Did GL Try To Force To Many OT Characters Into The PT?

At first I didn't like the Tatooine birth for Anakin (actually, he wasn't born on Tatooine, if you listen closely.

The only thing that felt forced to me was Threepio being built by Anakin.

 

Definitely a few too many cameo characters from both the OT and the books thrown in for the geek squad to flap about. I got a little tired of "Swiss Army R2", with his endless supply of convenient gadgets, rocket boosters, etc that we didn't see in the OT. But then, many things about the PT reeked of GL tapdancing and spreading the cheese.

 

Yeah, instead Lucas and his kids did...

 

R2 having so many gadgets is explained by having Anakin tinker with him constantly, it's very clear in the EU for anyone really interested. Anakin plays with machines, he always has, it's not so farfetched that he would make all kinds of modifications to his R2 unit. As for them not being seen in the OT, well 20 years have passed. He surely doesn't have much need for them after ROTS, it is likely all the extra gadgets were removed in that time period for whatever reason. These things can be explained very easily. It's easy to forget that 20 years is a very long time.

 

Lucas would have been pushing it if he'd added Han Solo to ROTS like he originally planned.