Something Lucas did well in my eyes was world building. To me that's the most redeeming part of the prequels, the universe felt vast yet connected. The sequels felt small in comparison and a little too familiar. The only place I wanted to see more of was Kijimi.
After all this time, it almost seems worse, Disney has proven they can make good Star Wars content so the sequels feel even more flat in comparison after an Andor
The prequels were ass, then they gave us 7 seasons of some of the best Star Wars content there is to fill in the gaps and make the story cohesive. Now I love the prequels.
With how bad the sequels are I can only assume the cartoon we get to fill in the gaps will be a fucking banger.
That's ignoring a lot of context and nuance. The prequels we're bad because of the dialogue, Anakin's character development and CGI, but the story was always spectacular because it was created by one person with a clear vision. The "story" in the sequels is incoherent and an absolute mess because it's a story told by a bunch of people who didn't know where they were going when they started (or even while they were making them). Clone wars had better dialogue and fixed Anakin's character development while also telling stories created by the same person who was in charge of the movies the show is proving context for.
If Disney tried making an animated show to flesh out the sequel's, who would even be making it?
The holiday special is best star wars story told. To be sure, it borrows from a lot of the character building that had already taken place, but that adds to it, not detracts. Where as the main trilogy was a scifi retelling of a classical samurai tale, the Christmas special comes with its own new ideas as to what drives the starwars universe and the plight of the everyman under the empires boot heel, a perspective we actually didnt get to see much. I think it was bold artistic direction made possible by the original trilogy's unexpected success, and we're richer as a species for the temerity of the writers. The tones got a bit more alacrity than the trilogy which catches a lot of fans off gaurd but nothing to objectively dismiss it for.
I have read some bad fucking Star Wars books in my youth. Still love them. Even Darksaber, where a random hutt builds a death star because it's actually even easier to build planet-destroying weapons than Disney made it seem.
To be fair, he failed because he cheaped the fuck out. Instead of making it bigger, he made it smaller and just included the laser part with no space station parts. And then it blew up because he built it in an asteroid field.
Look all I'm saying is, if you didn't laugh your absolute ass off as Grampa Itchy watched softcore porn in the family room while everyone was still there, then something is deeply wrong with you.
I think everyone, OP included need to step back and realize that Star Wars is a corporate product, not a philosophy/religion/political way of life. (Yes, yes, I know about muh Jedi religion). From the first movie, Lucas had toy sales in mind even before the movie was completed. The "world building" was designed to maximize the number of toy action figures and vehicles. Ironically, one of the reasons Disney has failed with SW is that they neglected the toy designs. There is no need to do free advertising for Disney or become their evangelical missionaries.
The entire problem with the sequels is that they flushed all of the book canon down the toilet so that Disney could skull fuck the franchise for a quick buck.
Trouble is that they even killed future stories that would resolve started plotlines. They could easily have made the Sword of the Jedi into the sequel trilogy. But noooo, instead they just stumbled into it without any coherent plan.
Woa. many books were way better than much of the media. books should be like the first step or maybe two I guess after original trilogy. mmm. this starts really late to. I don't even make it to step one.