The new Stars War would probably both be massively improved if the camera pulled back from the Republic/First Order and revealed that the rest of the galaxy just didn't care
everyone else in the universe is living their normal lives, but we've got a few thousand people doing live-ammo LARPing for no reason.
this all goes back to the original sin of the new trilogy, which is that JJ wanted to redo Star Wars' political setup and everything has to twist itself around that.
there has never been a more convincing explanation than the fourth wall-breaking "it's a reboot so we have to" hence both of these films are about making Star Wars
what's especially frustrating is that it's fairly easy to see how they could have slightly reframed the setting and kept the good stuff about the story and characters intact
the main thing: convert the First Order into a conspiracy of officers and politicians trying to build a new Empire from the weak New Republic. They think they have to take out Luke to do so.
the Resistance is a counter-conspiracy. That's the structure of TFA, only you'd have to come up with a more plausible climax than Starkiller Base which...should have been done anyway.
TLJ can stay almost exactly the same, except that the First Order is launching a more conventional coup and this is a decapitation strike against Leia.
this would give the First Order a plausible backstory beyond "we wanted another Empire idk idk" and suggest that there was actually a victory won in the original trilogy.
and yes, this would be very much aping the prequels and the EU, but....that beats photocopying A New Hope.
if you have a scene where Snoke says their coup is hanging on a thread and any mass disturbance could take it out, then the Canto Bight scenes take on so much import.
anyway. epic science fiction story structure. it's fun.
anyway I was gonna apologize for tweeting a bunch of star wars story structure stuff at y'all but then I realized that's damn well why you follow me, so take it and enjoy.
