In December 2020, the final episode of The Mandalorian’s second season aired on Disney Plus with resounding success among both fans and critics alike. For those who have not seen it yet, I heavily suggest that you do not read this article and go watch the show since there will be spoilers ahead. Season 2 episode 8 ended the season off with a boom. The mission to rescue Baby Yoda, or, as we come to learn in this season, Grogu, saw Mando teaming up with his friends Cara Dune, Bo Katan and the long thought dead Boba Fett. All seemed good until at the last minute, when Death Troopers arrive on the scene bringing imminent disaster to our heroes. Luckily, Luke Skywalker was able to swoop in and save the day in a scene that gave Star Wars fans everywhere chills. This entire sequence gave fans what they have been wanting for years.
It is no secret that many fans disliked what Disney had done with episodes 7-9 of the Star Wars saga. Many pointed out that it showed a lack of a plan, opened up more questions than it answered, and had many unpopular decisions with the characters. The trilogy had a lot of good (and some great) things going for it, but in the end many felt that it was just wasted potential. The films were extremely divisive throughout the fanbase and still cause disagreements between fans to this day. However, this idea of people hating Star Wars movies has been seen before.
Allow me to take you back to the decade of the 2000s: a simpler time before social media and the internet had taken over people’s lives. A time when George Lucas’ Star Wars prequel trilogy was being released into theaters only to be met with huge backlash by fans. This was unprecedented since in the 70s and 80s Star Wars was one of the most popular and loved franchises on the planet. How could something so loved be so hated? The answer is simple. The movies were not that good. They were nowhere near the quality of the movies that had released years ago. Poor acting, bad special effects, confusing plotlines, and boring politics were all criticisms that people had of the movies when they were released.
For some reason though, these movies are loved by a lot of the fandom nowadays. This begs the question of what happened. How did people go from hating these movies to seeing value and appreciating them? For one, nostalgia is a major factor. The young adults of 2021 were little kids when the movies first came out, which caused them to love them because of the great memories they have. Kids don’t care about Hayden Christensen’s weird and laughable dialogue, they want to see the big flashy lightsaber battles between Darth Maul and Obi Wan Kenobi. This happens all the time. Cheesy or bad media is looked upon fondly because of the nostalgia that we get from when we watched them years ago.
Another major factor of people liking the movies nowadays is the animated TV series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The 3D animated show ran on Cartoon Network from 2008-2013 and lasted 5 seasons until it was unfortunately cancelled. The show was almost universally loved by Star Wars fans, as it added context and character depth to the prequel movies. Characters that people were hated like Anakin Skywalker were given much more development and care to their story arc, causing fans who didn’t like him in the movies to love him in the TV show. In addition to this we got to see characters from the movies that had little to no dialogue, such as Jedi Master Plo Koon, get their time to shine in their own episodes. It also brought back the most underused character in the prequels, Darth Maul, back to life to get revenge against his mortal enemy Obi Wan Kenobi. It also added depth and complexity to the Clone War the show was named after, diving deep into the characters of the clones themselves, which made them more relatable and unique rather than being bland soldiers like the movies.
The greatest addition to the Clone Wars show, however, is the character of Ahsoka Tano. Ahsoka is Anakin’s padawan who we see grow from an impatient young girl who doesn’t think about the consequences of her decisions into a confident Jedi who understands the force and knows how everything has a consequence. Ahsoka, like many things from the prequels, was something that fans hated at first. When we first meet her she’s an annoying little brat that acts recklessly and without consideration for her surroundings. But by the end of the show, we root for her and are sad when she decides to leave the Jedi Order because of their corruption. She also adds a lot to Anakin’s character, as we get to see the complaining, creepy kid we saw in the second movie turn into a caring teacher and the hero we all wanted him to be.
After the show was cancelled, the fans campaigned hard and eventually got Netflix to bring it back for one season in 2014. This season basically consisted of the episodes that were almost finished when the show was cancelled the year before. The three arcs within the show gave fans another round of Star Wars goodness to enjoy, but the show still was unfinished and had no real ending. This all changed at Comic Con in 2018 when creator of the show Dave Filoni announced that the final season would be released on Disney Plus which eventually happened in 2020. The finale of the show is regarded by many as some of, if not the best, Star Wars content out there, depicting the infamous Order 66 from the perspective of Ahsoka. This finally gave the series the conclusion that it so deserved, bringing everything from the beginning of the show to Revenge of the Sith all together for one amazing finale.
So, what’s the point of all of this? If movies that are almost objectively bad with all their issues can be accepted by fans after years of hatred, then why can’t these sequel films with good acting, effects, and most importantly potential. These movies had the potential to be so good but the lack of a vision for the story held them back, leaving many holes and questions unanswered. There is hope though. The Mandalorian seems to be trying to fix some of the problems that the sequels had. It seems as if they are answering questions such as how the First Order came to power, how Palpatine was able to come back, and possibly the origins of Snoke with the plotline of the Empire and how they want to experiment on the powerful Grogu. It even gave fans a treat to make up for those who thought Luke Skywalker was treated poorly in The Last Jedi by giving him that awesome scene in the season 2 finale.
It’s very likely that all this will be expanded upon and more with The Mandalorian’s upcoming seasons as well as the many other Star Wars shows that were announced last December. With new shows taking place in the time period between episodes 6 and 7, we could see many of our questions and complaints answered. We could see Grogu’s training with Luke which could give us more insight into Luke’s character and how he became how he was in The Last Jedi. We could see the inner workings of the Empire shown even further to see how the First Order, Snoke, and Emperor Palpatine all were able to come back into power. It helps that the man behind all of these is Dave Filoni, the same guy who was able to do so well with Clone Wars. If anyone can do it and restore balance it’s Dave Filoni, the man that was able to take the extremely hated prequels and turn them into something good. With him, we can all have a new hope in the future of Star Wars.