One example is this. and feel free to  respond to this if you think you  can defend the pts portrayl of it. According to Lucas the story of star wars is the rise and fall of anakin skywalker.

Lucas said all  through the  early and mid 80s that the back story  was about anakin skywalker and how he was this great jedi knight  who was the hero of the clone wars and friends with ben kenobi  who had a tragic fall from grace  and was seduced by the dark side of the force and when you  listened to bi wan  telling luke about anakin in episode  4 and 6 and you  see how powerful and strong vader is its  easy to imagine and  vision anakin young and him and ben being great friends and fighting side by side in the clone wars  etc..etc  and where the PT films  droped the ball  was showing  anakins rise  and then his fall.

We never got to see  this great jedi knight  who was such good friends with obi wan and  was the hero of the clone wars  and reached these great heights.  From the very first scene with anakin in episode 2 he is being disrespectful to his master and he is being a smart  ass.   He is rude and nasty to everyone. He goes on violent killing sprees an hr after we  first see his charcter. Even if you did not know he was to become darth vader  the average person would be looking at this guy and saying "what an ass hole"  You have to have a rise before you can have a fall.

Now if  we would have been presented with an anakin skywalker that would have been like qui gon jinn or luke skywalker or  maximus in gladiator or  mel gibsion in braveheart...characters  that  we grew attached to and looked up  to  and admiried  and  then  slowly  start to see  him through no fault of his own get seducded by the dark side of the force then  we would have   felt  sad. we would have had an emotional attachment to the charcter of anakin skywalker.  and then when  anakin redemmed himself at the end of return of the jedi  we would have stood up  and cheered and said  "our hero is back"  cause we would have remembered anakin for what he was before he got seducded by the dark side...remeber what he was...a great hero and jedi knight...a  great friend to obi wan  a   jedi who was looked up to and admiried by his peers.   but  we didnt get any of that.    we got a teen age smart mouth little punk.

to get emotionally attached to a character you have top first LIKE HIM and respect him and admire him.  just like the heroes  I mentioned above.  Remember how you  felt when spock died? or when maximus died?  or when william wallace   died? or even when qui gon died?we liked these   characters.  we  had an emotional attachment to them. the same as we SHOULD have had with anakin.  this was the  PRIME PLOT ELEMENT of not just the prequels but all 6 star wars films.  the RISE AND FALL OF ANAKIN SKYWALKER.   there was no rise.  he was  a damaged flawed   rude disrespectful character  from  scene one.

is this so hard for prequel fans to understand?   lets not even get into  his rasons for  going to the dark side. he turns to the dark side on purpose. because he thinks it will  allow him to save padme because of a bad dream.  where before in the 80s lucas always said  anakin  was seducded  to the dark side through no fault of his own.  like a person who tries drugs.  they try it and then they become seducded by it because it is too powerful for them to handle or control. in the original return of the jedi script   ben tells luke  that "as a part of a jedis training he must confront and then  move past the dark side of the force and that anakin  when he confronted the dark side  became seduced by it because he thought he was strong enough to control it and in the end as with drugs it was too powerful for him to controland it took him over"  hence when vader would always go around saying  "if you only knew the power of the dark side"

to add insult to injury  when  anakin turns to the dark side  not because he was seduced  but because he thought he could  gain something by it  he is then told by palpatine  that he really doesnt even know how to  save peoples lives but he thinks they could learn how to.  dont you think anakin would be a little pissed off.  that he turned on everyone he knew since a  child and murdered kids  cause thisguy said he knew how to do something and then after he does it    he finds out    the guy was lying lol...

and this is the worst part of all....he does it cause he thinks he can save padmes life...hmmm ddidnt he just find out that the guy who has been trying to murder  his wife is the  same guy promising him to  teach him how to  save her life?  hmm maybe its just me  but i would have a hard time trusting someone to save my  wifes life who has been trying to MURDER HER for years.

so prequel  fans please go right ahead and  defend this to me  and tell me how I and so many others are wrong for being upset at all this.