10 Reasons You’re Wrong About The Star Wars Prequels

7. The Clone Wars Has Only Made Them Better

Star Wars Clone Wars Season 7 Ahsoka
Lucasfilm

For all that the prequels had some bright ideas, they were notorious for executing them poorly. Take Attack of the Clones, for instance. On paper it should be the most interesting Star Wars film ever; you have Qui-Gon's former master revealed to be a new Sith Lord; a secret conspiracy to create an army for the Republic that seems like it was ripped straight from the paranoid thrillers of the 1970s, and obviously the beginnings of Anakin's fall to the Dark Side.

The issue is that these concepts weren't always explored to their fullest extent onscreen. We never get to see Anakin Skywalker, as either the legendary Jedi Knight or war hero he was meant to be, in either Episodes II or III. We don't get to see much of the Clone Wars at all, really. Or the little flourishes that make Anakin's fall - and indeed the collapse of the Republic - that much more emotionally galling.

Enter The Clone Wars TV show, as well as subsequent Star Wars offerings. The Clone Wars was spearheaded by Lucas and Dave Filoni, and addresses many of the gaps the prequels left behind. It also rectifies some of their mistakes, bringing back Maul and transforming him into a truly legendary character, whilst further developing the friendship between Anakin and Obi-Wan, the other Jedi Knights in the galaxy, and the clones at their command.

Plus there's Ahsoka Tano, who has since become one of the most beloved Star Wars characters of all.

Watching The Clone Wars fundamentally makes the prequels better. They benefit from the added emotional context, and other Star Wars efforts have used its example to great effect, whether it be Claudia Gray's Master & Apprentice novel further exploring the relationship between Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan pre-Episode I, or works like Star Wars Rebels and Jedi: Fallen Order unpacking the aftermath of Order 66.

The prequels are constantly getting better, and that has been really exciting to watch unfurl over the last decade.

Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.