A lot of committed Star Wars fans weren’t best pleased when they saw what George Lucas had created as a precursor to his iconic original trilogy of films. They abandoned the charming practical effects and character-driven stories in favor of green screen animations and all-out warfare.
In the process, he also disregarded certain things he had created himself in the original trilogy. These retcons and expansions make a few things about the original saga a bit more confusing than they once were.
Midichlorians
The most controversial thing George Lucas did with his prequel trilogy was attempting to explain the force. The whole idea behind it was originally that it was some sort of mystical, unexplained thing that held the universe together and ran through everyone.
For some reason, Lucas decided to reduce this down to some sort of biological infestation which meant Anakin had a particularly high midichlorian count, and therefore became very strong with the force. Luckily, everyone hated this particular device so much that it was never mentioned in a canon film again, even if Lucas stated that his own version of the sequel trilogy would have dived deep into the little lifeforms
They Suggest That Technology Devolved
The prequels see a few very strange pieces of technology that seem years beyond anything in the original trilogy. Everyone in the Jedi council is sitting in strange little seats, Yoda floats around all day and the Government building is made up of masses and masses of floating pods. When we see the originals, which are set after these films, everything has reduced in quality, looking less modern and far less technologically advanced.
Yoda Trained Obi-Wan
It is made abundantly clear when Obi-Wan and Yoda are having their little force ghost chats that Yoda was Obi Wan’s master when he was younger. There is no mention of Qui Gon Jinn (who is apparently the one who learned to become one with the force in the first place, so technically should be with them in the original trilogy), and certainly no mention of Obi-Wan having a different master. Despite this, The Phantom Menace shows Qui Gon as Obi Wan’s master throughout.
Yoda’s Acrobatics
In fact, there is a lot of inconsistency between Yoda’s portrayal in the prequels in comparison to the original trilogy. When we first meet him in episode 5, where he is a cute little puppet who walks around very slowly and needs a stick.
About thirty years earlier, he was busy backflipping over the head of Count Dooku and single-handedly keeping back the impressive lightsaber skills of Emperor Palpatine. Considering he was over 900 years old in both trilogies, what could possibly have happened in those thirty years that aged him so incredibly quickly.
Jedi Fighting Style In General
The original trilogy of films didn’t have access to the same level of technology that the sequels had at its disposal. As such, the lightsaber fights were originally strange, wooden and slow, leaving the fighters no choice but to swing their weapon directly into the path of the other.
The prequels turned this on its head, giving Jedi ridiculously impressive powers to flip everywhere, move way too fast and dash their lightsaber around like it is as light as a feather while fighting off a guy with a two-ended weapon. Honestly, the latter is much more fun to watch, but it still doesn’t really make sense when compared to Lucas’ original depiction.
Leia’s Memories Of Padme
When Luke and Leia are talking about their mum (who, they don’t know, was called Padme), Leia explains that she can remember a little bit about her and what she was like. This, understandably, led the audience to believe that Padme was around for a while and tragically died young. Revenge Of The Sith ignores this line entirely, killing Padme mere seconds after she had finished naming the kids. If Leia really could remember her mother, then she has some seriously impressive memory skills.
Boba Fett’s Origin Story
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as it built on the character, but Boba Fett’s prequel origin story does go a little far. Considering Boba Fett has about five lines and rather unceremoniously dies in Return Of The Jedi, it would be fair to assume that he really was just a passing bounty hunter who didn’t get up to much.
Making his father Jango one of the main players in Attack Of The Clones (and using him as the clone template) and introducing Boba as a kid was a strange move that probably added a little too much unnecessary backstory.
Various Design Changes
There are a lot of things that change their appearance between the original and prequel trilogies. Probably down to Lucas’ desire to give his audience as much to devour as possible while keeping his designs as modern and interesting as he could, many of the well-known types of ship (A-Wing, X-Wing) change design noticeably, while the Jedi robes are hugely different between the trilogies.
‘Great’ Pilot
Obi-Wan makes it very clear to Luke that his father was a great pilot from the moment he met him. Anakin was a pilot, yes, but the prequels showed that the first time Obi-Wan saw him fly, he really wasn’t anything special. Considering the pod race was basically only there to prove to the audience that Anakin was known for his flying ability, he got into his fair share of scrapes, and only really lucked himself to the end. His actual flying ability remained questionable at best.
Darth Vader Built C-3PO
Truly the most pointless piece of fan service in Star Wars history came towards the start of The Phantom Menace when we are introduced to a droid Anakin has been making, called C-3PO. It’s a nice call-back, but there pretty much isn’t a single layer that works. Firstly, the sort of thing C-3PO is capable of wouldn’t even pop into the head of a child, so it makes no sense that Anakin would program him in that way.
More important, however, is the fact that Vader and 3PO come face to face without either of them ever recognizing or even mentioning the presence of the other. That’s because there was no plan to make this happen, and it’s the ultimate example of the prequels disregarding the original trilogy.
