A long time ago

in a galaxy far, far away,

There was an outstanding story line in which Han and Leia got married and had three children; Luke restarted the Jedi Academy; the Empire, although greatly reduced, was still a threat but on a level equal with the power of the newly reformed Republic.  There were still conflicts as the Remnant (as the Empire was known) continued to war against the Republic.  Jedi Knights slowly spread throughout the known universe to help fight the Remnant and to assist in stabilizing the fledgling Republic.  Luke eventually married (spoiler alert: Mara Jade).  There were dozens of books, generally very consistent and mostly well written.  Lucas enlisted dozens of quality writers including some well known names. 

Then came the reset.  The reset can only be explained by a strict adherence to the concepts of Dark and Light sides of the force.

Apparently in this new world Han and Leia only have one child and he turns to the dark side.

Luke doesn't bother to train any other Jedi but instead disappears to some island (perhaps after fathering a bastard child?  Guess we'll find out.)

The Republic didn't seem to do much at all in the intervening 30 years, since Leia is now running around being a general and running something called "The Resistance" (resisting against what?  They won the civil war) and is separated from her husband instead of being the head of state and moving forward with a stable and enlightened democratic republic.  Seems like they might have had better choices for General than a 60 year old former Senator and mom.  Perhaps someone with a military background, for example?

The Remnant, apparently secretly and somehow led by the son of the leader of the Resistance, well, blah, blah, blah, you get my drift.

The old story was interesting and made sense.  The new story requires that everyone involved keep doing exactly what they are doing and make no forward progress.  Luke becomes Ben, Rey becomes Luke, Leia becomes ???, whatsisname becomes Vader, and Han stays Han until he falls into the Pit of Doom.

Sigh.

A long time ago there was an interesting timeline that would have sold just as many movies without being repetitive and dull, but that was then.

Star Wars disappointment

I know. Already.  I haven't even seen the trailer.

For the record, I saw Episode IV: A New Hope thirteen times in the theater.  That was, of course, the only option back then, in the days before widely available videotape.

I saw the others but not with the enthusiasm of my twelve year old self for the original.  I was excited for the prequel but somewhat disappointed, especially with the whining of Anakin Skywalker throughout the films.  I also, over the intervening years, read many of the Star Wars universe books.

In case you didn't know, there are over 100 stories (books or trilogies) set in the Star Wars universe.  Each of the story lines had to fit in with the timeline and history of the universe.  I have read quite a few of them.

I now find out that Disney has done a reset for the new Star Wars movies.  Ignore everything you ever knew about the Star Wars universe, what happened after the empire was overthrown, the adventures of Luke (who reestablished the Jedi, married and had kids), Leia (became President of the Republic, married Han Solo and had kids), etc, etc.  The remnants of the Empire fought on, and the universe was, at one point, invaded by an alien species called the Yuuzhan Vong who terraformed planets after they conquered them.

All of this was very interesting and many of the books were very well written, especially if you are into science fiction (I know, Star Wars is technically fantasy, not sci fi, but I don't care) and now it is all garbage.

There is a new story and I already don't like it.  There wasn't anything wrong with the old story.  After all, movies were made from the Lord of the Rings books and millions of people had read those.  It's not like movie viewers of LotR were going to be disappointed that there wasn't a surprise ending, and it wasn't like Star Wars fans were going to be upset that the story was already predetermined by the books.  After all, most people have never read most (if any) of the Star Wars books.