What I thought the Prequels would be like (Long before they ever came out...)

[@carternorton2682]

Having grown up after the prequels came out, the idea of not knowing anything about that time period is a weird thing to think about

[@dozyproductionss]

I bet. Hearing about the clone wars, before the prequel movies came out, barely registered when watching A New Hope.

[@cartersminis]

As a kid hearing “the clone wars” seemed like just a passing phrase. None of us really thought of it as a big deal. I didn’t even know what a clone was at the time. 😂

[@kevinfisher5492]

Oh I remember the old crazy summer holiday speculation about the "clone wars" when I was a kid. One topic was: What if Obi-Wan was really OB-1, a clone?

[@zachcurtis1283]

Dude, cool theory. I imagine a lot of fascinating ideas and theories were going around back then, before the prequels came out.

[@thefarlander2050]

Oh my god I thought I was the only one who used to think that! When I was little I used to think Obi-Wan was some type of clone and there were other "Obi's" out there in the galaxy, and that there may be an OB-2 that's like his evil doppelganger xD

[@HandofOmega]

IIRC, the EU Thrawn Trilogy had an insane clone of a Jedi Master...and the original intention was that he was a clone of Obi-Wan! Lucasfilm vetoed this, so they made him an original character, but their reaction made many at the time think this theory was true and would be revealed in the then-upcoming prequels!

[@russellharrell2747]

Yeah, I thought about this too, especially since ROTJ novelization stared Owen Lars was Obi-wan’s brother, and O1 could have been a clone as well.

[@vonsowards1297]

For much of my childhood I always thought the films of episodes I, II, III were already made but my family didn't own them and that copies were extremely rare. I always imagined that someday I would go into someone's basement and find the VHSs of Star Wars I, II, and III and finally watch it.

[@HandofOmega]

And now you can!😊

[@Boltgunmetal94]

If only! 1970s versions of the prequels would have been interesting!

[@shanerjedi1138]

LOL. I had a friend whose dad traveled to Japan occasionally in the early 80s and this friend told me his dad ran into Episodes 1,2,3 in a video store.

[@steve93pa]

I never thought about that. I grew up watching the prequels. I didn't know the originals existed till RoTS was about to release and learning that episodes 4,5,6 already exist was a surprise to me. And when I did see them all, I liked them even more, I guess especially because I had watched the prequels and was watching the story in order lol

[@nakaitheqb]

I'm currently rewatching all of Star Wars in Chronological order and I'm not sure how anyone can hate the prequels. They have some flaws like any other movies but they're so good. Just some good Star Wars

[@Milothemighty10]

Revenge of the sith blew me away when I was a kid and it still does…

[@cacuevas]

I take Jar Jar Binks over any sequel character

[@joehenry9546]

I think most fans love the prequels, even those that grew up with the original trilogy like myself.

[@kingrubbatiti1285]

As I said on another Thor video,when the prequels came out,I went into them knowing they would be nothing like the OT. I swear the hate from them was partly to do with people expecting the OT Mk 2 then reacting when we got something different. For all their faults,they still felt like SW compared to the Sequels.

[@tomch6799]

I still believe that a lot of hate came long after they came out. When they were coming out i don't remember almost anyone saying they hated them, some said attack of the clones was boring but episode 3 was considered pretty good. Nothing like what happened with the sequels. But to be fair that is my experience not having internet at the time and just with people i know

[@zephodb]

The whole 'hokey old religion' line from TOT it made me think that the Jedi had been in decline before the Clone Wars, like there were giant empty temples from a much larger Jedi Order all over the universe, maybe tens of thousands a long time ago but they had winnowed down to a smaller number, like when Yoda was young (at over 700 years) they probably were pre-decline, but it had shrunk and the last were hunted down.

[@LumVaughan]

Thor, I was 10 when a New Hope came out. I can answer your question about why you thought the stormtroopers were clones. After ANH was released, there was a Star Wars fan newsletter thingy that was produced in Britain (not sure why) and would appear sporadically here in the US at bookstores. It would unfold to reveal a five foot long poster of one of the SW Characters. I had C-3PO in my bedroom hanging on a wall from this newsletter. The crazy part was, to display the poster, you'd lose access to the newsletter thingy which was printed on the other side. Anyway, in one of those few-times-a-year issues, they would field a few questions from fans and I think someone at Lucasfilm would give a more or less official (for the time) answer. One I remember being asked was about the Stormtroopers and that issue had a five foot stormtrooper fold-out. The data on the other side of the poster that was part of the newsletter thingy said that stormtroopers were all clones and that they wore full helmets because seeing their own face over and over again would drive them crazy. Another issue had data on the upcoming character from TESB that had been featured in the Star Wars Holiday Special (you can watch a grainy copy of it on KZbin, BTW) Boba Fett. The article said that Boba's armor was of a type worn during the Clone Wars and I for some reason thought that the Jedi would have worn it. There was no mention of Mandalorians back in the late 1970s. I always thought (back then) that Luke (and later Leia's) mother died when they were small, for what Leia said about memories of her (which is amazing as Leia was only hours old when Padme died). I remember reading somewhere that Darth Vader had been knocked into a volcano by Obi Wan and that was why he wore the suit. I pictured almost the scene from Return of the King, a regular round volcano like Mount Doom where the battle was fought. I also wondered back then why Luke would have kept using the surname Skywalker if Darth Vader had killed his father, and this question, following TESB morphed into why would Owen let Luke use his Skywalker name which Darth Vader would have easily found. ("Let's see, a blonde haired boy about twenty years old, living with my step brother and his wife, using the name Skywalker...hmmmm?" I honestly didn't have a clue what the prequels would be about, except for Anakin betraying the Jedi and becoming Darth Vader, but the simple stories of the original trilogy grew much more complex and rich after the prequels. Sadly, I wish I could say the same thing for the sequels...

[@DavidSmith-mt7tb]

I always thought Owen actually knew Anakin. The way he talks about him gives the impression that he held a grudge in a way that you only can for someone you actually knew, rather than briefly met one time. Like Anakin got taken as a Jedi after his mother married Cleed Lars. I also thought the clone wars was a war where both sides were using clones, or at least the enemies were, cause usually a country names wars like that. Like in the US we call stuff the Korean War or Vietnam war cause that's who we fought in those wars, not who we fought with. The idea that the "good guys" were fighting with effectively a slave army of clones was a bit dark. But given they did also become the Empire I guess it makes sense kind of.

[@jeremyfields9009]

Yeah Lucas could’ve done more with uncle Owens. He definitely had some type of falling out with Anakin and Kenobi.

[@CrazyxEnigma]

Also thought Yoda is who trained Obi-Wan he says as much in ESB. Idk if Lucas just forgot about small details like that or if just didn't care about them.

[@jeremyfields9009]

@@CrazyxEnigma I think he didn’t care, it seems like he wanted the freedom to explore new ideas and not be shackled to a story he created in the 70s/80s. The thing is it makes the whole saga inconsistent and clumsy. I remember watching a video review of better call Saul and the reviewer said it takes great discipline to do a successful prequel because u gotta make sure you don’t contradict anything from the original story. yes u can introduce new stuff but u gotta make sure it has zero effect on the already established story.

[@DavidSmith-mt7tb]

@@jeremyfields9009 I've always said that as well. Additionally, you have to deal with the fact that the audience probably has spoilers for the story. Though honestly I think Lucas did a good job overall. There were a few inconsistencies, but mostly minor. And he made the story interesting and not super predictable.

[@HandofOmega]

@@CrazyxEnigma I think that's why there's the scene of Yoda training the younglings in Ep II, so that this can be a "certain POV" truth...Altho I agree, we're definitely meant to think he was Yoda's padawan in Empire!

[@Chosen_one_501]

The whole Jedi robes thing makes a lot of sense for the prequels. The ot already established that it’s what the Jedi wear when you consider that not only does Ben wear it, but also Anakins force ghost at the end of ROTJ.

[@charlessalvia7176]

But Anakin was also from Tatooine so it's still unclear

[@Chosen_one_501]

@@charlessalvia7176 dude seriously? It’s not like once you’re from Tatooine, you’re stuck in those robes. It’s like you’re looking to poke holes in it when there aren’t any. Lol. Plus at the time, did we even know he was from Tatooine? Wasn’t that established in the phantom menace?

[@TheVorran]

​@Chosen_one_501 Probably not an incredible leap at the time to assume he's from the same planet his (step) brother lives on

[@Milothemighty10]

Growing up with the prequels alongside the original trilogy felt like a gift after the Disney buyout I never knew how lucky me and my cousins were, yes there are some stuff that came from the Disney era that I enjoy but still just back when it was mostly the original six idk it just felt like everything was good…

[@cacuevas]

Same bro, we don’t know what we have until we lose it

[@Milothemighty10]

@@cacuevas yes before the dark time before the sequels. Im sorry but I personally hate those movies and in my opinion they disrespect the story the prequels and the original trilogy. Even my older sister who is still relatively new to Star Wars doesn’t seem to want to check them out…

[@cacuevas]

@@Milothemighty10 Completely agree. They don’t even deserve to be called sequels, they are a reboot more than anything

[@ShamanMcLamie]

I don't think we'll ever have anything like that ever again. What I remember most about that time wasn't just the movies being released, but the fanfare and media surrounding it. From 1997 with the release of the Special Editions till 2005 when Revenge of the Sith came out the Star Wars franchise was hitting all cylinders. Star Wars books, comics, games, toys, merchandise, etc. were everywhere. You had the Shadows of the Empire and Clone Wars multimedia projects. Every kid was talking about Star Wars and enjoying the deluge of content.

[@chasehedges6775]

Revenge Of The Sith was the last good SW movie. We just didn’t know it. The best trick of all. It must be the will of God and The Force at work.

[@originaldarkwater]

I remember someone (might have been Starlog magazine) pointing out that Obi-Wan could also be written as OB-1, a droid-like designation that implies that Obi-Wan, himself, might have been a clone. It seems like an idea that Lucas might have started out with and then discarded somewhere along the way, maybe thinking that having clones connected to The Force would muddy the waters between the technological Sith/Empire and the non-technological (relatively speaking) Jedi. But it would have been an interesting way to go.

[@originaldarkwater]

Heh, I just realized.... OB-1 = Old Ben-1? lol

[@mudman619]

I watched the OT in the theaters & had read pretty much all the EU books before '99. We didn't know what to expect really - we knew George had said he was going back in time - we knew they were going to lead up to ANH - other than that, I remember having no real expectations. I remember being most excited for Episode 3, however - we knew there was so much to jam into that last one - but the big speculation was how Padme was going to die & what exact circumstances would force Anakin to the Dark Side. BTW, I just watched TPM last night again & it's actually aging pretty well, except for the still cringe-worthy Jar Jar parts, lol.

[@chaosheaven23]

It's so wild how quick my dad was to pick Palpatine out of a lineup the first time we watched The Phantom Menace together. He got SO hyped when he realized who he was, and I was very "meh" about it because I had no idea why it was important... I couldn't imagine *NOT* knowing the Republic was corrupted from within, lol.

[@Jasandiz]

There were very few lines regarding the prequels era before they came out. I remember a few tips: 1. the first lines of the Star Wars episode 4 novelization by Alan Dean Foster in 1976 saying this: "Aided and abetted by restless, power-hungry indi- viduals within the government, and the massive organs of commerce, the ambitious Senator Palpatine caused himself to be elected President of the Republic. He promised to reunite the disaffected among the people and to restore the remembered glory of the Republic. Once secure in office he declared himself Emperor, shutting himself away from the populace.". Notice how this is more or less the plot of the Phantom Menace decades before it came out. 2. The was some material I remember reading, although not the name of the source, I don't know if it was a magazine or a roleplaying book, that stated in a line or two that indeed the Jedi fought the clones to stop the raise of the newborn empire. I think that the original idea was that the clones were fighting with the Empire as mentioned in this video 3. I recall there is a marvel comic of a younger general Kenobi, but I think he fought pirates, nothing that spoiled anything from the Clone Wars

[@quercusquercus532]

"He promised to reunite the disaffected among the people and to restore the remembered glory of the Republic" MAGFFAGA? I never read that novelization, but I always kinda imagined something mirroring Rome.

[@reznik232]

I can distinctly remember, at the time Return Of The Jedi came out, seeing GL in a tv special saying the black outfit Luke wears was very close to the "uniform" of the Jedi Knights. I can also clearly remember Mark Hamill saying the same thing. And indeed if you look at some of the early concept art for Phantom Menace Obi-Wan and Qui-Gonn are depicted wearing very similar outfits. It surprised me a lot, like Thor, to see all the Jedi dressed as Tatooine peasants. It actually bugged me quite a bit, to be honest.

[@danthomas2146]

You'd think the Jedi would have gone with sleeker outfits instead of being burdened by those cumbersome robes.

[@Kevin_Street]

I never even thought that much about it. Like you said in your video, I don't think I expected the Jedi to wear brown robes. That was just the way people dressed on Tatooine. Also, I thought the clones were the bad guys in the Clone Wars. The Republic becoming the Empire... didn't surprise me too much. I always thought the Empire was going to be something like the Roman Empire, which had started out as a republic. So what happened in the prequels seemed like a natural progression.

[@pelgervampireduck]

I used to think the empire existed for 50 years, Obi Wan looks 70, Vader unmasked looks 60 or 70 too. Also I imagined like everyone else that the "clone wars" was "evil clones attack the galaxy", I never imagined the clones would be made by the Jedi or the republic.

[@88DreadGT]

I was 7 in 1977 when I saw Star Wars and was so hooked. The toys, the cards, everything! Back then my friend had a magazine from 1978 where Lucas said that the Stormtroopers were clones. So, I figured the Jedi were fighting the Empire during the clone wars and that was what the war was about; fighting the Empire for amassing armies of clones to oppress the galaxy and the Jedi lost. It wasn't until the 90's or early 2000s that it was decided that Imperial Stormtroopers were conscripts and recruits. I grew in the late 70s and early 80s believing they were clones. Even today when you rewatch the OT all the troops have the same voice (even the Biker Scouts in ROTJ.)

[@ericvulgate]

I remember seeing a starwars role playing game in the early 90's and there was a recruitment poster for storm troopers in the rule book.

[@theophany1770]

I thought the Storm Troopers were clones as well. I don't remember where I got the idea. If we're being technical though, clone Storm Troopers wouldn't be different heights like the ones Han and Luke beat up and then disguised themselves as. Remember Leia saying Luke was the shortest Storm Trooper she ever met in IV? By the way, I was 7 in '77 too!😀

[@WhoWouldWantThisName]

@@theophany1770 Actually I remember George and others talking about the casting of the actors playing the stormtroopers and they had to be 6 ft. tall, give or take an inch I think. As I remember it the purpose was because they were supposed to be clones. Now they did need to manage to have Ford and Hammill both in stormtrooper armor for the rescue so given their height difference I think they fudged on this a bit to make that work out. I don't remember the troopers ever really being different in height though, other than Han and Luke. I really think this is where we got the idea that stormtroopers were clones. I don't think it was in the films themselves but just this BTS stuff.

[@judyeure5974]

The main thing I remember from the prequels was that I did not want to watch Revenge of the Sith because of what happened to Anakin. And I did not watch it until it came out on video. That was a really painful thing for me.

[@dannyhuskerjay]

I wasn’t alive but I remember reading the return of the Jedi novel and what we got was similar but still different if that makes sense . So Supposedly the clone wars was a deadly war based off the world wars. The Jedi were not flawed and part of the republic. They were much like the monks in old Japan who were soldiers if the war threaten the peace. Obi wan was one of the greatest teachers of the Jedi and had many students. His favorite was of course anakin. Yoda was the leader of the council and the jedi were more a group of hundreds of monks not a army of thousands . Many Jedi were dying during the clone wars and during this anakin just to survive started tapping into the dark side. Instead of going to yoda or obi wan for help to contain this it became like a drug and he grew in power. On missions every jedi who fought with anakin ended up dying . Concerned yoda started to look into this. Finding anakin had turned to the dark side . Obi wan was then ordered to bring him in. Anakin was not a chosen one and obi wan was not far weaker then him, obi wan himself was a force(no pun intended). The Jedi knew anakin had children so they hid them and his wife knowing anakin maybe unhinge and would kill the children. Owen was actually obi wans brother and they hid luke with him. In case anakin found his wife and leia there would still be Luke who could help rebuild the Jedi. Obi wan and anakin fought on a fire planet with anakin falling into molten pit. But his pure rage helped him crawl out of the pit. There was one more great battle with all the Jedi minus obi wan and yoda being killed. They in turn went into hiding, hearing anakin was saved and became an apprentice to the emperor after the war had ended. Luke and leia were now the last hopes for the Jedi to survive and yoda and obi wan were now far to old to defeat Vader or his emperor. Padme died when leia was 4.

[@rudegarami6738]

I always thought Anakin would be an adult in Episode 1, an ace Z95 Headhunter pilot or some such, and that the Clone Wars involved Mandalorians on the Imperial side, which was hinted at in a story arc in the Marvel Comics. There were science fiction magazines that came out in 1997 that had pictures of Jedi fighting Mandalorians in a “what if….?” scenario.

[@АлексейМомот-щ7о]

So KOTOR was just original prequel what ifs?

[@rudegarami6738]

@@АлексейМомот-щ7о Pretty much! In the Marvel story, Boba Fett was one of three surviving Mandalorian super commandos, the others being Finn Shysha and Tobi Dala. IIRC there were originally 200 of them, and they fought for the Emperor.

[@hettfield]

I really expect Anakin to be 19 like Luke. It would have been better to have him that age and meet Padme. Basically recreate the gang from Ep.4 but then have Anakin and Padme fall in love in Ep.1. The Han character would be Obi-Wan.

[@samuelpedigo9903]

I thought maybe “Darth Vader betrayed and murdered your father” was hinting at Anakin or Vader being a Clone and, perhaps, there was a War of cloned Jedi-who else could take down the entire Jedi Order other than themselves?

[@jamesgravil9162]

"who else could take down the entire Jedi Order other than themselves?" In a way, the Jedi did bring themselves down. From a certain point of view.

[@leighneil]

In the 1980’s, I thought of the clone wars as being fought against the clones. That was reinforced reading the Zahn trilogy in the 1990’s.

[@Angry_Squirrel555]

As someone who was alive for all of the original trilogy movies I always thought the Clone Wars would be more war and less Anakin banging Padme. The Clone Wars cartoon also seemed as if was in a different universe since main characters like Ahsoka didn’t carry over into the movies, nor were they even mentioned.

[@originaldarkwater]

Luke's lightsaber was SUPPOSED to be blue in RoTJ, but then it turned out that blue didn't show up very well against the desert background during the action scenes in and around Jabba's barge, so Lucas changed it to green. Synthetic crystals and all that had nothing to do with it; that was probably just an explanation cooked up by someone writing supplementary material later on.

[@helge666]

The funny thing is, here in West Germany, STAR WARS (Ep. IV) was in the theaters only in 1978, but the novelization (in German language!) was out earlier, and I read it as an 11 year old quite a while before I ever saw the movie. I think I still have the book in my shelf. I had a vague idea what clones were, because at that point I had been reading science fiction for two years. So I thought that the Clone Wars had been a conflict *against* an army of clones. And after finally seeing the movie, I thought it must have been a very long time ago, because Obi-wan seemed so very ancient to little me :-)

[@HandofOmega]

Not just Germany, the novelization was released everywhere earlier in 76, as a form of marketing! I didn't read it then, so I always wondered if the movie matched the images in the heads of those who read it before seeing it...The main thing I remember about it is how shockingly graphic the violence is, there are descriptions of the laser bolts blowing stormtroopers heads apart, their flesh fused with the metal fragments of the helmets, ugh...

[@helge666]

@@HandofOmega I don't remember whether it was so explicit. But there were scenes in the book that were cut from the film, and I remember that apart from that, the book was quite true to the movie, even down to verbatim lines of dialogue.

[@Lee_H9]

I grew up on the OT, and was an older teenager when TPM hit theaters and I struggle to remember what I expected the prequels to look like. But after watching them, I know what were some things I saw that I DIDN'T expect. From a literal standpoint I expected the universe to look a bit more lived in/mechanical like the OT, and less polished. Of course, there would be places like Naboo/Coruscant in a large galaxy, but it wasn't what I expected. Other things that I didn't expect: Anakin and Padme's age difference in TPM. Yeah, I get it that they both grew up and were adults, but starting out back when he was a kid felt odd to me. Furthermore, regarding Padme, I figured she'd raise Leia until her death instead of dying in childbirth as it went along with the Luke/Leia convo that they had in the Ewok Village. I also didn't expect as much slapstick humor, specifically the amount we saw in TPM with JarJar. There was some humor like that in the OT, but to me, it felt like every scene with him involved at least a bit of something that went for a cheap laugh. Finally, I didn't expect myself to feel differently about them than how I felt about the OT. Same universe, same creator/writer/director, same result right? Turns out, nope. He got older, I got older, stuff changes, and I guess I didn't take that into account. I'm not saying it didn't feel like Star Wars to me, it did. It just was a different kind of Star Wars as I didn't grow up on it.

[@ricketyram3142]

I agree with most of the sentiments here, especially regarding the look and feel of the movies. It’s sort of silly in retrospect, but I was not expecting the CGI-heavy look of the prequels, and thought that they be closer to the original trilogy in both looks and tone.

[@Ciero9]

Empire and RotJ weren't directed by Lucas.

[@ktsul12]

I had some expectations on the prequels based on consistency with the OT. 1) I expected Anakin to have more of a relationship with Owen AND Beru. Not to mention, an opportunity to show Owen disagreeing with Anakin about getting involved in the Clone Wars (as what obi-wan said). Therefore, I expected Anakin to be older when he was recruited. 2) I imagined Anakin getting involved in the war effort as a pilot and then meeting Obi-wan during the war, and Obi-wan realizing Anakin is force-sensitive and training Anakin in secret in the beginning. While Obi-wan did seem relatively optimistic in the OT, he did seem to carry some guilt and shame about what happened to Anakin. So I interpreted it as he failed his friend AND the Jedi by not only making the decision to train him, but also doing it in an unconventional way. 3) I did think that Anakin and Luke/Leia's mother (Padme) would have a secret relationship/affair, but I did not imagine an actual marriage. I personally think that was only done to make the films more "family friendly". 4) I absolutely expected Padme to live longer and have a relationship with her daughter. I don't like how Leia remembers her mother and Luke does not when they had the same amount of time with her. So I expected something to happen that would separate them, and then for Padme to pass away when Leia was around 3 to 5. 5) I thought the films would be placed differently in the timeline. I thought it would start with Anakin going to fight in the Clone Wars and meeting obi-wan, and training to be a Jedi, and perhaps meeting Padme as well (Padme could have had any occupation). Not sure how the 2nd and 3rd film would be placed, but definitely have Anakins fall and the rise of the empire of the course of the 2 films. Not sure how it would show Padme's death, if at all though. Of course there is a lot more, but those were the expectations I had that were not met, though some details could have been adjusted. Honestly, I did not mind the prequels for what people usually criticized them for, I was just disappointed with how they aligned with the OT. Some of the pieces just did not fit well. Those are my opinions anyways...

[@hettfield]

I had very similar expectations. Anakin being a young adult (so you have the same actor for all three movies) was the biggest expectation. Basically everything you said, except I didn't think of Anakin having an affair with Padme, although that would make sense. I imagined Anakin being like Luke at the beginning and then ultimately failing where Luke succeeded.

[@HandofOmega]

I always took Luke's line that Dagobath seemed "familiar" to mean that that was where he and Leia had been born! If I were rewriting the prequels, my ep 1 would start with Obi-Wan, already a Jedi Knight crashing on Tatooine with the disguised Queen in tow, escaping her enemies. They are "captured" in the desert by a band of kids, run by the oldest, Anakin (and his sidekick Owen); Obi-Wan just goes along with this to get to civilization; along the way, the bandit leader and the queen start bickering despite an obvious attraction, which amuses Obi-Wan. Suddenly, the group is attacked by a Krayt dragon! While the kids scatter, Obi-Wan draws his lightsaber...As this is the FIRST time we're seeing one (numerically speaking, at least), the filming really gives this moment the gravitas it deserves! After driving off the beast, the group makes it to their hideout, where we watch Owen try to awkwardly flirt with Anakin's sister Beru, who is sort of the "den mother", keeping all the kids fed and healthy. Anakin shows Padme the R2 unit he's restoring (because, really, what use would a protocol droid be there?), and Obi-Wan begins to subtly test the boy to see if his suspicions are correct... I dunno, does that sound like a promising beginning?

[@ktsul12]

@@HandofOmega Oh yea! You reminded me, that was another expectation. Some connection of Luke to Degobah. I thought Luke would have been there as a baby, either born there, or maybe was there as a transition period before going to his Aunt and Uncles.

[@thereseemstobeenanerror1219]

This comment, specifically the bit about anakin being trained in secret. reminds me of someone from obsidian saying that's how they would have written the prequel relationship. To better adjust for how Obi-wan feels both anakin and the jedi for the original trilogy.

[@chadnine3432]

Having Padme die was such a cop-out. I feel like Padme should have gone into hiding, I mean that was her whole schtick in the first two films, that she used misdirection to confuse her enemies. It would be just like her to let the idea that she died on Mustafar be a thing so she could raise Leia in secret, while Obi-Wan took Luke to Tatooine. Maybe a Padme miniseries where she tries to visit Luke and it almost goes wrong with people recognizing her and almost blowing her cover.

[@bbtank3000]

I can't remember how, but when I was a kid, we all had the impression that Anakin fell into a pit of lava, which caused his injuries.

[@RogueWJL]

I always imagined the Clones where the villains and had attacked the Republic. I based this on the prologue in the Alan Dean Foster novel of A New Hope. I also envisaged the Jedi as an elite military group and Anakin was one of its most elite members.

[@ColtonRDean]

So long ago. It’s hard to remember if I had imagined what the prequels could be. I do remember having the perception that Anakin was holding on to something, and Obi-Wan cut off his hand causing him to fall into a “molten pit” of something. But I’m not sure why I had that in mind. Possibly from ROTJ revealing Vader had a robotic hand.

[@macwelch8599]

Having all three movies focus on the Clone Wars and the “Revenge of the Sith” could’ve been interesting 🧐

[@atreides4911]

Agreed but Lucas wanted to focus on the character of Anakin and it needed him to be a kid for one of them

[@chasehedges6775]

Revenge Of The Sith is still awesome, imo.

[@DavidSmith-mt7tb]

​@@atreides4911 Yeah, I'm still on the fence about that decision. After hearing Filoni talk about it I get it more, but it does create a weird who's really the protagonist in ep 1 situation. I actually as an exercise created my own version of how I thought the prequels would be based on the OT but borrowing the over arching concepts of the actual PT, and elected to have Anakin start at Luke's age and jump more directly into the Clone issues. Seemed to make more sense so he could have more agency in the story. Also because I got the sense that Owen and Beru knew him better than they do in the canon timeline, so in this version he lives with them after their parents get married for some time, helps the more introverted Owen get the courage to ask out Beru and such before following Obi-Wan on his "damn fool idealistic crusade". While I still think much of the PT could have been executed better, I do really appreciate the direction he went with it overall.

[@jeremyfields9009]

@@atreides4911 Anakin being a child hindered the key relationships the trilogy needed him to cement in the first film. Both the mentor/adversarial one with Kenobi and the romantic one with Padme. Most of Anakin interactions in the film are with Qui Gon who end up dead by the end of the film, making the minutes we watch them develop a relationship feel wasted. Atleast Luke had a prior relationship with Kenobi before the film started. Now the audience have to wait for the sequel to kick start the character dynamics that should’ve been the center of the trilogy from the very beginning! The last two films gotta play catch up because Lucas wasted so much time on unnecessary stuff in TPM.

[@CrazyxEnigma]

@@jeremyfields9009 looking back it's baffling why George decided to have Qui-Gon be the one Anakin bonded with in TPM. Yeah it kinda adds to the adversarial part of the relationship Obi-Wan saw Anakin as a mere duty to his dead master but fails the friendship part. You can clearly see the fond reminiscence on Obi-Wan's face when he says Anakin was a good friend in ANH but we don't really see that aspect in the prequels we're just told it. Thank God for TCW show fixing that but it shouldn't have had to.

[@matthewwheeler469]

My first introduction to Star Wars was the first Battlefront game from 2004. Specifically, a demo of that game, where the only playable map was Endor. I loved it and later got the full game. I was intrigued by the setting of the game and mythos of the Jedi. But I had never even seen a Star Wars movie, so my perception of it was very skewed. I remember seeing the clip (in Battlefront) where Han shoots at the Stormtroopers on Tatooine and thinking it was Luke lol. I also remember my brother telling me that the story ended with Vader backing Luke off a cliff. It wasn't until probably a year or two later that I was able to watch A New Hope and get a clearer idea of what Star Wars actually was. My parents got me the DVD and I remember watching it over and over. I also played the second Battlefront game religiously, and also fell in love with the prequel era, which was new at the time. I don't remember how I came to know about the whole "I am your father" thing, but I never got to experience the twist properly. I've always regretted that.

[@TheLedonne3]

I thought the Clone Wars would be Obi Wan vs Obi Wan, Anakin vs Anakin etc. I remember playing with friends and talking about how cool tho would be to see. I also thought we would see Yoda training Obi Wan, and more of Like and Leia growing up.

[@t_hetty1758]

I never had the chance to wonder about what the prequels were like cuz I got into Star Wars in 06 and that was prime time era for being a kid in Star Wars. So it is fascinating hearing about what people thought it was gonna be before the films came out.

[@hobbs1701a]

As a kid of 5 back in 1980, I gave a lot of thought to the time Obi Wan spoke of. I thought Luke and Leia's mom went into hiding, giving Luke to Owen, while keeping Leia, and hiding with Bail, until her untimely death, in which Bail and his wife adopted Leia. I always thought the clones were the stormtroopers and helped to turn the Republic into the Empire. I always thought Anakin turned sooner than he actually did. While I like the prequels, I think Lucas kind of messed them up a little, based on the information we got in the OT

[@Ptaaruonn]

Back in the 80s, concearning lightsabers I thought green was the color of a master and blue a learner and once you became a knight you would gain a green blade. As for red... red were the baddies.

[@jaieregilmore971]

Yeah green felt like a true jedi master lightsaber color and the wielder is least fall to the dark side compared to the ones who use the blue lightsabers.

[@bleachdemon7321]

One of the things I thought with the "clone wars" was that the Jedi were cloned and corrupted to the dark side. Where the Dark Side/Empire had destroyed much after Anakin defected.

[@russellharrell2747]

I had some of the same ideas, but I felt the clone war was more about spies and secret agents, with leaders and politicians being replaced by clones on both sides. After all, Obi-wan and Owen were supposed to be brothers in the RotJ novelization, and I figured their names could easily be designations similar to droves, noting their clone status. (OB-1 KEN-OB and O1-LRS for instance).

[@originaldarkwater]

I also assumed that "the Clone Wars" implied clones being used on both sides. From what I understand, Lucas decided to have a droid army because some fans had questioned why the Empire even had Stormtroopers when a droid army would be much more efficient, so Lucas wanted to show why a droid army would have weaknesses that the Empire wouldn't want in their fighting force, i.e. that you could knock out the entire army by destroying the central control hub. But I think Lucas' original concept was probably to have clones fighting the war on both sides.

[@Ultimabendessen]

I always thought Vader said "I see you've constructed the new lightsaber", as Luke had invented the new, green lightsaber that had never been seen before in the galaxy.

[@klickj26]

he says " A new lightsaber" not "THE new lightsaber" lol, cause he knows he was using his own old lightsaber up until he cut his hand off.

[@CrazyxEnigma]

@@klickj26 I had previously stared at that comment wondering if I had been hearing that line wrong all this time lol. Nice to know I'm not going crazy.

[@klickj26]

@@CrazyxEnigma of course haha, i mean in what world would it be THE lightsaber, thats not even proper grammar OR its implying theres only one lightsaber in existence which clearly there isnt

[@russellharrell2747]

I figured lightsabers could be any colors, so when Jedi Luke taught all the other Kenner Action Figures to be Jedi I gave all of them toothpicks colored with markers to hold as lightsabers, using ever color I could find. I think Yoda came back from the dead and had a rainbow lightsaber longer than he was tall!

[@Ultimabendessen]

@@klickj26 I suppose it would be similar to a world where you would say "I see you have the new iPhone," as in referring to the version of a piece of technology. In this case, the green lightsaber was clearly more powerful than the red lighstaber, which is the ONLY reason Luke was able to successfully confront Vader. jk 🤣

[@TomBatemanRT85]

As an OG Star Wars fan, here were some of my impressions as to what I expected from Episodes I-III… 1. Luke’s black outfit in ROTJ was the actual Jedi “uniform” 2. I thought Obi Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker would have been depicted as older. Not the kids they were in the first prequel. 3. Mama Skywalker would have been royalty. 4. The Clone Wars is a result of BOTH sides using clone armies to fight. Even the Republic is forced to use them. 5. Stormtroopers as we see the in STAR WARS Episode IV are CLONES. 6. The Jedi were legendary warrior monks. I imagined them as a cross between Jesuit Priests, Arthurian Knights, and Navy SEALS/Green Berets. 7. C-3PO would have been in the diplomatic service in the Republic. 8. R2-D2 would have been in the military service in the Republic. 9. Anakin would have turned into Darth Vader by the end of Episode II. 10. Episode III would have been Darth Vader destroying the Jedi.

[@GAdmThrawn]

I've had similar discussions with my dad since he was growing up at the same time that the OT were released and before the Prequels. He had collected a trove of magazines that were all Star Wars related including Star Wars Insider, which I had read when I was in high school and still remember looking through. So, I still remember the various theories on what the Prequels were going to be like and who was going to be in it before set photos and summaries were released to the public. Much of it was pretty close to what you said.

[@cyberbeanie5387]

There was a book that i read as a kid, about return of the Jedi ,were Luck was at ben Kenobi's hut ,he went back to ben trunk and found Kenobi's clone wars jedi outfit, which was the black outfit he wore in return of the Jedi, and he he found his bits and pieces for his new lightsaber! It was a picture book about thirty years ago!! Love from Australia

[@CrazyxEnigma]

It's fascinating seeing all the cool theories fans had come up with in the 80s and 90s before the prequels and honestly some of these are more interesting than what we ended up getting.

[@HandofOmega]

It's not really a fan theory, as it is discontinued continuity, but the pre-mandolorian history of Boba Fett's armor was pretty interesting. I still think they should do something with the "Shocktroopers" concept...

[@peternotyou8192]

As an older fan, I’m convinced that damn near every fan theory that wasn’t completely half-assed was better than what Lucas gave us. If you told any well-read fan in ‘98 that Vader would fall because he had a bad dream and fell for a snake oil sales pitch by Palpatine, everyone in the room would have laughed until they pissed themselves. Me personally, I theorized that Vader was a victim of PTSD brought on by all the horror that a decades or even centuries long conflict (yeah, the clone wars being like, four years long is still absurd to me) will force upon you. He was driven to end the conflict at all costs, even if it meant betraying the Jedi order, solely so the galaxy could know peace once again. Over time he became so twisted by his singular vision of unity, that he didn’t stop to consider the cost of his crusade. But sure, a bad dream and an MLM speech are just as good according to prequelmemers.

[@jonathanvanderpol1435]

There was a sort of Jar Jar in the OT. C3PO was an annoying droid that was mostly there for comedic effect. I definitely liked him as a kid, just thought that Jar Jar fit in with that type of charecter.

[@johnpoulton9446]

This is absolutely GREAT!!! “Talking Star Wars”!!! Feels great and what it was like before the ST threw a wrench and all the focus in all middle of all the good fun Star Wars talk and speculation.

[@kingrubbatiti1285]

One of my main gripes with the prequels was I wish Anakin's turn to the dark side was played out a bit longer in Revenge of the Sith. We went from him taking out Mace , sulking and crying "What have I done" after that, then Palps telling him to attack the temple and him willingly doing do,far too quickly imo. Just seemed it was squeezed into such a short space of time with little build up.Yes I know he killed a whole tribe of Tuskens in the previous film,but I felt a few more questionable things could of been added to show his turn was going to happen.

[@SoulDeSol]

You're absolutely right, the pacing of Anakin's turn is awful in episode 3. They spent so much time focusing on the final duel in that film that the rest of the movie falls pretty flat, and this is showcased by the behind the scenes for RotS. For TPM and AotC, they talked about the entire film. The behind the scenes for RotS is literally them talking about the final duel for the entire runtime of the documentary.

[@CrazyxEnigma]

I've heard the novelization does wonders for Anakin's fall. I just wish the good parts of that could've been implemented in the movie somehow.

[@ericvulgate]

I never even understood people getting worked up about aniken killing the tuskans- they killed his mother. They were animals so he slaughtered them like animals.

[@hettfield]

I would have liked to see Anakin be good more. We got that in the Clone Wars series, but in the movies he's most creepy, except when he was kid. I would have liked to see Anakin start of EXACTLY like Luke (age and personality) and then turn to the Dark Side. That would have been super tragic and heart breaking.

[@CrazyxEnigma]

@@hettfield Creepy indeed anytime I've rewatched AOTC I just can't fathom as to why Padme falls in love with him, irl 99% of women would flee and make sure to never run into him again.

[@zacharysedlar7307]

I think we need more fun videos like this. Like not that your content is bad or that I don't like hearing about the state of Star Wars as it is now. But like, honestly there's so many interesting aspects about the lore and fun things that could be talked about. Videos like this just kinda make things feel lighter. More like we're all just fans talking about the movies we love. I dunno if that makes sense to anyone but I feel like I've had too much of the "will Star Wars be good" talk instead of just enjoying the good that is there and talking about it. Could just be me, but figured I'd throw that out there. Big fan of both these channels though, love the banter in the videos with Naboo. You guys are goals lol

[@zaphod4245]

Regarding the Jar Jar point and the Prequels being aimed at the children of that generation rather than those who had grown up with the OT and were then adults, I suppose people expected Lucas to take the same approach that Tolkien did with LotR. The Hobbit was a children's book, written for Tolkien's kids, and then when he came to write the sequel, he still aimed it at them, but by then they were older so LotR is much more mature.

[@otakubullfrog1665]

I also always imagined the empire as something that was around for quite a bit longer than it actually was - especially because Obi-Wan, Yoda and even Darth Vader came across as very old men when I was a kid even if how young Luke and Leia are throws something of a wrench into that (although that's certainly not wrong in Yoda's case). Obi-Wan and Yoda both embody the old wise man trope in fiction and the first word of that is old. Another thing I wouldn't have guessed would be that the Jedi would have a high-tech headquarters right in the heart of the republic. The hermit-like lifestyles of both Obi-Wan and Yoda along with the way Luke is trained in the wilderness (even if there's a simpler explanation for all that) and even the preference for a sword-like weapon despite most others using gun-like weapons suggested they were always closer to nature than we see in the prequels.

[@alexandrejuliaomachado9547]

When the Prequels were officially announced, a Brazilian science fiction magazine launched a contest whose prize would go to whoever created the best version of what these films could be. And I won! For that, I rented the movies, and watched them noting in detail, everything that was mentioned about what previously happened. My version turned out to be, very different from what ended up being made. In my version for example, Anakin was always a bad guy. He tried to turn a new leaf, but failed. Palpatine brought him to the Dark Side, teaching him how to use the Force to seduce Luke and Leia's mother-to-be, without Obi-Wan and Yoda noticing. Yes... Anakin was super creep in my version. I came up with explanations for everything, even the "no disintegrations" line. The themes I tried to develop were, trust, pride and envy. To this day, I'm proud of my version and when I retire, I intend to modify it and turn it into a book.

[@hettfield]

Sounds awesome

[@alexandrejuliaomachado9547]

@@hettfield thanks! 👍

[@28starwarsfan]

I wish I remember what my expectations were. Clones vs droids was not expected. I think I assumed clones would have been on the other side of the fight from the Jedi. I was curious about how Anakin fell, I assumed Luke/Leia's mother would be around after their birth, and that there would be a falling out with Obi Wan and Owen Lars as well as Anakin and Owen Lars.

[@jeremyfields9009]

Same! I thought the Empire defeated the Republic/Jedi in a war thanks to Vader’s betrayal. I thought the prequels was gonna be about Obi wan and Anakin as Jedi’s and literally thought Liam Neeson was Kenobi and Ewan McGregor was Anakin when I first saw TPM teaser. Lol

[@garrettmckellar]

"Clone Wars" makes it sound like clones were an integral part of the moral conflict of the war, as if the war was about clones, or the fact that clones existed shifted the balance of power in some specific way. Like, "the galaxy was at peace and then someone discovered cloning tech and ruined everything!" For the prequels to just make them "human droids" and imply they just sort of fade away in between trilogies is insane. Yoda turning to the audience to say "BOY THESE REALLY ARE THE CLONE WARS" is the most overlooked terrible moment in all three prequels.

[@TheLedonne3]

Nobody mentions that Ep 2 is titled Attack of the Clones, however, the clones defend, not attack.

[@TheMokeleMbembe]

I didn't have a clear outline in mind before 1999, but definitely had a sense that what was on screen differed from what was implied and what I'd *assumed* would be on screen. Over the years I've landed on something like this: Episode I: Anakin lives on Tatooine w his brother Owen (& parents?). He’s around the same age Luke will be in ANH. Obi-Wan is a general in the Alderaanian military, about ten years older than Anakin (compare Han & Luke). Alderaan is part of the Republic, which is threatened by invading armies of clone warriors from some other culture. Obi-Wan is also a Jedi Knight, a practitioner of understanding and using the Force to do good works in the galaxy. He is on a mission from one planet to another (ferrying info, or recruiting for war effort, something like that) but his ship comes under attack and he’s forced to crash land on Tatooine. He makes contact w the locals, including Anakin, and asks for help repairing and restocking his ship. Anakin is a mechanically-minded person, who has vague dreams and ideals like wanting to make a difference in the galaxy, and ‘do good,’ but until now has had no chance to express them. He helps Obi-Wan, and wants to accompany him off planet, to fight in the Clone Wars and even become a Jedi. Owen thinks this is foolish and reckless. He’s a more provincial thinker. Long story short, Anakin goes with Ben to fight in the wars and to train as a Jedi. Ben hasn’t taught before, but he’s confident he can do just as good a job as his own teacher did. He sees his own idealism and do-gooder nature in Anakin, and wants to nurture that. Episode II: Anakin is now a Jedi Knight, and he and Ben and other Knights patrol the spacelanes in the wake of the Wars. Anakin sees the horrors of not only the aftermath of the Clone Wars, but the turmoil and internecine strife (some of it deliberately engineered to cause division, it may later turn out) of the post-war period. Planets burned, children orphaned, species genocided. His confidence in the power of democracy (the Republic), fair play, treating others as ends unto themselves - basic humane ideals - to deal with threats, is shaken. He craves strength, to use his will on behalf of others. In the central systems, a charismatic politician is rising, one who promises to take a hard line on dissent and anything else which could threaten safety and security in the Republic. Anakin is drawn to this, and becomes an ally. Perhaps he (and Obi-Wan?), acting to protect the social order, foil an assassination plot on this Senator Palpatine? (This plot might have been engineered by Palpatine as a test?) At some point Anakin has a romantic interest here, though exactly who Mrs. Skywalker is, I’m not sure. Episode III: Anakin is an agent of now-Chancellor Palpatine. Encouraged by the Chancellor, he takes more and more inspiration from old exotic Force traditions like the Sith, who prized power and judgment over all - even styling body armor for himself. In the course of some mission (which Obi-Wan understands to be to investigate a rumor of malfeasance on behalf of some of Palpatine’s political opposition but is really an engineered takedown), Anakin inadvertently discovers the true goals and background of the Chancellor - that is, he’s a dark sorcerer, much older than he appears, and he wants an Empire. (He’s been building a splinter political group - agency? party? -, whose agents have been taking more and more power and restructuring the systems of power around themselves.) Obi-Wan is immediately at Defcon 1. Anakin sees how he should be troubled by this revelation, but he isn’t. He only cares that Palpatine will institute a New Order in the galaxy. He might know his wife is with child, or speak in terms of making the galaxy safe for future generations… he sees the Republic, and the Jedi way, and Obi-Wan, as too weak to do what must be done. Strength and dominance are the highest virtues, and any means are worth it in pursuit of those ends. Obi-Wan means to warn the galaxy and other Jedi, and Anakin means to protect Palpatine’s plan, and they clash on the volcano. At some point, after some battling, and as a result of his domineering approach, Anakin is knocked onto or falls onto a dangling gantry or unstable platform, and needs assistance to escape falling into lava or burning, melted rubble. But he can’t bring himself to take Ben’s outstretched hand - symbol of weakness. Vader chooses to fall to his death rather than admit he was wrong or that he might need help. Of course, Vader doesn’t die, but is instead rescued by Palpatine’s Imperial forces. He is kept alive by additions to his armor in the form of the walking iron lung, and by a burning hatred and disdain for the weakness of the Jedi mindset and for Obi-Wan in particular. . Things I do not include or really care about: -the Rule of Two -Palpatine being definitely a Sith (as opposed to just a Dark Sorcerer) -anything about a Chosen One created by the Force -the Force being in or out of balance -the power to cheat death (except in the form of Jedi/light siders becoming ghosts who can take no or vague action on the mortal plane (Obi-Wan’s “I cannot interfere” and Yoda summoning weather-related lightning in Ep 8 are good examples) & dark siders being able to tie their spirits to places or objects & take actions, but not be tied to the cosmos while doing so) I’m also not sure if Yoda appears or we only hear about him, saving his reveal for ESB. I do like there being a distinction between Jedi "Knights" (do-gooders in the galaxy) and Jedi "Masters" (gurus like Yoda on Dagobah, meditating and studying the Force, teaching others). There may be some overlap but I like these as different *types* of roles for a Jedi.

[@sambell9480]

There was an old website in the early days of the internet that discussed that the "clone wars" was the war with the Mandalorians, and the reason why it was called the Clone Wars was because all the Mandalorians looked the same. Hence being seen as Clone. There is an old star wars magazine called Bantha Tracks for memory that corroborates a part of this.

[@claytonjackson603]

Im 45 so i remember the pre-prequel days quite well. Yeah i think rumors began to circulate around 93 or 94 that Lucas was planning more releses starting around 97 for the 20th Anniversary. But it wasnt until 95 or 96 that an official announcment was made on Entertainment Tonight that it would be Prequels. As far as story goes. I always figured that the Clone Wars was some kind of a rebellion of clones that weakened the Republic allowing for the Empire to take over. And Anakins fall to the dark side was maybe due in part to an affair or perceived affair beween Obi Wan and Anakin's wife.

[@bozimmerman]

I never thought too deeply about any of that stuff at the time, but I made some of the same assumptions that Thor did -- that their mother kept Luke and Leia after birth and died when they were toddlers, at which point the siblings were split. The robe thing though -- we saw Luke in black robes in RoTJ, and they do perfectly fit the idea of Jedi as mysterious sorcerers.

[@HandofOmega]

I don't know where the Uncle Owen being Vader's brother came from...To me, it was always obvious that (assuming their naming rituals/laws work like ours) if Luke's fosters were blood relatives, but had different names, then that meant that his actual relation must be through Beru...making HER Anakin's sister! Although it doesn't really explain why they didn't fully adopt him and raise him as "Luke Lars"... I used to think that maybe Anakin and Beru were twins, and if she had the same blood, then maybe she had the same power, or even the same training; maybe she hid her lightsaber on the farm, or practiced with it before Luke woke up...maybe she was even fighting off the stormtroopers, but was too out of practice to win! I dunno, people probably would have hated that, but it's an idea!

[@rudiruttger]

You should have read the novelization for Star Wars that was written in the 70s, its prologue cleared up those questions.

[@station7thedoor]

I think the main things I believed before the prequels came out, was that "the clone wars" were called that, because the clones were the bad guys, a threat that the good guys were fighting against... or else both sides were using clones, and it was like an arms race using clones. Leia's comments about her Mom made me think Padme had survived much longer. Anakin being called "the best starpilot in the galaxy" made me think his reputation was much more associated with being a fighter pilot than with any other activity. I never really thought the stormtroopers were clones, though in hindsight I could really see how George may have originally intended them to be clones. They all sound the same, they are all supposed to be about the same height, and they have alpha-numeric designations instead of regular names.

[@enelson1976]

I imagined Obi-Wan meeting Anakin as a teenager/young adult pilot, who Obi-Wan recruits into the clone wars. And I imagined the was as between the republic and empire. Of course back then we knew nothing of the separatists. I imagined Jedi to be rare, not their own order, but more like warriors who took on a particular code because of their gifts. Gifts that others doubted really existed, but which made them influential at critical times. Like Luke in episode 4. He's just a pilot, but also sort of special in a kind of secret way.

[@QuestionMan]

The prequels weren't like ANYONE thought they would be . . . including George Lucas.

[@Goldie_Roger]

Growing up with the prequels, Episode 1 made me think the Trade Federation was going to become the Empire. Episode 2 made me think the CIS (new home to the Trade Fed) was going to become the Empire, especially being lead by Dooku/Sidious. While watching Episode 3 I was expecting the CIS to win the war and become the Empire. So when Anakin just straight up massacred the entire CIS in 1 room, I thought this was the most amazing story/movie ever.

[@MurdocIsASaint]

C3PO is the Jar Jar of the original trilogy. Just far less annoying lol

[@shugaroony]

No, 3P0 is us put in that situation wondering what the hell is going on.

[@miragewizard]

As an Original Trilogy fan, what I thought the Prequels would be like before we got them? In the Return of the Jedi novelization by James Kahn (1983), there is more to Ben and Luke's conversation on Dagobah were Ben tells Luke that he and Anakin fought, and Anakin fell into a pit and was scarred. And I thought about that conversation throughout the rest of the 1980s as far as what that duel would have been like. As far as the clones, I honestly wasn't sure what to think about what the clones would actually be: if it was going to be more of a cybernetic being or perhaps a robot like in Battlestar Galactica, but it turned out to me, at least that we just got a different kind of Stormtrooper (Stormtrooper, Snowtrooper, Biker Scout, and now Clonetrooper). But I won't say that the Clonetroopers were any kind of a letdown being just another Stormtrooper essentially because I really had no expectations as to what the Clonetroopers might be. So, going in to the Prequels, you had this idea that there was going to be this duel between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin/Darth Vader, and somewhere along the way we'll learn about what the Clone Wars were all about. Those were essentially the two things that I had in my mind when the Prequels were announced in the mid 1990s as far as what to look forward to. I saw The Phantom Menace 13 times in the theater in 1999. I truly enjoyed it, although I knew that there were some new things that would take me some time to get used to, like Jar Jar and the midichlorians. And I did come to embrace those things too. But Episode I to me seemed to be the most "George Lucas" of all of the Star Wars movies in that that was the one Star Wars movie that truly showed the most of his unfiltered, pure vision that wasn't changed or modified by other's suggestions or changes being made here or there. I felt that with The Phantom Menace, with all of it's flaws, we really got the truest, purest version of what George wanted in a Star Wars movie. And I enjoyed it, even though it wasn't my favorite Star Wars movie. It was simply George doing what he wanted, and I felt that it was the perfect Star Wars movie for the late 1990s. When I saw Attack of the Clones in the theater, I knew by the title that we would finally come to understand what the Clone Wars meant. But George had hired a co-writer in Jonathan Hales, so I felt that we were going to get a little bit of a different vision with this movie from The Phantom Menace, and we did, but I still enjoyed Attack of the Clones, warts and all. There were a lot of great things that I loved about Attack of the Clones including Count Dooku, Jango Fett, the chase sequences (Both Coruscant and through the asteroid field). I loved the interaction between Palpatine and the Jedi. But as I was letting the movie kind of sink in, I couldn't help but to think what Irvin Kershner, who directed The Empire Strikes Back, would have said about that ending, which was a very George-like ending of going from a gladiator style showdown to a full on-scale Clone War to various lightsaber duels that ended with Kenobi cut, Anakin with one arm and Yoda, with all of his prowess, left shaking his head about the terror of what was just let loose upon the galaxy. LOL, I enjoyed it. But if Irvin Kershner would have been directing that, then I'm sure there would have been a lot of back and forth between him and George about how exactly to pull all of that off within the pacing of a movie. LOL, I enjoyed it, warts and all. Going in to the theater for Revenge of the Sith, I knew that we would finally get that confrontation that Ben spoke of (in the novelization) in Return of the Jedi. I felt that Revenge of the Sith was the best overall movie of the Prequels even though there were some things that I would have to wrap my brain around long after, such as: what really turned Anakin to the Dark Side? Was it truly fear of losing Padme? Why did he strangle Padme? Did Padme truly have to die at the end, in that way? Why did Yoda give up and leave in his fight against Palpatine? I had a lot of questions like that that made Episode III not quite as believable as I perhaps wanted it to be, but grew to accept it over time as this was George's vision, and I'm sure that he had to make changes along the way to make this story as coherent and believable as possible. So, I just gave George the benefit of the doubt and read the novelization when it came out, just like I did for Return of the Jedi in the early 1980s, and it made a little more sense that way. But going into the theater as a kid before watching STAR WARS in 1977, I really didn't know what to expect, and I was literally blown away! It was if my imagination entered this fascinating new world and I got to experience a fantasy that I immediately embraced. This movie was made for me. I loved every minute of it and still do. This movie would mean more to me as a child than any other movie, TV show, book or any other form of entertainment, ever would. Same for The Empire Strikes Back. Based on the toys, previews, etc, I knew Empire was going to be different going in to it in the theater in 1980. But I was a kid, all I had on my mind was: this is STAR WARS movie #2, and I was, very much, along for the ride. I loved it! Yoda was great and I had visions of the movie in my head long after, wondering what happened to Han Solo, if Darth Vader was really Luke's father, and what a continuing chapter would be like. A few of my siblings had yet to have been born, LOL. But I, of course, would catch them up in years to come with these movies on videotape. After watching The Empire Strikes Back in 1980, we went to McDonald's after the show and my mom asked me if Greedo was in this one? LOL I, of course, reminded her that Greedo died in the last one when Han shot him (shot first). I was a little older going into Return of the Jedi, and I was so hyped that my parents had to get me to settle down. I enjoyed Jabba the Hutt and the confrontation between Luke and Vader at Death Star 2. My imagination would run wild with Luke being a Jedi Knight and what his continuing adventures might be now that Vader and the Emperor were dead. But life happened, I grew up, and there was no STAR WARS whatsoever again until 1991, when some author named Timothy Zahn came out with the first book of a STAR WARS Trilogy. And I had to buy that book as soon as it came out. LOL I hope you enjoyed my rambling, back in time.

[@vetarlittorf1807]

What if the prequels hsd been made from 1987 - 1993? Personally, I think Johnny Depp would have been cast as Anakin and I think both sides of the war would use clones.

[@spankflaps1365]

River Phoenix was another very viable option for Anakin. As for them being made sooner, Lucas wouldn’t do it until the CGI technology improved. When he saw Jurassic Park he knew the time had come.

[@vetarlittorf1807]

@@spankflaps1365 Actually, the original plan was to do the prequels in 1987, 1990 and 1993. But that was before Lucas went through a divorce.

[@chasehedges6775]

The ST in 1987 - 1993 would have been GLORIOUS! WHOS WITH ME!

[@HandofOmega]

@@chasehedges6775 You have my TARDIS!!

[@jeremywilson2315]

I really started getting into Star Wars around 1995 and I remember after hearing that little speech about the Clone Wars I was thinking what if the Clones were clones of Jedi and the true Jedi had to fight against the Clone Jedi's. which then raised the question in me could Vader have been a clone of Anakin making it true that Vader killed Anakin also what if the Clone had fathered Padme's children making Luke and Leia offsprings of a clone therefore making every Skywalker going forward from Luke and Leia The Offspring of a clone and so on &so forth the grandchildren

[@tris421]

I also thought anakin would turn in episode 2 (it would mimick tesb it rhymes) and 3 would be a movie of dv just slaying Jedi.

[@philipajfry]

When I was a kid, I came across a case of old fantasy books and choose-your-adventure books. The disparity between OT and PT is less tangible - more of a feeling/vibe thing that doesn't match. Those books' artwork and narratives reminded me of the OT and I think there was something about when it was all made - the 70's before corporations really strangled America, art had a different feel. And the prequels were really slick and clean and just didn't line up with how the OT looks and feels. That and all the little details you mentioned - throw away lines, world-building, dialogue etc had implications that dont line up 1 to 1 with the PT. I think Lucas inspirations just came from a different place after that large gap. I think if ep 1 released say '86, the whole thing would feel much more cohesive.

[@holdingpattern245]

I find it weird that the Jedi start out saying they won't fight the Republic's battles for them, and then they immediately go back on that.

[@TokyoScope]

Good video! I saw the OT in the movie theater way back in 1977, so Star Wars has been a long strange trip for me. I think what first generation fans like myself were expecting from the prequels came from two sources: the original Star Wars novelization (which has a prologue about the Emperor taking over the Republic) and the occasional tidbit from George Lucas / Lucasfilm, who in early interviews let it be known that Darth and Kenobi had once fought a fateful duel on a volcanic planet. We pretty much assumed that any prequel would cover the basic origin story of Darth Vader with Ben (and maybe Luke's mom?). I was really disappointed by the prequels in that they seemed to lack the storytelling focus and clarity of the OT. Instead of really keeping the ball on Anakin, Ben, and Padme (like the OT did with Luke, Han, and Leia) a lot of time went into stuff like the Trade Federation, pod racing, the Clone Army, Django Fett, the Prophecy, Jar Jar, the list goes on. Pretty much all we original fans really wanted were the story beats in Revenge of the Sith, but even then, some of the dramatic promise we’d been expecting was undercut by the soap opera acting and dialogue that paled next to A New Hope and Empire. But as disappointed as I was with the prequel trilogy, it was really the Disney films that had me shouting, “Noooooooooo!”b

[@Frosenborg]

Sweet video Thor! I had many similar thoughts about the upcoming prequels in the 90's. I've always felt George had an impossible task at hands when it came to pleasing the og fans, we all had our own expectations and stories built up in our heads on how the prequels will go.

[@leighneil]

‘…the clones as some sort of monstrosities that were good at killing Jedi’. Yep that’s exactly what we got with prequel clones…

[@MagnusFinsholm]

I'm born in the mid 90s and even though I believe that I saw Hope and Return before Menace I'm not sure. And me and my friends were mostly ouf for the action back then. With that being said I do remember the reason for blue and green lightsabers were that Jedi's in training/padawans used blue and when given the rank of master they switched to green. Quite silly, but 6 year old me was dead certain that was the case.

[@Mikeygee99]

As a mid-20 year old when Episode 1 came out, I was extremely disappointed in the Prequel trilogy. You’ve heard of all the reasons; Jar Jar being the worst character, the poor acting of Jake Lloyd, the overuse of CGI.. MEDICLORIANS taking away the mysticism of the Force. The original trilogy, and in Lucas’s own words, was made to look like it was a long lived in universe. The Prequel was too nice and shiny. Now, getting back to the question, I did not expect a grand love story. Or that Jedi were celibate. Or the story being bogged down with the debates of the senate. My mind was open to an action-adventure story, with seeing Jedi kick butt.

[@Ziggaton]

I think what we ended up with was far better and an actual good case of "subverting expectations" at least in the long run

[@Mikeygee99]

@@Ziggaton which parts? Note that the Clone Wars cartoon helped fill in a lot of the blanks, but the first two movies were bad

[@CrazyxEnigma]

​@@Mikeygee99Agreed TCW show fixes a lot of problems the prequels had. Easily my favorite prequel media and it isn't close.

[@Ziggaton]

@@Mikeygee99 Just saying that the concept of a corrupt slowly decaying republic being politically maneuvered into an Empire is far more interesting than the conception of a Republic vs Empire thing. It ended up being far more poignant that way like a fantasy version of the Fall of Rome.

[@Mikeygee99]

@@Ziggaton it just fell flat in my opinion. I remember being at the pre-screening and everyone was disappointed. I also had midnight tickets to opening nite and to see all the fans going nuts prior to the movie, and I knew how disappointed they were going to be

[@philnorfleet1371]

I actually did give it some thought back in the day: Episode I: Begins with the Clone Wars either already going or starting at the end of this movie. As this was pre "Jedi have to be trained from birth" and I always presumed Yoda was just being a jerk when he said Luke was too old, I presumed Anakin would start out as a pilot of some sort. (In retrospect, with prequels out, I'd have aged Anakin up to ~14 so same age as Padme and had him be Qui-Gon's apprentice but have OB1 (who is Master Yoda's last apprentice) along as a sort of journeyman Jedi who becomes Anakin's mentor afterward. I also anticipated some sort of closer connection to Alderaan - I'd have made Breha Organa be Padme's sister.) Episode II: Clone Wars comes to an end. Anakin turns to the Dark Side and becomes Darth Vader, though this fact is a secret. The remaining Jedi go into hiding, including OB1. The Republic is still mostly intact, though it's an Empire in all but name. (In retrospect, don't kill Maul in EpI and have him come back in EpII so Anakin can kill him.) Episode III: Padme is pregnant, learns Anakin = Vader. Turns to Ben for help. The Duel happens. Find a way to work in the 'do what I tell you because I'm the master and you're just a learner, Anakin!' before the duel. Luke and Leia are born ... on Dagobah (to reflect Luke's "there's something familiar about this place in ESB.) The Jedi continued to be hunted. (In retrospect, I'd not have had the final Duel be between Anakin and OB1; I'd have had them have a duel, but Kenobi is thrown off a cliff or something and believed dead, then the final Duel could be Mace & Vader, with the former flat out dying but crippling Vader. And, again in retrospect, I'd have ended with Palpatine & Vader on the bridge of a SD looking at an immense fleet with Palps saying something like "And at last, we shall have ... peace.")

[@sm2142]

As a kid, I thought "The Clone Wars" had the clones as the bad guys and the Republic w/ a conscript army. Sort of the "Plinkett idea" of Space Uruk-hai for the clones. The war caused the Republic to become the Empire out of necessity, and Anakin's "seduction" involved Dark Side combat stuff to make him stronger in battle. Anakin would have thought he was using the Dark Side stuff to save the Republic, and that he/the Jedi would just deal with it after the galaxy was saved. Sort of the "good intentions gone bad". Also, I thought that Vader got the suit gradually during the years when he was hunting down the Jedi (as Ben mentioned in ep 4). As Vader was fighting the surviving Jedi, he was wounded multiple times, needing more augmentations due to injury. That's how I thought he became "more machine".

[@jameskirk4692]

Interesting to learn about what you thought back then. Thanks.

[@roadkillz78]

The original Ep. 4 book had a preface about the clone wars and how Palpatine came to power, but it was still pretty vague from what I recall. But it did mention how Obi-Wan defeated Anakin on a "volcanic planet". However, I personally thought the Clone Wars was about Palpatine raising an army of clone Stormtroopers in order to take power. The Jedi and the Old Republic tried fighting them off but lost, hence Palpatine ruled with the Empire. Most of the Stormtroopers sounded similar in the movies, so I thought they were the products from the clone wars. But as more information came out, and then the prequels were released, I realized I was close; except the Jedi were fighting with the clones and not against them and Palpatine duped everyone to getting his power as opposed to raking it by force (no pun intended) & the Stormtroopers were not the clones, but recruited by the Empire. I also imagined Anakin and Obi-Wan were a bit older during the Clone Wars, but similar in age (Obi-Wan in his late-30's to early 40's while Anakin was in his early to mid 30's) just by the way Obi-Wan talks about how they were good friends and how experienced Anakin was by that time. Not to mention Sebastian Shaw was fairly old during ROTJ so his age was my only reference at the time.

[@parthparkash8440]

Hey Thor, I wanted to ask about James Mangold's Star Wars movie about the birth of the jedi order. In my opinion I think it has the potential to be the best and most successful of the 3 movies announced at celebration. It doesn't have baggage from the sequel trilogy like the Rey movie and it is also not like the filoni movie where it could turn off casual fans who are not familiar with the Mandoverse. It's the movie I'm excited about the most because Mangold has proven himself as a good director and because he's described as a grand biblical epic about the birth of the order which sounds awesome to me. I've always wondered about the foundation of the jedi order because even the eu doesn't cover it much. I also think it could set up a sequel about the birth of the sith and their first war with the jedi which could be awesome. I just hope the movie is really good because it's the only star wars project that Lucasfilm has announced that I am genuinely excited for and looking forward to. If they mess up this movie and the story of the first jedi I think I might walk away from star wars for good as much as it hurts me to say. So my question to you is what do you think about this movie and some of the points i've brought up, thanks.

[@АлексейМомот-щ7о]

I bet they mess it up. If TFA was properly lore-reviewed no one would have approved Ahch-To as first Jedi Temple. I thought JJ Abrams literally said he had Pablo Hidalgo on the phone. But now we have two Jedi origin planets, Tython and Ahch-To in canon as if no one is doing any continuity checking there. EU covered the birth of the Jedi pretty extensively, so I'd day Filoni's film and Dawn are the most minefield-filled movies if they get lore wrong. Post-ST movie at least doesn't have any lore to worry about, they already destroyed most of the OT and PT lore in ST anyway 😂😢

[@istari0]

Based on the OT, I thought the Clones were the soldiers of the Empire's military with the Republic using "regular" people. I used to wonder what happened to the Clones. I wasn't completely off on that thought. I pretty much always thought (post ESB) that the Emperor was the one who corrupted Anakin and caused him to become Vader, and that that was the turning point of the war. I also thought the war had been going on for much longer than it actually had. But I didn't spend a whole lot of time theorizing about what was coming. Mostly I remember what a massive disappointment TPM was.

[@qui-gone]

I just had a few weeks to digest the OT before watching the PT. In India, OT was shown on TV as a build up to ep 1. So as a 14 year old, I didn't have much expectations. Just wanted to see more space battles and lightsaber duels I guess! 😅

[@RyeBreadGangster]

I was 5 years old when we got the infamous and newly released Special edition VHS for Christmas. I remember being confused and getting into an argument with my older brother about starting with episode 4 and not 1. Eventually he got it through my stubborn adolescent brain that parts 1-3 haven't been made yet. He said they were years away. And would tell the story of how Vader got so messed up. I honestly don't know that I had visualized anything for them other than Old Ben and that guy that played Anakin's ghost going on adventures until they fought each other. I didn't really put much thought into it because "years away" to a five year old is half a lifetime. I just assumed they were never coming.

[@Maximo_ari]

Great video. Having grown up with the prequels it’s nice to see a perspective from the time before. RoTS was the first movie I remember seeing in theaters. Kinda sad how I had these expectations of the sequels to be as lore filled as the prequels, and story driven like originals. Just to be disappointed, lol.

[@chrisinjapan5736]

I remember school yard rumors saying the clone wars was about Jedi clones fighting real Jedis thus that was why the Jedi disappeared

[@zachcurtis1283]

The first film I saw was TPM, the year it came out. Naturally I immediately had to go rent the OT and watch them. Even then, when the clone wars were mentioned in ANH, I didn't really give it much thought, it was just a thing that happened in the past. TPM had nothing to do with it. So when AOTC came out, I came into it fresh with very little to no expectations, and now looking back, I can't really imagine the prequel era and the clone wars any other way than what we got. And for all it's flaws, I love this era of Star Wars.

[@originaldarkwater]

It was clear to me from the start that the Republic had been replaced by the Empire from within, maybe partially because of how the imperial officers on the Death Star were talking about the Senate as if it was an intrinsic part of their government, and maybe partly because I'd learned German history about how the Weimar Republic was overthrown by the Nazis, and since the Empire was clearly meant to be space-Nazis, a similar rise to power was just something I automatically assumed.

[@jasonohara8372]

I get the impression we're the same age or I'm a year older. Mostly, I assumed Luke's black outfit in ROTJ was closer to what Jedis wore. He came in after two movies with a completely different look, full of confidence, and presented as finally being a Jedi master - I think most of us at that time therefore assumed that's what Jedis looked like. Likewise, since Luke was now "powerful", I thought the new, green lightsaber was a reflection of that. The idea that Jedis wore layers of bath robes really bothers me. It always seemed obvious to me that both Ben and Yoda wore them because they were each living as hermits in exile. Why would anyone wear their uniform if they were trying to hide? For the most part, I'm right there with you on the other stuff. I'd imagine all of us from that time feel similarly.

[@chickenphat730]

This is actually really interesting . For me, by the time I was born the prequels were already out and the clone wars was the current next thing, so this is a really interesting perspective to hear, and to see how the backstories and lore could have been interpreted when the only thing that people had to base things on was the OT. Great video.

[@neonlost]

i remember loving the OT, return of the jedi was my favorite but i was still too young to have any expectations so it’s interesting to hear what people that are older think

[@M08Xrd]

Hey Thor, what do you think about the importance of lightsabers? Like we have Obi-Wan telling Anakin in Episode 2 "This weapons is your life" but then in Empire Yoda teaches Luke that physical weapons won't help you but really the Force, that's what's most important and where a Jedi's real power flows.

[@Tyler_W]

I had zero expectations. I was 5 or 6 when The Phantasm Menace came out, and it was my first Star Wars movie. It's funny, but I thought Jar Jar was the least interesting part of that movie even as a kid, but I fell in love with that world. I kinda saw them all within the span of the same few years between 1999 and 2001 or 2002, I think. If memory is correct, I saw ANH not long after TPM when my folks and others realized that I loved it. Tbh, for something I've loved for almost as long as I can remember, I don't even remember when I saw the classic trilogy for the first time. It's weird how I remember the first time I saw TPM but not the original movies (which I actually liked just as much). Those years were when I got flooded with a bunch of Star Wars stuff (and there are still t9ns of classic books and games from that era that I missed and some I've still yet to experience).

[@countluke2334]

I had the THX version on VHS and it featured a 3 part interview with GL in which he very briefly mentioned he was thinking about the prequels. In that interview he states the story would be about Anakin becoming Vader, because the OT is about turning him back from the Dark Side, but it is a redemption of a guy we hardly know. Also, the Clone Wars were obviously namedropped and i think the idea that Palpatine cheesed himself to the top of the Republic was out there, which made sense to me, as for me being German the parallels between the Nazis and the Empire were always obvious and Hitler was originally also properly elected before he declared himself dictator. But to this day i think the timing is off. The prequels inly cover less that 20 years and then there's a less than 20 year gap. Obi-Wan is in his early 20s in Episode 1 and consequently shouldn't be okder than 60 based on that. Yet he clearly comes across like being 70-80. So i have have half expected the Clone Wars had been going on for years, probably decades, Obi-Wan finds Anakin at a later age (probably working as a freighter pilot) and discovering he is strong woth the force. Anakin being so young in episode 1 and the whole Empire being so short-lived will always be a letdown.

[@mattgentry4605]

I also thought the Empire had been around much longer and was a rival faction that had defeated the Republic. I'm pretty sure the EU books at the time were also working off that assumption and implied such. In retrospect, Lucas would have been much more influenced by historical transformations like Rome into an empire, but 10-15 year old me reading EU novels before the prequels hadn't gotten that far in history class.

[@oelness]

I remember being around a bunch of star wars nerds all the time growing up before the prequels playing SWCCG at my local shop. We always speculated on what the "clone wars" was. I always imagined it would be gritty and lived in like the OG trilogy feel because of the clone wars. I never expected it to start with everything so nice and clean and be a political drama. In my mind I always pictured it as Jedi Knights fighting Clones of some variety in some epic war. You can imagine my shock seeing battle droids, gungans, and kid as Anakin. That all being said, I have grown to really love the prequel era (mainly because of the clone wars cartoon). It was just a huge shock compared to what my expectations were.

[@sbkeel5639]

Actually C3PO did the comedy role in the OT that I thought Jar Jar was supposed to be in the prequels although it was overblown a little and the jokes didn't land as well.

[@vematsos]

Hey Thor! Like you, I grew up with the originals and never thought in 1 million years we would see more Star Wars. I always imagined the prequel’s if they ever came out being all about the clone wars and How Anakin and Obi-Wan became friends, etc.… Also, to highlight another point you made, myself, and all my friends also thought all storm troopers were clones. At the time we all played the decipher Star Wars, CCG. I think we got that fact off of one of those cards. Aside from that, I’m not sure where else that rumor would’ve came from, unless it was written in expanded novel at the time. Now you have me wanting to pull out all my old cards and see if I can find it😂