I proudly call myself a fangirl. I’m known among certain circles as the Queen of Star Wars Trivial Pursuit and hold the title of “Unbeatableâ€. When the Special Edition versions of the Original Saga hit theaters I was there each time for opening night, right after school, in costume. So when Phantom Menace was ready to come out I spent all day in line just for tickets for myself and my sci-fi literature class. I stood in line opening night in costume, ready to experience what I thought would be the next great installment of a fandom that held an almost religious meaning for me.
I left the theater that night with my head down, lightsaber drooping and a feeling that I had been terrorized by a strange alien with a horrible way of speaking.
It’s true. I hated Episode 1 in so many ways. Jar Jar Binks, Padmé, Midi-chlorians and so on. They all made me shiver with loathing and I wondered what George Lucas could have been thinking. The only part that I enjoyed without question (and still do) was the duel between Darth Maul and Qui-Gon. That was amazing to watch and the music that was paired with it, “Duel of the Fates†had me shivering. Too bad they kept cutting back to Anakin in his spaceship which I really didn’t care about.
Even with this disappointment I help out hope for Episode 2: Attack of the Clones. Again, I went on opening night, this time not in costume. (that alone should indicate my disappointment with the series at that moment) I walked out of that movie not disappointed but angered! As you know, Attack of the Clones introduced Jango Fett, “father†of Boba who was a clone of Jango. If you’ve ever read his backstory, written before the prequels came out, you know that Boba Fett was originally a human (an ugly human) named Jaster Mereel from the world of Concord Dawn. It was a great backstory and many folks loved it! George Lucas even accepted it as canon….until this movie.
Yep. As you well know, Boba’s entire backstory was retconned in a horrible way. Not even the awesome visual of Yoda in a lightsaber battle could help me get past what had been done to my favorite character in the fandom.
After that I didn’t even see Revenge of the Sith in the theaters. As a matter of fact I avoided watching it at all until about 2 years ago. The only redeeming thing about the movie was Obi Wan’s emotion at the end of the film, screaming at Anakin. The rest of the time I was bored to tears by the wooden acting of the movie’s two lovebirds. I swear that Anakin only had one expression: emo. How he ever went from that to the totally badass Darth Vader in the Original Saga is beyond me and probably takes a leap of faith greater than the one that Indiana Jones took in “Last Crusadeâ€.
So…in a nutshell, the things that made me absolutely hate the prequels and still swear to this day that they don’t exist:
1. Midi-chlorians
2. The Great Boba Fett Retcon
3. The absolutely wooden acting of Anakin and Amidala
4. Jar Jar Binks
5. Jango Fett
I shudder even thinking about those things for a blog. I’m now going to have to watch Empire Strikes Back when I get home just to put my mind to rest.
I’d love to hear what things bothered you about the prequels. Even better if you happened to enjoy them and can explain to me why. 🙂
