TMBTM said:
I wanted to add to my previous comment that even if the Sequels seams to have been made without a clear plan, I also feel that the Prequels had a weird structure.
-Spending a full first movie introducing some characters and things that are not developed in the second one.
-Having a second episode that lots of fans don't like...
-Having all the intersting story plots shown in the last movie... wait...
depending on how episode 9 will be, it's a bit the same thing, don't you think?
the PT's structure wasn't going to be this weird. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan were supposed to be just one character - Obi-Wan - and Anakin was going to be a young adult. the reason for the changes:
- Lucas realized that he wasn't ever showing how a regular Master/Padawan relationship was supposed to be, so the audience would never see how different and unique Obi-Wan's relationship to Anakin was. in order to do that he made Obi-Wan the Padawan, and gave him a master.
- he also realized that there was an element lacking: what would emotionally attach Anakin to Tattooine so much to make him leaving such a heartbreaking moment? so he chose to make him a kid and have it be leaving his mom.
Lucas was also making stuff up on the spot during the PT, but since it was a one man effort it was less... heterogeneous, in a way. IMO, for the issues above, he could've just ignored the first issue, and he could've made Anakin be a young adult/teen that has to take care of his little brother, Owen. but anyways, he was under a lot of pressure at the time, and like it's been said infinite times, he was alone in making them.
but that made Episode I have to be set many years before the actual story of the PT, which kind of screwed Lucas' plans big time and made him have to condense the entire story onto two movies.
i also think it's really interesting how AotC is regarded as the worst nowadays. growing up, me and all my friends and basically everyone I knew agreed that TPM was by far the worst, AotC was good and RotS fantastic. i still hold that opinion (though TFA is rock botttom in my ranking), and TLJ is in between AotC and TPM to me.
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concerning the discussion about the book, i think that Lucas deeply regrets the sale. he's still that 1970s revolutionary, and he must be incredibly mad at himself for selling his company - and therefore his IPs. and i don't mean that from a business or money standpoint - i don't think he cares about those much anymore - i mean from a creator of art standpoint. from a writer/director standpoint. they were his movies, it was his universe, and now they're somehow not anymore? someone else "owns" them? i mean that sounds incredibly... insane to me. it might be how stuff is legally but i really don't see it that way, and i don't think Lucas does either. and we seem to share the opinion on TFA, so when he was displeased with what was done to his story he must've really started voicing his unhappiness.