Star Wars universe does have lasers of all scales and power levels.
Yet literally no one uses them well on a personal scale.
The Jedi (and Sith for that matter) imbue it with a power of magical stone, and then…use it as a saber.
To balance this stupidity, stormtroopers, clones and droids all use slow, non-continuous energy blasters. With actual lasers, they could insta-kill any Jedi, but they cannot, because otherwise the movie wouldn’t exist.
I have always wished for a serious grown up version of Star Wars. Like not being afraid to sever limbs like they used to, or worrying about your scoundrels being too scoundrel-y. Also really taking an inventory of everything and seriously thinking about how it would interact.
Like to your point - no need to toss out the more magical force elements but maybe just tone it down a bit and ground them in reality a little better? Because it’s absolutely ridiculous how they’ve become these invincible laser blocking demigods. They should be afraid to deploy, just like anyone, if there’s going to be shooting. It’s just lazy writing most of the time and it would be wonderful to see what a skilled hand could actually do with it all.
All they had to do for the Sequel Trilogy was adapt the Thrawn series.
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Absolutely you do not have to be 100% faithful, absolutelty you can change some bits and bobs around, overemphasize a character’s trait, underemphasize another, spend more or less run time developing certain people, relationships, etc.
Adjust and rewrite parts of it to make more sense with the old cast of actors being older than their characters were in the Thrawn series… and/or use all that fancy de-aging / re-voicing / face transplanting tech they have used all over the place with many of the same actual actors on other projects.
Its got new and old characters.
Its got Mara Jade, a new main female character, who is actually compelling and complex and fleshed out.
It respects the old characters, acknowledges their flaws and highlights their strengths. You actually see them face new struggles and have new failures in the actual temporal continuum of the plot… not as shoehorned momentary flashback/retcons to explain why someone is a completely different character now.
Its got more mature and serious themes and character arcs.
Its got an actually compelling main villain.
Its got a secret shadow fleet of ships… but with an actually competent explanation for them.
It got big ass space battles, and personal upfront altercations, its got strategizing and politics and intrigue.
It even ends on a victorious… but not a ‘final’ victorious note, leaving the gate open for you to really try and do your own thing from then after.
Its even already been functionally story boarded by being adapted into a comic book series.
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But nope, we instead got a bunch of disrepectful hacks who were convinced they could outdo everything prior, cast it all aside initially, and then started trying to copy parts of it after they realized how badly they’d fucked up.
Fucking hacks.
I mean… they do take pause when a Mandalorian is shooting. They may block lasers but putting a lightsaber in front of a slug 6 inches from your face just turns you into Swiss cheese.
Also, their flamethrowers. A lot of mandalorian weapons were utilized solely to counter force users.
Yeah like force speed. You have that ability, yet you used it only once. Would have been pretty handy like a hundred times in various sticky situations.
Agreed. Star Wars was never much my cup of tea - a bit too campy. That changed with Andor and Rogue One. Those are up there with my favorite movies/tv of all time.