'Skeleton Crew' Is Proof That Star Wars Needs to Move on From the Sith

1 week ago 3

Star Wars

Custom image via Jefferson Chacon

It didn't take long for Star Wars: Skeleton Crew to win over the hearts of the fandom. The adventurous premise is accessible to everyone, the kids are awesome, and it doesn't require much previous knowledge of Star Wars. Also, there hasn't been a Skywalker in sight. This means that the overarching plot of good versus evil, Jedi versus Sith, is simply not there. Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers) may be a Jedi enthusiast (like all of us), but that's it. This is great, because, as of late, the Disney era of Star Wars has been fumbling a lot on how to use their ultimate villains, especially.

Star Wars Has Become Repetitive in Its Approach to the Sith

Palpatine addresses the senate in Season 2 Episode 8 of The Bad Batch.

The Sith themselves aren't the problem. The Acolyte, for example, tells a great Sith-centric tale, and it works perfectly because of how it expands on their reasoning and philosophy. This is the exception, however, seeing how they are usually merely the villains, the troublemakers who give the heroes someone to fight. If there are Jedi, there must be Sith, but the galaxy can't be that small.

Especially after Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker, it seems like everything has to trace back to a Sith pulling the strings from behind the curtain. The Imperial Remnant in The Mandalorian, Omega (Michelle Ang) in The Bad Batch, the Nightsisters in Ahsoka... Sure, some things from the movies should be explained, but must we make everything about the Sith, all the time, in order to do so?

Neel from Skeleton Crew sitting in a bear trap

Star Wars Has Tried To Move Away From the Sith Before

It wasn't always like that. When Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi came out, it was refreshing to see that it necessarily wasn't about the Sith. Snoke (Andy Serkis) wasn't a Darth, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) wasn't a Sith Lord, and the First Order were simply resentful fascists — and then there was backlash. Not due to a lack of Sith, necessarily, but because "it wasn't Star Wars," whatever the loud minority of self-titled "fans" means by this. This is likely one of the reasons that led to Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) being brought back in Episode IX, because he was the Star Wars villain for six movies, right? Making the Jedi fight the Sith again would surely quiet the naysayers.

It doesn't seem like it was J.J. Abrams' fault, actually. Apparently, he never intended for the First Order or the Knights of Ren to have been Sith cultists all along, for example, but the narrative around Rey's (Daisy Ridley) parentage, which had seemingly been put to bed in The Last Jedi, made it easier for the powers that be to tie everything into a very dull and simplistic knot. And now, to make it look less dull and simplistic, every story has to involve the Sith and how they have been secretly plotting everything all along.

‘Star Wars: Skeleton Crew’ Works Because It Doesn't Focus on Jedi vs. Sith

Right now, there seem to be no signs of the Sith in Skeleton Crew, but there are rumors and speculation that they may be deeply connected to the new series, like the possibility that Jude Law's character is a secret Jedi or a rogue Palpatine clone, or that At Attin's Great Work means it's a planet of Sith cultists working on a plot to bring Palpatine back. It can't be stressed enough how disappointing that would be, because, finally, we have a Star Wars story that is not about good versus evil, Skywalkers, or Jedi versus Sith — it's simply about kids trying to find their way back home. The show's distance from the Sith is one of the best things about it, as are the best parts of The Mandalorian (the criminal underworld and Mandalore) and even The Book of Boba Fett.

Skeleton Crew is even tapping into a wholly unexplored storytelling corner of the franchise, with the rise of piracy further from the New Republic's reach. Yes, The Mandalorian addresses this, too, but for minutes, and then it immediately gets back to being about fighting Palpatine's secret plan again. The strongest aspect of this new series is how it puts a group of kids at the center of its plot, connecting to the galaxy at large in this unique transition period for the Republic. If the story suddenly becomes all about the Sith instead, well... it would be a bummer.

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is available to stream on Disney+. New episodes air weekly on Tuesday.