Fear of the prequels leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to the sequel trilogy.

Its the sequels that made the mistakes. Not the prequels. If anything, the sequels made them look good; alot of fans reflected on them saying "You know, they really arent that bad. Even with all their flaws, they still have something the sequels do not: respect. For the lore."

The mistake of the sequels was that they were concerned with 1.000 things like not being like the prequels, using practical effects, not letting the original characters overshadow the new ones, etc. But it seems nobody paid attention to the most important factor for a good movie: a well thought-out story!

Lucas didn't really take a backseat in the originals. He may not have directed the actors in Empire and Jedi, but he was the one directing the narrative and storytelling. The reason he hired relatively unknown avant-garde directors was so he could steer them in the direction he wanted. Also, many scenes in the prequels were in fact ghost directed by other directors. For example, the whole General Grievous fight in Episode III was directed by Steven Spielberg. And I believe Carrie Fisher ghost wrote several scenes as well.

There's another KZfaqr by the name of "So Uncivilized" who did a phenomenal video essay on "The Anti-Trilogy" of the sequels, how each of them tried to "fix" the mistakes of previous movies/trilogies. And yes, part of the argument is that the original six movies are George Lucas', and the sequels are by committee and by people who think they were going to get right what Lucas got wrong. Whether Lucas had full control or took a little back seat on the prequels, they would still have been his and respected the work that came before (because nobody makes a sequel movie from the perspective that they disliked or even hated what they made before).

Makes me think of a moment in Jurassic Park II "I'm not making the same mistakes again" "No, you're making all new ones"

The somehow trilogy is the real mistake, not the other way around. And it had too many mistakes, It's impossible to ignore them. One of them is avoid having a plan from the start and a coherent story.

Y'all realize that Lucas' original plan for the prequels was to have Ron Howard direct TPM, Robert Zemeckis direct AOTC, Steven Spielberg direct ROTS, and have Frank Darabont write the scripts for all 3 movies, and Lucas himself would once again basically serve as 'Grand Overseer' as he did on TESB and ROTJ, right? Unfortunately, they all shot him down, basically saying "It's your story, George. You should just make them yourself. Time to get back into the director's chair." Of course, I'm sure both politics and ego went into their decisions as well; they knew of Lucas' history with Hollywood and wasn't particuarly well-loved in the industry, AND they all had enough industry clout of their own by then that they likely deep down didn't want to really serve as figure heads in another person's project.

Yeah the films seriously overcorrected. Example people complain about the politics in the Prequels which were essential for establishing what was happening and the impact of the events we see. They remove all politics in the sequels and the end result it feels less like a galaxy-spanning conflict and more like a gang war.

Literally, the first line of the sequels was “this will begin to make things right” if that wasn’t JJ throwing shade at the prequels, I don’t know what was. As someone who always loved the prequels, I’m tired of some people saying that the only reason you love them is out of spite for not loving the sequels dude, I loved the prequels long before the sequels came out, and even before I saw clone wars…

Yup, the sequels definitely avoided the prequels. Like having a coherent story, amazing lightsaber fights, likable characters, incredible setting, and branching arcs into books, shows, and games set in the prequel era. And no, whether it be 10, 15, or 25 years from now. The sequels will not be held in the same regard as the prequels.

Well, to be fair, I'm sure that some of the Prequels' wooden dialogue was intentional. For example, I think that he much mocked "I don't like sand" scene was awkward on purpose because, in that scene, we have Anakin(a very emotionally charged teenager who was raised by a bunch of monks) trying to flirt with a woman he's falling for and he has no idea what he's doing.

Thing is: Lucas DID want to involve others in the writing process of the prequels. Frank Darabont was approached for the Phantom Menace, and Jonathan Hales is credited along Lucas for the screenplay of Episode II. I'm not sure about the extent of Hales' contribution, but had the Darabont-talks not fallen through (apparently due to writer's guild -reasons), it seems that his writing-involvement would've been substantial. Descriptions of the Darabont-case can be found in several forums, and for a more official source one can also find the would-be writing-gig mentioned in an LA Times article from 1994 (Oct. 5: "Darabont has also been tapped to write one of three prequels to the 'Star Wars' trilogy for George Lucas.").

The Sequels have had more of a negative effect on the SW canon than the Prequels. And the tragedy of that is, there were so many good ideas in the Sequels that could've enhanced the legacy of SW. Instead, Carrie Fisher died, and nobody working on the films knew how to handle it. R.I.P. Carrie...

The thing that makes the OT special to me is that George was surrounded by talent that made V and VI what they are. With the prequels it seems like George captured the vision he wanted mostly but could have used some of the talent that he had for V and VI. I remember Simon Pegg bashing the prequels around the time of TFA only to backtrack around the time of TRoS. The new regime was hellbent on bashing what came before to build up their content, yet they forgot to have a vision for it.

It really is wild how the force awakens looks like it avoided everything from the prequels, but then last jedi avoided everything force awakens and rise of skywalkwer avoided everything last jedi. Just correction after correction.

The "mistake of the prequels" was that nobody was willing to stand up to George & say, "No. You can do better. This is dumb." And the same thing happened in the sequels, except worse. But at least the fans stood up.

There’s no guarantee that the sequel trilogy would have been great, even IF Lucasfilm had done everything the way ‘the fans wanted’. Regardless, in hindsight, I think the biggest issues were the lack of overall planning for the trilogy, and JJ Abram’s and Rian Johnson’s idiosyncrasies. JJ’s love of the mystery box, his penchant for not following the basics of space travel (characters basically fast travelling and the mess that was Starkiller’s laser) and RJ’s desire to “subvert expectations” just for the sake of dividing the fanbase. In hindsight, some directors that were willing to put ‘less of themselves’ into the story and some actual central planning from the story group would have made a HUGE difference. They may not have equaled the success of the OT, but they could have achieved at least what the PT did. In my opinion anyway. Great video, as always!

As someone who was alive during the prequels era the biggest difference was if you didn’t like the prequels (as long as you weren’t attacking anyone) no one cared! Meanwhile look at the sequels, if you don’t think they were the best thing ever, even if you don’t hate them you are public enemy number 1.

I think one part was arrogance. People at Lucasfilm thought that they were so much smarter than George. Star wars was in their eyes just silly space fantasy with pew pew and laserswords.

Remember that Lucas originally asked Ron Howard to direct Episode 1. So his intention was not to direct all of them himself. Though in that alternate universe i could see maybe an inverse of the original trilogy, where he would have saved Episode 3 for himself. And given that one is the usually the best regarded of the Prequels it wouldnt have really damaged the Prequels in this alternate timeline.

I liked the prequels before the sequels. Which is pretty much the equivalent of “I liked the prequels before it was cool” or “I liked the prequels before it was socially acceptable.”

I think its sadly that the creatives didn't understand the actual issues with the prequels. It had nothing to do with politics in and of the movies or practical vs special effects. There were a lot of complaints towards the acting and the dialogue. Odd decisions to plot points and direction that Lucas took. But even those were never as awful as people said they were. They even had a charm to them. Yet the hate train for the prequels carried on for years... and people liked those movies from the jump even then. It just wasn't as vocalized as now, but the creatives never knew that, nor took the time to learn that, and at best they thought it was just all Filoni with Clone Wars. I don't how much the years of books, comics, and games aside from Battlefront were considered early on, but CW was for sure considered more than anything else. Then we got the sequels starting with TFA, which had a lot if issues early on, primarily pointing to elements that were JJ doing what JJ was known and criticized for with ST. But people were just happy to just have SW back. TLJ was the start to the fan base splitting which continues to today. ROS truly was the final blow of just how much they did not understand what not just fans, but what general audiences adored about this franchise. This has gone to infect other things as well. Its not even fair to go to the book sells comparison between EU/legends and High Republic. Sure, there is some stuff in those books that I think were interesting, but I don't blame anyone for not being interested with the premise of Jedi fighting primarily Raiders. They did eventually go further, but interest died fast! The shows drop to poor quality honestly isn't that shocking given early issues in Mando season 1 narrative. Though how bad some of them were was... absurd. At least Mando season 3 was funny in its absurdity, but geez. Even the one good show we do have an Andor has problems, but not as bad as the others and its narrative is great! Yet will get called not Star Wars because it doesn't contain anything with the mythos of the force, yet all the iconography and the timeline plots are line up... kinda sad that if theres no lightsabers or mention to the force yet everything else matches, its still not SW somehow... Even sadder is the one thing I've learned since the sequels and the shows is that spectacle seems to be it for a lot of people. It takes them a minute to see the issues, but style over substance takes a min for people to finally criticize the work. Till then, they'll defend everything about it. Which would be fine if people were honest and just said they really just liked how cool it all looked for them. Still, it makes me think Disney and Lucasfilms technically DID learn a lesson. Just it was about what will gain them profit, primarily. They also learned how to twist the narrative of issues with their stories. They maybe awful at making them, but they sure know how to twist some up... -People like those guys in armor? Make a show and make a cute mascot. People don't like the direction we're going, sell them that this is all leading to something BIG! Use a big event everyone is familiar with, and that'll get them not consider the many narrative issues that have happened, because its going to lead to something cool! -People like legacy characters? Make movies or shows with them. If we get something wrong, defend them as though the narratives work, either that its the norm or trying to make sense that it works in a vacuum. Make it the fans seem crazy for thinking otherwise. -People want diversity? Make a huge deal around a series of books with that idea in mind, and if anybody attacks or any characters that are diverse by race or sexual orientation, go crazy and call them bigot and all sorts of -isms even if it about their narrative. People will come behind you, joining the tirade regardless of their statement. Even if the issue is about the characterization and the plot, twist it towards -isms using other things that they didn't take issue with with a white or male character. Its all just tragic really... shame

As far as I recall, George tried to get other people directing episode 1 and 2, but planned to make a triumphant return for episode 3 (I say triumphant in hindsight because of Revenge of the Sith being lauded as a great film and being the culmination of the story developed through the prequels). People George asked to direct Phantom Menace would just tell George it's his baby and he should do it (I think Ron Howard was one of those asked, maybe even Spielberg?). I've always taken their responses to be partially driven by intimidation at the popularity of the franchise and fear that it wouldn't live up to the previous entries, or they could even approach achieving the expectations the fans had for it. Personally I loved Phantom Menace as a child, and while having some doubts about it's objective qualities through my teens, have come out the other side still defending many of it's great qualities and defending against unfair critiques. I worry that without Lucas being the director, I wouldn't have got the Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan I loved, or one of the greatest racing scenes I've ever seen in the pod-race. While I get the romance in Attack of the Clones, I can't help but teeter on the edge and imagine extra help or a different director elevating the same content and selling that romance better.

I love the prequels always have and always will! I love that George Lucas told HIS story exactly how he want, he expressed his "creativity" to it's fullest. How i've always looked at it is the few flaws i see in those movies, some cheesy dialogue in some areas, and alittle overuse of the greenscreen/CGI especially in Ep3; if he had just reigned in on those areas, especially the use of green screen for most everything, would have helped the actor's overall performance; i don't think Lucas should have taken a backseat perse, but i do think he didn't need to take on so many responsiblities, such as Directing, Writing AND Producing the whole trilogy himself. I think George should have hired another writer to basically work his whole story into a solid script, and maybe co-produced the trilogy with someone else. But i definitely feel he did a amazing job Directing all 3 movies.

Yes, Lucas should have had more people around him during the creation of the PT who would tell him what he was doing wrong and that he would listen to. That being said, the people making the ST behaved as though they thought the mistake of the PT was having Lucas involved.

Disney's biggest mistake is not fully understanding the lore of Star Wars and why the fans love it in the first place. If I were George, I would rather keep Lucasfilm to myself, and continue working on making great Star Wars content, and I'll happily retire if I find a creative successor worthy of my work.

The biggest “mistakes” that the prequels made was presentation and delivery. The story and characters, however, were masterfully crafted to fit an overall narrative.

I think there needs to be somewhat of a correction when saying Lucas took a backseat to Ep. 5. The version we got is all thanks to Lucas. The version that Kershner and Kasdan created was nothing at all what Lucas had in mind. It's said that when Lucas saw test screening, he was angry and Maria Lucas was apparently in tears. Lucas spent several months editing and doing reshoots to get the final version that came out in theaters.

Hey thor, Who do you think would win in a lightsaber duel?? Dooku or Ahsoka? Dooku uses lightsaber form 2 makashi Ahsoka uses a combination of form 5 variant shien and form 4 ataru, as well as 2 lightsabers. Makashi has the upper hand against ataru but looses to shien. So who do you believe wins? (Both have to be in their prime) it's a debate I have seen online and wanted to know what you'd think.

The interesting thing I've noticed recently about the Prequels is they subverted tropes better than what the Sequels attempted. For instance the whole 'forbidden lovers defy the world and end up saving it with their love?' trope? Nope. Anakin's desire to save Padme at the expense of everything else ends up destroying everything including her. His love for her was toxic, an attachment. Chosen One fulfills the prophecy and saves the day? Nope. Chosen One defies his destiny and dooms the galaxy for the next 23 years. The Prequels subverted some common tropes and I don't think even us fans fully appreciate that. Again this isn't to say Prequels are perfect. Some of Lucas' concepts could've been better executed. But when placed alongside the OT the story is one we've all come to love.

As someone who only just saw the main 9 films a few weeks ago (having not lived under a rock I still knew plenty about Star Wars) I really don't understand the hate for the prequel trilogy, I loved it. The most recent 3 weren't terrible but they're the weakest 3 of the 9. I said to my girlfriend (lifelong SW fan) that though I didn't hate the most recent 3 I was happy to pretend they didn't happen in terms of canon.

The real problem with the Prequels effects was the compositing. The human eye can tell when lighting isn’t right, there’s an uncanny valley. There are also a lot of digital effects that pushed the envelope and developed the technology but they also look off. I think it’s the older renderer which again has lighting that looks off. But it was for no lack of effort or talent. Nowadays, the look of the Prequels is one of its trademarks, in the same way practical is for the Originals

It's genuinely sad to me that there are these retro shirts of movies and shows of the past in stores more than any prequel films in stores

Imagine if Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis, or Ron Howard accepted Lucas offer to direct Phantom Menace

Hey Thor, 😊thank you so much😊 on behalf of my wife & myself. The buzzword of Practical FX is one of the dumbest things folks fall for today. VFX at thier best use both a mix of real-world & digital FX

Hey, Thor Do you think the Ahsoka series would've been better received if it was animated Clone Wars style? Dawson looks the part for a couple Mando episodes, but the character's story is better suited for animation with Ashley's voice carrying it.

Hey Thor, how do you respond to people out there that have never watched anything Star Wars but they make the claim they hate it?

If that was a real thought (honestly at this point I wonder) then it was certainly a huge error. The prequels biggest issues were in dialogue. That and not paying off twists fast enough. I'm still convinced Jar Jar was supposed to be a Yoda level twist but they didn't reveal it in the first movie and backlash made them back off of it for the future films. The dialogue was rough at points. I mean...the sand thing....yeesh. But the idea and overall execution was still great. I loved what they did. I know some disagreed, but the action is better than anything we've gotten in Star Wars. They finally had the ability to show off the force and light saber combat in a way the original films couldn't hit at that point. Both Obi Wan vs Anakin and the battle against Darth Maul were great. But what really shined in the prequels was setting up the world. The technology was perfect. Unlike the sequels which couldn't come up with a coherent vision of how technology would develop in the age of the New Republic. The prequels had a great idea of how tech would build up to what we saw in the original trilogy. The tech was distinct but still familiar enough. The story made sense as a whole. And it told a story that was worth telling. Showing the rise of the Empire was worth exploring. The sequels had no vision, no plan, no goal. They just wanted to do the original trilogy again...just worse. They wanted the main cast to be rebels again, but that made no sense with the New Republic having formed. It was an incoherent mess that just got worse the more movies got added in.

I do like the prequels more than the original, i did enjoy the world building in it and yes, the politics too. Seeing the behind the scene of the whys and hows was interesting and never, in my opinion, boring. I honestly wouldnt have stuck to star wars if it was only for the original trilogy, it's not that it's bad, it's just that it is one adventure story like many others, but the world building of the prequel is what made star wars special to me. Palpatine's manipulations were a masterpiece, and to understand how it happened we needed to see the political side of things. The sequels felt so disconnected though, if it was not star wars i think they would have been okay movies, but quickly forgotten, but the fact that they are in the star wars universe make them terrible, because they don't feel like star wars. It feels like okay-ish movies wearing a star wars skin suit, and that makes them worse than they actually are.

Even though you put everything together the way you want still might not mean that the result is indeed exactly what you were aiming for. Feedback and actual changes by others may actually make a movie more like what you really had in mind in the first place.

Thor, do you think with all the content thats been pumped out in the last 5-8 years do you think that "the franchise" method of story writing goes away and we see a move towards a more independent solo film style of story telling now?

Hey Thor, the recent comments from Adam Driver has shed some light on what happened behind the scenes of the sequels. With the 6 year anniversary of the release of TLJ just passing. I was wondering what your thoughts are on what happen and what could’ve been had Kylo stayed on his original arc. Thanks.

5:34 As a author I can say that is the dream of anyone in the creative arts even here on KZfaq. And I do get to live that dream but I don't make a vible income off it because I can't(Becuase disabled) do what I need to do to make my creative works profitable. So that is why it's a dream because it's won't make the best stuff just the best stuff you can make.

The Prequels are absolutely a comment from Lucas on his need for control. He did not like that the most beloved film was the one where he just sat back and wrote the checks (he once even got into a screaming match with Kershner, who when objecting to some meddling in the script said, "It's MY movie, George!" "Well, it's MY MONEY!"). He was gonna show EVERYONE he was the amazing, creative auteur they said he was for almost two decades. And he did not get the adulation that he was used to for 16 years since RotJ came out. Because no one checked him, no one said "are you sure you REALLY want that?", no one said "is that REALLY a good idea?" Would a Lucas-led Sequel trilogy have been more "creative"? Sure, in the same way a five year is gonna be really creative with a chemistry set compared to a graduate student. Unfortunately, the Sequels that we got were more the product of someone in their seventh year of a PhD with a chemistry set - "what won't get me yelled at and moves me closer to a goal." Play it safe. Small steps. And crap on the work that came before. Abrams was ABSOLUTELY flipping Lucas the bird with, "This should begin to make things right." Then Johnson came in and flipped the bird to everyone - Lucas, Star Wars, Disney, LFL, the fans, the PT, and the OT. "Haha, you nerds, this is all stupid and pointless. Here, have a big giant battle at the end so you forget about me thumbing my nose at you for the last two hours. That's all it takes to please you idiots." We were doomed from the outset. The films should've ended with Yub Nub, the optimistic and victorious Rebels... and then we go to the books. Maybe we needed new books, maybe not. But that should've been end for all but the most hardcore fans. Now... everything's as meaningless as Johnson wanted, everything's as convoluted and twisted as Abrams wanted... and every core idea and unpinning George wanted is flushed away. SW has been a product for a long time, and an arguably defective one for over two decades (or, depending on how you feel about Bantam versus Del Rey EU... longer). But now it's just broken, unfixable.

There's a common pattern you see with creatives. Someone creates something remarkable, be it a film or a book or a TV series or whatever. It's super successful, so they go on to make more. And because they were super successful, people don't want to tell them no. Editors are hesitant to tell a big author to cut scenes or characters. Writers or actors don't want to question the Great Director. Producers don't want to tell their big-name actor what to do, because he could quit. And over time, the creators output becomes more and more bloated and unwieldy. Tom Clancy, for example; Hunt for Red October is 387 pages, tightly plotted and gripping. Clear and Present Danger, five years later, is 688 pages. Executive Orders, six years later, 1,376 pages. JK Rowling. Philosopher's stone, 223 pages. Goblet of Fire, 752 pages. Zack Snyder. From 300 to Rebel Moon. Lucas was in this situation with the Prequels. Nobody wanted to stand up to him, so we got wooden performances and awkward dialogue from actors who really could do better. Teamwork. Makes the dream work.

I’m still heartbroken, deflated, and crushed from my one viewing of TLJ on December 14, 2017….

I know Padme's dialogue was intentionally wooden because Portman was trading places with handmaidens, so they kind of made her voice less unique. Not sure what the situation was with Hayden, he's a far better actor than the prequels let him be and there was no story reason for his wooden-ness.

Yes. I feel like if they had some other writer or editor, they could have ironed out it's problems. The philosophy bits could have been summarized, better explained or never included at all if he had a second set of eyes to see it's problems. And while the politics help with the world building I guess, they really could have been more focused, or just given less screen time. I saw Revenge of the Sith not too long ago, and the politics (talking about the Separatists, "do you think we are on the wrong side") just eats up screen time and unless I missed something is mostly there for Lucas to try cramming in points about real life that don't have much relevance to the Emperor's rise to power or Anakin's fall, the things that matter more.

I believe GL indeed tried to get other directors to direct the prequels. I believe he approached Spielberg and a few others to direct them but everyone turned him down.

Thor, random question but are you a fan of Calvin and Hobbes? I see a lot of similarities between George Lucas and Bill Watterson, the creator of the comic strip. One difference is George Lucas was OK with merchandising, but that was a byproduct from the success, and he was at the end of the day interested in the story he wanted to tell, well, Bill Watterson is against merchandising. That being said, I feel like they areboth similar when it comes to the integrity of art and storytelling

One thing a lot of great movies have in common - ones that are memorable and we still talk about now - is a solid, focused script. Christopher Nolan won't start shooting until his script is just right and Hollywood can learn from his creation of the Dark Knight trilogy. It's a solid trilogy like Lord of the Rings and the original Star Wars trilogy. Compelling storytelling with solid characters is the key. The Star Wars sequels needed to create something fresh in that universe. Callbacks and fan servicing was a mistake too. They brought back some of the OG characters but didn't utilise them well. Disney just wanted Luke, Han and Leia in so it feels like Star Wars but the writing of their characters was bad. They probably felt so much pressure after purchasing Lucasfilm that they just didn't pay attention to the details of the script before filming. Too much focus on spectacle and not enough on good old fashioned storytelling.

My biggest question would be who would have been the director for the Prequels? George asked around his directors' groups for someone to help him and they all refused and said he should be the one to helm it all. I think we as fans just need to acknowledge Star Wars OT is just as flawed as the Prequels. Are the OT fantastic? Sure, but not perfect. In the end, critics got a Star Wars Trilogy without Lucas and that has opened eyes to the fact Star Wars was more than a simple story. Lucas's vision had many deep layers that made the films timeless while giving us high points like "No, I am your Father!" to low points like " I hate sand."

Here's an observation - maybe Star Wars, in the sense of sequels, stories and series on TV just isn't possible to execute in a satisfying manner to "enough" people. And maybe they shouldn't try. Personally I have a couple favorites since TFA, but you have to admit, no writer or director is setting the IP apart from anything else at the moment. THE biggest impact felt in Star Wars since the handover was The Last Jedi. Let that sink in. Nothing has affected fandom (and subsequent box office numbers) like TLJ did, and that's truly sad. The IP is still trying to recover to this day. Filloni even wrote a live action series - something hardcore fans have been praying for since before TFA - and even it was lackluster. (One may argue for Mando being a saving grace, but is it really? Dim really has no arc, and was almost immediately upstaged by Group. Then, ultimately upstaged again by Bo Katan. And as ok as season two was, if you remove the Luke stuff, season two wasn't so much better than season one). Maybe it's time to let the IP simmer for a while. Let fandom recover (instead of reacting to almost non stop updates, announcements and disappointments) a bit. Fandom itself was doing quite well before TFA was announced. Yes, there was a lack of new content, but fans were largely on the same page across the IP. Cosplay was growing, props and model builders were growing/expanding, lightsaber combat as a sport was getting off the ground... Maybe the last thing Star Wars needs right now is more Star Wars...

Hey Thor I don't know the exact number either but from my understanding more practical effects, namely miniatures were used in the Prequels than the Originals.

Hiring people who disliked the sequels is another glaring example that the wrong people were in charge. Nothing was explained and days following revolutions are always about politics... it's simple logic. The entire premise of the fall of the empire was the political fallout. Just like we can never have the original gang in the same room, this opportunity is also gone.....just like this franchise. Imagine how obviously organic this should've have been. Leia battling the various political clans forming in the aftermath, Han struggling to take his place in the new republic , Luke's efforts to rebuild the order and Lando is the wild card. F kk and the gang....really really F em.

When the only mistake the prequels made was not having an editor/producer who could tell George "No." when required...

The issue with the prequels always was that George Lucas is not confident in his own writing, and tried to get feedback on what he was doing; only for everyone he trusted and asked to respond to the effect of "you made Star Wars! you don't need ME giving you feedback!" that led to episode 1's mistakes which undermined the narrative goals of the prequel trilogy, requiring they be soft-rebooted in episode 2, which now had TOO MUCH to do, and 3 likewise then had TOO MUCH to do itself to justify (and effectively over-justify) Anakin's fall from grace. His decisions were NOT born out of arrogance that he knew better as was the sequel trilogy's consistent failing (and like that of too many franchise revival series as well), but out of insecurity that what his goal was would not get across. NARRATIVELY regarding their plot-arc the Prequels are a good story bogged down with frayed ends, which has allowed them reconsideration over time. The even beyond storytelling, the prequels have merit in them once again advancing means of presenting story's as well with Lucas basically revolutionizing Digital media storage; and whatever critiques one may have OF CGI amination's place in storytelling it has none-the-less given productions more options that when used properly (it's often abused AS a gimmick) can accent what is being done. For those interested, I HIGHLY recommend SFDebris' Star wars production documentary, it shows that while Lucas got others in to do writing and directing on 5 and 6, it was still VERY much his vision in collaboration; as they weren't wholecloth done by everyone but him.

3:50 hard question to ask? I think it's obvious that the answer is yes As Lucas was around yes men and people who didn't challenge decisions he made. Part of the reason Empire was so good was having different views and opinions able to challenge Lucas while also expanding ideas. I've always seen Lucas as an idea man who needed people to hone in the ideas that needed to stay, go, or expand. That's why Episode VI is messy because he started taking back control. Lucas is a great idea man and business guru. Star Wars (Episode IV) was lightning in a bottle and the right people excelled the franchise through Empire. Then Lucas (selfishly) kicked out people like Gary Kurtz who helped propel Star Wars to new heights to retain a sense of control over his baby.

0:55 And we’re having a similar situation today with what is and isn’t “AI” generated art. Damn, technology can be mystifying.

To think we got thousands of hours' worth of content on why the Sequels failed all because of KK & Disney's incompetence. Professionals my ass!

Ironically, the best bet, going forward, for the Star Wars franchise, is for both present and future storytellers of The SWU to most assiduously avoid the mistakes of The Disney Sequel Trilogy.

The more I think about it, the more I think the time skip of 30 years was just too much for them to write around. A direct sequel to ROTJ had to be about Luke rebuilding the Jedi while stamping out the remnants of the Empire. But how so you handle the time gap?

Lucas tried to get 3 other directors before he made the prequels. Steven Spielberg being one of them, Ron Howard another They didnt want to follow the OT and said something to the affect of "George You should do it" This is a documented thing. Not a secret. And Lucas had full creative control after A New Hope. ESB and onward were independent films w/ his word being final.

Getting to do something your own way doesn't necessarily mean you'll end up doing it well. My working experience has demonstrated that time and time again. That said, the sequels had no business trying to just ignore the prequel trilogy and that was absolutely the worst mindset that seemed to go into The Force Awakens. Indeed, it could be argued that it poisoned the creative well for everything Disney Star Wars.

All Lucas really needed for the prequels was a Kurtz, a Kasdan, and a Kirschner. I would have even been ok with a Kennedy for coffee too.

I’m a leftist and I’m pro union, I’m a member of the communication workers of America but I agree with you and respect the fact George Lucas was able to tell the story he wanted for the sake of art and that Hollywood hated him for that. I’m at film buff, and one of my favorite topics is the history of Cinema and Hollywood, and I would argue that Hollywood has been a business to an extent as long as it’s been around. Back in the 30s, they introduced the haze code which censored a lot of movies, and some movies like the Wizard of Oz were forced to have and it was all a dream ending because of executives and what they thought audiences wanted. That’s also the reason a lot of villains in Disney movies are queer coded, they have gay mannerisms, but they’re never straightened out right to be gay because of censorship. There was also a lot of films made during World War II that were made for the war effort

Tell me one other great movie Irvin Kershner directed? Kasdan co wrote the The Force Awakens and that’s terrible.

Despite all the praise the Plinkett reviews got (and yes, they do make plenty solid points about what goes into a good film) it seems to me like the ONLY thing that stuck to people that loved those reviews was: "So, LESS talking, MORE action, MORE stuff that reminds you the OT and MORE animatronic puppets, GOT IT!!!" So, so, so wrong. Stuff like Star Trek manages to make "lots of talking" engaging, it's just a matter of execution and dialogue. In the correct timeline, the Sequels could've been like the Prequels in the sense they establish new worlds, factions and characters, BUT with better dialogue, chemistry and more solid ways we get from point A to point B. Then again, any time you'd criticize the STORY in The Force Awakens, I'd get: "You're just sexist" "You're just toxic" "Shuttup, it's reminding people the TRUE MAGIC of Star Wars" "Shuttup, the next movie will make sense of this" What a sad mess.

„This will begin to make things right“ This was the actual first line of dialogue of the new Trilogy and it’s obviously JJ telling the fans that the Prequels went wrong and Ep VII is going to fix Star Wars. It’s frankly impressive how thoroughly this backfired.

Regarding that the OT is about a armed uprising against the established ruling power, how unpolitical do people think that is? The mental gymnastics some people employ to not face the obvious is astonishing. The destruction of Alderan can be easily seen as analogy of the B52 bombing campaigns of the US against NVietnam. Some people truly have on clue how anti establishment Lucas was when he was young. Anyway ...

Hey Thor, you've made your opinions on the Sequels pretty clear, as have the majority of the fans. A big complaint I see is the lack of planning. This is definitely something we know for a fact was true. However, while the results were different, is it not true that George Lucas was winging the Original Trilogy to some degree? Just to name a couple examples: In the original release of A New Hope, or "Star Wars", Jabba was human and Palpatine wasn't always supposed to be a Dark Side Force user. And even after the original releases, Lucas kept "patching" the OT: The song played in Jabba's palace was not originally there in Return of the Jedi, the celebration music at the end was different, Naboo wasn't in the end, nor was Hayden, and A New Hope was updated with more and more CGI creatures over multiple releases. Heck, the OT had multiple directors. It's fair to expect more out of Disney, but shouldn't the criticism towards them in this regard be somewhat tempered given that Lucas did not have the OT as thoroughly planned out as the Prequels? I've seen a lot of online discourse regard the lack of planning for the Sequels as a mark of eternal damnation (not even exaggerating, you should see some of the comments I've read), and yet we don't see the same standard held towards Lucas. Is this just a case of people deciding that the ends justify the means?

I don't really remember that backlash for this with using cgi characters in the prequels. That Jar-Jar was to goofy and that it was to much politics I remember but it was needed. He waited to do the prequels til he had the technology to make them possible. The politics was also needed to get the big picture of what really toke place and started the clone wars. I think the story would have been basically the same even if he had brought in other directors, but scenes would maybe been different Better or not don't really know Love the prequels

I know it won't happen but I would completely get on-board if they next (Rey) trilogy is based off Lucas' original treatment for Ep7. Rey training a new Jedi Order, Darth Talon introduced, delving deep into the force and it's origins etc

Ppl tend to forget George asked a bunch of his friends, especially Steven spilburge, to direct the prequel by their advice he directed the prequels

Yep. Exactly. In the end it looked like a lot of people that hated the prequels but had any idea at all on how make SW better.

Great video!

"So unciviliced" said it best. The one thing the sequels are consistent at is the way how every movie tries to abandon what came before. TFA-tried to be anti- prequels, TLJ tried to be anti-TFA and RoS tried to be anti- anything good.

Apenas vi las precuelas por primera vez y lo único que puedo decir es que aún con sus deficiencias prefiero eso a haber tomado el riesgo y que las arruinaran como lo que paso con las secuelas de Disney.

Absolutely agree, Thor.

We needed an expanded sense of politics and the wider scale of the galaxy and the sequels don't give it. They just show the First Order saying they want to destroy the resistance and find Luke. The prequels were elaborated on story wise and set up to tell the story they meant to tell.

i love the prequels how they are, i wouldn`t want them any different. they have there flaws but overall you allways will have a good feeling when watching them, you can discover more and more the more you see them. and you understand them more and more the more you see them. the prequel movies are such movie that will be better the more you see them. and thats makes great movies. and for one i must say many scenes in the prequel movies and many dialouge scenes where not writen and directed by george lucas, steven spielberg carry fisher and many more ghost writers and directors made them, he was allways in all of what he has done the grand overseer of everything. even for the original movies he was the man at the top he desided what was going on and what not. and for the prequels there where more than enough people that question him on set and behind the scenes. in the end they are his movies no matter who was directing it or writing it he had allways the last word, the same was with the clone wars. without george lucas consent a scene would never happen, without his consent a dialouge would never happen. people just think in white or black when thinking about it, and that is not how it was. there where many many colours around many people made desitions many directed and writen them not only george lucas, he even said it, he had many people doing the work for him, because he didn`t want too overwork himself too much, he just oversees it before it is done finaly. you even see that in the making of that he just oversees it, he gives impresions nothing more. he is just the big boss of it and oversees the final product before it is made.

To me its very close with EPISODE IV and V. To me they are both awesome and its hard to decide which one is better.

"Taking a back seat" for 5 and 6 is definitely the wrong way to put it. Not directing/writing and taking a back seat are two very different things. Firstly, on episode 6, Lucas essentially shadow directed episode 6 because Marquand was struggling. And on episode 5, Kasdan and Kershner definitely had their say, but Lucas was still very much involved in dictating the story and what it had to be, the final decisions were his. Remember Kasdan, Kershner, and even Harrison wanted to kill Han in the carbonite, but Lucas didn't, so guess what, they didnt kill him. So it's very much a misnomer to say Lucas took a back seat or wasn't heavily involved in Empire.

Yeah I do think this would've been perfect. Like you said Empire Strikes back is considered by many (not me I prefer episode 3 way more) to be the best star wars movie ever. Also I consider the clone wars series to be the best star wars content we have ever gotten and something similar happened then. So yeah the prequels would've 100% been better if George Lucas wrote the outline then let more talented people actually write the script/dialogue

If anyone didn't know this. Lucas did try to get those that helped him with the original trilogy, and everyone of them turned them down. Even had belief that he could do it..

They didn't learn from the mistakes of the prequels, let alone understand why people considered them mistakes in the first place. They just sat down and said "literally do the opposite of the prequels."

For some reason they felt it right to avoid Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker like the plague although it made perfect logically sense for him to appear prominently. Especially considering Star Wars is supposed to be the story of Anakin. And also throw in that Kylo Ren was obsessed with him. They literally threw away a great opportunity to give fans what they wanted just bc of some ages old backlash about the prequels. They literally ignored the fact that The Clone Wars drowned out most of that backlash. This might be one of the worst oversights on the part of Disney.

I don't think George Lucas taking a "backseat" would have necessarily made the prequels better. The films could have turned out worse or about the same quality. HOWEVER... If he had not been in the director's chair for three very complicated film projects, then perhaps Lucas would have made the sequel trilogy himself. A major reason for selling LucasFilm was because his passions switched to his family. Filmmaking is a long and exhausting process. The prequels drained him. As the old saying goes, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." Maybe if another director handled the prequels, Lucas might have had enough left in his filmmaking tank to pen the sequels. Again, there's no way to know the quality of Lucas's sequels. At least the films would have been HIS sequels.

The claim all clone armor was CGI is half-true. Attack of the Clones and them build helmets and boots and everything else was CGI. Revenge of the Sith the armor was all CGI.

Spot on Brother

My opinion is that I like episode 1-3, I like the stories, casting, and how they were made. While they have some flaws, being subjective here, I think the middle portion of Return of the Jedi was the worst part in all of the 6 episode saga, awkward acting affected it. Episode 1-3 gave 4-6 more depth, and it felt more impactful with the celebration on Endor when Palpatoonis and his empire lost, the rebellion won, Jedi won, and Darth Vooder the Wise became Anakin once again. What I like about movies 1-6 was that they were George Lucas films, his stories, and I liked his vision and his stories. Anakin Skywalker is my favorite Star Wars character besides some Original E.U characters. The Sequel Trilogy didn’t felt like Star Wars, it felt corporate to me, and didn’t felt like a natural progression like how they basically just told the 4-6 story all over again but taking out the logic. I hate that honestly, it wasn’t interesting, and they didn’t even explore the New Republic and the First Order. Characters were bland, they had interesting ideas but just failed to deliver them, and what’s worse, the films didn’t felt coherent which made them worse. Episode 1-3 felt like it had a good plan, it felt like it knew where it was gonna go, but I feel that’s unfair for the Sequel Trilogy. Episodes 1-3 exists because of 4-6, so I think a more fair comparison is with episodes 5 and 6, which is where Lucasfilms didn’t know where it was gonna go. What made episodes 1-3 worked to me was that it felt like they had actual thought put into them, George Lucas, while not the best at writing dialogue, was putting so much thought and care into what he’s making, almost everything made episodes 1-6 felt connected. Episodes 7-8 didn’t felt like it had proper care into it, the trilogy is a mess to me. I wish Lucasfilms went with George’s Sequel Trilogy, but I think the villains should’ve been changed instead of having Maul and Talon. This what I think.

Personally I get a lot of imaginative value and lore from the OT, PT, and TCWs series as being one epic story.

Star wars six movies are actually really George's auteurs films, disney took them as any blockbusters around there and thought that they can handle it like this

I loved the prequels - excluding jar jar, but to be fair the original trilogy had the ewoks. The greatest tribute I'd make to them, is that they slotted into the original trilogy nice and cleanly. The Disney trilogy were just a hot mess. There were a couple of good ideas like Finn being stormtrooper or Rey being a palpetine, but they came to nothing, nothing was done with those ideas.

The biggest “fix” for the prequels is the clunky dialogue. We meme about it now but first few go arounds with AoTC dialogue is harsh. While realistic in a sense, teenage cringe confessions are still teenage cringe confessions 😅

George Lucas never took a backseat on Episode 5 and 6, that statement is just false. He decided to not direct the movies principal photography, since he didn't want to deal with the stress of handling a huge crew again after almost dying on set of IV. Besides that he financed the movies this time which gave him absolute control over the picture. He wrote the movies story and co-wrote the screenplays with Larry Kasdan. He served as producer and as VFX director. All the space stuff was directed by him and made possible by his wizards at ILM. Lucasfilms art director and later movie director Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park 3, Captain America 1) said Lucas hired people to basically just collect footage for him and that's exactly what he did. He and his editors ( mostly Paul Hirsch) were forming the movie to his liking. And it's well known that Richard Marquand had massive problems on " Return of the Jedi" with his actors and the huge scale of the production. Kershner not so much on Episode 5, he was just slow. It was apparently so bad Lucas, who was on location just to shoot second unit stuff ( speeder bike chase) that they could later work with at ILM, essentially had to deal with stuff that the director had to deal with. But at the end of the day Lucas called the shots. And he never wanted to direct PP on the prequels as well. He tried to get Spielberg, Zemeckis and Ron Howard to shoot Phantom Menace for him. But they thought it was too daunting, and they most likely knew Lucas would be the man in charge. And imho Lucas and his team could have made a movie as good as the Godfather, people would have been disappointed regardless, the hype/expectations were just way too big. Lucasfilm and fox are also partly to blame for that. They really pushed the marketing to the max with Episode 1.

Hey Thor, Why does an existing character appearing in a new series/movie get called "Fan Service" and is frowned upon (compared to using new characters) when The Clone Wars almost exclusively used existing characters as the main characters and is beloved?

I still say the idea that people hated the prequels is mostly urban myth. I have never personally known anyone that loved the OT but hated the prequels. Sure, we nitpicked the CGI, midichlorians, Jar Jar, and dialogue about sand, but still loved the story.

2:20 Fear of success 🤭