I also struggle to understand George and Prequel zealots’ narrow minded views of people not liking the Prequels is because “you just don’t understand them” or “no, you must watch X, Y, Z to understand George intent and his films”, or simply trying to work George into every post or thread they make. This seems to be a more recent occurrence online in general for PT discussions. Rarely ever talking about the what occurs onscreen, what they themselves actually enjoyed about the the PT, or adding anything new to the discussions, other than condescension and some veiled insults, and also derailing the original topic of the thread. I’m not talking about about the everyday regular Prequel fans or people who simply enjoy most things Star Wars, just the G&P zealots.
Of course everyone is grateful to George for Star Wars, his creation and his dedication, but Star Wars thankfully moved on far beyond George and his retconned and re-invented visions. There is so much more to try, to experience, and enjoy.
The irony of it is Original Trilogy fans can be the exact same way. So it’s not just a Prequels fans thing to do but something I’ve seen Original fans do as well. Isn’t it just as narrow focused to not try understanding a piece of art and claiming it’s boring without understanding all of the reasons for what it is actually telling us? I mean all of art is subjective and can be taken at face value. People can also like whatever they want but it’s not just Prequel fans that are very set in their ways sometimes of how to view Star Wars. For years Prequel fans were silenced and told we were wrong for liking them. We were laughed at and smeared for not understanding Star Wars like those who grew up with the Original Trilogy. The result is the Sequel Trilogy we ended up with was so set on getting “right” what George Lucas got “wrong” that they ended up pleasing almost no one generally speaking.
Alas, sometimes we can all go a little far in how we go about talking about the things we love and don’t love within Star Wars. In the end though we can like whatever we wish but sometimes I have found in my own experience it is a matter of not understanding something that stops me short of enjoying it. The Last Jedi was like this initially for me. I was indifferent towards it for a long time but now I can enjoy it for what it is most of the time. It’s a fine alternate universe take on Star Wars. My tastes grew and evolved to understanding it. Some things won’t work for me or grow beyond what I thought initially but that’s okay. Just as the Prequels may not work for others. It doesn’t make our opinions any less valid.
I’m grateful that I have two trilogies and a cartoon series I love. George is also my hero. So there’s that. It was his story. I had no problems with him evolving and growing it how he felt was best. I don’t see his changes as retcons but merely doing what he felt was best for the story. Was it always to my liking? Maybe not but it never belonged to me. Ulimately now it’s created in a vastly different context with a corporation telling me what happened to Luke Skywalker. I’ll always be adamant for authorship over suits who aren’t creative trying to stick their noses into a project. There’s exceptions to my belief of films where the studio helped make a film better but the list is very slim.
I really like Josh Robert Thompson’s take on it: