[6.2/10] We’re two Lego Star Wars seasonal specials in to the post-Freemaker era and both of them have been mediocre at best. *The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special* aimed to do some timeline-hopping comedy and pay homage to the original *Holiday Special*, and stumbled in each. And now the pseudo-franchise-within-a-franchise has attempted to do the same, to similarly middling results.

The best you can say for it is that the structure is clever. Putting together a “three stories” anthology, with a frame story where some lesson and artifact from each of the stories ends up matter is a sharp setup. The (widely foreshadowed) subversion that the Sith-esque dude telling these tales is pointing to lessons for himself rather than the plucky kid hero has some minor oomph, and there’s even a generic but age-appropriate theme about fear to wrap everything around. The construction of the special is sound.

It’s also a joy to see Grabala the Hutt again! Dana Snyder still does some hilarious line-reads, and the very concept of a Hutt gangster whose true heart’s desire is just to run yet another resort/hotel/casino/buffet is still fertile ground for comedy. Grabala trying to get Poe to sign up as a spokesman, cash in on all the Sith memorabilia he finds, and even the very concept to turn Vader’s castle on Mustafar into a tourist destination are all solid laughs.

(Heck, I even like the callback to *The Freemaker Adventures* with the animatronic Vader greeter a la the animatronic Palpatine greeter.)

And there’s also something interesting about the fact that, however non-canon, Lego Star Wars is the only corner of the on Star Wars galaxy on screen exploring what happens in a post *Rise of Skywalker* era. I have no idea if Vanea the Sith-adjacent guy, N-1L8, or the generic plucky kid hero whose name I’ve already forgotten have appeared or will appear elsewhere in the franchise, but it’s still neat to get a semi-official glimpse of what the universe looks like after the fall of the First Order.

The problem is that the actual stories here are pretty week. There’s one of Ben Solo joining the Knights of Ren that I really hope isn’t a “canon paraphrase” as other Lego installments have been, since it’s pretty dumb. Him falling in with a “bad crowd” a la high school, and things going too far with his new friends and Uncle Luke really takes some of the oomph out of his turn. And the explanation of how he reclaimed the name “kylo”, which apparently means “small and weak”, is a little too on the nose a la “I’m going to call you Han…Solo.”

The weakest story of them all, though, was the middle segment, which featured Darth Maul and General Greivous each chasing after a certain prized Sith lightsaber. There was nothing to it really, beyond reverting Maul to his spider-leg form and giving us a minor glimpse at Grievous’s technological resurrection. There was a pale Looney Tunes imitation vibe to this one, and while middle manager Palpatine is always at least a minor laugh, the special failed to make much out of the whole shebang.

That's the other big problem here – this just wasn’t very funny. Grabala’s still a hoot. Palpatine’s still amusing. The things that have worked in Lego Star Wars still work. But this isn’t merely dumb kid humor; it’s bad humor in general. There’s big tonal issues in general, as the special wants to be a light, kid-friendly comedy, while also wants to be a legitimate adventure and also one that’s pretty scary. It succeeds at none of this, with a lack of balance that Obi Wan would blanche at. And not for nothing, the Halloween/scary story connection is tenuous as hell, making this meager even as an easy holiday tie-in.

The only segment really a wroth a damn is the third one, which plays the “What If?” game by wondering what would happen to Luke if he’d joined the Imperial fleet instead of the Rebellion and been taken under Vader’s wing instead of Obi Wan’s. The results are mildly intriguing and amusing, with the special remixing classic bits from *A New Hope* with a Sith-tacular twist. The *Twilight Zone*-esque Monkey’s Paw angle to it doesn’t do much, but it’s still the segment with the best premise and the one that’s having the most fun.

The main story doesn’t have much going for it, either though. The little kid Poe’s trying to save from working for Grabala in the hopes of helping him realize his dream as a pilot is a bog standard moppet. I get that these kid-friendly specials need an age appropriate perspective character for the tykes to see themselves as, but I wish they had more personality than the same “go get ‘em” kiddos we always see. Vanea’s a disappointing baddie, and the mecha fight with him is tedious and stock standard.

Overall, *Lego Star Wars Terrifying Tales* wastes a smart structure and the cool idea to do a “Treehouse of Horror”-style anthology in the context of Star Wars on tepid writing and weak humor. There’s nothing here unless you’re already a Star Wars lifer, no matter what age you are, and even then, you’re better off just rewatching something from *The Freemaker Adventures* or *Yoda Chronicles*.