Well, I expected what the OT said. That Anakin was a great pilot before they met, that Obi-wan trained him and didn’t do as good a job as Yoda (at least in Obi-wan’s mind). We’d see R2 and Threepio in each movie. Somewhere the Clone Wars happen. That Anakin would fall to the dark side leading to an epic light-saber duel between Obi-wan and Anakin in or around an active volcano. Anakin lost and was horribly injured and burned and ends up in the suit. Anakin’s wife would be in there somewhere and the link to the Lars’s and Luke and Leia would be separated at birth. I expected to see the rise of Palpatine as Emperor and for Bail Organa and the Jedi to be portrayed in some manner.

I guess I don’t hate the prequels quite as much because they were pretty much everything I had expected them to be. I truly love the Palpatine arc. I wasn’t so keen on the whole virgin birth and Owen being Anakin’s step-brother, but it fits with the OT. I didn’t expect Jar Jar, I don’t think anyone did. And I don’t think anyone over 10 really liked him. I did love Boss Nass (I love just about everything Brian Blessed does). I loved the politics, the convoluted story. The love story was very classic Hollywood - not quite forced, but not quite natural. I think in the scheme of things they made Anakin too whiny. An American accent, but too much like David Prowse on set performance. ATOC has too much strife between Obi-wan and Anakin and not enough mentor/friendship (it was there but overshadowed). It would have been nicer if that episode joined the clone wars in progress. The intrigue behind the start of it was important to the rise of Palpatine, but did not further the Obi-wan/Anakin friendship. I think the lack of the friendship part on screen really was the kicker as to why I didn’t like it as much as I’d hoped. Unless, of course, Obi-wan was lying about that as well, in ANH.