This is so cerrect.
Disney tried to give us new characters to move the series along.
There is some degree of success with that.
But the originals will always be the originals.
Vader is iconic.
I would disagree on the “move the series along” statement, as nothing really changed between the original trilogy and the sequel trilogy.
- The Rebel Alliance is still fighting The Empire, although the names are changed to Resistance and First Order
- The Empire/First Order builds a new super weapon with a stunningly simplistic weak point
- Palpatine gets his plans betrayed by his heir apparent (Vader in RotJ, Rey Palpatine in RoS) and winds up zapping himself in the face during a showdown in his throne room before exploding
- Just like RotJ, at the end of RoS, there’s only one Jedi left and it’s their new mission to rebuild the Order while the ghosts of dead Jedi look on in approval
There’s no growth, no progression.
In the old EU books, we had:
- infighting between multiple imperial factions for leadership after Endor until their brief reunification under Grand Admiral Thrawn
- Palpatine showing up again in a younger clone body and attempting to recruit Luke as his new apprentice.
When that fails, he attempts to transfer his soul into the infant Anakin Solo (plot point was later mined for Rey Palpatine)
- Leia crafting a New Republic while also negotiating with systems that wanted to remain totally independent after the double whammies of the failure of the Old Republic and rise of the Empire.
- Luke rebuilding the Jedi Order, but having to deal with the conflicting personalities and egos of a new batch of students who can use the Force but are lacking in discipline and discernment
- the Imperial Remnant and the New Republic forced to work together to defeat a new common threat, an extra-galactic race of invaders called the Yuuzhan Vong
- Luke’s great-great grandson, Cade Skywalker dealing with a New Sith Empire under the leadership of Darth Krayt
