Arguably, the selling point of the Star Wars universe is its setting. There have been a lot of good stories told in that universe divorced from the Skywalker clan. Almost anything having to do with the Old Republic (save the MMO) is a good example of this, from the video game to the comic book series it was based on. The Skywalkers serve as an anchor for the audience. They are the familiar aspect that the audience can latch unto in order to accept wider, stranger, newer ideas. It's the same reason so many fantasy setting rely on orcs, elves, dwarves, etc. They serve as something familiar to guide into the strange. Now, arguably, this isn't necessary, but it is a convenient story telling device. Good fantasy can be told without Tolkein inspired races, and good Star Wars can (and has) been told without Skywalkers.
The issue - especially under the hypocrisy of copying the broad plot points of the original trilogy down to minor details - is in feeling that you have to set up a bad end for old characters in order for people to move forward. It's unnecessary. I believe that is the primary issue that people have here. Could you tell stories in the Harry Potter universe without the Potter clan? Yes, easily. They are doing so. Would you need to make Harry Potter an abrasive recluse who hides while a new not-Voldemort kills all the people he knows and loves? No, of course not. You just need to not use him or make him a minor character. Fans would rightfully still be mad that they're reusing old plots and reverting the world setting back to a previous status quo in order to retell those stories using new - but slightly different - characters, and that's the other half of the issue.
In video game terms, they are killing Sonic to set up a new Sonic character (original creation, do not steal). They are killing the past to repeat the damn thing. And yet... yet, they are still milking the past. Han Solo comes out in 5 months. Obi-Wan Kenboi is starting development. Same for Bobba Fett. The whole thing is just so disingenuous. "Kill the past!"—by repeating it and constantly going back to tell stories from the past. Right.
Well, at least they're giving Rian Johnson a new trilogy. If he wants to create something new, that's the place to do it. Not in the 8th book of the Harry Potter series, as it were.
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