In twenty-one years, will you say something similar to someone who thinks the Sequels are terrible?
I have no idea what horrors will Lucasfilm inflict to us in the dark future, but I really believe that the sequels will age much poorly than the prequels simply because they don't really add much of anything to Star Wars. There's nothing memorable about them.
The Prequels were *bad* movies (I enjoy them but the dialogue is terrible and there are many other things that just don't work) but they expanded the Star Wars universe incredibly. We saw the capital of the Galaxy!!! We saw how the Republic worked (and didn't), we saw the Jedi at its peak, we saw warfare in a scale never seen before, we saw worlds and aliens and different aesthetics and themes. They also gave us characters like Anakin, Padmé, Obi-Wan, even Ahsoka and Darth Maul if you kept up with the animated shows that enhanced them. Even if you think that the prequels are bad movies, they GAVE a lot
The Sequels on the other hand, TOOK AWAY things from the universe. They took away the character arcs of the heroes of the main trilogy. They returned to the old Rebels vs. Empire playbook, Jakku is Tatooine, the rebels have bases in forested planets, everything is the same. There were a couple original things but they were buried into the play it safe soft reboot crap. They even retreated their own plot points which weren't even that original to begin with.
This is why I think that the Sequels will be poorly considered in the future. Not all of new Star Wars, I think the Mandalorian, despite all, will have a good legacy, same with Andor and other things. But I think the more time goes on the less people will be willing to redeem the Sequels. And this is only from the lore perspective, the messy production and how they treated beloved actors and characters will only make their legacy worse.
Oh this feels SO accurate, but I think for me, more than what the respective trilogies "added" to the universe/worldbuilding, I'm more invested in what they "added to" (or "took away from") the THEMES AND STORY.
Other people have said this better than me, but the Prequels have something to SAY in a way that the Sequels do not. This is because the Prequels are made by a flawed man with a vision and specific opinions on society at large and the world that he lived in, while the Sequels are made by a corporation that wants to make a profit. The Prequels are a vehicle for a flawed man to tell the other side of the story he told in the Original Trilogy, while the Sequels are just trying to tell "a Star Wars story." The characters and worldbuilding ARE the story in the Prequels, in a way that they simply are not in the Sequels.
Not everyone LIKED the execution of Lucas's message, and there are certainly things you can critique about the way he chose to tell his story, but at minimum you can go back to the Prequels and understand what he was trying to SAY with his story and his characters. The Sequels aren't really trying to say anything, and what little might be there is contradicted by the next director or even sometimes the next scene in the same film. It's next to impossible to stitch together a coherent theme or message across the trilogy because no one involved seemed to have a firm idea of what it should be and the few that did clearly didn't agree with each other about it. This ends up making the Sequels feel extremely shallow because there's no way to deepen any of the characters or the worldbuilding when it's basically just a for-profit paint-by-numbers project instead of a creative piece of art.
The reason people like the Prequels isn't JUST because it expanded the worldbuilding. If that's all it was doing and all it had to offer, no one would go back to them. It's not even just the introduction of a few new characters people liked. The reason people still like the Prequels, the reason it's been able to experience a renaissance 20 years later, is because they expanded on the MESSAGE of the original story.
Luke's story in the OT is about how he overcame darkness. It's about the strength it takes to look at yourself and really acknowledge your flaws enough to control them. The Prequels are about the FAILURE to do any of that and the consequences it leads to. If the OT is about how even the worst people still have the capacity for good in them and it's possible to overcome darkness no matter how deep in it you are, then the Prequels are about how even the best people have the capacity for evil in them and what would lead someone to succumb to darkness. The Prequels are the Greek tragedy cautionary tale to the OT's triumphant hero's journey.
Luke's story is enhanced and deepened by Anakin's own because we get to see exactly how easily Luke could have become Anakin. We understand better how much strength it took for Luke to make the choices he did. Anakin's final choice to save Luke and sacrifice his own life becomes more poignant when understanding everything that led him to where he is in that moment, and all of the times he made the WRONG choice when faced with this exact same dilemma.
And you can attach that to many of the other characters, too. Obi-Wan's choices and his relationship with Luke in the OT are greatly enhanced by seeing exactly what his relationship with Anakin was like, how they were thrown together by fate and the friendship they had and the sorrow it ended in. Leia's parallels to her mother become apparent with the addition of the Prequels and how we see Padme lose her own identity in her work and how that led to her own doom while Leia learns to overcome that particular flaw and finds love and balance as a result. Yoda's reactions to Luke and his advice and teaching methods are now paired with all the scenes we have of him in the Jedi's heyday from the Prequels as we understand everything he's lost. The loss of the Jedi themselves, the tragedy of their destruction, makes MANY things in the OT now feel haunted by their absence. Luke becomes their beacon of justice in a way he never could have been before we'd SEEN the Jedi and what was done to them.
There are so many things to critique in the Prequels, but the reason you can go back to these films 20-30 years later and find so many worthwhile things in them beyond those flaws are because they're showing us the other side of the same story which enhances the themes, the characters, and the story itself.
By contrast, the Sequels add plenty to the worldbuilding and exactly nothing to the story and its themes. We see plenty of new worlds, there's new Force tricks added, some new lore for the Jedi and their origins, and so forth. But there's no POINT to it. All the added worldbuilding does nothing if it's not there to support a story that has something meaningful to say. And, as stated above, it took away plenty from the worldbuilding as it had been left in ROTJ. And the place where Disney is spending most of its time expanding on that lore, the Mandoverse, is making all of those problems WORSE. Luke and Leia's legacies as the return of the Jedi and the restoration of the Republic have been entirely demolished between the Mandoverse and the Sequel Trilogy.
The Sequels (and their prequels in the Mandoverse) are corporate slop and little else. There are enjoyable MOMENTS in them, some fun line delivery and action set pieces and cinematography/SFX, but nothing that truly sticks with you and means anything deeper than what you see on screen. The Sequels are not in conversation with the Original Trilogy or the Prequels, it's in CONFLICT with them, tearing down everything the prior six films had built and hoping that a bunch of flash and spectacle will suffice in its place. There's no poetry, no rhymes, just hollow reflections. THAT'S why no one will go back to them 20-30 years down the line and feel like they can see anything worthwhile beyond the flaws.
