Adam Sobel Week 10 - Star Wars needs a "What If?"

     As many of you know, one of my all-time favorite cinema sagas is Star Wars. The action, hidden messages, political commentary, and emotional connection within the story and throughout the generations of Skywalkers have made it an absolute masterpiece in my mind. With all the new Star Wars media that is emerging like Andor, Tales of the Jedi, and the Book of Boba Fest, I think Star Wars could benefit most by creating a "What If?" series.

    A "What If?" series is most commonly attributed to Marvel, but it's been done by many other groups as well. One of the issues that many people have with Star Wars is that it jumps around in timelines too much. This creates issues because we know the outcomes of fights or who the villain will be because we have seen a future movie that spoiled it for us.

    This isn't always an issue because it adds to the emotion in the story. For example, watching the prequels and knowing that Anakin would turn to Darth Vader didn't make it any worse of a trilogy. Fans still loved it because they knew Anakin would turn but loved the story about Padme and Obi-Wan's relationship with Anakin and it created a stronger connection that made it so much more emotional for the to have to watch him turn to the dark side. However, while watching Tales of the Jedi, I felt a little disappointed watching Count Dooku, another character that would later turn to the dark side, fight Jedi Master Yaddle. I knew there was no hope for Yaddle being able to turn Dooku back to the light even though I supported her because Dooku is a powerful villain in later movies which only made me feel defeated.

    If Star Wars does a "What If?" they will be able to explore different characters doing things against their original universe's characters. We could also explore interesting reality's where Obi-Wan would turn to the dark side, if the Sith had defeated the Jedi in the old republic, and we could finally reboot the Sequels even if it isn't canon. We could see funny timelines where Darth Jar Jar is real or more intense ones where Anakin can reach his full potential as Darth Vader without living in agony in his iconic black suit. The fact that these stories occur outside the original Star Wars timeline would mean that important characters could die unexpectedly or go down drastically different paths without any consequences to the main storyline characters that we know and love. Additionally, seeing our favorite villains as heroes or our favorite heroes as villains can make an interesting story as we learn more about the deeper urges in our favorite characters. A Star Wars "What If?" adds a whole new galaxy of possibilities and a whole separate lens for how to view the Star Wars universe.