Beyond the inconsistencies and contradictions with what we see later, the thing that kills me most with this series is the over-re-contextualization of the scene in Obi-Wan’s hut in the first movie. We’ve already got Obi-Wan “from a certain point of view”-ing the events of the prequel trilogy that subtext drips out of every word he says. It was perfect the way it was after RotJ and only bolstered by RotS.
But now not only is Obi-Wan lying about Anakin, here comes Leia who is ALSO lying about her experience with Obi-Wan and he also doesn’t tell Luke any of this for some reason, as well as the fact that Leia never brings this up later. So now, nearly every character is a liar in that movie except Luke, who may or may not have knowledge of what happened to him cause hey, guess what, he was attacked by an Inquisitor lady at 10 years old! Doesn’t that add so much??
After 45 years, nearly half a century, it just comes off as too much, too late. We shouldn’t STILL be pretending like there’s hidden secrets in ANH. Its story is complete, and the idea that the Disney writers were “adding context” to George’s work is just insulting.
I don’t agree. Just my opinion, but I don’t. For one thing, C-3PO lets out a strong of lies in ANH. It’s there in the original edit. He knows who the princess is and then he lies to Luke about who the hologram is. Leia is a Senator and we already know she lies about the location of the Rebel base. And she knows the name of Ben Kenobi. When reframed by the PT, there are lots of questions raised. This series gives us answers to those questions without derailing the saga narrative. George created a lot of glitches in his movies and it is nice to see some attempt to give them a logical answer. It isn’t that there are hidden secrets. People should be able to enjoy the saga with all its questions just fine. But for fans, it is nice to see a story that answers some of the most notable. We didn’t need the PT either, but we got it. Many enjoy it.
To be frank, every time they add to the Star Wars universe (and this is since 1977) there are always some people who hate the new additions and think it changes things the wrong way. That happened to TESB, ROTJ, the PT, the ST, Clone Wars, Rebels, Resistance, Book of Boba Fett, and this series. I think the only one that hasn’t had that reaction was The Mandalorian season 1. It is a tiring pattern. Just let the franchise grow and enjoy what you want of it. If that is just the films, great. If that is just the original 1977 film, great. Some of us are enjoying the expanding Star Wars universe and actually like all the additions.