When is a “Star Wars” movie not a “Star Wars” movie?

And is that necessarily a bad thing?

“So… What did you think?” I asked.

A pause.

“I need some time to process.”

My girlfriend and I had just finished watching Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, so, as always happens when we go see a movie, we had a lot to talk about. Now, I’ve been a Star Wars fan since I was a little boy, and I have the Darth Vader Halloween pictures to prove it. But as much as I like the series, she loves it, and has since she was nine years old. The movies have always been a huge part of her life, so whenever anything new comes out, I’m always eager to see what she thinks of it. But we had just watched Darth freakin’ Vader bust some Rebel heads in ways I’d only ever dreamed of seeing onscreen, and here she was being reserved (though to be fair, this was also how she had reacted to The Force Awakens until such time had passed that she could properly mourn Han Solo). In the discussion that followed, we came to a conclusion: while we both liked it (I a bit more than she), it didn’t exactly feel like a Star Wars movie.

SPOILERS AHEAD, SINCE I GUESS I HAVE TO WARN YOU THAT SOMETHING I WROTE BASED ON MY REACTIONS TO A MOVIE WILL TALK ABOUT THAT MOVIE

ALSO, SORRY IF YOU DIDN’T KNOW HAN SOLO DIED IN THE LAST MOVIE

I DIDN’T WARN YOU ABOUT THAT

MY BAD

Let me reiterate: I really, really liked Rogue One. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt giddier in a movie theater than I did during Darth Vader’s scenes (and, for the record, I am all about Vader cracking jokes and making puns when he Force chokes someone). But overall, this movie didn’t feel like a Star Wars movie—or, at least, what we’ve known a Star Wars movie to be up to this point. That’s not a bad thing at all! And it’s not necessarily a novel observation, since the point of the films-formerly-known-as-Anthology-movies is to tell new stories in the Star Wars galaxy that are separate from the Skywalker-centric main episodes of the Saga. It’s a wonderfully exciting idea (particularly if future installments aren’t just origin stories and prequels), and opens up a wealth of possibilities of what can be done when storytellers aren’t necessarily beholden to the house style of opening crawls and wipe transitions. There’s room for as many different kinds of stories in this galaxy as there are midi-chlorians in Anakin Skywalker’s blood (oh, wait, I forgot we don’t talk about that… sorry). We’ve seen it before, both in the no-longer-canon Expanded Universe and in the current crop of tie-in novels, comics, TV shows, video games, and breakfast cereals.

Totally canon

Now, though, these new types of stories are major motion picture events, which means that they’re reaching a much larger audience than ever before. These new films are redefining what it means to be a Star Wars movie. While this is undoubtedly a good thing (it’s exciting to truly not know what to expect), it also means that audience members need to adjust their expectations accordingly. Sure, The Empire Strikes Back ends on a downer note for our heroes, but it’s not unexpected, as it’s the middle act of their story. In Rogue One, every main character gets shot, blown up, or disintegrated, and… THE END (except for Darth Vader killin’ fools and CGI-Leia reiterating that the theme of the movie is “the next one has ‘Hope’ in the title”).

Everyone on the internet had a lot of fun when the headline for Vox.com’s Rogue One review was “Rogue One is the first Star Wars movie to acknowledge the whole franchise is about war.” “Silly writer!” the memes proclaimed. “The word ‘wars’ is right there in the title! It’s mentioned in the opening crawls! Of course it’s about war!” And yes, it is. But it’s only about war in the broadest sense. It’s always been good vs. evil. The Dark Side and the light. At its heart, the Star Wars saga is a fairytale, with wizards and princesses and monsters and fallen knights clad in black armor. It’s a story anyone can enjoy, but one that is essentially designed for children (which is not a bad thing at all). Rogue One, on the other hand, is quite literally a war movie, practically a historical drama about a (fictional) wartime event that we’re vaguely aware of but not certain of the details of. In much the same way a film like, say, Glory illustrates the story of one particular regiment in the United States Civil War, Rogue One tells the story of one particular band of Rebels in the titular Star War. Future Star Wars Stories may be lighthearted in the vein of the Saga films. Others might be as dark as Rogue One, or even darker. They may be hilarious or terrifying or downright bizarre. They can be anything, because their purpose is to fill a space that the main films can (and perhaps should) not.

Rogue One had a very difficult job to do. Not only was it the first Star Wars film set outside of the main saga, but it was the first to premiere within a year of another in the franchise. The Force Awakens was still fresh in the minds of audiences, and anticipation for Episode VIII is only growing. As a result, and because nuance died with the birth of message boards, there seems to be a growing divide among fans: either you liked The Force Awakens and it was the return to Star Wars you had been dreaming of for years, or you liked Rogue One and it was the return to Star Wars you had been dreaming of for one year longer than those other people had been. Of course, plenty of people liked or loved both (or didn’t like both), but these two camps seem to be the most vocal. It’s almost impossible to talk about Rogue One without bringing up one’s feelings about The Force Awakens. So I’ll do it, too!

I loved The Force Awakens. I thought it was wonderful, capturing the spirit of the original trilogy while introducing a wealth of exciting possibilities for the future. Setting aside the criticisms that its story was too close to that of A New Hope, what made The Force Awakens work so well for me was the strength of the characters. Each new character was instantly likeable, or at the very least immediately interesting. In his first few scenes, we learn that Poe Dameron is brave, witty, and possibly the most genuinely friendly character in the franchise. Finn is in over his head and just wants to escape to a peaceful life, but he has a strong conscience and a deep sense of loyalty to his friends. We don’t know much about Rey’s history , but we do know how her abandonment and solitary life have shaped her into a person who longs for belonging, and dreams of escaping scavenging while simultaneously being held back by the lingering belief that maybe, just maybe, her family will return for her. Kylo Ren is powerful, but so aware of the fact that he’s not, nor will he ever be, nearly as powerful or feared as Darth Vader was that he just comes across as an impetuous, temperamental brat. While much of my initial excitement for the new trilogy was the return of the original cast, these new characters grabbed me from the first viewing, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for them.

I wish I could say the same for the characters of Rogue One. Which isn’t to say I disliked them. In fact, I wanted more from them. Maybe it’s because they all die at the end, and we know we won’t see their stories continue in future films, but I feel like we merely scratched the surface for most of the characters introduced in Rogue One. The two characters we spend the most time with, Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor, have the makings of interesting characters, and Felicity Jones and Diego Luna were both great in their roles. But the film, either through fault of the script or through material lost in the reshoots, leaves many questions unanswered. What is Jyn’s history with Saw Gerrera? We know she became a criminal under an assumed name after leaving Saw’s rebel group, but how? As for Cassian, he alludes to the fact that he’s done terrible things in the name of a cause he truly believes in, but the only real example we have is him killing his informant at the beginning of the movie. At one point, he tells Jyn, “I’ve been in this fight since I was six years old.” This sounds important, but is never truly elaborated upon. Maybe it’s a story that will be explored in a novel or comic book series someday, but in the meantime, it only raises questions. Characterization shouldn’t be left to extratextual sources, lest the movie itself suffer. If it’s important enough to be mentioned in the film, it’s important enough to actually explain in the film, as well. The same goes for Chirrut Îmwe and Baze Malbus, the Guardians of the Whills we meet on Jedha. Why has Chirrut remained so devoted to the Force? If Baze was once the most devout of the Guardians, as Chirrut says, why did he lose his faith to such an extreme degree? As for Imperial pilot Bodhi Rook, why did he decide to defect from the Empire, aside from one pep talk with Galen Erso that’s mentioned in passing? Each of these characters should, by rights, be fascinating. Every actor did a great job, and I enjoyed the time we spent with each of them. But so much is left unanswered, and for characters in a standalone story, that shouldn’t be the case.

K-2SO was perfect, though.

Let’s see him find THAT “vague and unconvincing”

Again, all of this isn’t to say I didn’t like Rogue One, as I liked it very much. It just shows that as a standalone movie, it focused a little more on plot than character, while The Force Awakens, both as the start of a new trilogy and as a homage to A New Hope, tended to favor the characters over the plot. One approach isn’t necessarily more “right” than the other, but the difference is illustrative of one way the Star Wars Stories may differ from the Saga (though the next one, being based on the adventures of a young Han Solo and Lando Calrissian, is likely to swing more in the “character driven” direction).

Star Wars means different things to different people. To some, it’s a sweeping space opera, or a sci-fi struggle between a powerful evil and a scrappy rebellion. You might respond to its fantastic elements, the classic “Hero’s Journey” story, or the memorable characters. The good news is, with two episodes left in the new trilogy, and an infinite number of possibilities for Star Wars Stories, it looks like there will be something for everyone over the coming years. I, for one, can’t wait to explore these new edges of that far, far away galaxy.