Saga Loss of Innocence: stories of being introduced to bashing

I grew up with the OOT, and experienced the lead up and excitement of the Special Editions and the PT all the old fashioned way: by looking at magazines, ads and trailers, and toys and other products in the stores. As such, I never really knew until relatively recently when I started using the internet more that it was a 'thing' to hate the prequels, the special editions, and even ROTJ. Of course, being online at that point, I immediately took to defending them against what I believe are ridiculous criticisms. Not too interesting of a story. Now I'll tell you about my mother. Until recently she was a virgin. No, I wasn't conceived by the midichlorians, allow me to clarify: She was a Star Wars virgin. She had seen the original film in the theater before I was born, but she didn't remember much of it at all. So, I took it upon myself to train her. No, introduce her, that is, with as little commentary from me as possible, allowing her to form her own opinion. All she knew was that it was a series of movies that I loved, and all she remembered or heard about them was 'help me obi wan Kenobi you're my only hope', 'let the wookiee win' & 'Luke I am your father'. She doesnt really use the internet, and has no idea of the wretched hive of bashing that proliferates there, so she was a perfect, unbiased test subject. We watched them in the proper, intended order, (episodic). She was at first a little disinterested, but before long was drawn into it kind of like a soap opera. She laughed at Anakin in AOTC trying to put the moves on Padme. She said 'He looks like a socially awkward kid. I bet he's not acting, he really feels that way, but it works for the character'. The scenes that really got to here emotionally were Anakins moms death, Palpatine manipulating Anakin, especially in the theatre box, and the scene on Mustafar right before THE duel. She almost cried on that one, when Padme was saying I love you. When it came time for the OT, she was charmed by all the puppets and costumes, and she looked at a lot of it from a human interest viewpoint, remembering the 70's and the actors involved. During the death star scenes, she rolled her eyes quite a few times, telling me that all this sarcastic banter was reminding here of a sitcom. She said that sitcoms from the 70s and 80s were especially big on harsh sarcasm and comebacks, and she never liked that. In TESB, she was completely put off by the comic relief Muppet that Yoda was, obviously made to appeal to children and sell toys. She was glad when he changed personalities and revealed he was purposefully testing Luke's patience. The rest of the movie she was engrossed in, especially the duel between Luke and Vader. In ROTJ, the use of another death star didn't seem to bother her at all. She loved the ewoks and just about everything that happened on Endor, except for Leias sister revelation, which she thought came off awkward. The scene where Luke mentions 'Anakin Skywalker my father', and Vader says 'that name no longer has any meaning to me' caused her to really perk up again, and during the final dual and redemption she was really engrossed to a point she hadn't been since ROTS, because she didn't know the ending, whether Anakin would return. When young Anakin appeared as a force ghost at the end, she was surprised and let out an 'awww', saying 'I'm glad they did that, it ties it together nicely'. The first time she heard PT criticism in the media was in Lego SW the Yoda Chronicles, in which a character jokes about Haden Christensen's acting ability. She made a puzzled face and said 'Do people think he's a bad actor? I thought he did great.' I just shrugged my shoulders. Another time, more recently, we were talking about the then upcoming TFA with someone, and they said that they had read somewhere that JJ Abrams wanted to put the bones of Jar Jar Bink's in the sand. My mom, in all innocence, said 'Ohhhh, does Jar Jar die?'. He then said 'I think it was just a joke.' She replied 'Well not if you like him.' Thankfully he left it at that. I'm trying to keep her sheltered and able to think for herself for as long as possible. She enjoyed TFA and thought that the acting was really good and looked good in 3D, and she liked seeing the big 3 on screen again for human interest reasons. She also was touched by elements of the story, including Rey and Finns friendship, Finns moral crisis early on, and Han's feeling when confronting Kylo. Does anybody else have stories about SW newcomers being exposed to bashing for the first time . . . or being totally oblivious to it?

 

Great story! I think Star Wars is meant to be enjoyable by kids and anyone who's not too cynical.

 

Great read bro! I was literally born when the SE came out. I gained my first experience with Star Wars in 1999 or 2000. My older brother was a big fan and I learned about it from there when TPM came out. I saw too young to care though. Lol. When AOTC came out in 2002, I was fully immersed in the franchise from there. I saw the 2003-2005 clone wars show on Cartoon Network and waited for ROTS. Meanwhile, I watched the OT during this period and enjoyed them. I remember Vader vs Ben in IV was so anti climatic for a 7 year old lol. In 2005, I was glad to be in the hype for ROTS. This film sealed my love for the prequels and the franchise itself. I saw the Clone Wars premiere in 2008 and watched the show on a regular basis. In 2010, I realized the prequels were despised by reading YouTube comments and watching reviews by RLM or ConfusedMatthew. At this point, I felt the tension in the fanbase and was quite baffled since no one complained back then as far as I knew. My dad and I recently re watched the saga in anticipation for the TFA. My dad is 60 now and he saw all the OT in theaters and the last two prequels. My dad enjoyed the PT more than the OT. He loved TPM, liked Little Anakin and thought the film looked really good for 1999. AOTC, he liked but criticized some of the love dialogue. He thought Hayden was really good though. ROTS he loved all of it. His favorite STAR WARS film. ANH, he said it wasn't as good as he remembered and found Luke to be a whiny brat. ESB, he enjoyed alot and is his second fav. ROTJ jumped the shark for him with the p l other and of course Ewoks but he loved the Death Star 2 scenes. He honestly doesn't get the hate of the prequels and says he likes them just as much or more than the OT.

 

My story wouldn't be complete without mentioning my dad, thanks for reminding me Deliveranze!

Anyway, he was with the OOT from the beginning, saw them all in theaters, and he was the same way with the SE's and the PT. He kept up with all the geeky behind the scenes plot detaies, character names and politics, and invited lots of his friends for a big midnight showing of ROTS. He knew a lot of details of the PT most casual fans didn't and talked about them excitedly. In recent conversation with him, however, I was surprised to learn he now dismisses the PT because of Jar Jar & whinney Anakin. When I see people, anybody, give these 'reasons', it just boggles my mind how they don't know I can see right through them.

 

I find it strange when people bash movies in social situations. There are forums to discuss these things.

 

My husband hadn't seen any of the films in full up until right before TFA. He'd seen part of AotC in his teens, but got disinterested due to lack of context.
In the weeks leading up to TFA release, all six episodes were aired on national TV (so first the PT, then the OT), so I sat him down to watch them with me every weekend. While he did have some minor complaints (he found Anakin to be a weepy teenager in II, believed it would have been better if he'd seen the OT first because now there wasn't much continuity in terms of special effects and CGI), but in general he liked them well enough. He didn't mind Jar Jar, loved both computer Yoda and puppet Yoda, never once commented on the acting (though he did make gagging noises during the fireplace scene in AotC... ), and thought they were entertaining films in general. He did mention he likes the PT better than the OT because he found the latter to be "too small", as in, too little variation of planets and worlds. He also preferred Anakin to Luke as a main character, thought Qui-Gon was a stuck-up know-it-all (ouch), liked but didn't love Obi-Wan (my heart! my poor heart!), and found Maul to be one of the coolest characters of the entire saga. He also claimed to find neither Padmé or Leia particularly hot, but he might have just said that for me

Anyway, while my husband is in no way a film critic and isn't as immersed in the saga as I am, I feel like his unbiased viewings of the films, like Sab Jo 's mother's, are proof that these are good, solid movies to anyone who's not nitpicking on every little detail.

 

I grew up with the Originals as well, because I see them both versions in the late 90', in preparation of TFM, it as so successful that in the channel when I see them, the Originals and TFM passed more than ones, I really grew to love this universe, I wish that I never had searched for other opinions about Star Wars in internet, when I had gone to the Cybers never try to find out what was the opinions of critics about the prequels, because I had little time in the computers and I had to search what I wanted, never the less, when I get internet in my house I dared to watch and I was baffled with what I found, all the critics bashed the prequels, never the less, behind all the noise there were people that like them, even that they were bully and bashed by the Original Star Wars fans, this nearly destroyed my love for this universe, I love science fiction, I grew up with Star Wars and Babylon 5, I really wish that more Original Star Wars fans had grow up with Babylon 5, they would be more used to the political discussion with it.

 

Sab Jo That was a great read!

 

I've had mixed feelings over the years. TPM doesn't hold up for me at all. I didn't like it in the theaters, and although I now appreciate some elements of it, large swaths of it are difficult for me to get through. AOTC is better, IMO, but still requires some mind-editing. ROTS is the most successful to me, and while not a great film, I think it has far more successes that failures. That's all developed over years. The only one that hasn't improved with repeat watchings to me is TPM.

 

My mom is pretty much in the same boat as yours, @SabJo. She loves Hayden as Anakin, she loves the little Ani, she loves Jar Jar etc. Her two favourite SW movies are AotC and RotS, her least favourite is RotJ and the only one she found a bit too silly with the Jabba's palace and all. She did think Ewoks were cute though. She doesn't know much about the bashing and she doesn't care.

My brother knows about the bashing (he even watched all the RLM reviews), but still prefers the prequels. Isn't a huge fan though. He says that he's mostly interested in the story and not so much the action sequences.

My father is the same as Boyega's (if you get the reference).

Thanks for the laugh!

While we're on the subject, virgins are probably the ones that are most vocal in the bashing department. Either that or they must be extremely sexually frustrated that they invest their energy into talking writing negatively about space wizards.

 

That last part, Alienware hahaha

 

I've thought on and off about what impact the internet and social media has on our perceptions of wider fandom and even our own feelings about movies.

I was online from 1996 on and here way back when it was the Texas A&M site(before it transitioned into TFN).

I was a bit underwhelmed by TPM but still enjoyed the overall experience leading up to and watching the film.

It was only after I started visiting the JC at TFN I had any idea Bashing was even a thing.

 

Well get it used it, if you are a Prequels fan, the Original Star Wars fans never would make you forget how much the Prequels "sucks" and how CGI "feast" they were, even that neither of the points is really true.

 

To be fair, there're a lot of the OT fans who still liked the prequels to some extent. When I first saw TPM, I didn't love it as much as the OT but now I'm a fan of the whole saga.

 

Now I was speaking with two Original Star Wars fans, about a anime, Madoka Magica, that is partially based in The Prequels, they are so absolute state of denial that they would bash the interview of the author itself that say that he based partially the anime in the prequels, wow, and I trough they were fans of anime as I was, this is how toxic is the Star Wars fanbase now at days, so toxic that they even would bash the author of the anime that they are fans off if it show a sightly connection with the Prequels, I bet that they even denial the connection between the Nolan Batman and the Prequels, because Christopher Nolan itself had say that he based a lot of The Dark Knight, particularly the fall of Harvey Dent in the Prequels.

 

My discovery of Star Wars discontent was brought about by some early reviews of TPM that described the film as being on par with Jedi at best. At the time ROTJ was still my favorite, and I had no idea that ESB was widely considered to be the best of the films. As far as blatant "bashing," this site introduced me to that side of fandom, and funnily enough I posted in the old Basher's Sanctuary every once in a while (in a completely non-trolling manner) even though I really liked the PT. Which makes me laugh at the "now the tables have turned" gotcha posts directed at PT fans who don't care for TFA, as personally I never campaigned for any "all positivity, all the time" rule of fandom.

 

Nice read, but what did she think of the battledroids? I need to know what she thought of the battledroids

 

Actually the tables continue to be the same, with the Original Star Wars fans supporting the movie to the death, even that some us, even the Prequels fans are beginning to see that the Star Wars universe was completely dumbed down to a level of a five years old, all the importance details are missing in that movie, only for fanservices and because the Original Star Wars fans don't like intelligent scripts, and of course, the Original Star Wars fans hate when us point out that the movie is dumbed down.

 

I think you're generalizing. If you go to IMDB or Metacritic there're a lot of reviews from the OT fans who didn't like the prequels and still hate TFA.

 

Yeah I read that critics, they compare TFA with the Prequels, even that they are like oil and water, but they don't care much about that, but they are a minority between the Original Star Wars fans, most of them, including the Original Star Wars fans critics, that absolutely loved the movie.

 

My mother saw all the PT movies with us when they first came out. She really enjoyed TPM. She was pretty "OK" with AOTC (which is pretty much my least favorite in the saga.) but she didn't like ROTS. I think it's because she felt maternal for Anakin. I said "You knew Darth Vader was pretty messed up in the original movies, right?" She said " Yeah but I didn't know he was going to get burned to a crisp!" I guess I took for granted everyone knew the "Fell into a volcano" legend. But it was a hard movie for her to get through, emotionally speaking.

 

She didn't have any strong reactions or anything to say about the bd's. Well . . . she did say something like ' I guess it doesn't come across as too violent for kids when it's robots getting sliced up instead of people'

 

people hate pt bashing and yet make threads about it? i don't get it.

 

I THINK (key word: think, lol my memory is terrible) I found out about the bashing when Disney bought Lucasfilm and announced the new movies (circa 2012?) and the "hope they'll be better than those terrible prequels!" comments started coming in doves.

As for relatives, my brother was the one that sorta pushed me into the SW world, when he took me with him to watch ROTS when it came out. He prefers the PT for the lightsaber fights, music, the side villains like Maul/Dooku/Greivous, and Palpatine's machinations. Very much like me, he LOVES Palpatine lol. So the PT is a very rewarding experience for us. We also went to go see TPM in 3D together.

I also introduced my sister to SW a few years ago. She doesn't have a preference of one trilogy over another but she did tell me a few days ago after coming back from TFA how much Kylo reminded her of Anakin but how hotter Anakin was which I fully agree with of course and that while she enjoyed Kylo's character, it also reminded her of how much she enjoys Anakin's arc through the whole Saga.

 

Thats a really insensitive comment, battledroids have feelings like the rest of us

Just kdding.