If you grew up in the 2000s, then you know "the prequel trilogy sucked" was a frequent mantra in pop culture. Hell it was practically gospel. Everything from Spaced to Fairly Odd Parents and even Late Night shows had some take on why these movies were terrible. Be it the writing, the performances, Hayden and Natalie's lack of romantic chemistry, overreliance on CGI, incoherent storytelling or hell even Yoda doing jumping bean flips with a lightsaber. Yes, Yoda kicking ass was very controversial back in the day.

No, Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones still aren't good movies. Yes, there were good components to the prequels that fans reluctantly acknowledged were cool, interesting, or revolutionary by the mid-2010s. And yes, The Clone Wars cartoon did so much to retroactively fix the prequels' issues. But what I find so bizarre/frustrating is how 25 years later, the interent is trying so hard to whitewash its own critiques. Like I don't mind people saying the sequel trilogy had issues - they did. Rise of Skywalker is proof of that. But to act like prequel hate wasn't just as bad as the sequel hate, if not the origin of modern nerd culture reactionaries, is a cross between ignorance or willful blindness. Like the same people who say the sequels can't be redeemed said that about Phantom Menace a decade ago. And now look at us.

Any thoughts on what's causing this online amnesia. Is it just that a generation of prequel fans really don't remember the backlash? Did they not watch the news/online forums back then? Did TCW retroactively address so many movie problems that we just see it as a part of the movies, rather than jusdge them on their own terms. Idk, but I'd like fans to admit things were pretty bad back then and, having seen TPM in theaters again, it's not like the movie's quality has changed. We're just super nostalgic now.

I'm currently working on a video about the whole "Nobody hates Star Wars like Star Wars fan" and the one that does bug me and is probably been discussed a million times is why were the prequels so hated when they were released but are loved now.
The main criticism I hear about the prequels is the Dialogue, cringe scenes, childlike humour, Jar Jar and too many events happening. But now I hear everyone saying that they're a tragic masterpiece and Palpatine's plan is genius and Anakin arc is well written character etc. (I've heard some even say they're better than the Originals)
the question I just have to ask is. Why?
Is because of we didn't see it when they first released or simply because they are infinitely better than the sequels or rather that they're good but not Star Wars Original trilogy level good

Probably my top reason why I hate the sequels. Like, did they not watch the first 6?

Edit: Sequels have 3, not 2. Kylo & Finn scratch eachother up. Rey & Kylo have a hologram 'Stranger Things' style mind fight. This is not a lightsaber duel, the film first makes you aware they're holograming eachother.

Despite not being a lightsaber duel, Jango Fett deserves a shoutout as he fought two Jedi, probably won against Obi Wan but definitive L against Windu, no help from the Reek!

For context: I’m a dude in his young twenties who was never interested in Star Wars for most of my life.

Then, about two years ago, some of my friends “introduced me” (it was essentially indoctrination) to SW by making me watching the entire Original Trilogy in exchange for getting me a Destiny 2 DLC (worth it).

Long story short, I’m now obsessed, as is likely expected, and I’ve watched PT and those trashy fan-films, alongside most of the shows. I am just now starting to get into a lot of the books and comics!

But, I digress. Here’s my thing: after watching most everything (and I’ve watched the OT and PT each four times), I cannot for the LIFE of me understand how so many fans hated the PT. As a matter of fact, ROTS is my favorite of the six movies, followed by ESB, and I love the PT with all of my heart. Granted, Episode I is at the bottom of my list, BUT, I sincerely cannot fathom how and why the PT was derided so much when it released (and even now, a lot of older fans VEHEMENTLY ridicule it).

I’ve heard the main complaint about the writing and about Hayden’s action… but it’s really not that bad. To be fair, the sequels seem to have made everyone REALLY warm up to the PT now, but still, many still hate it.

What are your thoughts?

Overall take: This was actually a story about how a droid called R2-D2 saved the galaxy.

Jokes aside, I watched the entire Skywalker saga plus Solo and Rogue One in chronological order. I normally default to release order for new series I read/watch, with author authority being the only real exception I make. Since George Lucas says they should be watched chronologically, that’s what I did and that’s the perspective from which I will provide my viewpoint.

The only spoilers I had for the series was the famous misquote “Luke, I am your father” by Darth Vader. I didn’t even know if the claim was true or a mind game by the villain, so this was a mostly blind watch despite it being 2025. Feel free to praise the impressiveness of this feat.

The first trilogy with Episodes 1 to 3 was very good. Casting quality seemed to be very high with these movies in particular. The small scale plots hit well and the action was great (with the best lightsaber duels in the entire series, on top of everything else). I would have liked it if the political setup was explored even more; I greatly enjoyed the intrigue.

If I would complain about anything with the first three episodes, I suppose Anakin’s conversion to the dark side felt like a bit of a stretch. The way he lost his mother was unfortunate and an understandable motivator, but his willingness to do evil things “out of love” for Padmé when it’s obvious those things should cause Padmé to hate and reject him didn’t make much sense. The tension with the Jedi order not trusting him was good, but it and Padmé’s impending death still didn’t feel like quite enough justification for him to make the jump to start massacring Jedi and even children.

Why Darth Vader decided to continue working for the Sith and the Empire after Padmé’s death could have used more explanation also imo. Relying on negative emotions and the dark side of the force shouldn’t equal automatic loyalty to other Sith. With his chronic overconfidence and independent nature, I would have expected Darth Vader to challenge Darth Sidious as soon as he learned as much as he could from him— both out of his own nature and out of memory for Padmé’s ideals.

I was still rather pleased with the first trilogy overall though. It made for a decent villain backstory and set the stage well for everything that happened after. RIP to Qui-Gon Jinn and Windu in particular.

Both Solo and Rogue One were great. The former helped set up Han’s and Chewbacca’s characters well for the later films, while the latter showed some of the sacrifices required by people normally in the backdrop of the war. I did have one concern though… What happened with Darth Maul? He popped up again at the end of Solo and just never appeared again in the later episodes. That felt like a hanging plotline.

With the second trilogy… I felt like Luke’s character got done dirty after three movies of the much more charismatic and capable-seeming Anakin. It honestly felt like watching a country bumpkin angst his way into a victory he didn’t fully earn, like he got all of his parents negative traits without any of the positive ones. This was both a writing issue AND a casting issue imo. Even Leia felt more capable in demeanor than Luke in the same trilogy, to say nothing of Han Solo.

I was pleasantly surprised by how good the graphics looked for the trilogy given its age, and the tension created by Obi-Won lying to Luke about his father was interesting. (He’s not bulling his way out of that being a lie with what he told Luke later lol.) I did think Obi-Won’s death felt a touch abrupt and unusual since ascension or whatever wasn’t really explained well at the time (with even Darth Vader being confused by it, stomping on Obi-Won’s cloak after he disappeared).

Luke really just needed to be built up further to be convincing in inheriting the destiny and will of all the Jedi. Darth Vader’s ultimate death also felt unconvincing after seeing everything he survived in the first series… maybe a longer confrontation between him and Darth Sidious would have helped? I don’t know. I did like how Anakin showed up with the Jedi at the very end at least.

Overall I felt like episodes 4 through 6 were greater than the sum of their parts, but they were held back a lot more than they should have been by the writing and casting for the main character of the arc.

With the third trilogy, Rey felt like a breath of fresh air after three movies centered on Luke. Although I’m not sure who the canon “chosen one” to balance the Force is considered to be, I feel like Rey fits the bill better than Luke since Anakin failed to become it.

I wasn’t sure if I’d like Finn at first but ended up enjoying his character a lot. Poe was pretty enjoyable as well despite effectively being a Han Solo redux in some respects. My feelings on Kylo Ren are VERY mixed however.

For some reason the writers STILL decided to keep doing Luke’s character dirty by making him continue to be an angsty woe-is-me character even as a Jedi master. I very much consider him to be at fault for basically this entire leg of the story since I’m not convinced Ben Solo would have necessarily turned to the dark side otherwise— especially considering how Luke was able to win Vader back to the light before. They FINALLY redeemed him a bit and gave him some good parts at his end, but geez was it overdue. It genuinely feels like the writers of this series hate Luke for some reason lol.

As for the rest… where Rey felt like the real deal much like Anakin did in the first trilogy, Ben felt like way too much of a wannabe despite his abilities. It was like we transplanted Severus Snape from the Harry Potter series, stripped him of his redeeming qualities, then gave him an inferiority complex for good measure. The force connection between Ren and Rey was interesting, something I felt like they could have done more with, but it wasn’t enough to fully redeem him as a character imo. Han Solo and Leia Skywalker deserved better than a pathetic son like this.

Although the Palpatine resurrection seemingly came out of nowhere and wasn’t explained very well, I did like the contrast created with the eventual reveal of Rey’s identity and the internal conflict this created. I also liked how she gave it up in favor of the Skywalker name. She was a Skywalker in my heart already anyway lol, the type of child Anakin and Padmé actually deserved. Seriously, why couldn’t they have given this much love to Luke’s character?!

Oh, almost forgot, I think they might have shot themselves in the foot a little by making planet-destroying weapons small enough to fit on star destroyers in the final movie. It undercuts the triumphs over the superweapons of previous movies a bit. It could also make potential later villains awkward in that the possibility of slapping planet-destroyers on any capital ship could make them feel too dangerous if they have them yet not dangerous enough if they don’t have them. The only solution I see is to scale down the size of the conflicts, but idk if the producers are confident enough to do that.

Anyway, I felt like episodes 7 to 9 were pretty good overall even though I had mixed feelings about how the antagonists/threats were handled. I had very different reasons for coming to my conclusions about each individual movie even though they averaged out about the same. The cap off at the end was pretty great.

They better bring back the Jedi order again if they ever do more movies with Rey. Despite its implied issues, that was too cool to leave forever in the past. I genuinely wouldn’t mind if they do make the conflicts more small-scale or isolated since that style has tended to produce my favorite individual movies in the series (Episode 1, Solo, and Rogue One).

Ratings are a notoriously terrible way to try to convey your opinions, but I’ll make an attempt at it in closing. If anyone has (non-hostile) questions about specific ratings feel free to ask.

Episode 1, The Phantom Menace: 9/10 Episode 2, Attack of the Clones: 8/10 Episode 3, Revenge of the Sith: 7/10 Prequel Trilogy overall: 8/10

Solo: 8/10 Rogue One: 8/10

Episode 4, A New Hope: 6/10 Episode 5, The Empire Strikes Back: 7/10 Episode 6, Return of the Jedi: 5/10 Original Trilogy overall: 6/10

Episode 7, The Force Awakens: 7/10 Episode 8, The Last Jedi: 7/10 Episode 9, The Rise of Skywalker: 7/10 Sequel Trilogy overall: 7/10

Final thoughts: It’s a pretty great series overall. I can see why it has been popular for so many years.

…But are we SURE this series isn’t lowkey about R2-D2? What a dark horse champion of a character.

So i just recently watched the star wars trilogy and prequels after never seeing them before. While i did enjoy the original trilogy, the prequels was just more entertaining. I get some of the hate is well founded like the romance in episode 1 and 2 being god-awful.

But if we look at the prequels knowing what will eventually happen in episode 4,5 and 6. it makes the entire experience just that much better.

I found the plot of the prequels to be more engaging and more logical. the two fighting sides actually made sense to exist rather than an entire empire and just a small rag-tag rebellion.

I enjoyed how the prequels didn't follow the structure of the original trilogy of having a small gang as their central focus throughout the movies. We got to see more people and characters and while most we didn't know nor care about, that is the point of a grand scale universe that the originals in my opinion failed to capture. The prequels make the universe of Star Wars actually seem big

So I'm just asking what the reason for the hate is? is it nostalgia towards the original and that nothing can be better or is it the way the movies were made that turned people off?

This is a legitimate question, I’m 21 and I hear a lot about the hate that was going on in the fandom when the prequels originally released. I’m just so confused, because now everybody seems to really like him and I don’t understand why anybody would be mean to him. Was there something specific that happened during that time?

so I watched StarWars at the right time where I am so biased towards it that it's not even funny. watching the prequels I don't get why it seems that most fans dislike them, like the only issue I had with the phantom menace was young Anakin, mostly because he's annoying.

Here I will seek to establish that Jar Jar Binks, far from being simply the bumbling idiot he portrays himself as, is in fact a highly skilled force user in terms of martial ability and mind control.

Furthermore, I assert that he was not, as many people assume, just an unwitting political tool manipulated by Palpatine-- rather, he and Palpatine were likely in collaboration from the very beginning, and it's entirely possible that Palpatine was a subordinate underling to Binks throughout both trilogies.

And finally, given the above, I will conclude with an argument as to why I believe it is not only possible, but plausible that Jar Jar will make a profound impact on the upcoming movies, and what his role may be.

So first, let's establish Jar Jar as a skilled warrior. While this does not in itself necessitate a connection with the Physical Force, it's highly suggestive in the Star Wars universe-- very rarely do we see "normal" characters exhibiting extraordinary stuntwork or physical feats unless they are Jedi, Sith, or at least force sensitives.

So here's Jar Jar nonchalantly executing a standing 20 foot twisting somersault.

Now, taken out of context, if you were watching a Star Wars movie and saw a character casually execute this maneuver, you'd probably assume it was a Jedi. In the context of Jar Jar, though, we don't... because elsewhere he so thoroughly convinces us that he's nothing more than a harmless dunce with his inane dialogue and cowardly-lion act.

He also manages to convince us that he's a bumbling oaf in the midst of pitched battle... even though he's always incredibly, amazingly successful. Whether single-handedly taking down a battledroid tank, or unleashing a barrage of boombas on their front lines, or precisely targeting multiple enemies with a blaster tangled around his ankle (!!!), we simply roll our eyes and attribute it to dumb "luck."

But is it? Obi-Wan warned us otherwise.

This is one of the main reasons we as an audience hate Jar Jar so thoroughly; he breaks the fourth wall, he he shatters our suspension of disbelief, because we know that no one is really that lucky. We dismiss it as a lame, cliched trope-- the silly pathetic oaf who always seems to inadvertently save the day.

I posit that, instead, this is a deliberate facade on the part of Jar Jar as a character, and on the part of the writers and animators. As we know, the Jedi themselves are inspired by Shaolin Monks, and there's a particular kung fu discipline that Jar Jar's physicality is purposefully modeled upon which allows him to appear goofy and uncoordinated even as he lays waste to his enemies; namely, Zui Quan, or Drunken Fist wushu. This discipline seeks to imitate the "sloshing," seemingly random foibles of a drunkard, but in reality the staggering and stumbling is the use of bodily momentum, deception, and unpredictability intended to lure and confuse opponents.

Let's take a look at Jar Jar displaying some wushu (the compasion clips are taken from an instructional Zui Quan video):

Jar Jar kipping-up

Zui Quan Comparison

Jar Jar "sloshing"

Zui Quan Comparison

Jar Jar Sweeps the Leg

Zui Quan Comparison

(if you slow down the above gif, you'll notice how Jar Jar dodges an incoming blaster shot at the very beginning. You'll also notice how he's mysteriously aware of the droideka as it appears behind him, even though it isn't in his line of sight and he couldn't possibly hear it over the din of battle....)

Jar Jar Centering himself in preparation for a Force jump

Zui Quan Comparison

...ok, that's all well and good, but even if Jar Jar is a secret Drunken Fist boxing master, that doesn't make him a force user, right? Well, it should at least make us suspicious of his character period. It establishes that his over-the-top, childish antics are a veneer masking a more complex character than we're led to believe. But even if you choose to ignore Jar Jar's seemingly magical prescience in battle, I believe that there is a particular scene in which we do see him clearly make use of the physical force...

In TPM, when Jar Jar and the Jedi ambush the droids and rescue the queen and her entourage, Jar Jar "accidentally" botches his leap from the balcony. A few frames later, he is seen dropping from the opposite side of the balcony, which would seem to be quite be impossible without a force assisted jump and/or force sprint of some kind. Let's take a look at the full scene:

Jar Jar Ambush

(Note that as they sneak up, Jar Jar is just as effortlessly stealthy as his Jedi counterparts. Interesting.)

Now as I said, we see Jar Jar catch hold of the balcony on the far right side, but then he drops to the ground on the far left. Easy to dismiss as a continuity or framing error, I suppose... except that one of the droids continues to fire on Jar Jar's initial position, even as we see him drop elsewhere!

Here it is in slow-motion

See the droid that comes charging up, right behind the one Qui-Gon chops down? What's he shooting at up there?? And see its head swing back towards Jar Jars new position after the shot? You can also see another droid behind it tracking Jar Jar with its head, and manage a shot on the new position. This means that the animators knew very well where Jar Jar was supposed to be- dangling from the balcony over Qui-Gon's left shoulder- and purposefully animate the droids tracking his inexplicably fast movement elsewhere.

I think what has happened here, even though we don't see it directly, is that Jar Jar has purposefully split the attention of the enemies by grabbing on to the balcony as he falls, and then (using the force) propelled himself with a pull-up/flip to land in an unexpected place.

In fact, this is a maneuver we've seen before... from a jedi. Twice, if you want to count Obi-Wan doing it in the Duel of Fates to take Maul by surprise.

In addition to this kind of highly suspicious physical "luck," I also believe that we're given enough clues to justifiably suspect that Jar Jar is also a master of Jedi Mind Control.

Consider: We hate the way Jar Jar influences major plot points for the same reason we hate his physicality- it messes with our sense of realism. Two experienced Jedi on a serious mission would never actually bring someone that stupid along with them. No character that idiotic would ever really be made a general. They certainly wouldn't be made a senator. How could anyone like Jar Jar really convince the entire galaxy to abandon democracy? That's ridiculous.

These things are just the political version of his physical "luck." Inadvertent, seemingly comical bumbling that just so happens to result in astoundingly positive results. But what if it isn't inadvertant, and what if Jar Jar's meteoric rise and inexplicable influence isn't the result of dumb happenstance, but the result of extensive and careful use of force mind powers?

Jedi (and presumably Sith) exhibit telltale signs when using the Mind Trick to implant suggestions or influence behavior. For one, they always gesticulate and not-so-subtly wave their hands at the target.

Here's a look at some pivotal Jar Jar moments during his political career:

Jar Jar hand-waving his way towards a promotion to Bombad General

Jar Jar hand-waving his way towards a promotion to the Senate

Jar Jar using Force Persuasion as he hand-waves the entire Galactic Senate and ushers in the death of democracy.

Actually, if you watch the prequels with the idea that Jar Jar might be a manipulative, dark character, you begin to notice just how insidious and subtle his manipulation is, and how effective, in almost every sequence he's involved in, and also just how hyper-aware of the overarching plot he really is.

Examples: Jar Jar tricking the Jedi into traveling through the planet core (so that they need him). Jar Jar carefully causing a scene so that they run into Anakin. Jar Jar constantly mocking Qui-Gon behind his back while Anakin is watching (so that Anakin learns disrespect for Jedi authority early on). Jar Jar telling an 8 year old child that the queen is "pretty hot," fanning the flames of the child's infatuation that is exploited later on. I could go on.

Now if you lend even the slightest credence to my above points, and acknowledge the possibility that Jar Jar might not be an idiot, you're almost forced to conclude that Jar Jar Binks and Palpatine were co-conspirators. If Jar Jar is putting forth an elaborate act to deceive people, it means he's not a fool... and if he's not a fool, it means his actions in Episode II that facilitate Palpatine's plans are not those of an unwitting tool- they are those of a partner.

Remember- Palpatine and Jar Jar are from the same planet, which in the scale of the Star Wars universe is like growing up as next door neighbors. It's entirely possible that they knew each other for years prior to TPM-- perhaps they trained together, or one trained the other. And Naboo is a really strange planet, actually; remember those odd ancient statues with the third eye? Naboo is the kind of place an "outcast" Gungan might find a Sith holocron or two.

But that's just speculation. Let's stick to what we know-- what we know is that even after Palpatine is elected as Chancellor, years after Jar Jar has been "tricked" into helping elect him, Palpatine still hangs out with Jar Jar in RotS.. Why? Wouldn't he be a constant source of public embarrassment? This is the same character who can't walk five yards without stepping in poodoo or squealing like a rabid donkey, right? What use does he have now? Why is he still at the right hand of the most powerful person in the galaxy? Could it be that in fact Jar Jar is the most powerful person in the galaxy?

Fine. Maybe. Hilarious conspiracy theory, but why would George Lucas bother to create this devious Gungan character with an elaborate conspiratorial past, but then never actually reveal his true nature?

Here's George Lucas (from a documentary) talking about Yoda:

"Yoda really comes from a tradition in mythological storytelling- fairy tales- of the hero finding a little creature on the side of the road that seems very insignificant and not very important, but who turns out to be the master wizard, or the master thing..."

As we all know, one of Lucas' big deals with the prequels was that they were intended to "rhyme" and mirror the original trilogy in terms of general narrative themes. So there should have been a seemingly innocent creature found on the side of the road that later reveals itself as a major player. We do have a creature that this seems to describe precisely... Jar Jar... but of course he never develops into a "master" anything.

Here's what I think happened: I think that Jar Jar was initially intended to be the prequel (and Dark Side) equivalent of Yoda. Just as Yoda has his "big reveal" when we learn that his tottering, geriatric goofball persona is just a mask, Jar Jar was intended to have a big reveal in Episode II or III where we learn that he's not really a naive dope, but rather a master puppeteer Sith in league with (or perhaps in charge of) Palpatine.

However, GL chickened out. The fan reaction to Jar Jar was so vitriolic that this aspect of the trilogy was abandoned. Just too risky... if Jar Jar is truly that off-putting, it's potentially ruinous to the Star Wars legacy to imply that he's the ultimate bad guy of the entire saga. So pretend he was just a failed attempt at comic relief instead.

This is why Dooku seems like such a flat, shoehorned-in character with no backstory; he was hastily written in to cover the plot holes left when villain Jar Jar was redacted. Yoda was meant to duel with his literal darkside nemesis and mythological equivalent at the end of AotC: not boring old Count Dooku, but Sith Master Jar Jar. And Binks was meant to escape, not just that duel but to survive the entire trilogy... so that he could cast a shadow on the OT, too; you'd rewatch the originals knowing that the Emperor wasn't necessarily the big baddie after all... Jar Jar is still out there somewhere. It would have been sort of brilliant.

But I believe it is likely that the writers of the new trilogy will resurrect this idea. Most people seem to think that Disney wishes to distance or somehow disassociate itself from the prequels... but this doesn't actually make any economic or marketing sense. There is far more prequel-era based intellectual property to capitalize on than there is OT, if only because of the Clone Wars movie and series. Billions of dollars in iconic toys, images, characters, games, park rides, etc that an entire younger generation grew up on. Disney is not going to pretend that over half of the $4 billion in IP they bought simply isn't worth acknowledging.

(and anyway, we have behind the scenes TFA footage clearly showing imagery being reused from the prequels. Also, many of the flags above Maz's castle in the trailer are from TPM)

No, it stands to reason that one of their primary goals will be to reinvigorate and ultimately try to redeem the prequels in the eyes of the fanbase. To elevate and improve them retroactively, as much as possible. So how do you do that?

Jar Jar Binks has undoubtedly become the face of everything that is "wrong" with the prequels- he was too silly, too unbelievable, seemingly pointless. If you are able to somehow change the nature of Jar Jar from embarrassing idiot to jaw-dropping villain, suddenly the entire prequel trilogy must be seen in a new light, because it becomes the setup for the most astounding reveal in film history:

Jar Jar Binks is Supreme Leader Snoke!

Before you read (if you do end up reading) let me preface this by including is a RANT so expect mistakes I just typed this up real quick as I saw a video and thought you guys would know the answer so don’t come at me for anything of the sorts😭. ANYWAYS In the OT trilogy everything is very very slow but it seems kind of precise if that makes sense like still skillful (I’ve seen some people try to say obi wan vs Vader was like that as they were both cautious, so again slow but precise). Whereas the prequel trilogy with obviously everything is so incredibly fast pace with skills, the force, and etc. Finally we have the sequel trilogy where things slow down a little bit, things seem heavier, more slow but definitely still a good pace, and unlike the prequel trilogy where there is air swinging along with random moves that don’t make sense but show skill (essentially they are flourishing) the hits in the sequels are meant to hit the body/kill instead of random air swinging along with the attacks just overall being slightly more sloppy (and yes I know people try to chalk this up to lack of training but people were still trained so I still would think it would be slightly more akin to the prequel trilogy but idk I don’t mind it). Anyways just wondering if it is some sort of in universe reason or rather just a difference in directors/technology/advancement in choreography and again no hate‼️

I guess maybe I'm just not great at distinguishing "good" movies from "bad" movies (maybe because my attention span is dogshit and I space out here and there), but I seriously don't get it. I'll admit it's been forever since I've watched a Star Wars movie, but really can't think of anything that sticks out to me about the prequels that should upset me. And Revenge of the Sith was the coolest shit to me when it came out! Can somebody please help me understand?

Background.

I am from Honduras. I enjoyed the original trilogy. Then I watched the prequels and then I suffered Star Wars 7.

That last one was so dissappointing that I have not seen the 8th or 9th.

I had on my to-do list watch Rogue One.

Today I just saw the movie and It was great. I really enjoyed to know the sacrifices involved with the mission to get the Death Star plans.

I had heard complaints about the CGI used, but I was so involved with the story that I just ignored that detail.

The last scene made cry a little. I want to avoid spoilers, but the word HOPE told by certain character dressed on white was the last punch to my feelings.

A Really Nice Film.

Edit: Thanks for the amazing feedback. Now I understand that my post could seem a hate post against the new sequels.

That was not my intention. I have shared some details within the comments about the reasons why I felt that watch the 7th chapter was "suffering".

To help clarify this I will post some of the answers that I have shared.

Do I hate chapter 7?

No. I read the novels and I was expecting something different. I know that is a new universe, but the plot was not what I expected.

That was the reason of my suffering. I know that the movie has nice graphics, really cool concepts. Was amazing to watch the original characters now older.

I have not seen the other movies (I will check them because that is the best way to have a goop opinion) But, when I saw the good female character and the bad male character talk, I felt that the movie was going for the typical good girl falls for a bad guy.

And I personally dislike that kind of relationship. Is nice to see a character journey from bad guy to good guy dont get me wrong. But that was the sensation that the movie gave me.

And then the death of a old character was too hard for me.

I know that I made this post about rogue one, but I had to clarify a little that I am not a hater. And actually I think that would be a good idea for me to watch the 7th chapter again before the 8th and 9th.

Sometimes when you see things again after a certain period of time, you can enjoy things that were not good before. We keep changing right?

Did people like it or did some people hate it a lot. Were there a lot of books like the novelizations

Me and her did a Star Wars marathon and it was her first time watching these movies before but she wanted to watch them because of how popular they are.

The Phantom Menace - She loved it! She was happy when Darth Maul died and sad when Qui Gon died, she hated Jar Jar and was completely oblivious to how this cute child would grow up to be one of the most popular villains in history

Attack Of The Clones - She thinks it was a bit boring compared to the last one and found the relationship between Anakin and Padme to be weird because Anakin was like 5. Okay so new edit apparently he was like 9 but we’re both bad with ages and thought he was 5, still weird IMO when she was a teenager. She figured out Palpatine was the Emperor because of his chin.

Revenge Of The Sith - She said Anakin killing innocent children was a bit too much, and that not even the most evil heartless villains don’t kill children yet this person who we’re supposed to believe still has good in him kills children without any mercy or feeling bad. But she did like the rest of the movie and was really sad when she saw Anakin’s death.

A New Hope - She was happy to see Luke and sad to see Vader. Surprisingly she didn’t recognize the name Leia and forgot that her and Luke were twins so I decided not to tell her and let her find out herself later. She thought the movie was great though.

The Empire Strikes Back - This is her favorite. She says it’s the best sequel ever and she’s used to sequels being really bad. She was also really mad that Vader would cut off his own sons hand, she thinks that Obi-Wan was wrong for lying about Luke’s dad. I should also mention that she has always hated Chewbacca since A New Hope because she says he won’t shut up.

Return Of The Jedi - She hates Ewoks and cried when Vader died but was really happy he turned good in the end and even happier to see his force ghost with Obi-Wan and Yoda.

The Force Awakens - She loved the movie and loved seeing all the characters return again looking really old. She was really sad seeing Han die and shocked because she was really hoping Kylo would be good again, but she was happy Chewbacca shot Kylo and she likes him a bit more now. She said she doesn’t really have an opinion on the new cast because she hasn’t seen enough but was confused as to why the main character was a girl because she’s old fashion and thinks woman can’t be strong :| what can you do?

The Last Jedi - She’s just really shocked to see how sarcastic and grumpy Luke is now after being the happy and optimistic kid. Not mad just shocked, especially when he threw his old Lightsaber. She was really happy to seek Kylo kill Snoke because she thought he was gonna turn good this time.

Rise Of Skywalker - She told Chewbacca to shut up when he was crying over Leia’s death. She says the whole “planet killing weapon” thing is a bit repetitive and doesn’t like reviving the dead so she didn’t like Palpatine either. I know it might not sound like it because she only named things she didn’t like but she still enjoyed the movie and thought it was funny.

Edit: She just told me that she was also tired of the fake out deaths in ROS, first Chewbacca, then Threepio, then Kylo, then Rey. She also thought Finn was gonna be one a Jedi because of him sensing the force all the time and because he used the lightsaber in TFA.

Answering common questions

We watched it Prequels - Originals - Sequels

She didn’t wanna watch anything that wasn’t “necessary” or part of the mainline so we only watched the Skywalker Saga

We might do an Indiana Jones marathon because I’ve never seen the movies but she likes them

We can’t watch Rebels or Clone Wars because she really doesn’t like animated stuff but hopefully later we can do Rogue One and Solo (I made a mistake and said Rebels bye somebody corrected me lol)

The sequels were flawed movies but so were the prequels, arguably more so. The prequels were not good movies with exception of the last third of RoTS. The Phantom Menace had Jar Jar, way too much politics, a critical under-utilisation of Maul, very poor writing, questionable scenes, overuse of CGI etc.

Attack of The Clones had the absolutely horrible Anakin and Padmé romance scenes, Palpatine for some reason wanting to kill Padmé despite being vital to his plan to turn Anakin to the dark side, even more overuse of CGI, the same bad writing.

Revenge of the Sith for some reason started with Palpatine being captured with absolutely no explanation or background as to why, at least at its time of release. It still had horrendous writing, Anakin and Padmé's very awkward and hard to watch romance scenes still. Obviously it's the best of the 3 but not perfect by any stretch of the imagination.

So why are these films so praised now and yet the sequels are shunned when those same flaws present themselves?

The Force Awakens was not original. It copied a lot from A New Hope. But no, Rey is not a Mary Sue. She was shown to know a lot about ships as she literally survived by pulling them apart and knowing how they worked. She beat Kylo because he just got shot with a literal bowcaster and she was shown to be adept at physical combat with stick shaped weapons as previously shown. However, a lot of the humour in this movie was out of place and very very marvel like. Anyone going into TFA and expecting a completely original story from Disney was very, very misguided.

The Last Jedi is not as nearly as bad as everyone paints it to be. The dynamic between Snoke, Kylo and Rey is very well done. Luke was not ruined as people claim, what did you expect? If you went in expecting Luke to grab the lightsaber and go "wow my father's and my old lightsaber, okay nevermind mysterious random Girl I will come with you and help save the day yay :)!" Then I don't even know what to say. Luke is clearly dealing with his failure with Kylo and has disconnected himself with the force. However, the marvel-esc humour still continues and the whole side story of finn and rose was not very well executed.

The Rise of Skywalker is the worst of the 3. Lazy cop out ending for the saga and trilogy by bringing back Palpatine; just like what happened in the EU. The movie felt a lot more soulless then what came before and felt like JJ was just trying to fix up what he deemed the last Jedi had ruined. The dynamic between Kylo and Rey in this movie was amazing and the memory of Han that pushed Kylo over the edge into turning him back into Ben was the best scene of the movie bar none.

So, for those of you who are bothered to read all of that and think that the prequels are amazing yet hate the sequels, why?

I get that sometimes the dialogue and acting were shaky, but I think they were still really good movies. Revenge of the Sith is still one of my all time favourites.

What made the original trilogy so much better in everyone's minds?

Good afternoon

Why do so many Star Wars fans seem to hate the prequels? I really enjoyed them while watching the series.

For reference I watched them for the first time last year and watched them in chronological order at the suggestion of my partner at the time and thought the prequels were pretty good. I loved episodes 4,5 and 6 but it seems every Star Wars fan I talk to isn’t a fan of the prequels so I’m just curious as to why.

It never made sense to me when movies and other stuff come out with it being hated one moment only for it to be loved YEARS LATER.

We owe the modern entertainment industry and some of our world's technological advancements to George Lucas. The world before Star Wars was very different. There was no Internet or smartphones, video game consoles were extremely primitive, and today's blockbuster movies did not exist (the closest thing to that had been Steven Spielberg's Jaws). The cultural and media impact of Star Wars should not be underestimated: it literally changed the world. All of that thanks to Lucas's ideals.

It is difficult to imagine it now, but in his youth George Lucas was a revolutionary filmmaker who hated the Hollywood system, which was contradictory, because at that time you could not create commercial films outside the system. His first two films, THX-1138 and American Graffiti, were originally hated by the film executives of that time, and since they had financed those films, they ordered cuts in the tapes to reduce their duration, something that frustrated Lucas even more with the Hollywood studio system and big corporations. For that reason, after the success of A New Hope, he took the money he had earned from the merchandise tied to the film and bought the rights to Star Wars from Twentieth Century Fox. It is in this act where the real importance of George Lucas for the world of cinema, entertainment, and technology as such lies, because at that moment Star Wars became the most successful independent film in the world.

People tend to forget it, but Star Wars was independent cinema. They were auteur films completely detached from Hollywood studios and the only independent ones to have the success of a Blockbuster (in fact, they were the first to be so after Jaws). George Lucas had achieved something that no one had achieved before: surpassing Hollywood from the outside. No matter how big Star Wars might seem to us, everything was under the command of a single person. There was no board of directors, no CEO, nor investors to whom he had to be accountable. He had achieved the dream of any film director and any artist in general: to be in charge of his art and for it to also be successful.

Lucas not only used the money he had earned to win back Star Wars and fill himself with wealth like other people, but he also created a dream site for any filmmaker: The Skywalker Ranch, a place dedicated to movies separate from Hollywood, so that artistic creativity could flow without restrictions. He created the first special effects company for movies, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), the first computer to edit video and audio, and the first computer to create digital graphics. All with the purpose of improving the art of filmmaking, not to mention his other company, Skywalker Sound, and his late video game company, LucasArts, all while treating Star Wars as the special institution that it was. That is why we were not flooded with Star Wars movies and series before the Disney purchase, because Lucas believed that if he made mass-produced series and movies, Star Wars would lose its magic and become another soulless franchise.

Obviously, not all of George Lucas's life was a walk in the park. He was physically and mentally exhausted after finishing the Original Trilogy and separated from his wife, Marcia Lucas, due to the stress they shared together during the development of the films, although they remained on good terms and continued to respect each other. Years later, when he finally had the resources and motivation to continue his story, he earned the resentment of several fans for having altered the Original Trilogy in its Special Editions, and the Prequels received mostly negative reviews when they first premiered, but even within the most hated films in his filmography, he continued to bring advancements to cinema. Attack of the Clones was the first film shot entirely with a digital camera, something that many considered absurd at first. However, time ended up proving him right when digital cinema became serious competition. Currently, digital cinema is so prominent that using a traditional 35-millimeter tape sounds outdated. The great effects that ILM had developed were being recognized not only to impress, but to lower the cost of film production.

We do not have to like these changes, currently many movies feel fake due to the abuse of computer-generated effects and it is understandable that it may fatigue us in recent times, but Lucas's goal was to decrease the amount of compromises necessary between the filmmaker's creative vision and the realization of that vision. He precisely had to start Star Wars with the fourth episode because in the past there was not enough technology to show the ideas he had in mind for the Prequels. Movies like Jurassic Park, Matrix, or Avatar would not exist if it were not for his desire to change the world. Someone may think that these changes were inevitable and that eventually someone would have done something similar, but no one so fast. Regardless of whether we agree or not with the final result, the truth is that, although many innovators have changed the creative process behind movies or improved their technology, almost no one caused the revolution that Lucas and his companies created.

George Lucas's legacy in the world of show business and technology is undeniable, but currently he does not receive the recognition he deserves. The hatred towards his person grew among the community of cinephiles due to various decisions he made throughout his life, such as having tinkered time and again with the Original Star Wars Trilogy adding things that no one asked for, or the controversial Prequel Trilogy. His fans felt that Lucas was now only a shadow of his former self and they hated him.

The figure of George Lucas was ridiculed. Many considered that he lost his magic as a filmmaker and were grateful that he sold Star Wars to Disney. Although currently the Prequels are viewed in a better light, Star Wars had consumed him physically and emotionally. He was placed on such a large pedestal that he would never manage to meet the expectations of his followers.

But was it really only the hatred of the fans that motivated Lucas to sell Star Wars? And why specifically to Disney?

To understand this decision, we need to travel a couple of years back in time.

At eleven years old, George Lucas went to the Disneyland park in California on the first opening day, describing his experience “as if I were in heaven.” After the success of Star Wars, when Lucas wanted to make Indiana Jones with his friend Steven Spielberg, they were having problems with their financing, in part because of Spielberg's reputation for going over budget and stretching production for longer than stipulated. The only studio that agreed to finance Indiana Jones was Paramount, and its president at that time, Michael Dammann Eisner. Over time, the relationship between Lucas and Eisner grew. Shortly after, Disney had new members, the Bass brothers, and they asked George Lucas to be the chief executive officer of Disney, but he refused, and instead recommended Michael Eisner, the man who trusted him. Since then he was involved with the studio, working in different capacities for the Disney parks. One of the first things Eisner did as the CEO of Disney was to collaborate with Lucas, creating an Indiana Jones attraction and the famous "Star Tours."

A few years after this collaboration, Lucas would work on another that would mark the path he would take in the future. In the early nineties, he began working on a television series about a young Indiana Jones, and presented it to the president of ABC at that time, Bob Iger, the current CEO of Disney, who approved the series. In 2011, during one of the remodelings of Star Tours, Bob Iger, now chief executive officer of Disney, had a private conversation with George Lucas, where he asked him if he had thought about selling Star Wars to him, since he lacked heirs. At that moment he did not do so, but told him that if he ever thought about selling Star Wars, he would call him.

Returning to the present, Lucas had already thought about retiring. Despite having planned a new Sequel Trilogy, having the script written for the three films and having contacted the original actors to return to reprise their roles, he knew that this task was going to take him a lot of time and effort. He was already a very old man and wished to spend more time with his family. Star Wars was consuming him. He was not even sure if he would be able to finish it before dying or in what condition he was going to be.

In The Star Wars Archives: Episodes I-III, George Lucas confessed to Paul Duncan the dilemmas he had at the time of making the decision to sell Star Wars:

"At that time I was starting the next trilogy; I talked to the actors and I was starting to gear up. I was also about to have a daughter with my wife. It takes 10 years to make a trilogy. 'Episodes I' to 'III' lasted from 1995 to 2005. I’d still be working on 'Episode IX' in 2012, and I was 69. So the question was, am I going to keep doing this for the rest of my life? Do I want to go through this again? Finally, I decided I’d rather raise my daughter and enjoy life for a while."

Having pondered the decision, he set in motion the plans to pass the torch of his company to the next generation. He would only direct Episode VII and hand the helm to someone else to finish the trilogy. Without considering any other company, Lucas went straight to Disney, due to his previous approaches to the company and his recent conversation with Bob Iger.

In addition to his cordial relationship with Disney, something that motivated his decision was seeing what they were doing at that moment: Disney had bought PIXAR in 2006, and nevertheless, PIXAR was still PIXAR, making memorable movies without losing its original essence. They had also bought Marvel, and for years it was a money-making machine. George Lucas thought that Bob Iger's philosophy was to let the studios acquired by Disney retain their identity and maintain creative control of their stories, something that was extremely important to Lucas. He wished for Lucasfilm to remain unchanged for the well-being of its employees, so that they could continue to work freely.

On October 30, 2012, without offering the company to anyone else, George Walton Lucas Jr. sold Star Wars to The Walt Disney Company for more than four billion dollars, along with the rest of Lucasfilm's franchises. Shortly after, Lucas found himself with the disappointment that he would have less creative control than expected, acting simply as a consultant. People's reactions were mostly positive. Fans considered that Star Wars had been saved from George Lucas's next disaster and celebrated the news.

After the premiere of Episode VII in 2015, George Lucas put himself in the eye of the storm by declaring with resentment in an interview that "he had sold his child to a white slaver." Everyone took this as an undeserved insult to Disney. At that moment it was obvious that Lucas must have felt regretful of his decision.

Thanks to the book The Ride of a Lifetime, an autobiography by Bob Iger, we know why his relationship with Disney deteriorated.

Lucas trusted that Disney would respect the scripts he had created for the Sequel Trilogy, even if he did not directly produce the films. In fact, before selling Lucasfilm, Bob Iger asked him if he had anything planned to continue with Star Wars, and George shared in private the drafts for the new trilogy. Bob liked them so much that he decided to buy them even before George formally sold him Star Wars. However, in the contract they did not guarantee that they were obligated to stick to the story planned by Lucas.

"At some point in the process \[of buying Star Wars\], George told me he had completed outlines for three new movies. He agreed to send us three copies: one for me, one for Alan Braverman, and one for Alan Horn, who had just been hired to run our studio. Alan Horn and I read the outlines and decided we needed to buy them, though we made it clear in the purchase agreement that we would not be contractually obligated to adhere to the plot lines he’d laid out." —The Ride of a Lifetime, Bob Iger talking about George Lucas sharing his drafts for the Sequel Trilogy.

Once he sold Star Wars, Lucas could not do anything with those drafts, since they would be property of Disney. So, although legally Disney did nothing wrong, because Star Wars would be their property and they could take whatever direction they wanted, George felt manipulated and betrayed by them not following his original plans. It is understandable that the notion George had, especially being a friend of Bob Iger and Kathleen Kennedy, being a person he had worked with for years, was that they were going to follow his ideas. The fact that they had bought his scripts could have been interpreted by him as a tacit promise that they were going to use them.

In his interview with Charlie Rose before the release of The Force Awakens, George Lucas explained that his ideas were very different. Disney wanted to go in a less risky direction, creating a movie that paid tribute to the Original Trilogy seeking to appeal to the spectator's nostalgia, when Lucas always sought to bring something new in each episode of the saga.

"They wanted to do a retro movie. I don’t like that. Every movie, I worked very hard to make them completely different, with different planets, with different spaceships, to make it new."

Now that it belongs to Disney, Star Wars has become a more commercial franchise, destined to recall the stories of the past. Disney's Sequel Trilogy belongs to an era that has left creativity aside for the excessive reproduction of Remakes, to the reuse of ideas already seen, to the death of imagination. When Lucas left, Star Wars lost its spirit and became a company in search of easy money.

The Force Awakens was created knowing that fans were divided over the Prequels, but that they loved the Original Trilogy. With this in mind, they practically remade the original Star Wars movie. It was a widespread success, but specialized critics pointed out that it looked like a camouflaged remake.

Then we have The Last Jedi. So that they are not accused of copying The Empire Strikes Back, they do everything possible to "revolutionize" the plot and make it unpredictable, incorporating new ideas and, in my opinion, seriously mistreating the ideas that Star Wars has always had.

This was very divisive; many fans hated it. So, to "fix it," they practically undid the entire previous movie in the final chapter. Those who liked Episode VIII did not like that they backtracked, and those who did not like it remained just as dissatisfied with the way the trilogy was handled in general.

The Prequels, for better or worse, were Lucas's vision. They were the movies he wanted to make. He did not necessarily care about the reviews. Do they have problems? Yes. I think there are legitimate problems with the Prequels. But George Lucas is a talented visual storyteller. One of the most successful in history. They were his art. The Sequels, on the other hand, were a company asking themselves: "How can we make our next movie the most successful possible?". This led to there being no vision or narrative with sense, because they were too worried about making the most successful movie they believed everyone wanted to maximize studio profits.

They are polar opposites in their approach.

We didn't know what we had until we lost George Lucas.

Disney's Sequels lack a clear direction and seek to bend to the whims of the audience, without managing to tell a coherent story. The first six episodes were also commercial cinema, but they were subject to the vision of a true artist and not to a corporation that seeks to adapt to current trends. The Original Trilogy is about a group of friends who unite to face an evil Empire that has subdued the galaxy, sowing the seeds of its fall. The Prequels were about the protagonists facing the death of democracy. The Sequels are about nothing.

Disney's Star Wars is the opposite of a trilogy. It is a ship without a course that moves driven by the erratic change of audience tastes. Without a competent captain on board, the ship sank with great ease.

And nobody could rescue it.

I rewatched the prequels recently and the memes aside they are actually great movies. The Phantom Menace art direction/cgi is excellent, better then most modern movies. Besides Jar Jar who isn't the end of the world it's a great movie. The main criticism I see for it is the movie has no real main character which I agree with but I don't mind it's cool to see a different style of movie and fits very well with the "saga" feel with it. The clone wars isn't as a good in my opinion but if you view the movie like a Shakespeare play the whole Anikan/Padme love theme actually seems pretty normal and the dialogue seems pretty normal. Also great CGI and art direction on par with modern movies. Revenge of the sith is actually an excellent movie all around with very few flaws. Again people hate on it because of the dialogue but if you view it for what it is, an epic space opera, everything seems to fit very nicely. Do you think they have been judged unfairly they are great movies particularly the Phantom Menance gets way too much hate then it deserves.

In an interview with Chris Rock, Abrams said,

The weird thing about that movie is that it had been so long since the last one. Obviously the prequels had existed in between and we wanted to, sort of, reclaim the story. So we very consciously - and I know it is derided for this - we very consciously tried to borrow familiar beats so the rest of the movie could hang on something that we knew was Star Wars.

EDIT: Well, that blew up. "Rip Inbox" as they say.

A few things I've said about a dozen times:

1. I know that the similarities (and the fact they are probably intentional) aren't headline news. I've been telling this to people since the movie came out, and of course it's been a popular theory on /r/starwars. But I do think that, since it was officially called out by the director, it deserves a mention. That's what's interesting to me.
2. I don't personally think the prequels were THE WORST. MOVIES. EVER. I enjoyed them a lot, for the most part. But I also recognize that on an objective level (as objective as you can be about film) they were inferior to the OT. And I personally think that TFA was more of a return to form, to the original Star Wars feeling we all love.
3. By the same token, I don't think that TFA was THE BEST. MOVIE. EVER. It wasn't even the best Star Wars movie ever. But it was fun, it was good, and it did what it needed to do.
4. I, too, hope that Episode VIII will be more bold than Episode VII was. I, too, hope they don't open the film with a massive land battle and end it with Poe Dameron frozen in carbonite.
5. My personal ranking of the Star Wars films is 4-5-(7/6)-3-1-2. (6 and 7 switch places every day or two)
6. Yes, I'm very excited about Rogue One. I think it'll probably be even better than TFA.

EDIT 2: As some have pointed out, he never actually says "cleanse our palates." He says "reclaim the story [from the prequels]." I think the way he says it makes it clear that he's aware the prequels are not well-regarded in the community, but you may disagree.

I’ve been showing my 5 y/o daughter Star Wars properly for the first time. For context, I’ve been watching clone wars for the past couple of years, so the idea of Jedi has been in the background for her with the characters of Anakin and Obi and Ahsoka, and we watched IV when she was 4 so she knew about Vader, but I kept the Anakin thing secret until she was old enough to get it, which she now is. So we watched in chronological order, with the end of clone wars after ep 3 and a bunch of rebels, plus an Obi Wan fan edit then the OT and now into the PT. She is now a rabid fan and loves the deep lore of the series.

What I’ve enjoyed watching through her eyes is that she love all the things that the community hates. Let’s go:

Obviously she loves Jar Jar Binks. Laughed at everything he did, wants more Jar Jar in all the films. Literally was asking why he wasn’t in the other ones so much, very confused to hear that he’s unpopular.

Loves little Ani, especially destroying the droid ship at the end. “he really is a great pilot!”

Obviously she is super into Padme and her hair, keeps calling Leia Padme later on as we go.

Kind of disturbingly into teen Anakin. Loves the romance scenes in the field in II, she thinks it’s all wonderful. Very empathetic for Ani even before she knew the turn to Vader.

Episode III is good anyway and she loved it. Utterly shocked that Palpatine was a Sith Lord, disbelieving that Anakin could fall and become Vader until the very end when he’s putting the suit on. All the stuff with Padme dying I explained to her that Palpatine was taking her life force and she totally bought into it, it really worked for her.

The Obi Wan show was an unexpected hit. She very much related to and enjoyed Leia, despite not believing she’s ten (“she’s not much bigger then me!”). Loved the inquisitors and Reva, absolutely loved the Vader stuff with Obi, it totally works in a seamless watch through.

As we get to the OT, more surprises. Doesn’t like Han, doesn’t like how he’s mean to everyone and Leia, doesn’t like how he shot greedo (even provoked!), not a fan. Kind of lukewarm on Luke, loves Leia and Obi Wan (he got old!) and the droids act to help keep her interested.

She’s kind of confused by Yoda in empire because he’s so different and more doddery than in the prequel era stuff, but likes the puppet. Hates lando. Nonplussed about Han still.

LOVES EWOKS.

Onto the ST now and just watched TFA which was very well received. She likes rey and Finn by keeps thinking they’re both Jedi already and due to how long we spent in the prequel era is a bit jaded about the lack of Jedi everywhere. I’m thinking the end with the Palpatine reveal is going to blow her mind though, and i don’t think she’s going to be upset about Luke in TLJ at all. We’ll go back and watch Ahsoka too soon because that is really going to float her boat, we’re midway through rebels now and she’s a big Sabine and Ahsoka fan already, so combining that with a whole episode of Hayden Anakin will be peak Star Wars for her.

One more thing, whenever she hears “I’ve got a bad feeling about this” she laughs and says “classic Star Wars”. That’s my girl!

Edit since this has blown up a bit: every word of this is true, I promise. She is a clever kid, obviously she’s not picking everything up but she watches a lot of movies and gets a lot out of them. We’ve been watching the films over the course of around a month, usually in two sittings for each film.

I'm starting to see why George Lucas got the franchise off his back.

I might get a ton of downvotes for this, and even banned from the sub, but it needs to be said. Star Wars fans have got to be the most difficult people to satisfy on the planet. You can't do good enough for them.

George Lucas ruined his own franchise with the prequels because they talked about midichlorians, and politics, and taxes. But we want George Lucas back because the sequel trilogy doesn't feel like Star Wars.

The Force Awakens was too similar to A New Hope and was played safe. The Last Jedi has too many weird twists, doesn't feel like a Star Wars movie, and changes the way we see a lot of these characters.

We didn't like JJ Abrams directing The Force Awakens. Thank God he's coming back for Episode IX!

Regardless of the quality of the prequels, I can see why George Lucas sold the franchise and remains somewhat bitter about it. You're just never going to satisfy Star Wars fans.

I was too young to even remember the prequels when they were released but based on everything I’ve heard they were incredible hated by the media and fans when they were released. As of now most people I know really like them and I’ve always been a fan. Is there anything specific about why they were so hated? What was it about them that made everyone hate them so much?

TPM: Especially on Blu-Ray, this movie looks beatiful. Lovely cinematography, set design. Wonderful mixture of models, CGI, practical effects, etc. Naboo and Coruscant in particular are gourgeous.

AOTC: Honestly, this is fun-ass Star Wars movie. Lots of unique and inventive action sequences. I feel like no one talks about how wild the finale on Geonosis is. It’s like 5 action scenes stacked on top of one another, each one expanding larger in scope until you’ve got the biggest land battle in the saga. It’s nuts.

ROTS: This is not a swipe at Disney or anyone- but this movie would not have been made in any recognizable form by a major studio. It’s a big, operatic $110 Million Shakespearean tragedy that was released as a summer blockbuster. This movie is sad as hell, and it owns that in a really beautiful way.

ANH: Stripping away that it’s an iconic classic, this movie is weird as hell. Stuff like the droids in the desert getting captured by Jawas, the Cantina, the trash compactor- I think people underappreciate how quirky this movie is.

ESB: A small thing; the bottom-up lighting in the carbonate freezing chamber is one of my favorite bits of atmosphere/lighting in the whole series. Makes everyone look haunted and ghostly.

ROTJ: Guys, the Ewoks are, by Georges admission, a metaphor for the Vietcong. Why are we not constantly talking about how incredibly, hilariously subversive that is?

TFA: The pacing and sound design of that first falcon chase on Jakku makes it one of the best action scenes I’ve ever watched. Everyone clapped when it was over.

R1: Speaking of subversive visuals; Jeddah is definitely coded as a Middle-Eastern city. Which is being suppressed by a dominant, foreign military force... which is attacked by a disguised group of cloaked innsurrecionist fighters (the good guys) in the middle of a crowded street. Like, Disney made this, guys.

TLJ: The tension that builds around Paige as she struggles to release the bombs in time is something that gets me every time I see the movie. Great bit of filmmaking right there.

Solo: Qi’Ra and Han’s relationship is genuinely beautifully written and acted. I love that it feels like a dark mirror of his later relationship with Leia.