Maybe just a lukewarm (see what I did there?!) take this time: I don't want to see a hard-R Star Wars horror movie or anything focused on an unrepentant Imperial or Sith.
Maybe just a lukewarm (see what I did there?!) take this time: I don't want to see a hard-R Star Wars horror movie or anything focused on an unrepentant Imperial or Sith.
None of that is on-brand for Star Wars in any way. Yes, yes, "it's a setting," but it's also a style and a tone. Andor was pushing it a little, but fundamentally it was about finding hope and meaning, and being something better than your darkest temptations want you to be. Or, barring that, about sacrifice. I can handle some nuance, but there is nothing interesting to me about the hows and whys of an awful person's efforts to do awful things, or just being scared and seeing death for its own sake.
If the issue is that you don't wanna see such things, the solution is easy: don't watch any such things. If the issue is that you don't want such things to exist for others to watch, my question would be: why?
Beyond the simple reality of opportunity cost (the resources to make one project don't go to another), I don't know that any work in a shared fictional universe fully stands alone, so to feel like you can tell any story simply because the setting technically would allow it is to lose something. You can set something up simply to be a setting, but even in its current form, I think the brand (or, more kindly, the "soul") of Star Wars is still something more, about hope, redemption, and culturally associating that "good" defeating "evil" is possible and worthwhile. There are tonal aspects to it that I'd argue are at least as important as the logistical ones (e.g. let's not have a Jedi in Chicago).
To the first point, I'd argue that resources spent on a particular franchise are not a zero sum. In fact, it's more likely that the more rich and flexible the themes of a franchise can be, the more resources will be allocated to the franchise (if successful). It can be argued that some of the successful Star Wars spin offs already take a lot of tonal liberties (even if they might do so in different ways as how you might be referring) while contributing to the success (and increasing resource allocation) of the entire franchise. Repeating the same tone over and over might in fact not be necessarily a good thing in the long run.
To the second point, I'd argue that the morals/message of a story is ultimately up to interpretation... one could easily interpret the tale of the ridding hood as a cute cautionary tale against stranger danger with a happy ending... but some might think up about symbolism with menstruation and associate it with darker issues (and there's even some recent new feminist takes on it..) and depending on how you think of it quickly stops being "cute" or the ending stops being really that happy when you think of what was sacrificed...
If you just watch the OT in isolation and start thinking about it you might as well end up realizing the rebels might in fact be the bad guys. The Empire only actually uses their weapons when they need to fight the rebellion and/or punish criminals/traitors, we are not really shown in the OT how the Empire is evil, only told from the point of view of the rebels. Or how are the rebels good. What's the republic's tax policy? how do they deal with corruption/crime? did people actually have better lives under the republic or could it be that life under the Empire the life of the average law-abiding citizen was actually safer, more prosperous and comfortable? If one has only watched the OT movies it might as well be the tale of a lesser evil being replaced by an even bigger one. It wouldn't be the first time someone has come up with a similar interpretation.
Also, I don't see the problem if, for example, the Skywalker saga had a particular tone and theme, and another hypothetical saga could have another. Just the same way as how the life in one country can have a different tone than the life in another one, despite being part of the same planet and overarching history. The OT will still be there and your interpretation for it doesn't have to change regardless of how many sequels and spin offs they make.
If you don't want to see a hypothetical movie or TV show, you can just not watch it if and when they make it. You know that right?
Absolutely, though I'd probably grumpily watch it anyway. To be perfectly honest, I'm mostly trying to do some mild click-bait trolling to put a little life into this magazine/community. Maybe it'll take, or maybe it won't, but I feel a sense of responsibility to add something since I took it over.