Having more freedom without messing up with established canon isn't half bad and I think even now, this is a more safe reboot of the tos characters, with far more potential, than having to make a prequel of tos where you are forced to retcon things to follow the same continuity of the TV shows.
I don't think discovery is more valid just because they claim it's prime. It's as AU as the movies are, the latter are just more honest about that fact.
Spock especially will never make sense to me as a prequel of Nimoy's Spock, unless he will lose his memory at one point and thus regress. Both discovery and kelvin trek ultimately position their Spock as the guy he became in the movies, not really the one we see in tos. This is OK for kelvin Spock because he is allowed to evolve sooner and differently. Not so logical for discoSpock, though, who can't solve his conflict decades earlier.
Spock is a great example of those characters that can be loved yet misuranderstood at the same time by people who either romanticize his delusions in tos( and pretend that perfect, resolved, in character Spock is the guy who tries to pass for a Vulcan only and pretends he has no feelings).. or they simply forget how he was in tos (the flawed beginning of his journey as a character) and only remember the movies (the end of that journey when he finally accepts himself more).
Either way, the idea everything can fit with one continuity just because you put the prime timeline label on it is, well, an illusion in either case. Modern trek iterations cannot and will never create new things all the while trying to still make sense with a TV show made in the 60s.
Given where BEYOND left the crew, they certainly don’t feel as different from TOS as they were in 2009.
I beg to differ. Even if one were to only watch beyond, only if you never watched tos you'd think the characters are the same.
I don't think ignoring the characters stories is good writing. Things happened in these movies that have everlasting consequences and not just on the characters. There is no point in making more movies with this cast if you are going to completely dismiss their stories and pretend the first movies are pointless. Tarantino's movie would be, then, all the more useless in his standalone contribution to a franchise that desperately tries to stay relevant and have a future.
I think, after the merger, now more than ever those who own trek cannot afford to hire creative teams that don't know the material or don't want to follow the different continuity, especially if they want TV and film trek to make sense together and not conflict with each other. Especially if they want their thing to have some sort of integrity. Tarantino retconning the prime timeline that Discovery already retconned isn't a good idea.
Be careful about what you wish for, anyway. Tarantino is known for being someone who loves to rewrite history and change things. I don't think he has issues about rewriting tos even in big ways. Those who assume that if he pretends kelvin trek is a prequel of prime then everything will be restored to tos and be like the old thing, might be wrong.
Tarantino loved the first movie, he only dislikes the actor who plays Khan in stid. Outside of that, he doesn't seem to have issues with jj destroying vulcan and other differences (or really he wouldn't enjoy the first movie much). I think Tarantino more than anyone isn't a guy who will care about canon like tos purists who hate kelvin trek do. Those who hated JJ should be more worried than ever...