How Prequels Worked...The Way Sequels Never Will

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Intro
02:39 Sponsor
04:05 Part 1: The Strength of The Fan-connection
08:04 Part 2: Clones and Balls
11:30 Part 3: The Visionary Checklists
14:48 Conclusion

[Nutsa]

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[ryancoupland]

"The prequels had a story to tell, and the sequels had boxes to check" FACTS

[talen]

Also the Duel between Obi Wan and Anakin lived up to the hype. The whole prequel triology was literally worth it for that one duel we all knew was comming. And it delivered.

[bdragon]

I unironically loved the prequels when they came out, and I've only grown to love them more as time has passed.

[AliothAncalagon]

For me the Prequels were an incredible feat regarding world building.
Great dialogues could have turned the Prequels into much better films.
But great world building created one of the richest universes there is to tell a story.

[TBroomey]

I think one of the hugest differences is that the world of the prequels is interesting. That’s why there’s so much media around that era, you can tell that there’s an entire galaxy out there and the factions are interesting. There are genuine questions like “are the separatists really the bad guys?” Or “have the Jedi fallen from their old grace?” That can be explored. The rich word is why so many “what If” videos are made about it.

On the other hand, the sequels feel like there’s nothing going on outside of the main characters story. We don’t know what the new republic is like, we don’t know what the first order is like - their power is so inconsistent throughout the trilogy. It doesn’t leave us with interesting questions or possibilities, I’ve seen barely any “what if” videos about the sequels. And that seems to reflect how the sequel
World really isn’t interesting

[Grymbaldknight]

_Revenge of the Sith_ remains my favourite Star Wars film. It's not perfect, but its story is an absolute masterpiece, the action scenes are epic, the comedy hits just right, and the tragedy cuts my heart out. The visual symbolism is superb, and the dialogue - although stilted and unnatural at times - is memorable because it was written to be so. It's why so many scenes in the film became memes; because they stick in your head, and can be used as cultural shorthand to convey ideas.

Lucas learned the lessons of his previous two films, for the most part, and absolutely delivered the best film he possibly could. It's not a coincidence that most of the Star Wars spin-offs happen around RotS - either just before, during the Clone Wars, or just after, during the Rise of the Empire. It's because the fundamental narrative which Lucas created, and the characters he gave life to, were compelling and interesting. Plus, the visual aesthetic of RotS was absolutely mind-blowing.

Compare that to the sequels, though - no vision, no story, tonal issues, inconsistencies, unlikeable characters, weak narratives... the list of problems goes much further than just "the dialogue was bad" or "one of the characters was goofy and I didn't like that".

[Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

At least the prequels made the OT better, it builds up the story in the OT and expands the world. Suddenly Darth Vader and Luke's arcs, the fall of the Empire, and the Jedi rising back up have even more weight because the prequels provided us with the backstory to show us just certain characters fell to the Dark Side and how certain institutions were destroyed.

The sequels just retroactively made the OT pointless and meaningless. They rob all of the main OT characters of having achieved anything important or lasting. They fundamentally destroyed major character arcs and also lack focus. Like the prequels helped establish Darth Vader's story and made him even more central to saga, but he sequels completely lacked any focus on him. Anakin is irrelevant to the sequels when he's supposed to be the main character of the entire film series. Not only that, they made the universe feels so small where the prequels made the world feel so big.

In the end, even if you didn't like the prequels, they never caused any harm, they never made anything worse. But the sequels destroyed everything that made Star Wars Star Wars and replaced the iconic OT with an inferior versions of itself with inferior characters who only exist at the behest of tearing down legacy characters. That is why I and many others can like and even love the prequels but we will never accept the sequels.

[pyronuke]

At least the prequels told a consistent story across the trilogy.

[miroslavjanecek]

I was born the same year Phantom Menace came out. I grew up with the prequels. I have loved them since the first time when I watched them, being 6-7 years old.
I still love them.
I also like the original trilogy very much. It is a classic.

Sequels... did not happen for me. One of the biggest, if not THE biggest, cinematic failures in history.

[Nutsa]

A note: PLEASE, PLEASE for the sake of god igonre some mispronounced words.

Look, I'm trilingual and most of my vocabulary was formed by reading so please don't be that person.

My English is something I really worked hard on for many, many years and I'm still learning. Give me a space to grow. 🙏

Feel free to criticize what I speak and not HOW I speak it.

[choreomaniac]

The Prequels improved movie by movie. The sequels got worse and worse.
Supplemental material greatly improved the prequels. Nothing has improved the sequels.
The prequels didn’t destroy the legacy of a hero character. If anything it tried too hard to humanize a villain. That is forgivable. But nothing in the Prequels diminished the heroism, courage or greatness of Luke, Leia or Han. The Sequels showed that the OT was pointless. Palpatine was still alive. The New Order was basically the Empire. Luke was a bitter useless old man and Han and Leia didn’t live happily ever after.
The prequels had too many villains but they were villainous. The sequel villains became feckless and ridiculous. Kylo is a petulant boy fans want to ship with the hero. Hux devolves into a buffoon. Snoke is killed quickly before actually becoming a menace.

[ChrisS-vtbw]

I enjoy your content. Ewan McGregor reportedly loved being in Star Wars. He specifically studied Alec Guinness in his role as Obi-Wan to get the voice tone and pacing. McGregor is also the nephew of Denis Lawson who played Wedge Antilles (one of the Red Squadron fighters) which technically makes him a second-generation Star Wars actor.

[MrRapmaster]

The prequels had balls, the sequels didn't. Even if the prequels were crappy films, they tried to do something different and even then were constrained in having to tie up loose ends. The sequels had so much creative freedom and they just played it so vanilla and haphazard. Great video Nutsa, glad I found this channel!

[Para]

To me, it's simple.
The Prequels were movies told by a passionnate storyteller. He loved the univers he created and wanted to share it with us. He was passionnate and managed to tell a consistent story, which, albeit flawed, was nonetheless very interesting to follow. Lucas put his soul into these movies.

The sequels are made by a soulless company. There is no passion behind, there is no story to be shared, there is just money to be made.

[gianb]

The first star wars thing I ever watched was the Clone Wars on Cartoon Network as a kid. Funnily enough I had no idea who Anakin was going to become. In my 10 year old head Anakin and Vader were two different characters cause I hadn't watched the movies. When I found out that anakin turned into vader... my heart broke in a million pieces. I don't know how many people experienced star wars this way, cause older fans were going into the prequels knowing exactly who Anakin was, but that emotional impact hit hard. Years and years later the emotional impact of Season 7 hits just as hard.
For me the best thing about the prequels is that they let your imagination run wild. We got hundreds of stories based around Order 66 and it's such an iconic tragedy that has been retold in many many unique ways. The films are the tip of the iceberg inviting you to dive and check out everything underneath the surface, the sequels just don't feel to anything new. There's nothing except the battle of jakku that makes your imagination go. I used to love SW with all my heart, now it's been years since I watched a SW movie. Very sad, shame on Disney....

[StephensCrazyHour]

Put simply, the reason the prequels were bad was execution. The reason the sequels were bad was that they had no substance. One flaw is infinitely more fatal than the other.

[bossman]

One of my best friends who loves Star Wars like me said it best. We’d discuss the sequels when they came out and when it was over he said “The prequels had hokey dialogue and writing but at least the story made sense and was pretty solid. The sequels have better dialogue but the story makes no sense.”

[BSwims]

Her reasoning at 7:35 is exactly why I refused to consider the sequel trilogy cannon. They reset Han's character arc, making him the basically tolerable jerk that he was back in ANH, gave Leia force abilities to "make her more powerful and equal to Luke" when she didn't need them to be an amazing role model for young girls, and completely destroyed the optimistic "I can save him" Luke into a "Nah, my nephew is a lost cause, man" pessimist jerk. Not to mention KILLING ALL OF THEM OFF.
Great video, Nutsa, you've earned another happy subscriber!

[pronghornllc]

The clone wars didn’t validate the prequels, the show exists because the world and conflict of the prequels so rich and cool in the first place.

I don’t think you give the prequels their due credit in a lot of areas. Some of John Williams best music is in episodes 2 and 3 and I do believe that he rose to the occasion as a composer to provide for a timeless, powerful story.

You do raise a ton of good points tho.