Part 6/10:
When Disney decided not to use Lucas's original story treatments—which they were explicitly aware of—they abandoned the sense of a cohesive, long-term plan. Lucas admits he recognized that getting involved would have only caused fights because Disney's priorities and storytelling philosophy were fundamentally different. So, he chose to step aside, allowing Disney to go their own way.
The Impact of Approaches on the Trilogy
This divergence explains why the sequel trilogy felt disparate and disconnected. The first film, The Force Awakens, succeeded largely because it was familiar—playing heavily on nostalgia and callbacks to the original trilogy. It succeeded in bringing Star Wars back into the limelight but did little to push the story forward.