I was online in Star Wars communities when the prequels came out in whatever proto internet we had back then. The prequels were always things that never met expectations with a bunch of really obvious things that were not as good as they should have been. Namely some acting and dialogue. The good always out weighed the bad. I wouldn't have seen TPM 3 or more times on original release in the cinema if it sucked. I saw the next two films at sold out midnight screenings. People were always there for them.
Basically, yes. Most normies loved 'em and saw them as good movies. Flawed, sure, but good. And the same was said of the original trilogy, where yes, some people, including the actors, complained about the dialogue, and ROTJ was clearly dashing to the finish line to the point where the ending was a bit clumsy for the film, but the fun bits outweighed the bad, so we didn't care.
The thing is, criticizing the Prequels became this factory of content for would-be reviewers, especially since it was an extreme opinion back in the old days, when most folks really didn't think that badly of the PT, to say that they were bad was a sort of extreme opinion and backing it up with reasons why was a way for a reviewer to build some clout and gain some notoriety.
The reason Andor stands out amongst the Disney shit is that it actually comes across like something actually thought about what they were doing. Where it was going. I know that's kind of mandated by Rogue One, but that's ok. It's just not, "here's some Star Wars shit." Mandolorian was fine as a sandbox but then went crap after they decided it was to fit into multitude of shit other shows with no direction.
I'd say it was due to the fact that Andor treated Star Wars as a living, breathing world instead of a fancy amusement park. That, and the increasing normie appreciation for SW politics that started with TCW helped make Andor's political stuff work well.
I haven't seen them for years, so I may be wrong but the problem with them is they're just about criticising. They're flawed films but there's a lot that can also be celebrated and I don't recall those videos ever getting into that aspect. "Here's all the bad stuff." You could literally do that for most films. It's why shit like Cinema Sins is so trash. You can tear anything apart. The prequels for all their obvious and recognisable flaws still have a lot of great stuff about them because they were actually thought out. There was a story and artistic intention to them. It just wasn't executed to the fine precision we wanted but that is ok. It's far far better than the hollow soulessness of the sequels.
RLM preferred TFA to the PT, which goes to show they'll go for shallow remakes instead of something with some essence just for clicks.
I mean, some of their criticisms and proposed solutions make no sense, especially if you know the story. Like having the clones be Uruks invading the Republic; that would just make the Jedi into heroes when they win and make Order 66 impossible. Or how they proposed that the whole Jedi Council go to fight Maul; the point was that the Jedi Council didn't believe Qui-Gon when he called Maul a Sith Lord, and told him to continue investigating on Naboo.
Are there actually fans of the sequels who defend this?
Most ST fans I know actually hate the Rise of Skywalker and said that they should've doubled-down on what TLJ brought forth.
I just want an adventure a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. The passion for the source material just isn't there, say what you want about George Lucas but he had a real love for the world and characters.
Old-school EU stuff like Thrawn and Rogue Squadron was awesome and had a lot of cool games, comics and novels. Killed all that off to give us this crap. Oh well, at least I can still fire up Galactic Battlegrounds if I want some AOE2 Star Wars.
That's the problem. Modern SW treats these things like an obligation they don't want to do. Or as something they can use as a soapbox. Old SW was run by people with passion and love for the lore and the world, so games like Rogue Squadron and Galactic Battlegrounds felt like they respected SW lore, and even the Thrawn Trilogy respected the SW lorebooks that came before it.
