Which entries in the Star Wars franchise might I like?

Cafe Society
1

At some point I got tired of movies and television and dropped most of my screen viewing. Coming back late to the party there’s been a lot of SW stuff now; some liked, some loathed. In particular a lot of it strikes me as too untrue to the canon to really be compatible with the main series. Since anyone can write anything and some of it can get published or produced, there’s bound to be stuff that would make me go “Meh, not MY Star Wars”. Here’s what I’m familiar with:

Original Trilogy (4-6): Liked
SW comic books: mixed- some stories definitely non-canon, others quasi-canonical.
Ewoks movies: Good God no no no.
Star Wars Holiday Special: I’m going to regard this as a parody.
Prequel Trilogy (1-3): Imperfect but acceptable
Tartakovsky’s animated Clone Wars: liked
The Force Awakens: completely failed to engage me.
The Last Jedi: gave up after twenty minutes.

So based on that, how well do you think I might like:
Expanded Universe novels: beloved by many but now a will-never-be canon.
Rogue One
Solo
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Star Wars Rebels
Ahsoka
Obi-Wan Kenobi
The Bad Batch
The Mandalorian
Andor
(and probably others I’ve barely heard of).

2

Rogue One: completely depressing. You know that line from Star Wars (not a “New Hope” crap; Star Wars!): “a lot of people died for these plans!”. Yeah, they took that to the max in Rogue One.

3

Speaking only to those I have any personal experience with:

Rogue One, a step up from your analysis of the Prequels (imperfect but acceptable), should be enjoyable but limited - it feels like a (good) version of the recent thread about movies you’d like to see about something mentioned in passing in another movie. And as @Northern_Piper says, it’s a (cool) tragedy.

Solo, slightly below the prequels: it does pretty much nothing of interest, but some of the individual moments are fun. But it actually cheapens a lot of the elements you like, so probably should pass.

Expanded Universe Novels: Hugely uneven. Of them, I’d probably recommend Splinter of the Mind’s Eye (which, was in some ways, written to be a lower budget sequel to A New Hope, and is quite different than the way Lucas eventually ent), and the earlier (Zahn) Thrawn trilogy.

NOTE: conditional upon the Thrawn stuff, it’s very interesting and IMHO better than what the sequels ended up doing, but it’s also a very different track, and there are romance elements that a lot of fans HATED with the fury of a thousand suns. Still, I’d say give it a read.

4

I think Rogue One is one of the best Star Wars movies. Up there with The Empire Strikes Back.

Ahsoka was surprisingly good. I expected a lot less but definitely worth a watch I think.

5

Regarding Rogue One, yes it’s depressing, but going in we know it has to be. There’s no other options given how things stand at the beginning of A New Hope. Despite it being depressing, I recommend it.

I also recommend The Mandalorian, which IMHO feels like original Episodes IV-VI Star Wars.

6

Rogue One is IMO the third best Star War movie ever made. It goes: Empire Strikes Back, A New Hope, Rogue One, then there’s everything else.

And Andor is head and shoulders above all the other SW TV series. Starts slowly though.

7

All I can say is that Rogue One killed the Cub’s interest in Star Wars movies. He came out of the theatre with nothing good to say about it, and never asked to go to another one.

8

Rogue One just doesn’t feel like a Star Wars movie. I think it was a good movie, but I haven’t seen it since it was in the theaters.

9

Rogue one followed by Andor, also heavily curated Clone Wars. Clone wars at its best is the absolute peak of Star Wars, but it is very uneven with a lot of pointless filler episodes. It ends in an absolutely perfect note though.

10

Movies:

Rogue One - An immediate prequel to A New Hope, the first Star Wars movie. I love this, it really does add a lot, and attempts to fill in some blanks or some plot holes for the original trilogy. But even if you don’t care about that, it’s a good fun classic adventure.

Solo - Not a good entry. Could’ve been good, but I don’t think it was cast well, and was all a bit Shakespeare In Love in its ‘origin story’ cavalcade. Also poorly lit, and has a big cliffhanger ending that has not yet paid off.

TV Series:

The Mandalorian - Highly recommended, because it tries really hard to be the Star Wars your childhood nostalgia tells you it was.

Obi-Wan Kenobi - I liked this, but its scope should have been far more epic, and the “low” budget failed to overcome that. They spent millions per episode, but it doesn’t show.

Andor - A prequel to Rogue One. A lot of people love this because it approaches Star Wars in a much more mature way than previously. I personally am not looking for that, so it didn’t thrill me quite as much as it did for others. However, though it’s one you should see, do it only after you’ve dipped your toe into the other series as it is an anomaly.

Ahsoka - Basically a Rebels sequel, but now in live-action, so probably would leave you a bit confused.

Animated:

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - It starts out a bit rough, and jumps around in time, but once you get invested in its characters it’s a great ride.

Star Wars Rebels - A little more confident, but don’t watch it until you know you enjoyed Clone Wars.

The Bad Batch - Follows on from the above animated shows, so again, don’t watch unless you’re already up for it.

Books:

Expanded Universe novels - I don’t read them, so have no recommendation. Like any novel series written by multiple authors, it’s likely a crap shoot. Nothing that happens in them affects your ability to enjoy the movies or TV series.

11

Definitely Rogue One and Andor

12

Rogue One was definitely good (though, as mentioned, it has a downer ending).

Andor I thought was horribly inconsistent in its characterization. The main character is portrayed completely differently in the first three episodes than in the rest of it, which is a shame, because I thought the guy in the first three episodes was much more interesting.

The Mandalorian is Clint Eastwood in space. Pedro Pascal does an amazing job of acting, for someone who never shows his face.

The Book of Boba Fett was lackluster, except for three episodes in the middle which were episodes of The Mandalorian, for some reason.

13

Ok, I’ve written off pretty much all of star wars as garbage jj Abrams trash, and I refuse to even bother watching any of it anymore. Lots of people are talking about rogue one, but I contend that is meh/boring garbage, for the most part. But holy shit, the last scene is probably the best non-Empire Strikes Back footage ever filmed. Just watch THAT scene before firing up A New Hope and it will save you hours of your life and make A New Hope better.

14

I haven’t seen/ read most of the works you’ve listed (not even all of the prequels, actually), but Rogue One is excellent.

Yes, the beach scene at the end is a downer, but also a rare moment where the franchise goes sentimental without coming across as maudlin or corny.

15

If you are not wearing nostalgia colored glasses, the first 5 or so episodes of the mandalorian were good, 4 or so episodes of book of boba.

The rest is not very interesting to me.
No story to tell.

The ending of the mandalorian is the test(Luke ex machina). I rolled my eyes and disappointedly turned the tv off. If you liked that you’ll love the new stuff.

16

I will follow the chorus and recommend Andor & Rogue One. As far as the books, the Zahn stuff is good. Children of the Jedi was excellent too. I’ve only dabbled in the Clone Wars and Rebels shows, but they seemed good.

17

For books: most, if not all, of Timothy Zahn’s “Thrawn Trilogy” (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command) has been wiped away from canon, but I much prefer its multiverse version of post-RotJ. And its backstory’s version of pre-ANH. It’s got a good plot, great new characters, and action set pieces you can just imagine on the big screen.

I’ll also throw another vote toward The Mandalorian. It’s a “Have Gun - Will Travel” style western serial set in the Star Wars universe that doesn’t forget to be fun.

18

Wow I’d forgot about those. I remember them being amazing but frustrating because they were only a few minutes long and the first minute or so was just a recap of the relevant preceding episodes. And the shortness made them always end very abruptly. Even watching them all at once doesn’t really make it “feel” any better.

19

The pacing of the movie is probably its weakest point, particularly because it starts so very slowly. But as I told a friend at the time, it starts slow, but then it just builds, and builds, and builds, until the last 30 minutes or so are virtually non-stop action, and some of the best action ever in SW history.

And yeah, the Vader scene at the end, is not just peak Vader, but peak Star Wars. I rate that the best scene in any movie or TV show. The whole movie is worth it just to get us to the point of seeing this few minutes.

20

Rogue One is like The Guns of Navarone. Or The Dirty Dozen. You know they’re not all coming back, but the trip is so interesting!

Solo wasted time answering a question no one wanted answered. And they answered it wrong!