The Star Wars That Makes Me Happy

 As you know by now, Disney has canceled the Acolyte. While personally I'm not a fan of that show, but there is a passionate (albeit small) fan base that has supported it, and are extremely unhappy. For those fans, there could be an official way to continue the story: books or comics. Plus there's always the fan fiction route. I have my own Star Wars AU post ROTJ, so I can in a way relate to those fans. While I have done a blog post on figures that make me happy, and will post a few more of those in the future, I thought I'd post what it is about Star Wars that makes me happy. I hope this provides a good discussion point in comments here, or on BanthaSkull or X, or whatever other social media this blog link gets posted to (please feel free to do this!).

1. The Movies. When I say the movies I mean Episode's 1-6. I'd add Solo and Rogue One to the list as well. Neither of those 2 newer films are perfect, but they do fit into the story of the first 6 movies. Even though Solo has a lot of things that could be explained in some sort of official sequel, Rogue One is a one and done, with Andor telling the major background story to that film.

While I saw ROTJ first, A New Hope really got me hooked. The scene with Luke staring out at the setting twin suns, igniting his father's lightsaber for the first time, Princess Leia's theme, Han shooting first (the only special edition change I don't like BTW), and of course Vader being an epic villain.

The Empire Strikes Back is what all follow up sequels are judged by, along with Godfather Part 2. Vader is Luke's father? Yoda can lift Luke's X-Wing? Han & Leia are a couple? And Han's improved line "I know." was a badass moment, Harrison Ford made Han Solo even more of the Man. Return of the Jedi is the perfect ending: bad guys lose, good guys win. Although I do miss Yub Nub at the end of ROTJ, but I did enjoy seeing the galaxy's reaction at  news of the Rebels victory.

The Phantom Menace isn't perfect, but the end battle sequences are amazing, especially Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan vs Darth Maul. Attack of the Clones is not my favorite movie, but again the final battle is INCREDIBLE!! And I'll never forget the audience's reaction at the midnight showing as Yoda ignited his lightsaber for his duel with Count Dooku.

While I feel American Graffiti is the best directing job George Lucas has done, Revenge of the Sith is a close second. It's the best film of the Prequel Trilogy, easily. Ewan McGregor and Ian McDiarmid give strong performances as Obi-Wan and Palpy. We see how Anakin becomes Vader, and the birth of Luke & Leia.

I do enjoy Rogue One and Solo, but honestly I don't always include them when I watch the first 6 episodes. I dug the Clone Wars animated movie, and yes, even the first Ewok movie Caravan of Courage. I might get D Plus one day just to watch that movie again, and for another reason which I'll talk about in another segment.

2. Books and Comic Books

My interest in Star Wars returned in June of 1991 when I saw Heir To The Empire at a grocery store bookshelf. And just about every year since then I've bought at least 1 Star Wars book per year. But sadly, moving and a couple hurricane strikes left me without most of my Star Wars books from the mid 90's to the early 2000's. But my favorite Legends books (OT and New Republic Era) are:

Allegiance
Choices of One
Shadows of the Empire
Truce at Bakura
Luke Skywalker & The Shadows of Mindor
The Courtship of Princess Leia
Original Thrawn Trilogy
Jedi Academy Trilogy
Children of the Jedi
Darksaber
The New Rebellion
The Corellian Trilogy
Hand of Thrawn Duology
Young Jedi Knights books (Starring all the Solo kids)

Prequel Legends Novels:

Cloak of Deception
Darth Maul Shadow Hunter
The Approaching Storm
Shatterpoint
Yoda Dark Rendezvous

And Disney's best stories have been in the novels. Here are a few:

Master & Apprentice
Brotherhood
A New Dawn
Bloodline
Shadow of the Sith

For comics, the old Marvel stuff is a good nostalgia trip. And while Dark Empire doesn't really fit well into Legends, I've enjoyed it as a proper conclusion to the 1980's Marvel stories, if not the Marvel characters (which would kinda come in Star Wars 108 which came out a few years ago). The X-Wing comics are among the best Legends comics, but the top Legends comic books are the Republic Clone Wars stories, and Star Wars Legacy. For modern comics the Vader Volume 2 series is incredible and deserved more than 25 issues.

3. Television

As an 80's kid, I woke up and had C-3PO's cereal and watched the Droids and Ewoks Power Hour. While Ewoks was the less enjoyable series to me, I loved Droids. I liked Droids so much that when reading Talon Karrde in HTTE I had the character Mungo Boabob in my head as Karrde, and even Karrde's Legacy Collection figure kinda resembled him (long hair and beard) so I was partially justified there, or so I tell myself. I'd get a D Plus subscription to watch Droids since my bootleg DVD was ripped from bad VHS copies.

The Clone Wars Microseries is something I thoroughly enjoyed. Anakin's duel with Ventress at Yavin 4 was epic, and General Grievous was never more terrifying. The 2nd volume is a perfect lead in to Revenge of the Sith. My love for that doesn't diminish my love for the 2008 Clone Wars series. It would be nice to get a boxed Blu Ray set of the complete series, Disney. Just saying.

Speaking of Disney, the 1st 2 seasons of The Mandalorian are great! I have the Blu Ray's of both seasons, and for now it's my last physical media purchase (seriously, Disney: a boxed set of the complete Clone Wars series on Blu Ray and 4k. ASAP!). Star Wars Rebels was the first show Disney produced once they bought Lucasfilm in 2012. It's the one series that fits perfectly between the PT and OT, plus ties up some loose threads from Clone Wars. Ahsoka's duel with Vader on Malachor still gives me chills, as does the series finale when Ezra and the Purgyll take Thrawn to the Unknown Regions. But it also ties into Rogue One, and once I get the Ghost, I intend to watch Rebels again.

But I've saved the best for last: Andor. "The series nobody asked for" delivered one of the best dramatic stories in all of Star Wars. We see the bloated inefficiencies of the Empire, and the spark of fire that will become the Rebel Alliance. I had low expectations going in, so that helped. With Cassian, and Mon Mothma, we know their fates going in. But we don't know what happens to Luthen Rael, Bix Calleen and the only competent Imperial Officer next to Thrawn, Dedra Meero, and then there's the guy who has an obvious crush on her Syril Karn. Great writing, great acting and great supporting characters. It started slow, but at 12 episodes it's worth the time to watch.

CONCLUSION

The bottom line is when it comes to Star Wars, it's okay to like what you like. If you like Legends over Disney, great! If you like Disney over Legends, again, great! For me, what I've listed here will always be something I turn to for an escape, and to regain my focus and strengthen my mental health.


Thanks for reading! A special thanks to Chris & Nomad at BanthaSkull for allowing me to post this link in the comments section. Please share this link on your social media accounts so I can get more readers!

PS: No blog post next Sunday. It's a 3 day weekend next week, plus LSU kicks off their football season against USC and as an LSU fan, game days are made for day drinking! I won't be in Las Vegas for the game, but at home watching it on TV and will be in several group chat text messaging threads. Also week 1 of college football is next week, and I just got a new arrival on Friday, so I have quite a few photos to take. Here's a preview of a future review: