# What did George Lucas do right in the prequels? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 22, 2010, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085 "2010-12-22T17:42:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2010, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/101 "2010-12-25T17:44:15Z")
> [@Capitaine\_Zombie](#): > > Yeah wow, Jedis with only melee weapons attacking an enemy vastly superior in number equiped with area based missile weapons, therefore impossible to parry. Way to shit all over the Jedi myth (lets add a shitting on the Fetts with Jango being at least as clumsy as his “son” in RotJ). > > There’s something very true in the redletter analysis, that Jedi knights and laser swords looked so much cooler in the Original trilogy because doing the effects was so tedious that they only whipped out the swords when it was strictly necessary. > Less is more. Can’t say I recall any missiles in that scene. If there were, well, the Jedi are telekinetic too, so even easier to parry! Just wave them aside! The arena battle was definitely a good example of why it’s not the greatest idea to send in a bunch of defense-oriented guys on the offense. It also had one of my favorite scenes in the prequels when the Clone army arrived in gunships to rescue the Jedi and launch a counter-attack against the Separatists. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/102 "2010-12-25T18:17:44Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > 1. I did mention in the starting post that I hate the prequels. > > 2. Seriously, everyone has seen the Mr. Plinkett reviews. It’s getting to the point where mentioning them like no one else has seen them is…presumptuous, to say the least. Actually I never have. I also managed to make it half way through the ‘first’ movie, never bothered to watch any others though I did see Star Wars 4 5 and 6 in theater. I actually watched the original Star Wars when it first hit the theaters, and then again in re-release. AS far as I am concerned, he should have left it with the original Star Wars and never made any of the rest of the franchise. Sometimes less is more. Now if you want to discuss Star Wars, I’m down for that. As a SF movie, it was a blast. Given the state of special effects available back in the day it was spectacular. For those who when seeing it now say that the special effects suck I have to remind them how old the actual movie is and how cutting edge the effects were at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Sealemon2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@Sealemon2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sealemon2.0)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/103 "2010-12-26T08:11:47Z")
Visual and sound effects were amazing. The music was excellent. The pod race, while completely unnecessary, was a lot of fun. The final fight with Darth Maul was well choreographed. That’s about all I got. George Lucas has never learned “less is more”, and it shows in TPM in numerous ways that have already been covered. I had never seen that Plinkerton review before, and I did like it overall (agreed that the black humor jokes could have been toned down a bit…that damn “less is more” thing again). I REALLY like his point about there being no real protagonist in the movie. It was one of those things that seem totally obvious now, but I couldn’t put my finger on when I saw the movie. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/104 "2010-12-26T14:36:11Z")
posted before coffee. didn’t make sense. move along, nothing to see here. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/105 "2010-12-26T23:05:13Z")
> [@Capitaine\_Zombie](#): > > Yeah wow, Jedis with only melee weapons attacking an enemy vastly superior in number equiped with area based missile weapons, therefore impossible to parry. Way to shit all over the Jedi myth (lets add a shitting on the Fetts with Jango being at least as clumsy as his “son” in RotJ). > > There’s something very true in the redletter analysis, that Jedi knights and laser swords looked so much cooler in the Original trilogy because doing the effects was so tedious that they only whipped out the swords when it was strictly necessary. > Less is more. Yeah, surrounded _on all sides_. 360 degrees. So, if a blaster missed, it would hit the crowd. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/106 "2010-12-26T23:34:58Z")
> [@Ruby Sees](#): > > So today I was re-watching I and II and it occurred to me AGAIN… Why the fuck did no one go buy Shmi from Watto? Sure, they only had Republic credits in I, but with all the Jedi resources, with all of Naboo’s resources, they couldn’t find something to get her out of slavery after the blockade was cleared? > > Watto lost everything in the pod race. He was broke. It wouldn’t have taken much money. > > And Shmi didn’t have to be part of Anakin’s life or anything. Just get her out of slavery so maybe the fear everyone sense in him would have abated. > > If Shmi had been purchased at fire-sale prices from Watto and was just doing housekeeping for the Senate on Coruscant, then Anakin wouldn’t have had to slaughter the Sand People and maybe he wouldn’t have turned to the dark side. > > (But like I said upthread. I liked the prequels. This one plot point just got on my nerves today and I saw this thread and figured I’d post it) She was freed though. And happily married. So its not like the Jedi left her laboring away in a salt mine. ---
**Author:** ![Fair\_Rarity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fair_rarity/32/153_2.png) [@Fair\_Rarity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fair_Rarity)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/107 "2010-12-27T03:02:24Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > She was freed though. And happily married. So its not like the Jedi left her laboring away in a salt mine. She wasn’t freed immediately. And she happened to be freed ONLY because Lars married her. That was just luck (or the Force). So as far as Ani knew, she was still a slave. And his worrying about her kept the fear alive, so when he had the nightmares, he was already tweaked out. The council doesn’t initially want to train him as a Jedi because of all the fear in him, the potential anger, so they leave his mother in slavery thinking that somehow is going to make him chill out? (Again, he didn’t have to see her or anything, but letting her be the official Naboo cleaning lady and sending a post card from time to time might have kept him from going to the Dark Side.) ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/108 "2010-12-27T17:55:09Z")
> [@Ruby Sees](#): > > So today I was re-watching I and II and it occurred to me AGAIN… Why the fuck did no one go buy Shmi from Watto? Sure, they only had Republic credits in I, but with all the Jedi resources, with all of Naboo’s resources, they couldn’t find something to get her out of slavery after the blockade was cleared? I think the question has to be why neither Padme nor Anakin did. As the Clone situation shows, the Jedi think slavery is just fine. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/109 "2010-12-27T18:26:57Z")
> [@Ruby Sees](#): > > I liked the prequels. Good? Maybe not, but I LIKED them, which is something else entirely than good. So what he did right for me was entertain me enough to see the next one in theaters, buy all three DVDs. This. Frankly, I really enjoyed Anakin’s story. It made Darth Vader’s 11th hour betrayal of the dark side much less like a hokey epic waffle because you can see that, although he became a sith, he was never really malevolent. Without his backstory we had to accept he was just a tyrant. But with it we can see that his desire to impose order was rooted in a larger desire to limit suffering. The Prequils created for me a whole new Darth Vader for the original 3 movies. He wasn’t a dick, he just understood that the vast majority of people don’t know what’s best for themselves. That’s just a nasty truth. > [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > …the Jedi think slavery is just fine. Anakin didn’t: “You’re a slave?” “I’m a PERSON!” ---
**Author:** ![notsoheavyd3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/85e7bf/32.png) [@notsoheavyd3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notsoheavyd3)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/110 "2010-12-27T18:34:53Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > This. > > Anakin didn’t: “You’re a slave?” “I’m a PERSON!” I don’t remember him or the other Jedi having a problem with their slave army. (Oh i’m sorry, we’re supposed to call them clones so people don’t notice that it’s a slave army. BTW it becomes even more hokey in the clone wars animated series.) ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/111 "2010-12-27T18:49:03Z")
> [@notsoheavyd3](#): > > I don’t remember him or the other Jedi having a problem with their slave army. (Oh i’m sorry, we’re supposed to call them clones so people don’t notice that it’s a slave army. BTW it becomes even more hokey in the clone wars animated series.) Meh…they’re genetically-modified so not really human. 😉 And I wholeheartedly agree with the observation that the Jedi fail to be grossed out by slavery although most of the galaxy doesn’t practice it. But then that marries up nicely with the Jedi quasi-Buddhist preference for abandoning attachment to things you’d hate to lose. One could argue that they’d find the assurances of slavery to be a comfort because one would not need to worry about losing one’s freedom, possesions, job, wife, etc. Shucks, they even take babies away from mama to enroll them in Jedi school before they’re able to make that decision for themselves. Like the clone army, no Jedi has ever really made their own career decision. But the Sith ALL did. It was a bit ham-fisted to have both Windu AND Sidius say “He’s too dangerous to let live” but it highlights the relativity of evil and makes it more difficult to condemn evil outright. After all, evil is just the side you’re not on. ---
**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:** [December 27, 2010, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/112 "2010-12-27T20:14:15Z")
I’m pretty sure I’m in a minority on this one, but something about the new trilogies that I thought worked out really well was Yoda’s character arc. There are a lot of complaints about how he was portrayed in the trilogies, but I thought it was actually very clever. You can take almost every line of wisdom Yoda utters in _Empire_, and figure out which of his mistakes in the prequel trilogy he learned it from. He goes from most greatest general of his age, to “Wars not make one great.” He goes from the acknowledged master of the lightsaber to, “Your weapons. You will not need them.” When the Jedi are trapped on Geonosis, he takes the bait of the clone army as the only way he can rescue his friends. When Vader captures Han and Leia on Bespin, Yoda recognizes the bait and warns Luke against going. I also like that, if your first exposure to the films is in numerical order, Yoda’s appearance in _Empire_ is dramatically re-contextualized. Imagine the scene where he first appears, if your only knowledge of the character comes from the prequels. This is a guy who kicked the shit out of _Christopher Lee_, and now he’s this hooting, capering little swamp goblin? You’d think that Yoda had gone fucking insane. It’s actually a much more interesting reversal of expectations than a viewer would have who was watching the films in chronological order. If you saw _Empire_ before _Phantom_, you get a surprise when a goofy comic relief character turns out to be the wise old master. If you saw _Phantom_ first, you get one surprise when Yoda turns out to be crazy, and a second surprise when it turns out he’s not only sane, but wiser and stronger than ever. It also gives the Jedi philosophy of detachment and asceticism a lot more gravity when you’re hearing it from a guy living in a tree stump, when you’ve seen him saying the same thing while living in a palace. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/113 "2010-12-27T22:05:37Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > You can take almost every line of wisdom Yoda utters in _Empire_, and figure out which of his mistakes in the prequel trilogy he learned it from. On the other hand, this means that Yoda lived approximately 880 years without learning a damn thing, then made a radical change in his entire outlook on life in those last twenty years. If he had a human lifespan of three score and ten, it’d be like making the same change when he was nearly 68. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/114 "2010-12-27T22:17:04Z")
Some Doper, years back, suggested watching the movies in a sort of zig-zagging order. IIRC, it was IV, I, II, V, III and VI. Meet Leia, Luke, Ben and Darth Vader, hear about Luke’s dad and his exploits with Obi Wan Kenobi. Jump back to I, meet Young Obi Wan and Younger Anakin Skywalker, as well as Skywalker’s surrogate father figure, the warm and nurturing Senator Palpatine. See Anakin meet Padme and see the two of them fall in love and get married with the beginning of the Clone Wars (and of course, See Yoda be badass in his prime). Then cut back to Empire Strikes Back, find out what has become of Yoda, what happened to Luke’s father, and who Darth Vader really is, not to mention seeing Emperor Palpatine, even if you don’t know his name. Zig back to III, see Anakin’s fall from grace and the revelation that Palpatine is in fact the big bad, see the table get set for the first film as Vader is crippled, gets his suit, and the children are secreted off to their new homes. Then see Return of the Jedi to have Anakin’s redemption and see everything get wrapped up. Sounded interesting, never actually sat down and watched the movies like that though. Also, spellcheck does not like Star Wars names. Comon Lucas, “Albert Jefferson” would have killed you as a name to use for Luke’s dad?😃 ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085/115 "2010-12-29T11:57:51Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > Also, spellcheck does not like Star Wars names. Comon Lucas, “Albert Jefferson” would have killed you as a name to use for Luke’s dad?😃 The hero of the 1977 movie is Luke S., a boy from a small desert farm town who leaves to do great things because of his natural talent. Written and directed by (George) Lucas who, according to American Graffiti, grew up in a small farm town in the central California desert and left to do great things because of his natural talent. Now George walks among the stars (of Hollywood), if not actually in the sky. I guess Gary Stu is not a cool sounding Jedi name. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-george-lucas-do-right-in-the-prequels/565085.md?page=5)