General Discussion

I think it was wise for Disney to cherry pick things from the Expanded Universe of Star Wars (which now in turn became Legends). Because let's be honest, all of the messy stuff is derived from the EU, which some hardcore fans of Star Wars really treat as the gospel and bible of the entirety of Star Wars lore.

Not everything Disney did was a home run, like giving Lightsabers moods. But, the Expanded Universe wasn't perfect either. I think trying to straighten the line of Star Wars lore is the best move it could get before things get way too messy again.

I don't get myself too wrapped up in what's canon and what isn't. I'm not a gigantic Star Wars fans so I too just cherry pick what I like about the lore and just go with it.

There certainly isn't a 'grand idea' for how the universe looks. Even the most recent trilogy didn't seem to have a grand idea of what itself was going to portray. It fees like Disney is looking at the IP on a yearly or quarterly basis, and not where it needs to be in 5 or 10 years.

My enthusiasm for the IP has been completely destroyed at this point; and I'm not the only one.

It’s media / art.

You’re allowed to enjoy the parts you want to enjoy without validation from others.

Hope this helps

I've not really cared about Star Wars since the prequels came out. I'm not saying the original trilogy was full of hidden meaning but the kind of boring tonal mess of the prequels followed by the cardboard caricatures that populate the final trilogy were kind of the last straw for me and the spinoffs didn't really do much better. I tried watching some of those spinoff movies and shows but they all feel boring and repetitive. Kind of like Marvel.

That said, I'm probably just not the target audience any more. And that's fine.

I will say I had fun with the Mandalorian the first season or two, but mostly because I like Pedro Pascal.

Yes, it's both too messy to be coherent, and too coherent to be a set of disjoint histories that share some universe.

There are many fun stories in it, but don't expect all of them to be fun or to have a real sequence. But if you really want coherence, you can't jump over the cartoons (Clone Wars and Rebels).

That said, if you have watched the OG trilogy, Andor is a must see.

The Holiday Special is canon. Fite me 😆

Short answer, yes it is a mess.

Long answer is there have been two main structured and officially recognized and separate continuities (I'm leaving out oddballs like really early Marvel Star Wars comics since those were dead ends). Both main continuities recognize the original and prequel trilogies, however the first one, the original EU was essentially everything from the first Thrawn book in 1991 all the way to the material put out in 2014. Some of this old material is still being republished by Disney, but it is under the "Legends" banner to make it clear that it is not part of current canon.

The second continuity is the Disney reset which happened in 2014. As said above it recognizes the original and prequel trilogies. It also recognizes The Clone Wars and Rebels CGI cartoons. Everything else up to that point was thrown out the window and Disney essentially started over. A number of characters, races, events, and other material that was originally in the EU has been adapted back into the Disney continuity, but it has been remixed and reworked- this means you can't make definitive inferences that just because one thing from the EU is re-canonized, that other unseen elements also are. All of the live action shows like Mandalorian, Andor, Ashoka and all the Disney made side movies like Solo and Rogue One all exist inside the Disney continuity.

Star wars is in a very bad place. The controversial release of TLJ and the flip of Solo, caused a bit of concern. After the release of ROS, that became panic and Disney slammed the brakes on movies. They also distanced anything new from their trilogy. The pivot to streaming releases was an attempt to repair the franchise with. Outside Mandalorian, the series were intended to be movies, and most of them were a bad 90 minute movie stretched to a bad 4 hour show.

Some of the shows are cohesive, but there's several groups. Bad batch follows the clone wars animated series. Rebels leads into Ashoka. Andor leads to Rogue One. Boba Fett is a partial season of Mandalorian, which is the closest thing to the Disney trilogy. Obi wan and Acolyte should be forgotten.

Its the case with everything. When I was young I wished there was way more science fiction and fantasy and shows from neat ip but in adulthood its turned into a nightmare. I don't watch much new media at all.