So far, the prequel trilogy is still my favourite. The effects were amazing back in the day. My dark secret is that I have a Jar Jar Binks plush toy.
My actual grave will be made from Star Wars toys. I say if you live in style you go out with style. #MeesaGonBeRoomTemperature
I have my problems with the prequels but I never hated them like some people did and still do. There was plenty of good to go with the bad in them and as time once more has proven, opinions change with age and by comparison. The current sequel trilogy (esp TLJ) are getting the same treatment the prequels have. I wonder how many people in 20 years will still hate them. Just like the prequels, these movies are flawed but they are hardly hate-worthy. Even Solo isn't bad. Just bland and uninspired feeling.
For the Sequels, it will depend heavily on what happens in Episode IX. That could shift the state of things, like Return of the Jedi shifted things after The Empire Strikes Back. Though I don't know how much Revenge of the Sith shifted things after Attack of the Clones...but we actually already knew how that story was going to end (at least an abridged version of how it would end).
The prequels definitely have some serious issues, but for me the stuff I enjoy outweighs those problems. I've been enjoying the Disney movies a lot more than I did the prequels.
I think that while the prequels were terrible, and I do think that, what the last two movies did were so horrible that they make the prequels look better. The best way to make something terrible look good is to make something worse.
Don't get me wrong. He is a stand out character, one of the best in the PT by a long shot. But, the PT ended up showcasing him in a much more negative light based upon his actions in the OT. He ends up being a liar, a manipulator, and less than stellar of a heroic figure. Now, bear in mind, some of this is child interpretation being reworked in to more adult understanding. However, to me, it pretty much ruined the vision of the Jedi, with Obi-Wan being the chief example of these guys failing to live up to his own lofty rememberings in ANH.
Let's face it it he was liar from the get go in ANH with his explanation of how Luke's 'father' died but I don't think he was a manipulator in the PT unless I'm forgetting something. I enjoyed his arc across the three movies, and I'm glad there was the odd shade of grey so to speak.
The manipulation comes from the lightsaber story. Now, until the PT it could be hand waved away. But, that is a deliberate obfuscation for Luke to throw in with the Jedi cause.
Obi-Wan was shown to be fallible even in the OT, he even says as much himself. "...I was wrong." Not telling Luke the full truth about Vader wasn't manipulation, it was omission and mostly because it was a truth Luke would barely be able to comprehend, let alone process. I mean just think for a second if he had told Luke "Hey, you know how you've always thought you were an orphan? Well you dad is still alive, only he's a killer cyborg maniac and the number two guy in that Empire you hate so much....oh and he kinda sorta killed your mum, sooooo.....yeah. Have fun playing with his glowly murder stick!" Best case scenario: Luke has a nervous breakdown there and then and is no good to anyone ever. Worse case scenario: he runs off to try and save his father and ends up getting turned or killed. The essential concepts were truthful, if not factual in the literal sense. Vader betrayed everything Anakin stood for, and (in Kenobi's eyes) effectively murdered him. Why taint the boy's view of a family he can never know? Why burden him with that which cannot be undone? Obi-Wan is first and foremost compassionate to a fault. In a way, it may have been partly why Anakin fell as he did. I don't think there's any way that Obi-Wan didn't know, or at least suspect that something was going on between Anakin & Padme and yet he said nothing, did nothing. Not out of reckless neglect, but out of compassion. Anakin had already lost so much and clearly Padme made him happy, gave him stability where before he could barely focus for all the pent up frustration. And we now know that Obi-Wan had also been confronted with a similar dilemma with Satine and perhaps part of him will always regret choosing duty over happiness. For me, all the PT and CW has done is re-contextualise his thought process. Whereas in OT paints him as over protective of Luke and perhaps in denial about what happened to his friend, the PT paints Kenobi as someone damned by good intentions and a promise.
While I appreciate this POV, the one that stands out to me is "Your father wanted you to have this..." Sorry, all the "certain point of view" stuff can't spin the fact that Obi-Want left Anakin to burn alive and took his weapon. That is the concept that was, at best, wishful thinking in light of the PT, and, at worst, manipulative, to me. I'm not saying that I ever regarded Obi-Wan as infallible, but his telling to Luke comes across far more awkward and misleading than I think was intended with ANH or even ROTJ. Nor am I expecting such a literal telling to Luke in Obi-Wan's hut. But, that whole lightsaber thing just stands out. It showcases, at least for me, how Luke could become so disenchanted with the idea of the Jedi by the ST.
That's an artefact of Vader and Anakin being two different people when ANH was written. It wasn't the PT that made this seem incongruous, it was tESB and RotJ.
I acknowledged that later on in my post, though perhaps not as clearly as I could. But, to my mind, the PT made it worse.
I'm pretty sure Anakin would have wanted his son to have that lightsaber though. Its seems like he's nature. The "This weapon is your life" and Anakin taking that to literal sense to show what he felt (handing it to Pandme to show he was serious about her in TCW) It would fit that Anakin would had over "his life" to his children, when they were old enough. In a way, he did just that, at the end. When he gave his life for his son's life.