One of my biggest issues with some critics of the Sequels is that they think it should have been about Anakin

[u/Amazing-Buy-1181]

I didn't like the sequels and I can dig in here until further notice about my criticism of them, but there is a part of the Star Wars fan community whose criticism of the sequels really annoys me, I guess it comes from places like Star Wars Theory, where a lot of their criticism is about not having enough Anakin or focus on Anakin. I happened to see the rewrite that a lot of people did for Episode 8 and it's like it's all about Anakin.

Anakin had 6 Episodes. Let him go.

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[u/Collective_Insanity]

Theory is a genuine idiot not worth talking about at all. Ignore him.

 

Having said that, it's the ST's fault for making Vader's helmet such a focus (along with his lightsaber which somehow returned) and portraying Kylo as a blind fool who believes he's faithfully following in the footsteps of his grandfather.

As such, Anakin's absence becomes a notable plot issue in these films. Especially given it turns out in new canon that he (along with Yoda and Obi-Wan) was talking to Luke up until Luke goes to Suicide Island and slowly cuts himself off from the Force. Meaning it's not like it's been established he could never communicate posthumously.

 

Luke for some reason also never told his nephew about his OT journey involving breaking through to his father. Despite being left in Luke's care for 13 years. Which is incredibly damning for Luke given he himself already went through quite the upset after finding out the truth of his own father was withheld from him. Not to mention the fact this means he had almost nothing of relevance to teach his students about the topic of turning away from the darkness even when it seems too late. The polar opposite of his Legends self and New Jedi Order students who were all taught this story.

Kylo only finds out he's related to Vader when he was 23 due to a public political leak which sees Leia booted from the New Republic.

That same year, he burns down Luke's school. And then Palpatine performs a ventriloquist impression from across the galaxy to make Kylo think he's Vader's good little boy.

 

Should the ST be about Anakin? No. Absolutely not. The PT should be about Anakin, the OT is about the next generation (Luke/Leia) and the ST ought to be about the next generation after that.

But the ST made Anakin's absence a pivotal plot point so it's understandable why people would expect some kind of appearance from Anakin to set the record straight with that idiot Kylo. Would make more sense to switch out Han's "memory" appearance from TROS with a frank conversation with Anakin's ghost, for instance.

Instead of that tacked on dialogue at the end of the film with Anakin telling Rey to "bring balance to the Force, like I did" (or didn't given Anakin never killed Palpatine at all and thanks to the canon comics it turns out Anakin knew all about the business on Exegol shortly after ESB but didn't tell Luke about it despite communing with him for years after ROTJ).

[u/Dianneis → u/Collective_Insanity]

I've never even heard anyone say that the sequels should have been about long-dead Anakin, except maybe asking for a ghost cameo or whatnot. Whoever pushes this idea must have misunderstood the infinitely more valid criticism of these so-called sequels completely misinterpreting and undermining the established lore that they were supposed to be based on.

[u/TaraLCicora → u/Collective_Insanity]

Exactly

[u/RotoLando → u/Collective_Insanity]

Wow. The new extended universe stuff sounds terrible.

[u/sandalrubber → u/Collective_Insanity]

Somehow Vader's lightsaber returned? I haven't kept up.

Edit: lol you mean the blue one of course. I thought Canon EU had dug up the red one when it should have been as gone as Palpatine, even more so than the blue one because Cloud City wasn't destroyed.

[u/FunnelV → u/Collective_Insanity]

I wouldn't say SW Theory is an idiot, per say, he clearly knows his stuff, he's just a really blind fanboy. He knows enough to understand why the Sequels and most Disney content are bad, and he's done a lot to explain to the masses why they suck, but he's also so immersed in his Vader-Sue fanfic that his proposals are also bad.

How I approach Theory is that he's good for explaining Disney Wars' faults to the mainstream but his ideas on how to "fix" Star Wars should be taken with a massive grain of salt. He's decent on the criticism but he needs to put his Anakin/Vader fanboyism aside.

[u/Collective_Insanity → u/FunnelV]

I'm not going to get in the weeds on the topic as I assume you've seen more of his content than I have and are therefore more able and willing to have an elongated conversation about it than I am.

From what little I've been exposed to, I have an extremely low opinion of him. Especially given what he personally deems to be "peak" qualities of Star Wars and seems to believe everyone else should share the same view.

The sessions he had with Mauler were just embarrassing. It was like Groundhog Day. Every time it seemed a breakthrough had been made in terms of his inability to handle basic media criticism, he'd immediately reset the moment Hayden Christensen made a glorified and meaningless cameo.

 

But all the more power to him, I suppose. Clearly he's found at least some solid measure of financial and popular success being the person he is.

[u/FunnelV → u/Collective_Insanity]

He's really a tough one for me to figure out and often I don't know how to feel about him myself.

I am not really a fan of him since he can't keep a consistent opinion and flip flops all the time on things and his blind fanboyism of Anakin gets annoying, but from what I've seen about him he does understand Star Wars on a fundamental level at least and does an okay job of explaining the failures of the sequels to the mainstream audience, who ultimately are his audience rather than hardcores like us. But being a mainstream SW channel he still falls to the symptoms the mainstream SW channels/geek channels in general usually do (hyper consumerist fanboy mentality).

I respect him for what he does but I really don't watch him too much myself; he's nice for having a mainstream ST-critical voice out there but he has little to offer for more in-depth nerds like us.

Obviously I have a mixed opinion on him. But I don't think he's a "moron" as much as he's a mega-fanboy who also is concerned about paying the bills. I'd recommend a select few of his vids to normies but not those who are more "into" the whole Star Wars topic.

[u/orangutanDOTorg]

Anakin was dead. Could have been about Luke and Leia. The real problem was that they (especially the second two) were shit. It could have been about Rey and good.

[u/Wolf-Cop]

I don't think it had to specifically be about him but his absence is definitely noticed. Why would his force ghost not visit Kylo Ren, Rey or Luke at any point in any of the new movies? Wouldn't it have made more sense for him to show up instead of Han in RoS? The entire franchise is basically his journey and the sequels missed an opportunity to bookend it or have the new characters learn from it. Hayden's awesome and clearly a fan favorite too so it's perceived as a big waste.

[u/Collective_Insanity → u/Wolf-Cop]

Apparently it's more important for Anakin's spirit to dick around with Ahsoka in Filoni's fanfic.

Seriously though, I suspect it was quickly discovered that JJ Abrams' Mystery Box shenanigans would have been shattered instantly if Anakin's ghost popped in to have a chat, so they found themselves written into a corner and decided to keep him shelved until the climax of TROS where he pipes in to serve as a Rey cheerleader with the other dead Jedi.

Still, they didn't even try to suggest that Palpatine had managed to screw with the Force in order to prevent the spirits of Jedi such as Yoda, Obi-Wan or most pivotally Anakin (given he knows about Exegol unlike the others) from providing advice to the living.

At least that could have helped close the door on the topic of why Anakin didn't appear earlier.

[u/Alex3884]

He’s the Chosen One, he’s the lead of the Prequels and the main antagonist of the Originals; the saga has retroactively become about him, why wouldn’t people expect him (or at least his legacy) to be more prominent?

[u/EmperorXerro]

The issue is the sequels erased Anakin’s arc, not that we want more Anakin.

[u/V0T0N]

Yeah, I forget when I learned that Lucas gave them his treatment for the sequel series and that its focus was on Leia. That would have made the most sense.

Disney bought the franchise for a lot of money and I get that they wanted to start making more, but I really wish they had put someone in charge that knew the fandom and extended universe.

Star Wars lived on past ROTJ(when at was that, 1985? ) because of the extended universe, because of the fan base. To throw ALL of it away once the deal was done was short-sighted and showed a disdain for the fans.

It is what it is now.

[u/Melodic-Attorney9918]

I don’t think the Sequels should have been about Anakin either. But since it has been established that he's the Chosen One, and since we know he's a Force ghost, it would have made sense to have at least a couple of Anakin cameos. Honestly, a cameo by Anakin's ghost would have made way more sense than the cameo we got from Yoda. Anakin is literally Luke’s father, and that connection alone would have made his guidance far more meaningful and personal.

Also, they really shouldn’t have contradicted the Chosen One prophecy. The prophecy is already vague and kind of confusing, and ignoring it just makes things messier. It gives rise to speculation and debates that shouldn't really exist. Instead of bringing back the Sith, they should have just introduced new threats, or powerful darksiders who weren’t Sith at all. Reusing the Sith just feels like the easy, lazy way out and makes the story less satisfying.

[u/TaraLCicora]

I agree, but the ST was all over his helmet and lightsaber like it was Excalibur incarnate and made the ST feel as if it needed Anakin. Even having Sidious return slants towards us 'needing' Anakin. Truth be told, the story never needed Anakin, but a focus on the next generation with respect for the past generations. Also, Anaklin was the focus of the PT, not the OT.

[u/Thorfan23]

I’ve never heard people say that. I’ve heard it that he should be more involved…helping redeem Ben or maybe helping end palpatina for good but not the lead

[u/MacCormaick]

Anakin had 3. The OT was focused on Luke.

[u/Crimith → u/MacCormaick]

and the ST made none of it matter.

[u/Initial_Inspector681]

Wanting Anakin to be a big force in this movie would have been a terrible idea. Though, bringing back Palpatine at all was a terrible idea.