>>213850262
>"What's the secret ingredient that makes Star Wars truly work?"

I'll tell you, Mike. It's because "Star Wars" was a Flash Gordon rip-off first and foremost, then a western, then a mystery, then anything else. And the first film was a one-off. Darth Vader twirled his mustache at the end and that was it.
Then he got lucky with broadening it for a sequel, then again, for RotJ. Then it ran out of gas. The books added some cool stuff, but it was out of gas at that point, and without George Lucas doing what he pitched to Disney (that they promptly threw into the trash), Star Wars was over and well, would be what we have of it now.
P.S. Some of the video games were so good that they're canon to me, damnit.