I think what gets me about Rogue One is that for the first time, we have a Star Wars movie that feels like we’re witnessing a war.
The body count is high, characters we come to know and love die violently and suddenly, there’s children caught in the crossfire, nameless soldiers get slaughtered left and right, characters suffer from PTSD, the heroes do shady shit like assassinations and sabotage, you feel the Rebels’ fear of the Death Star, and so on.
Like, you never really felt the cost of war in the other 7 movies. Yeah, there were battles but for the most part, you were watching a fun, escapist sci-fi movie. But Rogue One is a wake up call in that while this is still Star Wars, wars have prices to pay. It’s not all fun and games when you have to actually consider all the deaths and destruction that comes from war.