People who dislike the prequels are fine, that's a logical opinion to have. What's annoying are people who won't shut up about how much they hate the prequels, like it's a badge of honor that shows they're a real fan. They'll come into any topic and find a way to make it about how much the prequels suck, or how you're an idiot if you enjoy the prequels, and then link Plinkett at you.
Yeah, I haven't been hardcore into the Star Wars culture, so I have not been aware of that side of things until relatively recently.
It's a real puzzle to me how some can be like that and say all sorts of bad things about George Lucas, yet claim that they like Star Wars.
For example I also like other stories like Discworld as well as A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of thrones). Things have happened in those worlds and stories that just didn't appeal to me at all. They are somewhat different being books but I never cursed out the creator and wishing they'd leave their creations up to someone else, and then saying those parts of the story or characters don't count as I didn't like them for whatever reason as the creator knows that world and characters best.
Then there's Jim Henson who I have admired for years and brought things like Labyrinth to life (which George also worked on), and whilst I appreciate many of his creations are still going on without him, if I had the choice between Jim continuing to work with his world's, or leaving them behind for someone else to do I'd choose for Jim to stay, but some who claim to be Star Wars fans seem to be crazy enough to actually want George dead.
I have only recently ventured back into the Star Wars fandom in the lead up to The Force Awakens, as I wasn't really apart of it during The Clone Wars nor much of the EU stuff. I've recently purchased the clone Wars on bluray (as well as lost missions), and so am catching up on that as I wasn't really aware of it until now. The last time I was looking at Star Wars stuff like now though was for the prequels. I liked Star Wars before then but it mostly consisted of thinking Yoda, Chewbacca and R2 were cool and liking the Ewoks cartoon which I watched on TV when it came out, Darth Vader was cool too, but I thought his name was Dark. I wasn't that much into Star Wars but I still preferred it over things like Star Trek as Star Trek mostly consisted of just humans or human like figures. Anyway I thought it was so exciting for new Star Wars movies to be coming out, and to be able to see what Darth Vader was like before he got to be Darth Vader. I saw phantom menace and loved it. Thought Queen Amidala was really interesting. Loved the podracing. Loved seeing Yoda not being confined to a little swamp, and hear more quotes from him. Loved seeing Obi Wan have someone who taught him (Qui Gonn), and I so loved what Weird Al did for it with The Saga Begins too (used to request the video clip to be played so many times). First time I picked up multiple Star Wars merchandise and books was here, as I had only been given a Darth Vader mask and ewok figure previously. Only problem I really had with the film is that it wasn't that easy for me to understand the stuff about tax routes and trade federation. Oh and I didn't like what happened to Qui Gonn Jin at the end, as I thought he was cool. I do not recall any badmouthing of the film then, like some like to do now.
In the lead-up to Attack of the clones I was looking forward to that too as we'd see Anakin as not a little kid any more, and I was interested to see what he'd look like then (had also gained a crush on Natalie Portman too). Started visiting
www.theforce.net more regularly to stay up to date and find more info and still I don't recall people spouting bad things towards George or the prequels. Movie came out, thought it was cool again and liked Seeing Yoda more up and about too and interesting to watch the multiple Australian actors in it due to it being shot here.
Third movie came out, was good to see but also sad, but I guess it was always meant to be the story of how Anakin messed up and became Vader. Apart from Padme dying and Anakin not trusting Mace, my biggest disappointment was that Liam didn't return for Qui Gonn force ghost as I recall there being rumours of it at the time and how he somehow yelled at Anakin at some stage or saw Yoda (but I hear The Clone Wars series will finally somewhat help me out with that), although Yoda does mention him at the end.
Anyway, shortly after that I stopped visiting things for Star Wars info as I thought that was the end of the story so I'm bummed I missed out on The Clone Wars series as it happened, but apart from the joking from some towards Star Wars stuff as being for nerds I wasn't really aware of any negativity towards George (apart from the whole Han/greedo shot first stuff) nor the prequels. Whilst the films aren't Shakespeare, I did want to know the story of Vader before he was Vader, and what was the history between him and Obi Wan. I am also thankful towards them for showing me more Wookiees than just Chewbacca and being able to see Yoda away from a little swamp able to actually jump, and hold a lightsaber. So I don't know why some who claim to like Star Wars can be against the prequels for showing them that. I'd hate to still be wondering today what Vader's story was before he actually became Vader, and if all we associated Yoda with was having a little hut by a swamp.
Some like to claim it's the script, they don't like. If there are any issues with words I just put that down to Star Wars being in another galaxy and therefore they obviously have different thoughts and so forth so it doesn't bother me, or the character is simply like that. Others claim the prequels somehow damage the original films. I don't see that either, these are set before them and as I said before I'm glad we found out the story about Vader before he was Vader, as well as more Wookiees and more Yoda. More recently when I see people try to provide a reason for the prequels as being bad they mention some Plinkett or red letter media, as if they're some great final commandment from some ancient God somewhere. So supposedly the prequels were fine when they were released but since some review comes out recently they're not fine anymore? In that case you can use reviews for everything and anything to explain why something isn't good. I'm not really going to take a review seriously when they had no input into Star Wars.
Anyway, probably my longest post on neogaf and I think it's my first in this thread. Just saw some posts discussing some peoples points on negativity towards the prequels, and it just stuns me how some can say they like Star Wars but be against some of the films done by the creator. I think it's sad. It's not something I sensed at the time of their release so it puzzles me all the more now as I remember it being an exciting time for Star Wars. Probably doesn't help how people can more easily spread venom on things like YouTube, twitter, Facebook and the like as they couldn't back then, but still there were discussion sites for Star Wars.
As for the Force Awakens I like it, but also feel a bit sad about it. I guess George sold Star Wars for whatever reasons but I'd love to know more of what his plans were for the universe and its characters and how much it differs to the new film.
getting ready for Darth Vader as well!