Originally posted by: Jumpman
Scruffy,

Alot of the Prequels are made up of ideas Lucas couldn't achieve or would "save for later." What's wrong with that?

Nothing's wrong with that. What's wrong is using this as an apology for the films. Their pedigree doesn't matter if they don't show the quality expected from the breed.

Conceptual break? I mean, it is two different eras in this storyline. That's not such a bad thing if you want to get across the impression that life before the Empire was vastly different.

Okay, here's some examples of concepts that were altered between the OT and the PT...

In the OT, it was established that Jedi training began during adolescence. ("He is too old to begin the training. / Was I that much younger when you taught me?") In the PT, it's established that Jedi training begins during prepubescence.

In the OT, it's established that Mrs. Skywalker stayed with Leia but died when she was very young. In the PT, she dies in childbirth.

In the OT, Boba Fett and the stormtroopers are not all clones of the same source. (They have different accents and, depending on how you interpret visual cues, different faces.) In the PT, they are all clones of a bounty hunter.

In the OT, a dying Jedi typically disappeared, and this was curious or even unremarkable. In the PT, dying Jedi leave behind corpses. There is no strong correlation between disposition of the corpse and later appearance as a ghost.

Heck, the ideas behind the OT weren't even static during the making of the OT. If you believe that the story was mutable and dynamic from 1977-1983 but entered stasis from 1983 to 2005, I've got a bridge to Alderaan to sell you.