Have the Star Wars Prequels Been Vindicated by History?

[Mecha82]

I was born in 1982 and I saw OT without changes from TV as well as with changes in cinema so I was among those that were hyped about TPM and PT in whole. So to me TP was huge let down and I didn't really like it back then and i still don't but I have started to appreciate certain aspects of it. Including Midi-Chlorians as conduit for Force that makes one Force sensitive and allows using Force.

[Yukaphile]

Holy shit, you're the age Doug Walker is! LOL.

[Deledrius]

The worldbuilding of the prequels and their overall contribution to the lore/mythology of Star Wars have stood up very well. In fact I think they put Disney's Star Wars to shame in that regard, so in a sense Lucas has been vindicated. I don't know if the prequels have been, or are being, reexamined as films. I think TPM and AotC especially have their problems, and time hasn't changed that.

What seems more likely to me is that people have simply become less angry/vitriolic about it. Some movies go down as long-lived classics that will be actively loved for generations to come. Very few films live on in memory because of a core audience that actively hate the movie. The flaws of cult classics eventually come to be accepted or even become part of their particular charm. Prequel memes are an example of that.

To put it more succinctly- the prequels still aren't great, but fans got over it and appreciate them now for their substantial contributions to the Star Wars universe.

I basically agree with this. I've always liked the worldbuilding and lore of the Prequels (mostly - the midichlorians were a poor choice thematically), but the films themselves were not well-constructed, and had glaring issues with character, direction, and acting. They don't match the world implied by the Original Trilogy, but they're also not completely incompatible (something that's much harder to say about the Sequels, especially TLJ). My opinion on the PT hasn't changed much, but I was already an adult when they were released.

I think we're seeing a rise in sympathies from people for whom, due to their age, the prequels were not additions to an existing mythology but all part of a cohesive whole, and are now old enough to contribute to the conversation in their own works.

Vindicated is inaccurate though, even if more people are open about being fond of those films. Whether you enjoy the PT or not, it is still guilty of its faults. It's okay to like flawed things.

[Yukaphile]

I even love the midi-chlorians. That said, I think what Disney and Lucasfilm are doing amounts to negative world-building, like they did over on STD/DISCO.

[Deledrius]

I even love the midi-chlorians.

They add nothing to the story or the world, and remove much. They aren't even necessary to tell the story in which they appear. That's a bad storytelling choice.

[Mecha82]

I wish they had found way to explain midi-chlorians and they role better to avoid people thinking that they had taken mystical aspect out of Force. Back then I was among those that thought that way but more I learned from added material about midi-chlorians more I started to accept them as part of lore even if they weren't thought out that well.

[Deledrius]

I wish they had found way to explain midi-chlorians and they role better to avoid people thinking that they had taken mystical aspect out of Force. Back then I was among those that thought that way but more I learned from added material about midi-chlorians more I started to accept them as part of lore even if they weren't thought out that well.

I'm judging them based on the actual films.

We can speculate, make up our own headcanons, and maybe even get it published all we want (and hopefully come up with something really good that fixes it all -- that's what fans are good at... sometimes ) but that doesn't change the conception, intent, and execution as put to celluloid were pretty major flaws. We're now four films later and there's still no narrative or dramatic addition which retroactively justifies their existence as part of the story and the damage they did to the mysticism by giving it a physical embodiment.

[Mecha82]

I wish they had found way to explain midi-chlorians and they role better to avoid people thinking that they had taken mystical aspect out of Force. Back then I was among those that thought that way but more I learned from added material about midi-chlorians more I started to accept them as part of lore even if they weren't thought out that well.

I'm judging them based on the actual films.

We can speculate, make up our own headcanons, and maybe even get it published all we want (and hopefully come up with something really good that fixes it all -- that's what fans are good at... sometimes ) but that doesn't change the conception, intent, and execution as put to celluloid were pretty major flaws. We're now four films later and there's still no narrative or dramatic addition which retroactively justifies their existence as part of the story and the damage they did to the mysticism by giving it a physical embodiment.

Well sure. That's why I said that I wish that they had explained those better in TPM. I know that not everyone reads additional material like novels and comic books so if they had done that then it might had helped those that only care about movies to accept midi-chlorians. But they didn't do that so here we are.

[Deledrius]

Well sure. That's why I said that I wish that they had explained those better in TPM. I know that not everyone reads additional material like novels and comic books so if they had done that then it might had helped those that only care about movies to accept midi-chlorians. But they didn't do that so here we are.

Definitely. If you had to choose the single best/most important reason that makes them work, what would it be?