Would you say it's been a good or bad year for Star Wars?

[ChrisIII]

The Last Jedi opinions are kind of subjective pretty much, but it seems this year it's been a bit iffy for the franchise, during it's 40th anniversary.

We had the high-profile exits of directors from the upcoming films, of course-Phil Lord and Chris Miller from Han Solo-although Ron Howard might be a decent replacement; as well as Colin Tremorrow from episode 9 (replaced by Abrams).

Then there was the problems with EA (Battlefront II of course, but also the Visceral shutdown which will impact the other Star Wars project), although not really Disney or Lucasfilm's fault directly.

And of course Disney bought Fox, which could lead to an unaltered blu-ray release of the OT, although Lucasfilm seems to be saying it will take time (for somewhat vague reasons).


On the other hand, a lot of the new EU was pretty good-Rebels had a decent season that re-incorporated former EU elements into the new canon, such as Thrawn of course; A new Vader comic was released (although IMO it doesn't quite 'get' the character as well as Gilleon's series did, but it's "young" Vader so I can let that slide) I think Aaron's SW was losing a bit of steam at the end after the Star Destroyer storyline, so I think it's good that the Gilleon was brought onboard-and his Doctor Aphra is a pretty good book for a new character). Novel wise I haven't kept up as much, but I've read Thrawn was pretty good.

[SuperiorIronman]

The last Jedi I'd say did fine. It's not a financial failure (and is only just clearing its first week pretty strong) and was reviewed very well, but while I can see some of these points being legitimate criticisms I get the feeling a lot of its audiences scoring is due to the current state of media and politics. I'll admit that some decisions may not be what some people want but it's not a movie that is a love or hate as it has plenty of in-between either extreme. This is definitely a film to keep an eye on when it comes to the turn around. It may not take as much as the prequels but it's one that might need some time settle.

EA's Starwars Battlefront 2 is by far one of the biggest disasters in Starwars story-telling. Not only did it lie to its audience but the only way you couldn't see the defection "twist" coming is if this was your first Starwars story ever. Iden Versio as of this year gets the award for worst character in Star Wars.
-Her marketing point was a complete lie
-Little of the game is actually spent with her (around 1/3)
-Her story keeps jumping in time glossing over important story beats (how did Rey escape Supremacy? How about how Iden came to the conclusion two Deathstars are fine but an orbital deathray isn't, or why she wants to save her father, in fact who even is her father and what is Vardos to Iden?)
-The game lacks a proper ending and the ending it did have through DLC created an even more nebulous and ill-defined protagonist with a cliched backstory, the Leia cameo didn't help.

As far as mutliplayer went the game is hardly playable still suffering from lag, stuttering, and a massive power gap since starcards can offer humongous boosts that are noticeable even at lower levels. Some classes are even objectively better at things than classes designed for it, your standard grunt is useful at all ranges and has a self-heal. The Officer is not support, it's a sharpshooter with a group buff.
Ignoring the loot boxes which got removed, they didn't remove the progression system tied to it meaning it takes so much longer to unlock things and a lot of the hero roster is locked upon start. Meaning you either play a game mode without the characters you want or grind for them and then upgrade your classes. Things being tied to lootboxes also gives a ridiculous amount of duplicates so you may actually waste your time on lootboxes. Crafting cards is fine but getting duplicates of everything I just had and not nearly enough to craft one card means I wasted my time and am still at a tactical disadvantage.

So yeah Battlefront is fun, but it's a slog to actually have it be fun.


On the movie and comic front things are largely alright. It's not perfect but it's a good year for the brand.
As for games, the big release in Battlefront is a dumpster fire.

[godisawesome]

Good year. Rogue One and The Last Jedi are both good films, though not great. The expanded universe stuff has by and large been excellent, though with a few disappointments in some things (Maul's last episode on Rebels could have been better as a movie, Sabine's arc on Mandalore hit its high point in Trials of the Darksaber and didn't reach those heights again). Battlefront is really the biggest blemish on everything, and even that's because EA screwed over what was still a workable game in order to monetize it as a premium-to-play.

To me, it could have been better, but it's still overall pretty strong.

[RikWriter]

Rogue One was okay. It could have been better, but the ending saved it. Last Jedi was very disappointing.

[Cel]

I'd say it's a good year. It could have been better here and there, but it also could have been a lot worse. I think once the dust settles with The Last Jedi, most of us will be eager for any news on the direction Episode IX will take, IMO. It'd probably be a bad sign if none of us cared...

[Ken Ashcroft]

If they can confirm that the rumours of a Obi-Wan movie are real, then it will be a good year, news wise anyway. I need more of the pre-TFA Star Wars Universe.

[Buried Alien]

Overall, a good year...I do wonder that with a new STAR WARS movie coming out this year, Disney did very little to play up the 40th anniversary angle. Not much was really done to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the birth of the franchise.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Nasty_Boys]

If the Disney deal ends up getting us the unaltered version if the original trilogy, then it'll for sure have been a good year.

[Carabas]

If the Disney deal ends up getting us the unaltered version if the original trilogy, then it'll for sure have been a good year.

I think that's going to be 2019-2020 at the earliest. Deal's not even finalised yet.

[regg215]

Overall I would say it has been a bad year. While rebels and Thrawn were really good the rest of the year was kinda disappointing. (I don't really count Rouge One towards this year since it technically released in 2016, if I did count it, this year would rank significantly higher). All the turbulence around the Solo movie isn't a good sign and letting trevarrow go kinda concerns me for episode 9, in that I liked the idea that episode 9 was already being worked on for a while.(Although those two things may not be all that bad, Ron Howard is a really talented director and JJ abrams can hopefully do well with episode 9). The biggest reason that the year disappointed me was the last jedi and battlefront 2. The last Jedi is incredibly divisive among fans and whether you liked it or hated it, I don't think anyone can argue that splitting the audience against each other is a good thing. After force awakens it kinda seemed like both older fans and newer fans were both pretty happy for the most part. However last jedi really seems like it put a huge division amongst the fans. Battlefront was horrible because they had all the feedback from the first game being disappointing and instead of correcting it they made it worse by adding a ridiculously short story mode and loading it with micro transactions. Honestly this year really concerns me in that a lot of my concerns with disney buying the franchise were gone after force awakens but this year really makes me wonder if Disney actually cares about fans of the older trilogy. I know they want new fans and don't really prioritize the older generation of fans(which unfortunately probably makes sense from a business standpoint) but to me it really seems like they are on a mission to get rid of a lot of original trilogy stuff which I can't really support.

On a smaller note while the comics are still good and sell pretty well still, it does appear that a ton of the momentum they had is gone at this point.

[the nomad]

Bascially.....Meh. I wish I had more to say but really I don't.

The Last Jedi. Rebels. Battlefront 2.....all just, Meh. There's always next year.

[Panfoot]

Personally I would say it's pretty bad. I didn't like The Last Jedi very much and have little interest in how Episode 9 goes at this point. The comics still seem pretty uninteresting, I dropped the main book back around 15 or so since it was just boring filler stories and it doesn't seem to have changed much at all. I avoided Battlefront 2 because EA has pulled some annoying crap with all their games over the past few years, it's nice to see them finally get some push back on it at least. I haven't watched Rebels or read any of the newer books. My interest in the series as a whole is right is probably at it's lowest point. I just hope a different publisher gets the game rights and we at least get an Old Republic comic or something, just anything that isn't so restricted by the movie canon.

[Marchosias]

Gotta say it...Just have to. Disney has politicized Star Wars movies to the point of ruining it. Rogue One was genius. But TLJ was pure political posturing and myself and many many SW fans will not stand for a political agenda being crammed down our throats. EA's B2 was a joke. Where was the single player galactic assault? They didnt put it in because they want everyone to be online, paying for boxes that may or may not give them a chance at beating other players more easily. Just another joke for the Star Wars Universe this year.....Very very sad indeed...

[Hawkgirl_70]

Gotta say it...Just have to. Disney has politicized Star Wars movies to the point of ruining it. Rogue One was genius. But TLJ was pure political posturing and myself and many many SW fans will not stand for a political agenda being crammed down our throats. EA's B2 was a joke. Where was the single player galactic assault? They didnt put it in because they want everyone to be online, paying for boxes that may or may not give them a chance at beating other players more easily. Just another joke for the Star Wars Universe this year.....Very very sad indeed...

Totally Agree with you 1000%!!!!!

[hartttt]

A mixed year for star wars.