For me movies and shows are all about the writing, character development and the story..
IMHO. The first 3 stories were great. It was an example of great writing. The second 3 stories were good but felt forced. The rest was downhill from there, most of it absolutely sucked. The only semi bright spot in the entire franchise was some episodes of the Mandalorian. The first season was generally good. The second season was hit and miss, more bad than good.
Yes, but please keep in mind both Favraeu and Filoni distanced themselves from season two when they explained an enormous rewrite was forced on them last minute when Kathleen Kennedy fired Gina Carano. It’s not just that Carano’s Cara Dune had been included in season two, but that she was pivotal. They were writing Cara Dune as central with the expectation they would spin her off into the star of Rangers of the New Republic. Recall too, Rangers had been green lit by Kennedy until Kennedy fired Carano.
Considering that rewrite I think they both did pretty well and we should expect more goodness in season three. They didn’t run out of good ideas. Kennedy forced out their good ideas based upon political bigotry. She was all happy to have that particular female lead for Rangers until her bigotry got the best of her.
In short, Kennedy recognized Carano as the Star power she needed for the kind of strong female lead in Rangers, up until Carano proved she could not be manipulated and forced to present as Kennedy liked. That pissed her off and is conclusive evidence why Kennedy should be fired from Disney. She cares more about her social engineering than she does good storytelling.
All that said, I doubt whether Skeleton Crew is enough to save Star Wars. It’s for kids. To save Star Wars Disney needs not only a male lead whose face you can see, but probably that lead needs a light saber and a back story that is compelling. Disney has all this in Ezra Bridger, but Kennedy wants Bridger subservient to Ahsoka Tano.
Bridger is a big deal. If you are familiar with Rebels, you know this character has all it needs to draw huge audiences, and the actor is up to the task. Eman Esfandi has that perfect sense of comic beat. He has just the right grin. He’s playing a unique character with a fabulous back story and reasons to believe he can explode into a force-fed powerhouse. Side by side Ahsoka and Ezra can bring Star Wars back, if only the man-haters like Kennedy can be swept aside to let it happen.
And to Richard I would say, give the best of the new characters a chance. Rebels was by far the best Star Wars ever written. All the main characters were excellent but Ahsoka and Ezra are the best of the best. Their backstories are by far the best in the franchise. If you pick up Rebels at the library, sit down and binge watch, you will agree. Stuff in that series will make a grown man cry. It’s that good. If Disney had a clue they would drill down on Ezra and Ahsoka and together turn the franchise back into what it once was.