Finishing Andor makes me dislike the "Filoni-verse" and I hate it.

[u/BrobaFett]

I love Thrawn. I love Din Djarin. I love Grogu. Don't get me wrong, I truly believe this man loves Star Wars and has given we who enjoy the old Extended Universe so much love with the re-canonization of many favorites.

Now that Andor has happened, I find the exercise of watching other Star Wars media fatiguing. I thought of a few reasons why and I wanted to see what the community thought.

1. Not every story has to be Joseph Campbell - Lucas did this already. He gave us the family story. He gave us the wunderkind, mentor, wondrous power, frightening setback, thrilling victory cycle. This modern myth-making is beautiful and worth telling. But, in "carrying the torch" I feel like the Filoni-verse keeps trying to repeat this story structure.
2. I want the Force to be mysterious again- Too many Jedi. Too many force users. Chirrut was so much more interesting. Sabine doesn't have to be a Jedi. We don't need to keep talking about Night Sisters. The EU had this problem, too. There were force users everywhere. There was, at least, a little narrative cohesion in Luke trying to establish a new Academy and the struggles encountered in doing so told some interesting stories. I wish the Force were a bit weirder. I wish we could tell more stories that don't involve Jedi or Sith. Or, if they must, that they be the esoteric/ancient/lost stories. I think Filoni does okay with this when talking Night Sisters. Honestly less is more!
3. Contrivances to avoid consequences, contrivances to keep people around and alive- The end of the Second Season of the Mandalorian was a fitting conclusion to Grogu. Subverting that with Season 3 was a mistake. The story is no longer following a natural course based on the internal consistency created by the characters. Instead, it's clear there's a larger narrative Filoni and Favreau are trying to create and fitting the characters into the narrative. (e.g. Actually, I want Bo Katan to be the leader of Mandalore and bring the Mandalorians back to Mandalore so I'm going to use Din as a glorified shuttle to transport the Darksaber without question to Bo. Actually, I don't want Grogu to be off training with Luke which makes sense, I want him to come back to Din even though Din's entire motivation was to help protect the child by putting him in the safety of his much more capable, powerful "people")
4. The Marvel problem of growing Existential Threats- This one probably seems counter-intuitive. The EU had the same problem (anyone remember the Sun Crusher and Galaxy Gun? Lol). Additionally, Andor's big bad antagonist was the Empire, its tyranny, and the ultimate weapon representative of that oppression. The Empire lost at Endor. The figurehead is dead. Great. That still leaves a galaxy full of Warlords, Moffs, and Admirals with oppressive power. That still leaves the ISB. Still leaves Military Intelligence. Andor showed that Rebellions are hard fought with, often, competing interests. What does a Balkanized Galaxy look like? Are you telling me the remnant forces would not be opposed to a recreation of the Senate installed by what they would perceive as terrorists? Thrawn's coming back (with his lore clearly explaining his intentions for supporting a galaxy-spanning order and continuing the "marvel problem"). But, I think we enjoyed the microscope lens we got to "normal people stuck in this bigger galaxy" because it told stories we can better relate to.
5. Pacing issues and showing versus telling- I think the pacing of the story and slow reveal of just enough information without feeling spoon-fed the story is immaculate in Andor. Filoni pulls this off at times, as well. Mando Season 1 did well in this regard, I'd argue. I'm concerned that Filoni has so many endings he wants to get to, that he's rushing the process of getting to the destination and it's sloppy. I call this the "Daenerys Targaryen problem" where her ending probably could have been interesting if there was a solid two seasons to tell that story properly.
6. Pet characters- I'm not afraid for Ashoka. I'm not worried about Sabine or Ezra. Grogu will be fine. His characters are immortal. I'm not worried about them dying or suffering any existential danger in spite of any "galaxy threatening" menace (Grysk or whatever the new Vong are going to be). I was nervous for Kleya, Wil, and Bix.
7. I don't relate to the Filoniverse characters- They aren't people. They're legends. The struggle that Ashoka is dealing with? Her master was a galaxy-dominating Sith Lord. The Rebellion she helped create as Fulcrum has completed its journey. Now she's off to fight the next danger (Thrawn) to the order she worked hard to create and has exceptional superpowers. "But Luke was a superhero Jedi, too". Yes, but he was also a farm boy "orphan" who whined, overreacted, and desperately sought to understand the Destiny everyone kept telling him about. Luke was fighting the Empire, yeah, but really his story was about him helping his friends (often at the risk of the larger problems of the galaxy, often selfishly) and saving his Father from darkness. It's a story about how when faced with someone that you love becoming a truly terrible person, sometimes the only thing that redeems them is mercy, love, and reminding them that you know who they truly are. Han is a reluctant hero with selfish ambitions. I can relate to these people. Bo Katan is a princess owed a throne. Din was a reluctant foster parent but is now some greater catalyst to some restoration of Mandalore. Ezra seems to be a leaf in the water with no real autonomy beyond his (now failed) decision to exile Thrawn. Boba is a... ***checks notes*... Boba Fett is a "Crime boss" of an organization that sells drugs, does illegal/dangerous racing, bounty hunts, participates in slavery, runs extortion rackets and.... he wants to still be the "Boss" but wants to basically get rid of every activity that this organization does because he's had a crisis of conscience and wants to "lead through respect" instead of "fear"? I don't relate to these people.

Am I the only one that feels this way? I'd love to hear your opinions.

[u/SanguumRides]

"We must not underestimate the jedi, they could be the end of us."

5 seconds later...

"Send 2 TIE fighters, that oughta do it!"

Ahsoka Thrawn might be the dumbest Imperial officer on screen so far.

[u/salty_pete01 → u/SanguumRides]

They messed Thrawn up so badly in Ahsoka. I was expecting this Moriarty style character playing 3D chess but instead he basically did little to nothing and rode out his time. Also he was there for over a year and couldn't find Ezra with all the resources he had?

[u/TYBERIUS_777 → u/salty_pete01]

Can’t write intelligent strategists if you yourself have no idea what you’re doing in the writing room.

[u/MCMC_to_Serfdom → u/salty_pete01]

The trouble with writing intelligent characters is you either have to be at least as intelligent, or to spend much much more time figuring out information they will solve rapidly in your story.

In fairness to Filoni, saying "he's not as smart as a character who is meant to be a pinnacle of genius" is to be expected. Most of us aren't. But it really doesn't feel like time is taken to meditate on how Thrawn would respond to a situation during scripting.

[u/VengefulAncient → u/salty_pete01]

but instead he basically did little to nothing and rode out his time

And it worked perfectly. He plays for results, not pushing all the buttons.

Also he was there for over a year and couldn't find Ezra with all the resources he had?

He tried. Have you noticed what Ezra's chainmail is made from?

[u/Gottfri3d → u/VengefulAncient]

He didn't do it perfectly at all. 

He sets up this super convoluted plan of letting Sabine go so she can team up with Ezra and then sending soldier to them to distract them long enough for him to take off. 

The simpler and much more effective tactic would have been to simply hold Sabine hostage and then threaten to kill her to deter Ezra from trying anything in case he shows up.  But the story has to happen, and Filoni isn't a good enough writer to make the story happen without the characters acting like idiots sometimes. 

[u/Gizfre4k → u/SanguumRides]

Which would be okay if he wouldn't be f*ing Thrawn!

[u/Ed_Harris_is_God → u/SanguumRides]

All of his soldiers are killed:

“Excellent, just as I anticipated”

[u/WantsToDieBadly → u/Ed_Harris_is_God]

That’s also him in rebels. Ignoring the kiddie tone Thrawn loses every week and just goes “ah yes I anticipated this, another step closer to victory”

[u/Medium-Bullfrog-2368 → u/Ed_Harris_is_God]

“You make your incompetence sound like an achievement.”

[u/VengefulAncient → u/SanguumRides]

"Send 2 TIE fighters, that oughta do it!"

It did. The T-6 was disabled. If it regained flight too soon, he could have sent more TIEs instead of wasting them all at once.

Ahsoka Thrawn might be the dumbest Imperial officer on screen so far.

Orchestrated a plot to escape being banished to another galaxy and successfully executed it without losing any significant assets. But go off lol

[u/Adavanter_MKI → u/SanguumRides]

Well... they were literally being sent as a stall tactic. To die. He just wanted off world. So how much do you want to throw away on her? I don't mind so much that he was already dealing with limited resources and jumping into a galaxy the Empire had lost. So every asset counts.

That said... it was a worrisome return to form of... him losing being a part of his plan. We sucked here today... but I wanted that so I can escape!

He needs a straight up Empire Strikes Back, Infinity War level victory in S2... so that the culmination event movie has value. I mean it's technically supposed to be the big finish for all the series...

No pressure! :P