CT What ideas did you have about the PT era when watching the OT?

My friend, you need to relax. I was using Shmi as an example, like Han, where it makes no logical sense that years elapsed between films and, during those years, the problem wasn't resolved. Ultimately what it comes down to is that this is a work of fiction so, for story telling purposes, you can't really have a major plot point resolved between movies off screen despite the fact that you lose a little bit of "this wouldn't never happen in the real-world" logic.

You brought up Anakin disobeying the Jedi Council as if that was some sort of tremendous sacrifice or risk on his part, when it is nothing but a laugh. Han Solo risked a far greater punishment disobeying Jabba than Anakin did by disobeying the Council - not to mention that he now would incur the wrath of the Empire.

 

Jabba never ordered Han not to save Luke...

 

Star Wars having that lived in look and feel, and the way characters talked about the past always made me wonder....then 1999 came and I my child/teen imagination was proved very wrong. This might be a bit of rehashing since it seems a few others thought the same way I did.

The Clone Wars I pictured as a group of relatively small local wars involving Jedi and co. vs clones. Leia said Kenobi served her father so I assumed he and Anakin were fighting for/with Alderaan.

Hearing Obi-Wan describe Anakin I pictured a charismatic, cocky, soldier/pilot who happened to be a Jedi(a very powerful one). I also thought Anakin...and Obi-Wan for that matter were older Anakin around mid 50s when he died, Obi-Wan in his late 70s. Owen and Anakin were childhood friends. Obi-Wan as part of a recruiting group shows up and Anakin takes the offer to get off that wasteland (in every sense of the word) of a planet and join Obi-Wan's damn fool idealistic crusade, while Owen sticks to his priorities of living a quiet life.

Now as for the Empire I just assumed it'd been around for a while, and Obi-Wan was talking how the Jedi flourished in the Old Republic and then their numbers dwindled until their eventual destruction under the Empire. I didn't put much thought as to how Palpatine gained the throne, I remember reading he'd been a politician and had forced his way up, this seemed enough for me at the time.

 

Exactly the same with me. And I guess for many of OT era fan.

I was deeply intrigued and fascinated by the OT/backstory references in the originals, though scarce and enigmatic as they were, especially from ROTJ and after. The story had that real sense of drama, tragedy and emotion.That was such a hook for the PT to come, especially of course how and why Anakin Skywalker had fallen to the dark side. Couldn't help wondering about it from time to time.

Mine was basically proved wrong too.

That would have made more sense with what's told by Ben Kenobi to Luke in ANH, that 's for sure. Now those lines ("...idealistic crusade...") really seem out of place.
But Lucas apparently didn't care.

 

Really interesting take by everyone. I remember the late '90's really as a blur and leading up to TPM I had no idea what to expect (which made the movie a big suprise and a lot of fun). Everything from ANH was in play and I remember trying to piece everything together. It ended up being pieced together very different than what most of us could possibly imagine, which isn't a bad thing. However, we didn't get to see more of these emotional relationships (beside Obi-Wan and Anikan) such as Owen & Obi-Wan or Padme and Bail vs. Empire so in the end ANH is much more interesting, but just left with a few pieces not fitting the total puzzle like we had hoped.

 

I thought Anakin and Obi-Wan were older.
The Clone Wars were the Jedi defending the Republic from the Clones and the Mandalorian Super-Commandos.
Jedi could marry and have kids and it was no big deal. They were more warrior and less monk. They could also come into the way of the Jedi at various points in their life: even as an adult.
Bail Organa was more important to Obi-Wan than eventually happened.
Anakin was more a noble soul corrupted by power than what he was portrayed as.