Rewatching the OT with a friend this weekend to show him the theatrical cuts. Today was A New Hope. And it shed further light on the why of the prequels bad structure.
Anakin’s mother’s death parallels Luke’s aunt and uncle, the difference being that it inspires Luke to be a hero, and Anakin to become power hungry. But for Anakin, it doesn’t happen until the second movie. Lucas tried to justify Anakin being 9 in the last one by saying “well his bond with his mom is more emotional”, but all he does is waste a movie, as he’s an entirely static character. ANH proves that the emotion still hits with barely any screentime, as anyone can relate to what it may feel like to lose a parent. Shmi’s death should’ve been in the first one, with Anakin being 19 in TPM. It makes him want to become a Jedi, because he seeks power. And over the next two films, we see him slowly descend from Jedi hero into the cold ruthless Darth Vader we love from the OT when the power of the dark side is more appealing to him, especially the promise for the secret of eternal life.

Basically, it takes two movies for Anakin to get where Luke is at the end of ANH, and that is heavily problematic to the structure of the trilogy. I enjoy ROTS, but there was just too much material crammed in as Lucas basically procrastinated the most important parts of the main character’s journey.