# Should Disney Remove The Prequels From Canon? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 18, 2016, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-disney-remove-the-prequels-from-canon/743481 "2016-01-18T07:36:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-disney-remove-the-prequels-from-canon/743481/61 "2016-01-19T19:11:28Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > That’s an empty argument. If popularity means something is good, then I suppose you listen to little more than Justin Beiber. > > The films were trash. But, like the Transformers films, it was flashy trash, and people who don’t think about it very hard can like it. > > The prequels weren’t the worst films ever made, but they weren’t anywhere near good films. They had terrible writing, acting, direction, and effects. The plots themselves were inept. They got awards, nominated for Oscars. Other than ep 1, they had overall decent critical review. They made lots of money. So I guess your criteria is based on whether or not **Lobohan** thought they were good. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-disney-remove-the-prequels-from-canon/743481/62 "2016-01-19T19:14:36Z")
> [@dzeiger](#): > > But all of the books like the Thrawn sequels, Jedi Academy, the Dark Empire comics, various video games, etc, also made a good deal of money, and yet Disney went ahead and wiped those off the face of the earth in the sense that they were explicitly removed from canon. > . Because there was just too damn much stuff. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-disney-remove-the-prequels-from-canon/743481/63 "2016-01-19T19:30:56Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Because there was just too damn much stuff. Well, there are three too many movies, too. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-disney-remove-the-prequels-from-canon/743481/64 "2016-01-19T20:10:51Z")
Canon in a fantasy universe is whatever you want it to be, quite frankly. If you wish to decide the prequels don’t count, but the “TIE Fighter” video game is canon, go for it. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-disney-remove-the-prequels-from-canon/743481/65 "2016-01-19T20:12:18Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > Episode 4 dropped when I was a teenager, reared on crappy low-budget SF films, and the prequels happened well into my middle-age dotage, spoiled on decades of sophisticated CGI and expensive superhero flicks. > > Brace yourself. Sit down. Take a sip of water. > > The prequels weren’t all that bad an the original trilogy wasn’t as great as you remember. Show all six to some kid who’s never heard of them, and see what an unbiased critical assessment looks like. I saw Star Wars when I was two. It was, quite literally, the first movie I ever saw. Been a fan of the franchise ever since. So, admittedly, looking at the films as an adult, it’s often hard to tell if its the film itself I’m reacting to, or my memories of a lifetime of being a Star Wars fan. That being said… GI Joe took up a similarly-sized pie wedge in of my attention as a little kid. So did Transformers. There were a dozen other movies that I watched just as obsessively as _Star Wars_. Anyone remember _Explorers_? I must have rented that at least twenty times when I was a kid. None of that shit does anything for me anymore. I don’t go back and watch the GI Joe cartoon from the '80s. I’ve never even bothered to watch any of the new Transformers movies. _The Explorers_? I’m not 100% sure that’s even the right name for that movie. But Star Wars is something different. That one stayed with me, in a way that nothing else I experienced at that age has stuck with me. And I don’t seem to be alone in that. On the other hand, someone who first saw _Phantom Menace_ when he was two (the age I was for _Star Wars_) would be about eighteen or nineteen now. Old enough to have matured out of most of the childish interests - and from what I’ve seen, that seems to mostly _include_ the prequel movies. I could be wrong. Is there a big fan base for these films? The merch mostly has dried up. The tie-ins are mostly gone, and Disney isn’t making much new material to replace it yet. I don’t see a lot of prequel cosplay at conventions - but there’s still plenty of Slave Leias, and thankfully, these cosplayers don’t appear to have been around for the initial release of the film. So, all art is subjective, and not everyone is going to feel the same way about the same work, and YMMV, and so forth and so on, but it does seem to me that the original Star Wars movies worked on a level that very, very few other works of art - genre or not - have been able to replicate. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-disney-remove-the-prequels-from-canon/743481/66 "2016-01-19T20:17:11Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > If you don’t like them, why are you watching them? 😕 Watching the whole thing with the Kid. I said we didn’t need to watch the prequels, hubby disagreed (he is famous for liking crappy movies). He wanted to watch them as: Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi I finally compromised, as long as we watched them in the order of: A new Hope, Empire Strikes Back, Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, Return of the Jedi. Tonight is Revenge of the Sith. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-disney-remove-the-prequels-from-canon/743481/67 "2016-01-19T20:49:18Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > They got awards, nominated for Oscars. Other than ep 1, they had overall decent critical review. They made lots of money. > > So I guess your criteria is based on whether or not **Lobohan** thought they were good. If you want to die on the hill that the prequels were good, feel free. You’re utterly wrong. The best of the prequels was episode III and it was still trash. It was internally inconsistent, had acting that was embarrassing, had wooden effects, and told a boring story in an inept fashion. People felt marginally relieved when it came out, because it wasn’t as horrifying as Episode I, but it’s only good when graded on a curve against the other two. Please, watch it every week if you like it a lot. There is no accounting for taste, and people should be able to watch whatever miserable film they like. \<3 ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-disney-remove-the-prequels-from-canon/743481/68 "2016-01-19T20:50:43Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Canon in a fantasy universe is whatever you want it to be, quite frankly. If you wish to decide the prequels don’t count, but the “TIE Fighter” video game is canon, go for it. That’s reasonable, since TIE fighters have two cannons. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-disney-remove-the-prequels-from-canon/743481/69 "2016-01-19T21:45:49Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > Thank you! > > I don’t know if hate’n on the prequel, is a requirement before you’re allowed to hang with the cool kids or what. But some folks just need to get the hell over it. Jeez! Throughout my life, I’ve met lots of people who were really, really into certain movies that they liked. I’ve met passionate fans of _Gone with the Wind_, _Wizard of Oz_, whatever. But it wasn’t until I joined the SDMB that I discovered that there are people obsessed to the point of monomania with movies that they claim to hate. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-disney-remove-the-prequels-from-canon/743481/70 "2016-01-19T22:06:34Z")
I’ve recently re-watched the prequels as part of re-watching the entire series. Mostly it was because my Star Trek loving girlfriend who mostly thought Star Wars was meh (from when she originally watched it when she was a kid) say Ep 7, thought it was epic and wanted to see more as she felt she didn’t give the series a fair shake when she was a kid - though she still think Trek is better (but you can’t have everything). Now I am someone who thinks the prequel get overly panned. I think these people who call them horrible just haven’t watched much sci-fi/fantasy (in the context of that, they were average at worst). She really enjoyed A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, then we went to the prequels (Machete style - but adding in The Phantom Menace). I tried not to color her view of the prequels, aside from saying I like them more than most people do. Anyways, to my complete and utter surprise, she thought the prequels (we’ve only seen TPM and ATC) were GOOD. She even though Natalie Portman’s flat acting and Hayden Christian’s strange acting made sense in the context of the movie (I don’t agree with her, but she said that Portman is portraying the character of Queen Amadala in TPM as trying to act more adult than she is and therefore obviously comes off as fake and that in ATC, she does show plenty of emotion and that Hayden Christensen is portraying an awkward teen trying to impress a girl). I know she wasn’t saying it just to get on my good side, because we had an almost heated discussion about Portman’s and Christensen’s acting (I think the prequels are decent, but I hated Portman and Christensen - while she thought they did a good job and wanted me to point out where they were acting bad. We had to eventually agree to disagree on it). It was a very intriguing look at someone who is a sci-fi fan (as well as Trek, her fav series in that is DS9, she was a fan of Stargate, Firefly, etc), but was watching Star Wars with almost new eyes. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-disney-remove-the-prequels-from-canon/743481/71 "2016-01-19T22:12:31Z")
Who is the protagonist of _The Phantom Menace_. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-disney-remove-the-prequels-from-canon/743481/72 "2016-01-20T00:41:46Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Who is the protagonist of _The Phantom Menace_. Jar-Jar Binks is, obviously. ---
**Author:** ![Lorne\_Armstrong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@Lorne\_Armstrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorne_Armstrong)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-disney-remove-the-prequels-from-canon/743481/73 "2016-01-20T06:50:21Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Yeah, like those of us raised on The Love Boat, The Bee Gees and The Brady Bunch are such elite consumers. Not me. I was raised on King Crimson, Genesis, and Archie Bunker. Thank you for all the responses. I will say that I don’t understand how anyone can think that they’re decent movies but whatever. I will take your advice and pretend that they don’t exist. That’s what I’ve been doing since 1999 anyway. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-disney-remove-the-prequels-from-canon/743481/74 "2016-01-20T07:03:02Z")
> [@Poysyn](#): > > Watching the whole thing with the Kid. I said we didn’t need to watch the prequels, hubby disagreed (he is famous for liking crappy movies). He wanted to watch them as: Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi > > I finally compromised, as long as we watched them in the order of: A new Hope, Empire Strikes Back, Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, Return of the Jedi. Tonight is Revenge of the Sith. Seriously. The first three (especially 3) spoil the big reveal in 5. Why watch them that way? Heck, I use Star Wars as an example for why you should read the Narnia series in chronological order. The spoilers in The Magician’s Nephew aren’t as big, but they’re there. And, I guess I’ll answer the OP anyways: Hell no. They do their job of selling toys, and getting younger people to like them, even if they aren’t all that great. And the story is just now a permanent part of how people think of the films, even if they don’t like the actual movies. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-disney-remove-the-prequels-from-canon/743481/75 "2016-01-20T07:12:39Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Canon in a fantasy universe is whatever you want it to be, quite frankly. If you wish to decide the prequels don’t count, but the “TIE Fighter” video game is canon, go for it. Disagree. If a series is ongoing, canon is what the current writers will treat as “true” for the purpose of writing future stories. And whether ongoing or not, it’s what fans will consider “true” for the purposes of discussing said stories. Both of these are found in the namesake Biblical canon: both what believers treat as true and in how some works presupposed the truth of previous works, but not of similar works outside the canon. What you are talking about is headcanon or personal canon. If it spreads, it becomes fanon. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-disney-remove-the-prequels-from-canon/743481/76 "2016-01-20T13:15:55Z")
You people are aware that another “prequel”-ish movie is coming out Christmas 2016, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Is that not going to be canon for you prequel haters? ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-disney-remove-the-prequels-from-canon/743481/77 "2016-01-20T13:30:13Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > You people are aware that another “prequel”-ish movie is coming out Christmas 2016, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Is that not going to be canon for you prequel haters? Nobody can really say before it’s out, can they? It depends whether it’s good. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-disney-remove-the-prequels-from-canon/743481/78 "2016-01-20T17:33:19Z")
> [@ISiddiqui](#): > > I think these people who call them horrible just haven’t watched much sci-fi/fantasy … Ha, no. Not even remotely true. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-disney-remove-the-prequels-from-canon/743481/79 "2016-01-23T16:22:09Z")
I thought episode 7 would end the dumb obsession with those 3 movies. I see I was way off. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-disney-remove-the-prequels-from-canon/743481/80 "2016-01-23T22:25:08Z")
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