Talking about the Disney Star Wars era can be a touchy subject. While I wouldn’t say it is as controversial as the prequels, it’s definitely starting to get near to that level. I am a fan of Star Wars as a whole, but it feels like there’s been a lot more negative than there is positive.

The plot for some of these releases has been less than stellar, to say the least. Obi-Wan Kenobi is a prime example of this issue. You’d think based on the name the show would be primarily about Obi-Wan. But NOPE, it’s about some random inquisitor named Reva we’ve never seen before who has some thrown-together connection to Vader. Fantastic. 

Reva just really shouldn’t have been the main focus in the first place. We were all hoping to see new fun adventures with our favorite master of the high ground, but instead, we get to see him running around with Leia avoiding Reva. And on top of that, Obi-Wan has nothing to do with Reva’s goal of getting to Vader. I think the final battle between Obi-Wan and Vader is tricking people into thinking the show was good. Sure it was an amazing scene, but the rest of the show just didn’t live up to expectations.

If you think the show’s plots are bad, you haven’t seen anything yet. The sequel trilogy has by far some of the worst writing I’ve seen in film. Force Awakens is okay, but the other two are terrible, especially The Rise of Skywalker. Palpatine’s return had no build-up and is just thrown into the opening scene. No effort to make it seamless, just throw it in there and call it a day.

Having trouble finding the planet Palpatine is hiding on? Don’t worry, there’s this “sith wayfinder” that will take you right to him. Having trouble finding the wayfinder? Don’t worry, there’s this dagger in a hole that will tell you exactly where it is. Having trouble reading what’s on the dagger? Don’t worry, C3-PO can apparently translate Sith text. And that’s 90% of the movie right there. 

The writing really needs to improve going forward. While Star Wars before Disney did have some bad writing, it wasn’t this consistently bad.

Another massive issue with these new releases is the poor execution of characters. Whether it’s introducing new and unlikeable characters like Rey and the dreaded Rose, or just killing off your favorite characters like ALL THREE of the original trilogy’s main characters. Maybe if they killed off Chewbacca or one of the droids it might feel better, but the fact that the three side characters survived and the three main ones died, almost feels insulting.

At least Han Solo was killed by the only good new character, Kylo Ren. While I think his original motivation is flawed seeing as he wants to be like Darth Vader even though Anakin did redeem himself at the end of Return of the Jedi, they seem to lose that motivation by the end of the first movie and just have him serving Snoke while trying to get Rey to join him.

Possibly the biggest failure when it comes to the characters is Palpatine. Ian McDiarmid returned to the character in The Rise of Skywalker, and even fans of the sequel trilogy will admit that he was a major issue. Again, there was just no build-up for this twist and the only explanation we get for him being alive is a quote from the prequels. This also completely ruins the sacrifice of Anakin Skywalker since Palpatine somehow survived the Death Star explosion. The only reason I can think of to explain them bringing him back is to try to add some nostalgia to the failing trilogy, but it clearly didn’t work.

Despite all of this terror brought to us by Emperor Disney, there has been at least some success. One of these successes was the popular Mandalorian series brought to you by the true Chosen One, John Favreau. This show included new loveable characters like Din Djarin and of course, The Child, Baby Yoda, Grogu, thing… and also gave us a glimpse at Luke Skywalker after Return of the Jedi.

The writing was also consistently good, showing us a side of Star Wars we haven’t seen in film since the Clone Wars series. The history of the Mandalorian is so interesting and it was great to see Disney give it a place in the series.

Rebels and the end of Clone Wars were both good. Rebels let us see the aftermath of Order 66 in a new way which is really refreshing. We get to see the tragedy occur in Revenge of the Sith, but we don’t really get to see how it really affects surviving Jedi and the rest of the galaxy as a whole. 

There was also one good scene in both Rogue One and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Other than The Force Awakens like I mentioned, that’s pretty much it in my opinion.

At the end of the day, I still love Star Wars. I think it has a long way to go before it can be truly great again, but we’ve seen more unlikely redemption before. If Disney lets John Favreau continue his success and allows him to direct more Star Wars content, there might be a chance. But until then I will sit here patiently refusing to call Rey a Skywalker. May the force be with us.