Hello Wookieepedians, it's been a while since I last wrote something. Life's been busy lately, but I think you should always take time for Star Wars lol.
To explain my huge love for this trilogy, I have to go back in time, to 5 year old me. One evening, when I wanted to watch an animation movie as usual, my two year older brother, wanted to watch something we didn't watch before. My father suggested that we could watch Star Wars. He had to convince my mother, cause I wasn't 6 years old (the age requirement for ANH). I didn't understand 90% of the movie, but something about it fascinated me. The next day we started with the prequels, because me and my brother were totally confused as to which character did what and why. From then on there was no stopping us. For birthdays, for christmas, we always wanted something Star Wars-themed. My brother just thought Star Wars was cool, but for me it meant much more than that.
TPM's Anakin Skywalker was literally me... You couldn't convince me otherwise. I had the same haircut, the same eye-color and even my crush looked like Padmé (well, a way younger version of Padmé obviously). The time I got into Star Wars was a very hard time for me. My parents' marriage came to an end and they often argued. I escaped into the Star Wars universe. I could relate to Anakin Skywalker, cause he'd do everything to save his loved ones from dying, already back then I was a hopeless romantic. I wanted to be loved the way Anakin loved Padmé and because of my parents' divorce, I saw it as a task, to find someone to stay with me until I die or die for her.
I introduced my first and best friend to Star Wars and he started to like it almost as much as I do. While he was more of a fan of spaceship battles, I particularly loved the lightsaber combat. Back then the Prequels were unrivaled in terms of lightsaber fights (thanks to Disney, there are now many great lightsaber fights in shows and the Sequels), so if I had to pick a SW movie to rewatch, it was usually one of the PT. When I was about 7 years old, I could repeat Attack of the Clones in its entirety (AOTC was (and still is) my personal favorite). My brothers favorite was Revenge of the Sith, so I watched these two movies more than twenty times back then. When I was older and had my first english classes, I started to watch the movies in the original language, english. I thougt many scenes were better and above all less corny in my native language (especially the dialogue between Anakin and Padmé.)
What do I think of the Prequels now, more than seventeen years after I watched them for the first time? I'd say a large part of my opinion on the prequels is emotionally influenced. This is the trilogy I watched over and over again as a child, the lightsaber fights I tried to mimic with my brother, the scenes I acted out with my best friend and the sayings I quoted on the playground. I think my ideology and character would be very different if I hadn't watched these movies. The dialogue, which is the main reason the Prequels get hated for, isn't half as bad in my native language and I think bickering over the speciall effects is wrong. The effects aren't horrible for that time, especially if you compare it to movies like Green Lantern, which was published six years after ROTS and did a much worse job. The cinematography and lightsaber fights are some of the best in all of Star Wars and I'll die on that hill. This trilogy produced so many legendary, timeless scenes like the Battle of Heroes or the Boonta Eve podrace. The Prequels show the downfall of a good and kindhearted man in the most heartbreaking way. Unlike the OT or the ST, the PT doesn't feature a hero who struggles with darkness but defeats it, but a hero who fails, "dies" and turns into a villain. The Prequels offer a bunch of different profound villains. It portrays a friendship, similar to brotherhood, whose end makes even a grown man cry. I love the Prequels and I'm grateful for George Lucas creative vision!
Please leave a comment, I'm interested to read what makes the PT so special to you!
MTBWY, always
