3. Expanded Mythology
One of the best things about Star Wars is the vastness of the canon that expands books, movies, and video games. There are more prequel, sequel, and betweenquel stories than anyone can count, thus giving the Star Wars universe a large mythology that makes it feel more immersive and atmospheric with each new entry. With the high volume of characters, environments, and history revealed in the prequel trilogy (for better or for worse) the Star Wars mythology grew immensely, allowing our imaginations to dwell on would-be fantasies and giving us enough tales to enjoy without ever running the well dry. Some of my favorite moments of Star Wars fandom come from video games that deal with characters never tied in to the main story in any way possible, and I love that. It makes the universe so much more real. When you go back and watch the original trilogy, the characters and environments are more focused, but are really bare bones. But there were only two females in the entire universe, and each planet was littered with maybe just a dozen people. The prequels gave us an ever-expanding network of people and knowledge of what Star Wars is and can be. The social weavings, character chemistries and connections to the canon's past and future decorated the already deep galaxy that is Star Wars. We saw what the Jedi were in their prime, we heard discussions of who trained who that reached generations before the series came to be. The three movies were a visual encyclopedia of droids, planets, and alien species, yet the prequel trilogy made the Star Wars universe so much more complex and realistic than we could ever imagine.