Before they ever happened. I heard “origin of Anakin Skywalker” and thought “Who cares? We know he goes evil. We know he switches back. We know all of that!”
What I hated was he does one good thing- kills the emperor minutes before the old dude would have been blown up anyway- and it undoes all the evil that he’s done. This would be the spiritual equivalent of Goebbels deciding “Aw bullshit, I’m not gonna kill my children” and shooting Hitler just before the Allies reach the Bunker, and getting a tickertape parade down Madison Ave. followed by a panel show spot. Somewhere in Jedi ValHalla must be the spirits of the younglings he killed going “we’re prepubescant through all eternity while that guy gets off scot free!” and hundreds of millions of Alderaanians saying 'yeah, eternal bliss… must be NICE!" and the guy he choked to death in the first few minutes of IV all getting drunk.
UNLESS- and this is just my theory- the final final scene is of Ben and Yoda stomping Annakin’s ectoplasmic ass.
On the subject of “I don’t need to know why he went bad”, there’s no better example to me than Hannibal Lecter. He was way scarier when you knew less about his past, and when you find out he’s not just European but a Count no less, whose sister got 'et… c’mon.
The Pope’s vist to New York City in 1965 is the time of Rosemary’s rape by Satan and conception of Rosemary’s Baby. Ira Levin says when he realized that he felt the book was “meant to be.”
I don’t mind this if it’s done well. I liked Neal Stephenson’s portrayal of Alan Turing and Isaac Newton, and I like Bernard Cornwell’s Wellington. Bonnie Prince Charlie’s appearance in Diana Gabaldon’s series is interesting, as is the portrayal of Napoleon in Naomi Novik’s Temeraire books.
My favorite literary vampire is Henry Fitzroy, the illegitimate son of Henry VIII. I’ve also seen Christopher Marlowe as a vampire, which was an interesting idea but the books are romance and not very well written.