Frankly, I'm not excited about it at all.
I was stoked when KOTOR came out, and that game provided myself and my high school friends fun beyond counting. Three of us always fell into a particular paradigm that games like KOTOR or Fable could exploit. I was the goodie-two-shoes role player who had an affinity for "magic", friend A was the asshole role player who wanted to beat things up, and friend B was the fence sitter who'd do what both of us did, only halfway. I'd make a force-heavy Jedi and friend A would make a lightsaber badass Sith. I'd make a paragon wizard, friend A would make an evil warrior. You get the drill. But more than simply being able to role play as "something Star Wars", KOTOR was masterful storytelling about the backstory of the Star Wars universe. We got to explore the origins and the cultures of the Sith in the form of an intriguing mystery, rather than as some plot device shoved into a narrative to appease fans. We got to navigate politics while trying to adhere to flexible moral choices, choices that stuck with you, so we'd see consequences play out in the context of Star Wars, and we could see it expand in many different directions, with each direction its own opportunity to flesh out this ripe universe.
It was frustrating to see all of that life in the story get stepped on by the prequels, and watch retcons contradict what other films had established, or were contradicted by other films/games/novels/etc. It was exhausting to see a sci fi fantasy world with such rich material to work with diluted to a simple battle of over-the-top pseudo martial arts that was stupidly popular at the time. I didn't notice bad acting that made me cringe while watching the newer movies, I noticed bad ideas that just frustrated the hell out of me as I watched the newer movies, sick of the shit they injected into the story. I was over Warcraft when Blizzard became a retcon storytelling powerhouse, and I was over Star Wars when Lucas went that same direction. It doesn't matter to me that someone else is directing the film, the series is dead, to me. There will always be KOTOR and KOTOR 2, and that's it. I might see Episode VII, but I won't be going in with ANY expectations.
