Tuesday, December 17, 2019

STAR WARS: EPISODE 9: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER



Because Star Wars is a money making franchise which has to continually be kept running, Disney has been busy training everyone to understand that Episode 9, rather than being the end of Star Wars, is more accurately the end of “the Skywalker Saga” - a subset of Star Wars which sits alongside all the other shows like The Madalorian and spin-off movies like Rogue One. However I understand it in the context presented to me in 1979 - it's the final episode of the 9 movie Star Wars saga.


Here's an excerpt from the very enjoyable book "Once Upon a Galaxy" by Alan A.Arnold:

"Alan A. Arnold: Tell me more about the overall concept of the Star Wars saga.
George Lucas: There are essentially nine films in a series of three trilogies. The first trilogy is about the young Ben Kenobi and the early life of Luke's father when Luke was a little boy. This trilogy takes place some twenty years before the second trilogy which includes Star Wars and Empire. About a year or two passes between each story of the trilogy and about twenty years pass between the trilogies. The entire saga spans about fifty five years."


The Star Wars adaptation comics have been a mixed bag. The first three have sterling work from Roy Thomas / Howard Chaykin, and Archie Goodwin / Al Williamson. By the time we got to the comic of The Last Jedi last year, I found I enjoyed that more than the movie. I was able to swallow the events of that story more when presented as a comic (which I could pretend was an expanded universe type of thing).


As far as I’m aware a comic for The Rise of Skywalker hasn’t been announced, but with this last trilogy, the adaptations have been coming out a year after the movies, so we’ll see.


In any case, tomorrow sees the culmination of the promised 9 part saga. Obviously a lot of things have changed along the way (Lucas’ non-involvement is a deal-breaker, truth be told). But it is what it is, and it feels like a momentous occasion to me.

Goodbye, Star Wars p2 from Break the Cake, 2018.

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