A little early for one of my epic posts but I have coffee so:
They had 1 film; how much backstory could they fit in and how much did we need?
Compare with ANH:
- We knew Ben fought in the Clone Wars and knew Luke?s dad, and had beef with Vader.
- Uncle Owen was grumpy, Beru cooked things and was more chill.
- Luke was sexually frustrated and bored.
- The droids had seen some action.
- Leia was a sassy rebel spy.
- Han was shady and in debt, Chewie was furry and violent.
- The other rebels were red-shirts and after Act 1 so were the stormtroopers.
- We knew Vader was more machine than man, twisted and evil, and killed Luke?s dad.
- Tarkin was e-vil.
I can?t see a huge difference between these characters and Rogue One.
I?d say the weakest character that made little sense was Saw. Everyone else?
- K2 was a sassy re-programmed Imperial Droid.
- Jyn had a hard life after watching her mother die and father abducted.
- Cassian was a hard-*** spy and killer.
- Base and Chirrut were unemployed; one lost his faith the other kept it.
- Bodhi was an Imperial defector in over his head.
- Galen devoted the remainder of his days to sabotaging the Empire?s planet killer.
- Saw was a violent lunatic who inexplicably decided on suicide-by-debris.
- Other rebels were red-shirts.
- Orson was a psychopathic career social climber and power hungry.
- Tarkin was e-vil.
- Vader was a killing machine but still had snappy one-liners.
Was there really that much less character development across the board between Rogue One and ANH?
Cassian and Jyn and K2 learn to trust each other. Cassian refrains from killing Galen. Everyone sacrifices their lives.
Luke becomes a hero, Han does a noble thing for his new friends and a cause, Ben sacrifices himself.
RO: Finding Trust and Redemption + Sacrifice
ANH: Hero?s Journey, Sacrifice, and Finding A Conscience.
In my estimation the problem is not ?backstory? it?s dramatic character arcs.
The characters in Rogue One?s relationships change but the characters themselves don?t change that much.
In ANH some of the characters transform and find themselves dramatically.
Arguably, Chewie, Ben and Leia don?t change at all, and neither do the droids. But what change we do see in others is dramatic.
If the differing agendas of Jyn and Cassian had been shown to have more stakes like Luke and Han?s, and if they had changed more dramatically, maybe we?d like them more.
Jyn *did* find purpose and friendship. Cassian *did* find redemption and a purpose for the things he?s done, but we didn?t feel them so much.
That could come down to script and chemistry.
Han and Luke were buddies, they had banter and schemed together. Han disillusioned Luke and ditched him. Then he had a change of heart and saved the day.
That was chemistry (Luke the wide-eyed idealist vs. Han the cool cynic) and pacing we reacted to (trench run remains suspenseful and well-paced to this day).
So tldr; Rogue One needed more chemistry, better writing, more contrast between Jyn and Cassian, and more transformative character arcs.
Not more backstory.
In that sense I'd have to agree that Cassian lacked charisma, but actually so did Jyn, hence no chemistry. K2 stole the show personality-wise.
EDIT: And we should all know that "More Backstory" is actually the kiss of death for Star Wars.
