Obi-Wan Kenobi is burdened with trying to fill in Star Wars plot holes

[TMC]

https://www.wired.com/story/star-war...an-plot-holes/

The Disney+ series aims to fix Star Wars plot holes while developing new galaxy lore. But filling those plot holes has become a burden, says Graeme McMillan. "The power of George Lucas’ original Star Wars movies is that they are, gloriously, children’s stories," says McMillan. "The big villains wear black and look scary, while the heroes smile and hug each other and save the day using magic and the power of being good; there are cute robots and cuter bears, and the cosmology of the whole thing makes no sense if you give it a moment’s thought, but that’s fine; it sounds good, and everything moves pretty quickly, so you don’t care. he problem is, the kids who loved those movies grew up and kept hold of Star Wars in the process. As a result, Star Wars became increasingly insular. It went from the origin story of Darth Vader in the turn-of-the-century prequel trilogy to the current era, which has fixated on minutiae from what came before to such a degree that 2019’s Solo: A Star Wars Story doesn’t just show how Han Solo met Chewbacca and Lando Calrissian, it also shows how he won the Millennium Falcon and how he made the Kessel Run in such a short time—in other words, basically all of the character’s backstory from the original movie—while also, inexplicably, giving an entirely unexpected and unnecessary origin for Han Solo’s name. Who, really, asked for that? Even those Star Wars projects that initially seemed new and independent of the franchise’s past have become weighed down by the expectation of exploring legacy. The second season of The Mandalorian was overshadowed by guest appearances by Cobb Vanth, Ahsoka Tano, Boba Fett, and a CGI Luke Skywalker, which led into a Boba Fett spin-off show that did little more than offer fan service about how Boba survived being eaten by the Sarlacc in 1983’s Return of the Jedi."

ALSO:

• Can Star Wars ever solve its racist fan problem?: The official Star Wars account's blunt response earlier this week to the racism Moses Ingram experienced is "a little blind to the franchise’s shortcomings," says Graeme McMillan. "The series is, to this day, predominantly white, with the original trilogy—which is still held up as the prime example of what the property can be—featuring exactly one non-white actor in an onscreen speaking role. (That the first movie has only one Black actor, who provides the voice for the movie’s villain, is a whole thing in and of itself.) Furthermore, this is a fandom that has made a movement of cosplaying as the faceless soldiers of a fascist regime. The idea that Star Wars is, implicitly, a safe haven of diversity and example of the same is, at the very least, flawed. So, what can be done? If Disney and Lucasfilm want to rid Star Wars fandom of its toxic elements, the companies will surely need to double down on their efforts: denouncing bigotry more vocally and encouraging others to do the same, preferably without reference to fictional realities. Placing a greater focus on onscreen diversity, in increasingly visible and important roles, will also be key. They would also do well to remind fans that the Empire/First Order are the bad guys, not aspirational figures. But those are just the first steps."
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