My friend, you will never come to a completely comfortable spot with the prequels. I have made my peace with that fact. You will continue to go back and forth on them. Your emotions will range from the "meh, I guess they aren't that bad" to "good God WHY-OH-WHY...Jar Jar...whiny Anakin...ruined Fett mystery...3PO AOTC lines...NOOOO!!!!!". I have been round and round the bend and have found that there will never be a time where I will have formed any concrete opinion on them other than that... the Original Trilogy was SO MUCH BETTER. The prequels (and the SE and SSE for that much) just are what they are. A fascinating glimpse into how much a creative person's vision can change over a period of thirty years. When you think of it like that, it really isn't that hard to get a hold on. Think of the person you are now, and then think of the person you were ten years ago (in some cases, I realise this might take some back to early childhood, but...). Multiply that change three fold. People change. And I guess, thinking that way right now... maybe in thirty years we will all look at the prequels and say to ourselves, "You know, I finally think I understand what he was doing". Either that or, "meh, I guess they aren't that bad".

I felt the same way about Episode III. Granted I understood that no amount of plot, pacing or character resolution would be able to erase some of the over the top attrociousness of Episode's I or II. But I figured that III would be the one that brought it all full circle and that if anything it would put the prequels to rest with a sense of relief that they weren't a completely wasted opportunity. I watched that thing four times opening weekend. And I felt really, honestly, no different than I did when I got done absorbing Eps I and II. I admit that I thought this was the best of the three. But there was really nothing there that made me feel that this episode was made by any other creative individual other than the one that made the first two. It felt the same. There were the moments of over the topness that made me cringe. There were the wooden performances (with very solid sequences thrown in here and there). The moments of "OK, ignore that", that as a post-Episode I-Star Wars fan I have grown to understand and become comfortable with. It was all there. To me, that doesn't make me a "prequel hater" or a "Lucas basher". It just makes me a realist. And the real truth is that the prequel trilogy and original trilogy are just totally and so completely different sets of films that to tie one to the other by anything other than charaters or plot history takes a large and rather forgiving flight of imagination. Hell, the fact that so many OT references were merely tossed into Episode III is testiment enough to the fact that even George himself knew that he had disconnected the two trilogies to such a point that he would HAVE to include things like the Tantive IV, Chewbacca, the Death Star construction, Imperial Officers in FULL UNIFORM, etc. so that people would say to themselves, "hey, yeah...I rememebr now". I realize that I am pushing it a bit, but I don't care how much manipulation LFL wants to do to the OT over the next twenty years or however long it takes them, they will never be able to comfortably bridge the two trilogies in terms of content or style. And so, I feel that I shouldn't have to tie the two together by my own rationalizations or ignorance of what is turly up there on the screen. (I find that those who are in touch with the EU are almost always large prequel boosters. And why not? They are used to using their imaginations in order to fill in any gaps between stories.)

In any event, to each his own. Just because you love the OT does NOT mean that you have to even LIKE the prequels. Not acknowledging their existence is, I think, taking it a bit far. But judging each to their own individual merits is completely justified. Feel the way you feel about it and don't let anyone else's feelings towards your opinion sway you.

(God I have a lot of time on my hands today. I hate being sick.)