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Originally posted by: CO
It is scary how many of us think alike. I always thought maybe I was nuts, but many people see a change in Star Wars after ESB. It is such a quality drop, it bothers me to this day. I watched ROTJ the other, and though it is entertaining, and the Vader/Emperor/Luke scene is done very well, the movie overall is just not as good as Star Wars or ESB. Then you get to the prequels, and other than ROTS, they just don't feel like Star Wars.

To one thing I noticed is ROTS is making ROTJ worse! All the questions I waited for: Why did Vader turn? Did Luke & Leia's mom die? How does Leia know her mom and Luke doesn't? What is the whole story on the force ghost? All of the answers to these questions were underwhelming. We waited all these years to learn Vader was tricked, and he did everything for his wife? To me it brings down Vader alittle, but I think that is what Lucas intended to do.

Now when I watch ROTJ I notice things that were written badly in the prequels and it is definitely hurting the movie, for instance, when Leia and Luke talk about their mom, their real mom, it is such a plot error. Many people who defend Lucas say she saw Padme through the force, but to me that is lame and really lazy writing. I really thought ROTS would fullfill my appetite of Star Wars and answer all my questions, but it has made things more confusing, and has left me very unsatisfied toward the rise, fall, and redemption of Vader. I liked it better when it was the story about Luke. Oh well, I guess I have to get over it.

sah

Yeah, ever since I was a little kid and watching the trilogy (because I'd never just watch one movie and quit!), my excitement always built through Star Wars and climaxed at The Empire Strikes Back. And then my excitement dropped by the time I got to Return. It just couldn't top Empire. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy it. And I love it too. But even though the space fight is cool, the Vader/Luke/Emperor duel is cool, and Leia's bikini is the hottest thing in the universe, it just doesn't grab me the same way as the other two. And it always surprised me that a lot of my friends say that Return is their favorite. In a lot of ways, it just seems like, "Let's get together again and have one more adventure!"

The problem with Vader in the prequels is that Lucas doesn't seem to understand is that you can't tell one story from the same perspective and have the same character be the main antagonist in one half of it, and the main protagonist in the other half. Well, you can, but he just didn't do it in a way that was good. We have three movies where Darth Vader is the epitome of evil. He is ruthless. He is badass to every degree. Then George made the prequels and decided, "Luke isn't the hero of my six-episode Star Wars story. Anakin is. Everything is about him. He's the protagonist." So they spent three movies with Anakin as the hero. The good guy. There are some problems being hinted at, but George cannot bring himself to make his new hero anything but sympathetic. So, rather than being motivated by power and greed to become evil, he is motivated by love. Yeah... right. What he should have done was to make Anakin an anti-hero where he is on the good guy side, but he doesn't have the good guy attitude. Make him like Tom Riddle in the Harry Potter books. Model student, prefect, head boy, but he gets his jollies by hurting other people, and he knows when to suck up to the powers that be. So he made a seamless transition into Lord Voldemort. Anakin makes a complete 180 to Darth Vader, and it makes little to no sense.