u/Background_Touch3568

Hi, so I've recently had a bit of a deep dive into the world of the canon Star Wars comics, that have been coming out since Disney took over and Marvel started their continuity. I felt that everything that has been going on in the movie/tv show landscape, doesn't excite me as much - maybe because of how safe they all feel, maybe because of the higher ups at Disney preferring quantity over quality sometimes, but either way - I wanted to explore the world of canon comic books, since I felt comic creators could be more experimental with their tales. I'm also one of the people that doesn't necessarily hate the new Disney canon and I really wanted to see if it can be improved with complementary material, cause I believe it can (I have a lot of copium in me). For example - I don't believe that other media can SAVE a flawed movie - TRoS is my least favorite Star Wars movie by far and in my mind it simply can't be saved by an additional story filling the gaps - the movie remains poorly crafted. However, I believe my opinion on the lore around the sequels can be redeemed if many of the holes created by those movies would be explained or some interesting and compelling lore could be added as context. The fact that the trilogy wasn't planned and is very messy in result, still very much stands and even if I personally love one of the movies in said trilogy (TLJ, yes), I would trade it in a heartbeat for a more coherent and focused story overall. Back to the comics tho.

I wanted to share my opinion on some of the books I've read as of now since I actually think they are doing so much heavy lifting for the new canon - especially around the sequel trilogy. Those very talented writers are retroactively explaining so much stuff that felt entirely missing in those three movies. I started with probably the best book that Marvel has put out which is of course - an amazing 2017 Dark Lord of The Sith Vader run by Charles Soule. Then I read through the 2015 Vader run by Kieron Gillen, which was great as well. I've read The Rise of Kylo Ren by Soule and also I enjoyed it so much.

And then I stumbled upon the 2020 comic books. Every book except for Aphra as of now, but I'm planning to read it in some time of course. I have to say - even though those comics can miss sometimes - most of the time I'm having the most fun with Star Wars I had in a very long time. I really enjoy each series, especially Star Wars and surprisingly Bounty Hunters which didn't interest me at all at first. Suddenly I'm very engaged in Valance, Crimson Dawn, all the returning bounty hunters and the of course the main characters from the OT. I'm surprised how much of a connected world it feels now - Solo movie created a whole plot line with Han as a trooper on Mimban, then Marvel connected that with the return of Valance and making him a friend of Han in the Empire, then we get the Bounty Hunters series that explores the character of Beilert even deeper setting itself while Han is in carbonite, making Valance want to save his friend between ESB and ROTJ. Also adding Qi'ra there, that also makes Solo even more significant, creating a relationship between two love interests of Han with Qi'ra meeting Leia and all the stuff with that. And that's just one example, there is a ton of stuff that those comic books explore regarding the sequels. Including characters like Holdo, Poe Dameron's parents, showing Exagol - that doesn't feel so random in TRoS anymore, basically creating the whole character of Ochi that debuted in TRoS as well, showing Luke having a vision of Ahch-To, Luke going to Illum only to see it already becoming The Starkiller Base, etc. All these can feel very small and subtle but they do so much for the grander story being told there. I suddenly don't feel as lost when Palpatine is just casually pulling out thousands Star Destroyers from the ground in TRoS, when I know he's been already preparing them long before the OT even ended. Like I said before - this stuff can't SAVE the trilogy and my least favorite Star Wars movie, but it can make the overarching story around it make a bit more sense or feel more connected and less spontaneous (as it absolutely was , unfortunately). I'm at Crimson Reign point in all the stories so basically like a halfway point of every series, so I'm sure there are even more things like these to come and I'm very excited.

I kinda wish they would adapt those comic book series' into an animated tv show set in between ESB and ROTJ like those books, maybe expending beyond the comics and showing us events between ROTJ and TFA (I know Mandoverse exists, but I'm talking the OT characters and since Disney is absolutely terrified of recasts for some dumb reason, I would do it animated, I can't watch deepfake AI slop resurrected zombie actors monsters). But then I remember that they did adapt a comic book to animation once with the Kanan story. And it just leaves me sad. To this day I really can't tell why Dave Filoni (or whoever it was on Bad Batch) felt the need to retcon so much about the original Kanan story which was very good as it was, especially since we all want the new timeline to be so concise and follow one coherent story. If they wanted to show Crosshair almost killing a Jedi while Order 66, why Kanan? Why not literally any other Jedi that wasn't confirmed dead? Why did they include those little elements from the comic book like a Clone's name, but changed the lightsaber color or time of the day. Of course including the Bad Batch in the story is already retconning enough, but I don't know, they could at least include the Bad Batch in between events of the comic book? Anything at all if they already wanted to mess with the original story for no reason, just to make fans clap when they see a character they know and like, even tho said appearance undermines tons of work made by a different talented writer Greg Weisman. TV shows aren't more valid than comic books, they are on the same level, just different medium, I think this goes without saying and yes I know George Lucas created a hierarchy of canon, but that was before the new timeline which was always intended to be interconnected and coherent. I'm sure everyone here knows all that already, it's just my frustration and love for this franchise talking through me, oh well.

So I don't know, these are just some of my thoughts. regarding the canon comic books and how they improve the overall lore in my opinion , connecting loose threads or simply filling in giant holes left by the sequels. yes