I used to be a Star Wars Prequel hater troll. Given any mention of them online or in real life I would always bring up everything that sucked about them. Memes, George Lucas hate, Jar-Jar jokes, Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen hate. I was terrible to people who really loved these films. Basically, I was a total a-hole to anyone who liked them and made sure they knew they were an idiot for liking something so obviously and OBJECTIVELY bad. Turns out, opinions can’t be objective.
I saw Episode I and II several times before Revenge of the Sith came out. I only saw Episode III one and a half times before giving up. About a year ago, I decided to watch the movies again and recut them to be “better.” In order to do this, I watched the film’s three times each. After doing my cuts and watching them, I realized that the films were actually pretty good before my edits.
Upon further reflection, I realized that most of my hate for the films came from two things. The more minor one was that they just weren’t what I expected them to be (how could they have been?). The major one, which I only recently realized, was that I was in a terrible, emotionally abusive relationship when Episode III premiered and that relationship had hit a horrendous middle when the movie came out on DVD (which I stopped watching halfway through). I wasn’t able to enjoy them during that relationship and I carried that baggage with any mention of them for almost a decade.
I’m now reformed and love the Prequels thanks to Star Wars Ring Theory and a better understanding of the visual and cinematic influences that informed the Saga.