Fave Prequel events that strenghten OT events

For me it has to be Anakin feeling his mother's pain through the force and then forsaking his jedi duties to go help her. It's not so much that it's fascinating on it's own, but that it adds so much coolness to Vader's torturing of the rebels in order to lure Luke in episode 5. Now you know Vader's past failure with this temptation, and that he bets (correctly) that Luke will fail too.

Another one is Anakin's spinning his ship as a trick in both episodes 1 and 3. And then in 4, there's a kind of irony to Vader's TIE fighter spinning after the death star blows up.

 

Yoda's quote in Phantom Menace. "Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering." To me, this line pretty much explains the prequels, and most fully informs the originals.

 

Gotta be the death stick scene. It makes you understand when Old Ben uses the mind trick with the Stormtroopers at Mos Eisly so much better.

Thank you George Lucas!

 

I have to say the part in the OT where Yoda is training Luke and he says: "Through the force, things you will see, other places. The future, the past, old friends long gone."

I wonder if he was thinking of Mace Windu at that point, or Qui-Gon. He had to have been thinking of some of the Jedi lost in the Purge. That part always makes me wonder who he's thinking about.

 

Obi-Wan delivering Luke to Owen & Beru as they turn to the binary sunset.

 

All of episodes II and III that helped us understand the beginning of ANH a whole lot more.
The Clone Wars are mentioned a lot, and after seeing TPM we still didn't know how the war really came to take place. Also, we get to see the Lars family in AOTC for the first time. And then of course Leia's message in ANH makes a lot more sense after ROTS, and why she says "Years ago you served my father in the Clone Wars... blah blah". We know who she means by "my father".
Also Obi-Wan sensing Alderan being destroyed the same way Yoda sensed Mace's death and Order 66.

I'll just say that I don't have a single favourite PT event.

 

Bail's presence at the birth of Luke and Leia. It strengthens my theory that Bail Organa didn't send Leia to Tatooine on the Tantive IV just to bring Obi-Wan the Death Star Plans and bring him back to Alderaan, but instead, Bail sent Leia to Tatooine because he felt it was time for her to learn about her heritage. Bail sent Leia to Kenobi so that she could be reunited with Luke, who Bail knew was on Tatooine being watched over by Kenobi, and Obi-Wan could begin their instruction as Jedi. If the goal was just to bring Kenobi to Alderaan, a simple diplomatic shuttle would have sufficed. By including Bail in the birth scene, it firmly establishes that Bail knew exactly who Leia was, knew where Kenobi was going to take Luke, etc. Bail's decision to send Leia to Tatooine just before ANH opens up takes on added significance when you find out exactly what he knew ahead of time regarding Luke and Leia's heritage.

 

Very nice, Darth_Davi - very nice. I like it.

 

The acting in the PT makes the acting in the OT look better by comparison.
The CGI in the PT makes the models in the OT look better.
The poorly-written dialogue in the PT makes the less-poorly-written dialogue in the OT sound better.


Do those count?

 

Along with everything Darth-Davi has said, I like the scene in AOTC in which Padme falls out of the transport, prompting Anakin to argue with Obi-Wan about going back to retrieve her. Not only does this foreshadow Anakin's reasons for joining the Dark Side in ROTS (and mirror Shmi's death earlier in AOTC), it also resonates with Luke's desperation to help his friends at the expense of his training in ESB.

 

In general the way the prequels fleshed out Anakin's origin made the end of RotJ resonate much deeper for me.

 

I think my favorite event is when Senator Palpatine becomes Chancellor Palpatine. It completely sets up the rise of the empire in its early beginnings. It sets everything in motion and it really strengthens how the Emperor comes to power.

 

Yoda wasn't sensing Mace's death.

 

I think my favorite prequel events that strengthen the OT are the introduction of the clonetroopers and the cameo of the death star in holographic form in Episode 2.

These ideas really drive home the fact that the death star was not just a fly by night concept attempted in Episode 4 and that the Stormtrooper presense across the galaxy would seem like a good thing in the minds eye of the masses. We no longer wonder why the people don't rise up against the Stormtroopers.

The prequels establish that the death star was part of a structured galactic coup of the republic and a needed tool to eventually disband the senate. So when it is destroyed not only is it a much more relevent setback for the Empire (since it was in production for nearly 23 years) but it makes its' reappearance in Episode 6 all the more logical. Many hated the idea that it was brought back; as if to say Lucas was just rehashing an old idea for the third film. With its' subtle introduction in Episode 2, it becomes a much more central part of the Emperor's plan for total domination.

For my personal speculation, assuming the Stormtroopers are clones, it makes sense that they would be 100% loyal to the Empire and that the rebels would have to shoot first and ask questions later. Also their immediate disbanding after the Emperor is killed, as shown in the galactic wide celebration is much more feasable now. Originally I wondered how the population would be able to rise up so fast on a galactic level with the death of the Emperor. Surely the machine of government would still have a tight grip on things and it would take atleast a few months to recapture the republic. But with the Stormtroopers being directly under the command of the Emperor it makes sense that his death would cause an immediate governmental shut down. They would likely stand down and await orders. This would also explain why Vader didn't attempt to form a faction of his own, using handpicked Stormtroopers. Also it's the Imperial officers who seem to react with fear to Vader and the Stormtroopers simply react; as if emotionless. Also when they are dispatched to nearly every corner of the galaxy overnight, they don't raise any concerns because their original purpose was considered a good thing. And finally, when Order 66 is executed, it makes sense to use clones because they would have no sense of right and wrong on the issue and so they would not hesitate to kill even those they seemed to be friends with, and the same can be applied to what we see in Episodes 4-6. Also they would never spill the fact that it was a premeditated attack on the Jedi.

Another charmer of the PT is that the rebellion was originally labled a "Jedi Rebellion" and so it makes sense that the resistance would pen the slogan "May the force be with you." in hopes that some come along with force ability and restore the jedi and the old rebuplic.

 

Seeing that Yoda trained Dracula, Dracula trained Jinn, Jinn trained Kenobi, Kenobi trained Luke ...

Seeing that Anakin made Threepio.

Seeing that Leia did in fact meet her mother in the PT.

 

But Yoda trained Dooku while Dooku was a young child and still part of a communal group called a clan just like the Bear Clan that was being trained by Yoda in "AOTC".
So you're logic is a little skewed because Yoda didn't train Dooku like Dooku trained Qui-Gon like Qui-Gon trained Kenobi because Jedi Master Thame Cerulian trained Dooku the way Dooku trained Qui-Gon the way that Qui-Gon trained Kenobi.
So if you're going to cut the PT down then at least get your logic correct.

 

hmmmmm .... maybe 'padawan' means something else to you.

The lineage is there .... I don't see how that's up for debate ...

Before you answer that ... would you be the kinda guy/girl nodding your head in approvement if you found out Panaka was Lando's uncle?

 

Don't believe the hype. Yoda referred to Dooku as "my old Padawan". Even though the OS seems to be second-guessing its "Questions & Answers" information on an almost daily basis, it is still true that nothing in the films contradicts the possibility that Dooku was apprenticed to Yoda before being apprenticed to Cerulian, or the possibility that Kenobi was apprenticed to Yoda before being apprenticed to Qui-Gon.

 

You can think that Yoda taught a teenage and twenty-something Dooku in the same manner that Qui-Gon taught Kenobi just because Yoda refers to Dooku as his old padawan but then you're going to have to ignore the fact that Yoda refers to the Jedi child in "AOTC" as a padawan. You're going to have to ignore that fact that Yoda trains all the pre-adolescent Jedi and this is clearly the intent of the "Bear Clan" scene in "AOTC".

So who is the teacher of the that child padawan in "AOTC" if not Yoda?


Now the truth is maybe we'll find out that Yoda really did train Dooku just like Qui-Gon trained Kenobi but as it sits now it's open to interpretation in the movies and accoring to the EU, Thame Cerulian trained Dooku during Dooku's teenage years.

Apples and Oranges: Panaka and Lando are never mentioned as being related in the movies but there is an entire scene that shows how Yoda trains pre-adolescent Jedi which he refers to as Padawans. And so what if I would find it swell that Lando and Panaka were related? Would that somehow lessen my opinion of "Star Wars" in your eyes? Would that make me silly and therefore make my opinions about "Star Wars" insignificant?

 

your post made me feel really stupid. With all the times I have watched AOTC and ROTS, the connection between that scene and his motivation for turning to the dark side completely went unnoticed by me. I completely overlooked that scene as being relevant.

 

There are a number of subtle resonances in the PT that often go unnoticed, and a number of points along Anakin's descent into the Dark Side that mirror -- or diametrically oppose -- similar events and choices presented to Luke.

 

well, right...but, I am better than that. Its something I SHOULD have noticed. I am usually really observant about foreshadowing, symbolism, parallelism in events, etc...but, this one got past me. Do'h!

 

I agree with the_immolated_one fully on this point

 

You can think that Yoda taught a teenage and twenty-something Dooku in the same manner that Qui-Gon taught Kenobi just because Yoda refers to Dooku as his old padawan but then you're going to have to ignore the fact that Yoda refers to the Jedi child in "AOTC" as a padawan.

The Yoda and Dooku face confrontation suggests that there was somethng more personal going on between the two than would be with just any other Jedi. If Dooku's training from Yoda had been limited to the classes that most Jedi took, there would be no special significance between the two, not in the context of "my old padawan", at least. I find it more likely that Yoda did train Dooku just as Jinn trained Obi-wan. That would have been decades earlier, so there's nothing in the movies to say that Yoda didn't do the more hands on training some fifty years prior to AOTC.