I grew up watching Star Wars a few years before the prequels came out.
I loved it! I was a big Star Wars fan. I honestly almost completely lost interest in it after I became an even bigger Trek fan.
I’ve been playing Lego Star Wars and it’s been fun, but it made me realize that the stories all seem surface deep to me.
I get the movies from the 70s were not going to deep dive in Luke’s training, but in each film it’s just like, “And… you’re a Jedi master now.”
There are other races and we do not get to really learn much about them. I guess the Mandalorian filled that out some, but I couldn’t get into that show.
I guess this is more of a rant about how Star Wars feels like and empty shell of a series than something with more substance.
I really wish, that there was something that went deeper.
I have not watched all the Disney+ shows yet, but I might start Ahsoka or Andor tonight. I watched Obi Wan and liked it, I tried Mando 2 times and did not like it one bit.
I loved the Shadows of the Empire book.
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Andor and the Knights of the Old Republic(kotor) games are the best star wars content because ultimately, they are great content with good writing and characters. Everything else is pretty mid(with some cool music or visuals). Mandalorian season 1 was decent.
Watch Andor and come back to us. Rebels also had a lot more depth.
Omg! Andor is amazing! This is exactly what I wanted from Star Wars. That show is doing a great job of world building.
That’s what was always missing for me. We always see this is just what happened but why and how we’re not really explained.
This is doing it. I’ve watched 9 episodes since last night.
Glad you like it!
If you haven’t previously seen Rogue One, it’s also great. Watch it after Andor, as the story basically just continues directly. I love the originals, but Rogue One might be my favorite Star Wars movie. I’m much more captured by the idea of the rebellion as regular people striving for freedom than the light sabers and magic.
Yeah, I’ve seen rogue one and it’s been my favorite Star Wars movie since I saw it in the theaters. I would love it if Star Wars focused more on this world building.
Rogue One is good too, and worth watching before Andor if you haven’t.
This is the series adult fans needed.
I would argue that Luke was never just told he was a master and that was that. He left his training with Yoda early, against advisement, and lost a hand as a result of not being ready. His swagger in Return of the Jedi was largely an act, by his own admission, and had his father not turned, Luke would have been made a stain by Palpatine. As the new films progressed, it was clear he was still full of doubt, hence the failure with Kylo. Maybe he finally felt and acted like a master after his self imposed exile, meeting Rey and coming to terms with what he had to do. However the way he went about it was informed by a lifetime of loss and failure. This made him seek a path that was different than those that went before him, who cocked it all up with their overconfidence and willingness to throw their weight around.
Yeah, a lot of Star Wars is pretty bland and just reiterations of the original trilogy. But there are some exceptions, many of them hidden in the old Extended Universe.
My favorite Star Wars media besides the original films are the Knights Of The Old Republic games. Especially the second one has one of the best Star Wars stories ever written because it tries to be much deeper then “Jedi good, Jedi with red sabers bad”.
Rogue One and Andor are also not your typical Star Wars stories but with right amount of Star Wars flair.
I actually really loved rogue one. I just told my mom to watch it as she’s a big Star Wars fan.
If you like rogue one, watch Andor. Ahsoka is okay, but if you haven’t watched Clone Wars & Rebels, it will fall flat for you and IMO the first few episodes are really weak. I don’t hate it. I really love Baylen Skoll as a character (RIP Ray Stevenson), but if you are on the cusp with Star Wars, I can’t recommend it — it’s more for the fans than to make fans, you know?
Mando is good for a lighthearted romp through the galaxy, especially the first season and the second season has some gems.
Clone Wars has some really good Star Wars in it but certainly not every episode and I found the first couple of seasons to be a slog.
There’s not a lot else I’d recommend right now. I love all of the shows (Book of Boba Fett was not great, but it had its moments — you need a high tolerance for cheese, though).
A lot of people hate on The Acolyte, but I enjoyed it. It features a deeper dive into the Jedi, an alternate viewpoint of The Force, and the unrealized promise (due to cancellation) of a compelling bad guy. But enough people hate it that I’m hesitant to recommend it to someone who is struggling to enjoy Star Wars as much as they’d like.
Good luck, friend!
Omg! Andor is amazing! This is exactly what I wanted from Star Wars. That show is doing a great job of world building.
That’s what was always missing for me. We always see this is just what happened but why and how we’re not really explained.
This is doing it. I’ve watched 9 episodes since last night.
Andor is the best star wars has ever been imo.
Andor falls into the same category as Knights of the Old Republic 2: it’s amongst the best Star Wars despite (or rather because of) it not being very Star Wars-y.
Much like KOTOR 2 deconstructed Jedi, the Force, and their roles in the universe, Andor deconstructs and elaborates on how the universe would work as shown: instead of waving everything away into the background to focus on a Chosen One with space magic, you get to see how normal people live in a messed up universe like that. It’s also depressingly relevant with its focus on the slide into an authoritarian regime and how people respond and adapt.
If you go in expecting the normal black-and-white power fantasy you’ll probably be disappointed, but if you’re looking for a masterful character-driven drama with morally gray protagonists and antagonists then you’ll be riveted.
(Another thing both have in common is the beginning can be a bit of a slog - try to make it past episode 3 before calling it quits.)
Ok, that settles it. I’m going to put that on in a moment.
Yea… there’s no way a tv show is better than a film. No matter how great a show is, there is inevitably padding, stretching, and pacing issues. At least let a release simmer a little bit in the cultural ether before you start making statements that it’s better than a movie still held in the highest regard 50 years later.
It sounds like you haven’t even watched it 😂
I mean you’re right. I still say you can’t say it’s “the best Star Wars has ever been” because the OG trilogy was genre defining and ground breaking. Andor is “just” a really good show.
I think you might be better-served by the various Star Wars books. TBH I haven’t read any, but a book just has so much more space for these kinds of things.
I think you are probably right about that. I’ve heard there are some good Vader books
The Palpatine origin books were pretty great
I realized that the “sky walker 9 movies was just palpatine the whole time.
I found a site somewhere that listed a large number of the star wars books in chronological order and started working my way forward from pre old republic. I took a break somewhere pretty soon after Darth Plagueis and then got side tracked and didn’t pick it back up. Most of the ones I read were pretty fun.
Red Harvest was pretty good =)
I’d recommend reading the original Thrawn trilogy. It is set in the original expanded universe continuity, which is no longer part of the Disney canon- but you can still read and enjoy this old version.
In it, Luke is aware he doesn’t have the knowledge of the old masters and is searching for it. Jedi knowledge was treated as more obscure and lost in the old books. In the wider galaxy, there are varying perceptions of Luke given that most people simply know he went into the Death Star II in handcuffs and left with Vader and the Emperor dead. Most people don’t know the details so fill them in with myth.
As for alien races, the movies laid out brief moments which the EU often ran with. There are tons of books that expanded what races are like. Going back to the Thrawn books, the admiral explicitly learns about alien cultures to better understand and destroy them.
I highly recommend the X-Wing book series, the Thrawn trilogy and the Jedi Academy trilogy.
The EU books, comics, and video games from the couple of decades between when rotj was released and before the prequels came out are peak Star wars for me
Thanks, I think the thrown trilogy was something I’ve seen recommended before.
Among the extended universe books, the Thrawn Trilogy is top notch. It’s just solid sci-fi fantasy that happens to be related to Star Wars. I’d say it’s a pretty good read even for someone who doesn’t know Star Wars.
Didn’t read the Thrawn Trilogy, but I really like the bits and pieces of him I saw in Tie Fighter :>
