Chefelf.com Night Life: Karig - Viewing Profile

Hello, all. This is my first post.

I've been thinking somewhat about why the OT was so appealing to me, and why the PT has lots of attractive and imaginative eye candy but still left me cold and didn't feel special like the OT did. I don't think it is just because I've gotten older (I was 12 when ANH came out in the summer of 1977).

I think it's the characters. I think it's because I can identify with Luke and Han, and to some extent Leia. I don't get that same vicarious "rapport", so to speak, with Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Anakin, Shmi, Padme/Amidala, Yoda, Mace, Jar-Jar, or any of the other characters in the PT. The characters in the PT that aren't just flat-out undignified strike me as basically lacking warmth and seem like they'd be less than friendly in person; the characters in the OT don't strike me that way. The OT characters had a little charisma; the PT characters don't -- not for me, anyway.

I think that if the characters were stronger, warmer, more likable, less annoying, I'd be a lot more inclined to overlook a lot of the flaws that this whole website is devoted to documenting. I might be more inclined to overlook the many continuity errors between the OT and the PT, as described on other threads here. I might be more inclined to forgive the little jokes that GL throws into the PT, with Jar-Jar Binks trodding in bantha droppings, E.T.s in the Senate on Coruscant, etc. I might be more inclined to forgive GL's making his galaxy so small that everybody seems to have at least a nodding acquaintance with everybody else -- Yoda apparently knows Chewbacca in ROTS, Anakin just happens to build (in TPM) the very same C-3PO that reappears on the very same Death Star where Anakin as Vader can be found (in ANH), etc., etc. I might even be inclined to forgive GL for his embarrassing attempts at humor in both TPM and AOTC. I'd forgive a lot. The OT had its share of bad acting and bad dialogue, but I don't really care.

I think the galaxy of the OT, while not as pretty to look at as that in the PT, is a friendlier place, if you take my meaning.

The point of this very long post is to ask two questions:

(1) If you also liked the OT but disliked the PT, do you think this observation might explain why for you too? Does this idea crystallize the problem for anybody else, or do a lot of people think the problem with the PT (if you agree there is one) lies elsewhere?

(2) Is there anybody here who liked the characters in the PT? I don't mean merely that you don't mind spending two hours per picture watching them speechify and run around; I mean, do you like any of these characters?