I’ll always prefer and defend the Prequels to the Sequels. Growing up I loved both the Prequels and Originals equally.
I grew up liking the OT and disliking the PT.
So in a way I have nostalgic feelings about both but it’s more complicated than that. I can see some flaws in the Prequels now but I can also point them out in the Originals. No Star Wars movie has ever been perfect and that includes Empire.
Fair, but the prequels always had more flaws to me.
I really have no problem with the Prequels “ruining” mysteries in the Originals as to me personally they add to experience and the story is meant to be watched I-VI.
I have problems. It detracts from the experience to know that Vader used to be Hayden Anakin. It detracts to know who Yoda was. It detracts to have all the magic of the PT spoiled.
Yoda using a lightsaber is meant to echo his words of war not making one great. How does he know if he didn’t experience it?
I beg to differ. I prefer a Yoda who left the order because of these issues. He was a man who preferred peace, leaving out of objection to war.
You see Palpatine’s overconfidence on full display when he thinks he’s defeated Yoda in the Senate Chamber. This foreshadows his downfall.
Meh. He still won pretty handily and I don’t think the foreshadowing adds much of anything.
“His fate will be the same as ours.” Welp! Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Palpatine all three did die on a Death Star.
That’s just forced.
Anakin and Luke learn the same lessons in their first and second film but ultimately make a different choice when it comes to their third film. However the beautiful thing about Return of the Jedi is that it’s the coming together of both their choices and destinies to destroy the Sith and Palpatine. So Anakin has another chance to get it right.
I guess, but Anakin is beyond redemption the minute the youngling-slayer scene came up. He was an idiot who flipped heel within minutes.
You don’t really get these and other experiences if you watch them IV-VI, I-III. You may get the shock value of the reveals in Empire but there’s more to Star Wars than that. It has grown and evolved into something bigger than these story points.
Not really. IV-VI, VIII is the only viewing order you need. Maybe throw in Clone Wars, ignore the terrible movies in front and behind it that ruin Clone Wars’ characterizations.
The Last Jedi came and I felt a numbness and bad feeling that something was wrong. I didn’t hate the film but I didn’t love it either. It was vastly different from what I was hoping as i was thinking Rey would be a Skywalker in some way. Afterall we’re following the Skywalker family saga and George asked J.J. once about Darth Vader’s grandchildren. As time went along I was somewhere between accepting this isn’t George’s story and denial. Bob Iger’s book came and I felt hurt.
I was glad and overjoyed that it wasn’t George’s story anymore. My joy of the sequels comes from George not being involved. It’s like when TNG and the TOS movies got rid of Gene Roddenberry. He was an anchor dragging it down. Filoni is the Rick Berman taking over, minus the “allegations” against Berman.
Finally The Rise of Skywalker came and the moment we see Rey’s parents leaving her on Jakku I was finding peace. I told myself this isn’t George’s story and that’s okay. It was then revealed she’s Palpatine’s granddaughter and my heart sank.
Meh, Rey Palpatine is a fun twist that explores a bit of the nature/nurture thing. Overcoming one’s nature is a theme of the series, be it Luke asserting himself in ROTJ or Anakin’s character expiration in TCW.
It ultimately passed the moment they made her related to Palpatine. It’s sickening having her related to a toxic male with no redeeming qualities and who George himself referred to as the devil. It’s sickening seeing how clearly it opened up all of the parallels with the Skywalker family and even Obi-Wan and knowing they meant absolutely nothing.
So just because she’s a Palpatine, she should be denied all of those parallels? That seems too prejudicial. We should be able to overcome our “nature” and arrive to a point of heroicism. I think it’s cruel to deny the character that and call it “sickening.”
They were just put there for nostalgia. She may declare she’s a Skywalker but it fails to me because of who she really is and the contextual issues it creates. It doesn’t feel like a happily ever after fairy tale like Return of the Jedi but real world sensibilities being injected into Star Wars.
Overcoming one’s nature and rejecting your negative heritage is a fair tale/happily ever after to me.
That’s ultimately the biggest problem with this trilogy. It’s not growing, expanding, or progressing the story forward but telling us what the writers see Star Wars as and to them it will always be the first three films.
…and that’s the way it should be. Right down to retconning big chunks of bad prequel lord away.
I’ve made my peace with The Last Jedi most. I’m grateful that Rian at least acknowledged and incorporated the Prequels into his narrative as they’re part of the fabric of Star Wars.
I’d agree, but I would have appreciated a retcon for Midichlorians.
In the end though Ahmed Best said it best. He said that Star Wars isn’t something we believe in anymore and that it’s falling more into the Han Solo side of the story instead of Luke Skywalker. I couldn’t agree more.
Nah. Many of us still believe in the OT and want good things for the franchise. The ST was better than what we got with the PT (my opinion) and the lore is trending in an OK direction. It’s as healthy as it was in the PT era, with writers exploring different directions.
If anything, Star Wars is like Sonic. The OT is the Genesis/Mega Drive games, while the PT is the Adventure/Heroes series, and the ST is Generations or Mania. Generations/Mania have hope for a modernized version of the classic style, (which is well done for SW and Sonic, I’d argue). This would mean that The Force Unleashed is ‘06, but TFU is a terrible addition to canon.