OPINION -- Disney+ Has a Major Star Wars Problem

Since the success of Jon Favreau's The Mandalorian and Dave Filoni's Star Wars: Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels, Disney has been going all in thinking that they could hopefully repair the damages done to the Star Wars franchise by the sequel trilogy with these Disney+ shows.

The Mandalorian had made a lot of great strides in repairing the good will and faith in the future of the franchise that was damaged by the mismanagement of the sequel trilogy in a lot of fans' minds. That series' success urged Disney to greenlight more Star Wars-related television series for streaming on their Disney+ platform that was in desperate need of original content that wasn't directly tied to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

I know that I have made it a point of personal preference NOT to cover much (if not any) Star Wars-related content on this blog, but I had to break that tradition now.

Also, I should mention that there will be MASSIVE spoilers being discussed below, so you have been warned.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian

The Mandalorian was successful since it stood on its own two-feet without being completely burdened by being tied at the hip of falling in place with the rest of the Skywalker Saga. The first season followed a simple bounty hunter who was a survivor of the Fall of Mandalore that comes across a Force-sensitive child (that just happens to look like Yoda, that caused fans to dub him "Baby Yoda") and takes up the task of taking him to his people wherever they are in the galaxy. This led the Mandalorian onto miscellaneous adventures as he fought back against the remnants of what remained of the Empire who want the Child back at all costs. The few bread crumbs establish this series in this unique place where it's set AFTER the (beloved) original trilogy but BEFORE the sequel trilogy. Nothing else before nor after has dared to tackle Star Wars content in this time frame.

The first season came and gone, leaving the occasional bread crumbs and Easter eggs for eagle eyed fans to spot that were ties and connections to a lot of Star Wars lore - both animated and live-action. The icing on the cake was the reveal of Moff Gideon having the fabled "Darksaber" in his possession at the end of the first season. That meant that Dave Filoni's Clone Wars and Rebels were actually canon now since this artifact made it's debut in live-action.

The second season would go in harder with these callbacks and tie-ins to animation, specifically with Clone Wars as fan-favorites characters, such as Bo-Katan Kryze and Ahsoka Tano, would make their live-action debuts in this series. The callbacks wouldn't end there as the second season would end with one hell of piece of nostalgia as Luke Skywalker (digitally de-aged and played by Max Lloyd-Jones as a stand-in) would show up in that episode's final battle, along with R2-D2. This would leave a lot of Star Wars fans in awe and excited to see what's next since The Mandalorian's two seasons did so much to present a story that both respected and honored what came before it while simultaneously presenting a new story with new characters.

Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett

The Book of Boba Fett was announced with director Robert Rodriguez at the helm, shortly after the character's cameo appearance(s) in The Mandalorian's second season, but it quickly soured fan's expectations. Favreau was on board solely as a writer for the screenplay while Favreau and Filoni would join up together to direct and write "Chapter 6: From the Desert Comes a Stranger", since that episode featured the live-action debut of Cad Bane, a popular villain from the Clone Wars animated series. Beloved guest director Bryce Dallas Howard would direct the fan-favorite episode, "Chapter 5: Return of the Mandalorian", which would serve as an impromptu teaser and setup for The Mandalorian Season Three.

That's simultaneously sad and very ironic that arguably the best episode of The Book of Boba Fett is the one where he's not even present in it at all. I was ready to call that show a complete waste of my time and utter failure until that point. Fortunately, the Mandalorian stuck around for the finale and made that enjoyable at least, so there was that much positive to say about it.

Halfway into The Book of Boba Fett, fans were treated with an intermission of sorts where the show deviates from its main plot and caught fans up with what the Mandalorian was up to since the end of second season since entrusting Grogu ("Baby Yoda") to the care of Jedi Luke Skywalker. That single episode gave viewers the Mandalorian's first on-screen battle wielding the Darksaber and introduced the struggles of wielding it - as well as his first challenger (and definitely won't be the last) in hopes of obtaining it. If that wasn't good enough, the episode that followed it included the live-action debut of bounty hunter Cad Bane - someone who I was surprised at the fact that he wasn't introduced earlier in this series given his history with Boba Fett since his youth.

For me personally, it was hard for me to get heavily invested into Boba Fett's spin-off series (even though I adore the casting of Ming-Na Wen as Fennec Shand after reprising the character that debuted in The Mandalorian's first season) as I never fell victim of the massive aura of mystery surrounding that character who had maybe 20-30 minutes of screen time total in the original trilogy that accumulated as much hype and fanfare as G.I. Joe's Snake Eyes. Truth be told, NOTHING that would have or could have been done in this series would have made that character live up to the extremely high expectations that fans created for this character, especially coming off his exceptional arrival in The Mandalorian to reclaim his stolen armor. That along with some lackluster writing in The Book of Boba Fett that could have used a lot of script-doctoring on Favreau's behalf while the inconsistent need to have Boba Fett remove his helmet at every occasion for no rhyme or reason was completely unnecessary.

It pains me to recount my memories of that show because I really wanted to like it as I was excited when it was announced, especially after Fennec and Fett's amazing returns in The Mandalorian's second season. I went into this thinking that we were going to get more of those two characters with that viscous edge to them, but nope.

As much as I loved seeing the Mandalorian show up in this series (along with Grogu), I felt like they completely stole the show (literally) from Boba Fett in his own spin-off in its last half. It was a double-edged sword with the live-action debut of Cad Bane too. It was awesome to see him here, but he felt like an afterthought by the time the finale wrapped up with a very disappointing final battle between Fett and Bane. The Clone Wars (cartoon) had shown in the past that Cad Bane is a strong enough of a villain to carry an entire season; seeing him shoehorned in the last half of this series felt like lazy writing. I know that people are holding out hope that he somehow survived his fatal injuries suffered at the hands of Boba Fett, but I'm not holding my breath. If they wanted to do more with that character, then they would have put in the effort to flesh him out in his first live-action appearance. His rather anticlimactic demise was as disappointing as General Grievous' own death in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith for anyone that followed his past in all of his animated appearances prior to that live-action debut.

These bizarre choices for the narrative direction (the Modders was one major eyesore, along with Boba Fett's more benevolent nature as the new head of the Jabba the Hutt's criminal empire being the two questionable decisions that stick out like a sore thumb) and where they took Boba Fett as a character made long-time fans feel betrayed, thus echoing and reopening the wounds left by the sequel trilogy. It has been universally agreed upon that the best moments of this spin-off was the parts involving The Mandalorian and everything else pales in comparison to it. When The Book of Boba Fett was over, fans were left wanting more Mandalorian and to put the memory of this show completely behind them.

Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi

The series arrives in mid-May and just finished up at the end of June (a few days prior to this article's posting) to mixed reactions. I personally came away from it feeling the same that I did going into it - I have grown tired of the Skywalker family melodrama. How many times are they going to drag an aging James Earl Jones to reprise Darth Vader's voice? I didn't mind it for animation but bringing him back time and time again for these minor live-action voiceovers reeks of desperation. Bringing back Hayden Christenson for less than 5-10 minutes of screen time (where he wasn't in the Vader suit) felt like a waste too, especially when this show's lackluster writing had Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan Kenobi all over the place in terms of motivations and character direction. His only job since the end of Star Wars Episode III was to look over and protect Luke (and Leia) if necessary from the pending threats of Vader or anyone else hunting down Force-sensitive children. The problem with that is that Ben (the name that Obi-Wan has taken for himself in hiding) has cut himself off completely from the Force for the past ten years. Right off the bat, that is inconsistent with the narrative at the end of Revenge of the Sith, where Yoda left him with some training to undertake to reconnect with his former master, Qui-Gon Jinn.

One would think that's enough fuck-ups there, but nope, there's more. This series features the live-action debuts of the Inquisitors, Vader's personal Sith assassins who hunt down any rogue Jedi who are hiding after surviving Order 666. They made their animated debut in the Star Wars: Rebels animated series, with the Grand Inquisitor (portrayed by Rupert Friend in this D+ series in his live-action debut; voiced by Jason Isaacs in Rebels) being the primary antagonist for its first season, while Fifth Brother (who appears in this series played by Fast & Furious' alumni Sung Kang; voiced by Philip Anthony-Rodriguez in Rebels) and Seventh Sister (voiced by Sarah Michelle Gellar) serve as the recurring antagonists for the follow-up seasons. One would be normally hyped to see these characters in live-action as they have only have appeared in animation and the recent Star Wars: Jedi - Fallen Order video game in some capacity.

By the time Obi-Wan Kenobi is over, fans are left feeling the same amount of disappointment as they did with The Book of Boba Fett and wanting to forget what they have seen here. It doesn't gel with the rest of the Star Wars continuity that they have laid the groundwork with up to this point and it adds another blemish on the Star Wars name. These Disney+ shows are supposed to be a sign of good will to assure fans that the franchise is in good hands and will continue in a positive direction. Instead, they have left some questionable efforts in its wake, with The Mandalorian being the only bright spot in a sea of shit. That's not a good footing either when the third season is set to debut in 2023 and there's more time for the emotional highs from the few good things in Kenobi's finale wear off and people really start combing through this series' shortcomings with a fine tooth comb.

I don't place the blame entirely on Deborah Chow and Robert Rodriguez for these failures either. That's entirely on Lucasfilm and Disney to put people in charge of these projects who genuinely care and knowledgeable on these characters and this universe, not just because they did something cool/noteworthy in a different genre. Chow's previous Star Wars works involved two Season 1 episodes of The Mandalorian while Rodriguez only directed a single Season 2 episode of The Mandalorian.

I find it comical that you have some critics out there saying that you have to have seen all of the animated shows to appreciate Boba Fett and Obi-Wan more. I have seen all of Clone Wars and Rebels and I still thought both of these live-action shows were subpar television. This shouldn't be acceptable when a lot of those cartoons have gone above and beyond honoring and expanding the lore in this universe.

Case in point? The scene from Rebels where Ahsoka faces off against Darth Vader (see the video above on the left) and finds out that he's really Anakin Skywalker. The finale of Kenobi (see the video above on the right - if it's not taken down already...) borrows from this moment heavily in the same manner, but plays onto the dynamic of Obi-Wan and Anakin's master and student relationship as well as their (surrogate) father and son relationship. Obi-Wan felt that he failed him as not only his teacher but as his father, only for Anakin to correct him that he (Vader) killed Anakin Skywalker and not Obi-Wan. The major difference here was that Kenobi left Vader possibly crippled further by his injuries inflicted upon him by Kenobi as Kenobi leaves, seemingly at peace at the thought that his former friend, padawan, and son is gone with this Sith monster being all that remains. Meanwhile, Ahsoka was poised and ready to put her life on the line put down her former master. She would never return throughout the rest of Rebels, seemingly had sacrificed herself for Ezra and Kanan could escape. Ahsoka's fate wouldn't be revealed until she was "saved" by Ezra Bridger due to a time and space loophole that I dare not get into this article. That being said, that doesn't take away the fact that both scenes were both really well done, especially with Kenobi's having that added effect of duality from James Earl Jones and Hayden Christenson's voices fading in and out during their dialogue with Obi-Wan while the lights illuminating his face flickering from red to blue.

It's flashes of greatness like this that frustrates fans like me because you can painfully see that can present this stuff well when they want to but settle for lackluster and half-assed efforts. Mediocrity isn't a good thing and it's definitely not going to keep the Star Wars franchise afloat if they continue to do so by waving the neon, sparkly flag of nostalgia to hook viewers in and banking on the facts that they would overlook all of these shortcomings with a simple callback or chance encounter(s) between beloved characters from the past. Fans have to stop enabling these nostalgia homages and minor cameos/callbacks to fool themselves that these mediocre and subpar efforts are okay when they aren't. Otherwise, we're going to continue getting below-average content that has maybe one or two sequences that make you go "oooo" and "ahhhh" while the rest of said content wasn't worth your time watching.

Closing Thoughts

Whether you're a hardcore or casual fan of Star Wars, I don't see how you can be over the moon in anticipation for more of these Disney+ Star Wars shows when they have been below average at best for anything that's not The Mandalorian, which surprisingly has been their only hit so far. I'm only looking forward to Ahsoka mainly since it follows what she's been up to since the end of Rebels and would possibly revisit what happened to her between the end of Clone Wars to her debut in Rebels as well. The Mandalorian Season Three is a no-brainer at this point for me at least - as along as they don't continue to bank on relying on nostalgic references and numerous cameos like the second season did. Lando is something I have absolutely no faith in and the same goes for Rangers of the New Republic since that one will more likely get axed since Disney has to recast Cara Dune after Gina Carano's public display of her own stupidity. I don't have any faith in that project that Patty Jenkins is allegedly tied to either as I've ranted enough about her crackpot direction on the last two Wonder Woman live-action movies. I will say that the concept of The Acolyte intrigues me since that is allegedly set 100 years before the events of The Phantom Menance. I will admit that Andor looks promising, even though that will be another show that will have some of the same narrative problems as Obi-Wan Kenobi since the majority of its cast will have "plot armor" to survive whatever drama they may encounter since we know the fates of those characters since the show will be a prequel of sorts to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Lucasfilm and Disney have a lot of work on their hands to turn this thing around for the better or they will push off what little remaining Star Wars fans that they have left, if there's not enough aren't already starting to distance themselves from the bigotry and racism that has been largely abundant since the start of the sequel trilogy and came out in full force upon Reva's introduction in this series.