R
Roguish
Guest
SW8 “The Last Jedi” effectively killed off Star Wars as we had known it, by changing so many story fundamentals that it, and presumably any later canonical instalments in the series, no longer “feels” like the original 6 (or 7, if you were okay with TFA) films. I won’t bore anyone here by explaining what fundamentals I’m speaking of – any long-standing fan knows, and there’s so much about it on the internet (IMDB and many other sites) that there’s no point in trying to summarize it here.
Why did this disaster (from a fan’s perspective) happen? Ruling opinion is that it has been the result of producer Kathleen Kennedy and director Rian Johnson just “not getting” Star Wars, and Disney (owner of production company Lucasfilm) just being in it “for the money” and caring (or understanding) little about fan sentiments.
My theory is different. I say the money argument is a red herring, as is the notion that Kennedy and Johnson didn’t know what they were doing. My argument is rather that Star Wars as we knew it was destroyed on purpose, because Star Wars as we knew it was (or had become) too religious, and the forces that be do not want future instalments of one of the largest-ever movie franchises to continue to evoke or reinforce the religious impulse in the hundreds of millions (perhaps billion) of people that will be watching the future episodes in the 21st century.
“When was Star Wars ever religious?” some might object. The answer is that it was always religious-ish. Sure, the Force and the Jedi Knights never quite constituted a religion, what with there being no clear notions of God, sin, virtue, heaven, or hell – but nevertheless SW always appealed to what could be called “religious sentiment”. SW was always about the long battle between an explicit supernatural Good vs. an explicit Evil, about the hope of the eventual victory of Good, about supernatural “assistance” received by those who are called to dedicate themselves to this battle, about the temptation of Evil, the need to resist that temptation, the terrible consequences of giving into it, etc. etc.
So while the Jedi belief systems wouldn’t quite be adequate as a true religion, it was nevertheless not incompatible with it, and effectively served to reinforce the religious impulse in millions of viewers. As said, THIS was no longer acceptable to the obscure forces that are in charge of blockbuster movie-making (and many other things) in the modern world, and THIS is why Kennedy and Johnson were given the task of making a new Star Wars movie that would wipe out all of the religious overtones of the preceding 7 episodes.
Comments welcome.
Why did this disaster (from a fan’s perspective) happen? Ruling opinion is that it has been the result of producer Kathleen Kennedy and director Rian Johnson just “not getting” Star Wars, and Disney (owner of production company Lucasfilm) just being in it “for the money” and caring (or understanding) little about fan sentiments.
My theory is different. I say the money argument is a red herring, as is the notion that Kennedy and Johnson didn’t know what they were doing. My argument is rather that Star Wars as we knew it was destroyed on purpose, because Star Wars as we knew it was (or had become) too religious, and the forces that be do not want future instalments of one of the largest-ever movie franchises to continue to evoke or reinforce the religious impulse in the hundreds of millions (perhaps billion) of people that will be watching the future episodes in the 21st century.
“When was Star Wars ever religious?” some might object. The answer is that it was always religious-ish. Sure, the Force and the Jedi Knights never quite constituted a religion, what with there being no clear notions of God, sin, virtue, heaven, or hell – but nevertheless SW always appealed to what could be called “religious sentiment”. SW was always about the long battle between an explicit supernatural Good vs. an explicit Evil, about the hope of the eventual victory of Good, about supernatural “assistance” received by those who are called to dedicate themselves to this battle, about the temptation of Evil, the need to resist that temptation, the terrible consequences of giving into it, etc. etc.
So while the Jedi belief systems wouldn’t quite be adequate as a true religion, it was nevertheless not incompatible with it, and effectively served to reinforce the religious impulse in millions of viewers. As said, THIS was no longer acceptable to the obscure forces that are in charge of blockbuster movie-making (and many other things) in the modern world, and THIS is why Kennedy and Johnson were given the task of making a new Star Wars movie that would wipe out all of the religious overtones of the preceding 7 episodes.
Comments welcome.
Last edited:
