse doesn't forego potential profits just because some haters online write stuff on message boards about "The Last Jedi".
This is an interesting development in storytelling. I'm curious to see where it turns out to go. But I don't want to talk about the prequels in isolation today, nor about the prequels in exclusivity. Rather, I want to look at them through the lens of the Matrix movies. This might be an odd angle, but bear with me.
Back in 2002, when "Matrix Reloaded" hit the cinemas and redefined cool for a generation of 16-year-olds, the Wachowskis had an ambitious plan: They also released a whole package of supplemental material. A DVD with some animated shorts of very varying quality ("The Animatrix"), a mediocre video game, some comics and other stuff.
Now, when I say supplemental, this is how they were perceived back in the day. However, one should phrase them more in the sense of "required reading material", as a professor would do in your English lit course. They provided essential backstory that filled bewildering holes in the main plot, like who the boy was and what his connection to NEO was, how the Flight of the Osiris went down or what was up with Niobe.
This backfired. Most people didn't know all or any supplemental material and were confused by a lot of the plot. This worked better in Reloaded, where the foundational movie structure held the thing together. It came crashing down on Revolutions, and it hasn't been tried again ever since. When Marvel constructed their Cinematic Universe, they made damn sure every movie had legs to stand on its own and to keep references to their other movies to a minimum.
Now, Star Wars did something similar. However, they did it the other way around. The prequels didn't really have much supplemental material. The official novels, based on the screenplays, provided a tad more information, but nothing dramatic. The whole context of the prequel stories changed retroactively, mostly through the release of the Clone Wars series.
The Clone Wars, aired from 2003 to 2006, was an animated series set between "Attack of the Clones" and "The Revenge of the Sith", filling you in with the actual Clone Wars you were promised since "A New Hope" and didn't really get in either of the prequel movies, where you were witness to the lead-up and the conclusion, respectively. It was primarily aimed at kids, but had a high enough bar to be also watchable by adult fans.
The Clone Wars thereby fleshed out the characters of Obi Wan and Anakin, introduced a whole lot of new ones (including several Clones and the fan-favorite Padawan of Anakin's, Asoka Tano, who of course goes unmentioned in the movies proper) and gave screentime to other Jedi. The same has been done by other supplemental materials, comics mostly. (They're not good, keep away.)
By doing that, it also did something maybe unintended. Every time you watch the prequels, if you know the Clone Wars series, every character now also carries with him a whole lot of backstory that they didn't carry before. The friendship between Obi Wan and Anakin, more told then showed in the movies, suddenly had the weight of dozens of daring missions behind it. Their banter about saving each other's necks is real rather than, you know, just there.
It's even more pronounced with the supporting characters. After getting to know the Clones for six seasons, their forced betrayal of the Jedi feels a lot more problematic (and will come back around in "Star Wars Rebels", the other big animated series). After getting to know the Jedi for six seasons, seeing them killed by the Clones in that haunting montage carries a lot more meaning.
Thereby, the supplemental material suddenly changes the context in which you watch the original. The same happened for "A New Hope". After seeing "Rogue One", can you ever watch the Trench Run without thinking about the sacrifices made on Scarif? The few fighters attacking the Death Star, can you not feel a pang of pain for the whole fleet lost over the planet? It changes the context. I'm sure they wanted to do the same thing with "Solo" for some iconic phrases - think of the Kessel Run or the card game -, but in that, they largely failed.
The story gets a bit more complex when it comes to the sequels. Here, supplemental material was baked in the pudding from the get-go, and that has proven problematic. How so?
There is a whole series of comics and novels, for example, that fleshes out the character and backstory of Captain Phasma. Now, this may be a curious little detail, but these also show what happened in between scenes. And let's be honest, not a lot of Captain Phasma's actions and plot beats from "The Force Awakens" makes a whole lot of sense.
The same goes for the Republic and the Resistance. How do they interact with the First Order? What planets does Starkiller Base blow up? What the fuck is going on?
It always feels like they cut scenes. And actually, they did. You can read them. Isn't that great?
However, here's the rub. The literary quality of all this stuff ranges from sub-par to mediocre. So, I don't usually read it. And that leaves my experiences watching these movies unfulfilled. That's rather bad, and you shouldn't do this. As the MCU taught us, every movie needs to be able to stand on its own legs.
Right now, the sequels haven't yet managed to garner the same interest in their universe - First Order vs. Resistance - as in the original trilogy or the prequels. The latter one is instructive, as it was more or less seen as dead and buried only a few years ago. My bet would be that as Disney continues to milk the IP - as they are known to do - the universe will be flashed out in retrospect as well.
Already, we can see traces of this. The animated series "Star Wars Resistance" fleshed out a bit more of the backstory and why they're actually resisting, as well as giving Poe Dameron more screentime. I'm certain there will be other stuff besides it. The Mouse doesn't forego potential profits just because some haters online write stuff on message boards about "The Last Jedi".
This is an interesting development in storytelling. I'm curious to see where it turns out to go.
2 times the same text?
ReplyDeleteprobably unintended ;)