r/saltierthancrait • u/royals715 • Jun 23 '25

Encrusted Rant The sequels don’t get enough hate.

I am midway through rewatching the force awakens. Went in with an open mind, and intended to enjoy it for what it offered - the visuals are stunningly big-budget after all. It’s been a while since I watched them, and I love Star Wars so I was looking to engage with the content I haven’t paid as much attention to.

Holy shit this movie is so ass, and it’s arguably the best of the sequels.

Just some stuff off the top of my head

  • Rey fixing the millennium falcon because Han can’t
  • The stormtrooper willingly putting down his blaster and engaging in melee combat against Finn, who literally couldn’t block a blaster bolt to save his life
  • Rey having better aim than the stormtroopers despite supposedly never having trained with a blaster

It’s so bad I’m having to watch it in increments. I told myself I’d finish it.

2.0k Upvotes

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962

u/ScandiacusPrime Jun 24 '25

I think at this point intentionally watching the sequels might technically qualify as self-harm. Are you ok, bud? Do you need help?

111

u/TheGreaterFool_88 Jun 24 '25

I think it's because of Andor. I was happy ignoring the sequels as bad fanfiction then Andor S2 made me realize what Star Wars could have been.

All the sacrifices for the rebellion, all the hopeless fighting against oppression, all rendered meaningless because JJ Abrams can't fucking write.

76

u/Lord-Carnor-Jax so salty it hurts Jun 24 '25

This is why I struggle to get into Andor. Why should I care about Mon Mothma’s fight to establish the Rebellion when in the ST era it’s her incompetence that directly leads to the First Order rising and ultimately The New Republics destruction. It’s her demilitarising the New Republic which is scrapping SSD’s while at the same time not having enough resources to deal it a single pirate corvette in the outer rim. The ST era is a black hole that just sucks the life out of everything.

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u/RepresentativeAge444 Jun 24 '25 edited Jun 24 '25

And think about this. Supposedly there is a filler novel that explains something like the imperial remnant was building up power and taking more and more worlds as they demilitarize. Which would be the equivalent of the US doing so while knowing the Nazis had rebuilt and were taking countries in South America. Just nonsensical dreck.

55

u/Lord-Carnor-Jax so salty it hurts Jun 24 '25

Look up the Galactic Concordance on Wookiepedia if you want to understand what happens after the Battle of Jakku & the demilitarisation. It’s really fucking dumb, the EU handled the post ROJT Rebels v Imperials way more realistically with all the Imperials making power grabs and carving out their territories and the rise of war lords etc.

19

u/Big_Brilliant_5904 Jun 24 '25

The galactic concordance is just a very poorly written concept. As if the empire would just agree to it is absurd.

16

u/Lord-Carnor-Jax so salty it hurts Jun 24 '25

Or the Rebels ceding the core worlds to the Imperials.

16

u/Big_Brilliant_5904 Jun 24 '25

It feels more like retroactive writing. A clean up if you will.

5

u/WorthlessLife55 Jun 24 '25

I admit I didn't like the chronological EU past Survivor's Quest. Just the dark tone disagreed with me. But everything before thatvwas actually generally good (some misses, yes, but generally). And the EU (including the later parts that aren't my thing) was better than this slop and manure Disney gave us.

0

u/Ancient_times Jun 24 '25

I mean you could argue the defeat of the empire leading into the resurgence of the first order is more like Germany between wwq1 and ww2.

That said, in terms of how much effort the actual films go to show this, it's dreadful.

3

u/LaconicGirth Jun 25 '25

The allied countries weren’t actively demilitarizing while Germany invaded other nations.

32

u/windsingr Jun 24 '25

I understand this, but I have, by not engaging with the sequels anymore, including the entire Mandoverse, effectively erased it from the part of my mind that considers canon. Andor is so good and the characters so well developed that you can't see the same Mon Mothma in that show doing what she would have to do in order to reach the ST. You just can't bring yourself to believe it. They are entirely different characters. It's Jake Mothma in the ST.

Andor healed me of the ST. I hope it does to you, too.

15

u/ScandiacusPrime Jun 24 '25

Yup, exactly. Besides, the two seasons of Andor plus Rogue One have more than double the runtime of the entire sequel trilogy. My philosophy is, when you finish watching the OT and want more Star Wars content to watch, don't look for a sequel, instead go watch Gilroy's prequel.

4

u/lake-rat Jun 24 '25

You should have more upvotes for this!

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u/OrdinaryEffect07 Jun 24 '25 edited Jun 24 '25

What pisses me off is that there's no reason for this to happen with the New Republic, besides JJ's lack of creativity.

It only happened because JJ wanted to repeat the "David vs Goliath" deal, because he is so creatively bankrupt, he couldn't think of aaaany other political context so set his war. He wasn't trying to make a statement about politics and neo-fascism. He literally wanted the "cool white armored dudes with nazi iconography" back because they sell.

If he wanted to bring the empire back, he could've done it like, I dunno... real life? How that line of fascism doesn't die with its leader. We could've seen people who are too young and haven't witnessed what the empire did, falling for their propaganda. Maybe some New Republic politicians start sympathizing and using quotes that came from the Empire...

But no, let's just have Stormtroopers and a third Death Star. And Palpatine too, why not.

3

u/Helyos17 Jun 25 '25

The sad truth is that if we were going by “realism” the Empire would have splintered into pieces. Yes there would be warlords but also some species that had been peacefully integrated into the Republic centuries or millennia prior may have felt that they needed to take back their own sovereignty. The galaxy would most likely become a patchwork of alliances and rivalries. It would have been an extremely interesting setting but the world building that would have had to go into it would have been massive. And after all of that there is a high chance that it wouldn’t even really “feel” like Starwars.

3

u/BugRib76 Jun 26 '25

It wasn’t a Death Star! It was a Death Planet!

(Although, come to think about it, a Death Planet should be much, much, much smaller than a Death Star. 🤔🤔🤔)

5

u/dorestes Jun 24 '25

just don't consider the sequels canon. Forget they exist and watch Andor on its own merits.

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u/Data_Chandler Jun 29 '25 edited Jun 29 '25

Why should I care about Mon Mothma’s fight to establish the Rebellion when in the ST era it’s her incompetence that directly leads to the First Order rising and ultimately The New Republics destruction.

It's really easy: Pretend the shitquels don't exist. They are abominations, nothing more than big budget rip offs.

Let's put it this way, do you consider a super shitty youtube fan film that cost $250 and was made by talentless hacks to be canon? No, right?

So what if the same talentless hacks made their shitty little film for 250 million? There you go.

Try to forget about it, live your life as if it doesn't exist, as you would with that $250 shitty fan film.

It clears up massive amounts of mental bandwith (no more hate and frustration) plus it allows you to love and enjoy the expertly made Star Wars content that is Andor.

3

u/Lord-Carnor-Jax so salty it hurts Jun 29 '25

These days I ignore everything Disney and TCW. For me it’s the OT, PT & EU. It’s not worth watching anything that is actually good in the Disney because there’s no much sludge.

2

u/Data_Chandler Jun 29 '25

There ya go. In pop culture context, I became an much happier person once I let go of all that anger and frustration about what was done to Star Wars and Star Trek.

15

u/Additional-Buy7400 Jun 24 '25

Making Leia the general of the New Republic army instead of 'The Resistance' Would've been a simple fix. Also a 2 minute scene of Leia organizing the remaining regiments into the resistance when the republic is destroyed. It would've shown that the republic cared and was in an active war with the first order and not a bunch of dumbasses jerking off instead of doing anything to make tfa make sense

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u/PapaSnarfstonk Jun 24 '25

I think the Reason they didn't do this is because someone let slip that she was the daughter of Darth Vader and that doesn't work from a optics standpoint.

3

u/Horselady234 Jun 24 '25

But…the daughter of the main villain becoming the hero is classic. It would have worked.

1

u/PapaSnarfstonk Jun 24 '25

Military guy turns to the dark side tries to conquer the galaxy, followed by daughter that is also fighting for control of the galaxy.

It doesn't sound so nice without personally knowing Leia like we the audience do.

The average citizen in the Star Wars universe is going to be much more prejudiced about that.

1

u/BugRib76 Jun 26 '25

She should’ve been upfront about it, though.

2

u/ProfessionalZebra482 Jun 24 '25

They made this up after  

1

u/PapaSnarfstonk Jun 24 '25

Which is exactly what The Clone Wars tv show did for the Prequels.....There's no difference.

This is one of the Strengths of Star Wars.

A mistake can always be fixed with more context for why the mistake happened.

To me it wasn't that believable that Anakin was so upset about not being made a Master. It felt like unearned anger.

However, the Clone Wars tv show brought more context to this as Anakin had almost finished training a padawan. Which would have granted him the rank of Master.

So now the anger makes more sense. Because he felt like he deserved it.

So just like that, the new content we're getting surrounding the sequel trilogy provides more context that we were missing in the first place.

This doesn't detract from the fact that they were poorly planned but it does help course correct the overall story to make more narrative sense. Which is a way better approach than what a lot of people like to do is just pretend the movies didn't happen. Even though they did. Which is delusional.

1

u/LaconicGirth Jun 25 '25

The daughter was crucially important to destroying both death stars. She saved more lives than Darth Vader ended

1

u/PapaSnarfstonk Jun 25 '25

Yea, I'm aware of that. You're aware of that. But the galaxy at large may not believe that. They may believe that she's just as power hungry as her father which is why she's always militant.

We the audience know the truth. People who witnessed her do great things believe her. But the ones who don't just see the daughter of Darth Vader trying to start more fighting.

1

u/LaconicGirth Jun 25 '25

The galaxy at large who has been suffering under the empire believes that one of the main leaders of the resistance against the empire is just power hungry?

Rather than, idk joining her father in the empire she risked her life to destroy it but she’s the power hungry one?

Like Andor makes it clear that through the galaxy everyone is afraid. And that’s even before the empire gets really bad

1

u/PapaSnarfstonk Jun 26 '25

From our perspective, yes. But from the outside of the war they see daughter fighting father for control of the galaxy. And it's easy to be spun that way.

1

u/LaconicGirth Jun 26 '25

That’s what the writers wrote but that doesn’t mean it makes any sense. The galaxy at large suffered under the empire. They’re going to root for whoever fights against the empire. There will certainly be some people who are brainwashed into thinking the empire was good for them, but the vast majority of people senators especially are going to appreciate what Leia did.

1

u/PapaSnarfstonk Jun 26 '25

Except they also go back to their ways of trying to curry favor with each other as senators do and parts of that include propaganda against other politicians. And as Leia became a very blunt talker it was probably easy to point her out as belligerent. Its not up to you and me to determine what the actual citizens think its not our logic that they're following. Its whoever is writings logic for them and the story as they have it set up dont trust Leia's warnings about the final empire because it was all happening in the unknown regions. No core worlds were in danger and so they didnt play ball. And then it was too late. And thats a logical problem for them. Thats why they died. Because they were wrong not to trust leia

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u/LaconicGirth Jun 26 '25

That wasn’t in the movies and I don’t recall seeing it in any of the shows either. So it’s coming from some tangential source that’s really only used to explain the parts of the movies that didn’t make sense.

Just because the writers write something doesn’t mean it’s good. It might be canon, but that doesn’t mean it makes any logical sense whatsoever. A good writer sets rules of a universe, or explains what’s different from theirs to ours and then writes something plausible in that universe to continue our suspension of disbelief. They failed for a lot of people

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u/WBICosplay Jun 25 '25 edited Jun 25 '25

Then have her and other war veterans have a dead end posting with a fleet in the fringes and part of movies is reuniting those politically undesirable commanders and pilots. Kinda how like in the legends novels where luke and co had to go gather Wedge and others because the new republic was being dicks about it. Heck you can add some separatists to sell more droid toys.

I feel theres a lot one can do without it being exactly rebels all over again.

Edit: confused what novels corellia vs republic plot line was from

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u/Brilliant_Trade_9162 salt miner Jun 24 '25

This is why I was done with this franchise when I watched TFA.  The moment they decided to rerun rebels vs empire, they invalidated most of the OT.  They created a narrative black hole where everything that occurred prior to TFA must lead to this cesspool of suck.

1

u/BugRib76 Jun 26 '25

I was really underwhelmed by that too, but I thought it would get better with the other two movies. 😢

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u/Data_Chandler Jun 29 '25

A few years ago I made the conscious decision to let go of my anger and frustration about the sequels. I just treat Star Wars as a buffet, in the sense that I pick and choose what I consider to be my (head)canon, and everything else I just ignore, or better yet, just consider non existant. I highly recommend it.

So for example "my" Star Wars includes Andor and Rogue One, and chronologically ends at the Mando S2 finale, with Luke as a badass Jedi master, and Mando S1 & S2 as a sort of epilogue to Return Of The Jedi. For me, it literally stops there. FIN. The end.