TCTTS said:
Imagine the potential of the current overall storyline if the sequel trilogy didn't exist.
Instead, as is, all I could think last night when I saw the temple being built was that Leia and Han's assh*le kid is eventually going to burn it down, kill all of his fellow students, and then Luke is going to turn into a bitter old recluse.
But what if we knew none of that was coming? Imagine the possibilities and the hope we'd have right now.
Granted, I still think they can pull off something incredible and Avengers-esque, with the reclaiming of Mandalore, Ashoka's story, etc, with it all crisscrossing/leading to some massive, MCU-style climax, one that will ultimately *feel* like a "replacement" sequel story of sorts. It just kind of sucks knowing there's a "cap" of sorts and that eventually all of this leads to Luke losing all hope, the dumb First Order, and f/cking Palpatine returning.
But that's only true for the Luke/Anakin story. Star Wars had thousands of years of stories if you're willing to move past the one that started 45 years ago. There are stories set thousands of years ago that started with one of the greatest, most replayable video games of all time. There are ones set 200 years in the future with Cade Skywalker fighting against the darkness as the last of his line. There are literally hundreds of books, "cannon" or not, that tell incredible stories - some even slightly better than "The Approaching Storm", and hundreds of comic book series.
You're a busy dude, but if you haven't watched Clone Wars and Rebel and Bad Batch, you're just limiting yourself from some amazing Star Wars stories that make what's going on right now that much more awesome.
Not to mention, in the right now of Mando/Fett, it's 9 years ABY which means it's 25 years before the first scene of The Force Awakens. TWENTY FIVE YEARS of ADVENTURES that are a totally blank slate right now. Twenty-five years of adventures for younger Luke, Han and Leia if they want to go there. Ahsoka and Thrawn and the Fett, and Grogu and Bo Katan and Ezra and Sabine. Luke Skywalker might save the galaxy 15 times between the end of ROTJ and the beginning of TFA and we'll get to see it play out across a ton of different formats.
This isn't a rant on you TC, I just happened to reply to your post. But regardless of what happens in the sequel trilogy and whether you like them or not, Star Wars is a massive blank slate that doesn't need to have anything shoe-horned in to any story, other than keeping a few characters alive for the next 2-1/2 decades. You know, in 25 years I'll be 73 and probably need to piss 3 times a night, but that doesn't mean I'm not excited about the next 2-1/2 decades of stories in my life. It's only BECAUSE of the sequels that all this great stuff is currently happening on the small screen.