10 Reasons You’re Wrong About The Star Wars Prequels

4. They Expanded The Mythology

That the prequels contributed to the Star Wars mythology itself isn't too big a deal; if they hadn't you'd have to question what they spent their time doing. What's important is that it created some key franchise elements.

Jedi are monk-like warriors who train in pairs and must never love. The Sith are a duo of dark Jedi with the title Darth. The Clone Wars saw the Republic's clones take on droids. These are central elements of the Star Wars mythos, yet all originate in the prequels; Jedi initially appear monk-like in the originals because the only masters we saw were old recluses; the word Sith wasn't spoken on film until The Phantom Menace and Darth was originally Vader's first name; before Episode II the Clone Wars was nothing more than a throwaway reference in A New Hope.

Everyone has their own ideas of how minor strokes of the trilogy could be improved, but in general the broad backstory is now readily accepted. And yet the prequels are rarely praised for this. So much focus of the criticism is aimed at things like the basic nature of Anakin and Padmé's romance that the massive galactic additions made in Episodes I through III aren't given the credit they deserve.