I’ve softened on the prequels ever since the new movies started coming out. When it looked like the series was over forever it seemed like a bigger deal, but now that Star Wars movies are going to continue indefinitely, I’m not bothered by three of them being pretty bad, in much the same way that I don’t get angry about a bad James Bond or Star Trek movie.
I get exactly what you mean, however 3 bad movies in a row that “technically” are at the start of the series is a lot to swallow and forgive in the larger picture that at this stage is still only 7 movies (not including RO since it’s not part of the actual episodic series).
But yes, with the PT no longer being where Star Wars “ended”, it’s not such a sour point anymore and the more good movies made on the other end of the series, the easier it will be to forget and not really care about the whole PT debacle (especially with plenty of fan edits to help make them somewhat watchable).
Okay, I just caught up with this particular thread of yours TV’s Frink, and think I’ll join in the fun… 😉
As joe suggests, I reckon the sting of the ‘Prequel Trilogy’ disappointment has been diluted somewhat for some of us, due to the franchise continuing.
But not by much…because as Val pointed out, the ‘officially’-numbered viewing order of George’s ‘saga’ still involves ‘newbies’ to the franchise having to endure 3 dodgy movies in-a-row before they eventually get to the fun of the ‘Original Trilogy’ pay-off.
BLECH!..but before I go any further, this is a good opportunity to add these particular ‘Prequel’ articles here which gave some food for thought at the time -
www.io9.gizmodo.com/star-wars-the-phantom-menace-doesnt-really-get-what-it-1742188503
www.io9.gizmodo.com/attack-of-the-clones-is-a-star-wars-wish-fulfillment-ch-1743553858
www.io9.gizmodo.com/sure-revenge-of-the-sith-is-the-best-star-wars-prequel-1744646183
…and in the interests of ‘balance’, there’s this one too (although I personally don’t agree with it all) - www.observationdeck.kinja.com/5-things-the-star-wars-prequels-did-right-1624100988
Of course, for some of us there’s the option of watching these movies in a slightly different form to how George envisaged things…and this article covers a lot of the points that various re-edits have improved on over the years - www.io9.gizmodo.com/include-these-anti-cheese-star-wars-prequels-while-you-1747781701
…and this one describes the various ways these movies can be re-ordered too - www.lifehacker.com/how-to-properly-catch-up-on-all-the-star-wars-movies-be-1748097695
While I’ll NEVER regard George’s 3 ‘Prequels’ as being ‘cool’ whatsoever, there’s enough moments throughout them to hold my interest - but the ONLY way I would wish to re-watch them one-after-the-other in a ‘saga’ viewing order these days…is by merely including heavily-edited versions of each prequel set IN-BETWEEN the RETURN OF THE JEDI and THE FORCE AWAKENS movies, as a trilogy-long ‘flashback’ to earlier events…so that they DON’T adversely affect any of the great character introductions of the ‘Original Trilogy’ - and this 3-movies-long, ‘flashback’ interlude has the additonal advantage of allowing a certain diversion of time to go by after watching RETURN OF THE JEDI, which helps smooth the ‘jump-forwards-in-time’ when resuming with the much-OLDER characters in THE FORCE AWAKENS, I find.
So my own ideal viewing order of the STAR WARS ‘saga’ will ALWAYS be the ‘release order’ of Episodes 4 5 6 - 1 2 3 - 7 8 9, no-matter-what…but due to the power of the ‘Death Star’ being built-up so effectively in ROGUE ONE, I’m now content to have a pre-‘scrolled’, re-edited version of that movie kick off the whole shebang for me. 😃