Johnboy3434 said:Vaderisnothayden said:Better off to just leave out all the newer stuff. They're not real parts of Star Wars, they're just the spinoff crap tacked on later on. The only stuff worth showing one's kids is the OOT. If they want to discover the other stuff when they're older that's their business. Certainly they should see the OOT before anything else, because that's what was made first. Coming at Star Wars in any other order is unnatural.
And who are you to say they're not "real" (whatever that means)? GL says they're part of the story, so they're part of the story. Really, you can hate them all you want, but to say they're not "real" Star Wars because you don't like them is incredibly ignorant. You don't get to dictate what is and is not Star Wars.
Who am I to say they're not real? Somebody who's put a lot of thought into the matter and thus has as much right to say so as anybody else. So what if GL says they're part of the story. Since he screwed up Star Wars so badly what he says no longer counts. He's demonstrated that he no longer understands Star Wars, so I'm certainly not going to rely on his judgement on what's real Star Wars.
No it's not "incredibly ignorant" to say they're not real Star Wars. It's perfectly reasonable. The OOT is what defines Star Wars and by that standard the prequels just aren't the real thing. My view is based on an understanding of the original films and of how the prequels are at odds with them, not ignorance. Nor do I just casually declare them not real Star Wars, I've put a lot of thought into what's real Star Wars and whether the prequels can be counted in that category.
Maybe you take offense at my challenging the word of the great Lucas, but Lucas is not God, he can be wrong, and with Star Wars he generally is these days. Plenty fans nowadays understand Star Wars better than Lucas. And no I don't get to dictate what is and is Star Wars, the OOT standard dictates that, I just follow it. Nor is this a matter of me just disliking the prequels. I like The Phantom Menace well enough, but I recognize how it doesn't fit with the old films.
People are entitled to judge a franchise or fiction by its own pre-established standards and when something is made that doesn't adhere to the unspoken rules of the franchise they are entitled to count it out, because it follows different rules and thus does not belong with the original material.
The prequels place themselves outside the core body of Star Wars. They are not real Star Wars because they do not have the mentality of Star Wars as established by the old films. They are not of the same material. They are something different, and inferior. Very definitely they are inferior spinoff material rather than the real thing.
It's a pity Lucas didn't make them in the years immediately following the release of the OT, because if he had maybe they would have been made in the mentality of Star Wars and would have been carried along on that same creative wave that led to the first films, making them quality. But by the time Lucas got around to making the prequels he'd moved beyond the mentality of Star Wars (as demonstrated drastically by the ill-fitting changes he made in the Special(ly Lame) Editions).