Honestly, watching the prequels after having watched and rewatched so five seasons of The Clone Wars is a TAD hard for me. Don't get me wrong, I can still find plenty to enjoy, but overall I think the writing on that show surpasses anything done in EITHER movie trilogy.

More or less, I watch the prequels when I want to see badass live-action lightsaber duels. Every one of them is chock full of them, but only one of them has two of the hands-down coolest characters in the saga; Qui-Gon Jinn and Darth Maul.

That's what YouTube is for. Any time I really feel the urge to watch the prequels, I just pop over to Youtube and queue up all of the lightsaber fights in individual tabs, let them buffer, then watch them all in one go. No need to fast forward, or otherwise suffer through having to watch Jar-Jar or Hayden.

As for the quality of the actors...well, Mark Hamill was kind of whiny in A New Hope and even in Empire, but he managed to be whiny in a way that isn't incredibly irritating for the audience. It's clear, however, than most people could have done without some of his character in those films, as if you watch most of the major spoofs of Star Wars, they either remove Luke entirely (replacing him with basically a Jedi Han Solo), or overemphasize his behavior. That isn't to say that I don't like Luke, or the original trilogy, just that I feel like people neglect some of that.

All of that said, Hayden was abysmal, Portman was terrible (and she can be an really good actress--see Black Swan, for example), and I found Ewan McGregor's Obi Wan to be in turns either too stiff, or oddly reckless...inconsistently so. Honestly, I think the best performances in the prequel trilogy were turned in by Yoda and Ian McDiarmind (Palpatine). The director wasn't the only one who failed the actors and viewers alike--the writing was similarly awful, and not just the script, but also the whole plot. Really a shame.

The best things to come out of the new trilogy were Due of the Fates, and the lightsaber duels, and I suppose a revitalization of the IP, although we could have done without all of the retroactive edits to the original trilogy.

LOL that's what makes Obi-Wan great. Very much the spitting image of a lawful good paladin, but he was also trained by Hippie Master Qui-Gon Jinn, and his best friend/student is Anakin "James T. Kirk with a Lightsaber" Skywalker. Being associated with those two REQUIRES having something of a wild streak, which of course Obi-Wan coolly denies with that dry, astoundingly British wit of his.

This is why, as far as Jedi go, I'm such a huge fan of Living Force adherents like Qui-Gon Jinn, Quinlan Vos, and Master Tholme.

Honestly, watching the prequels after having watched and rewatched so five seasons of The Clone Wars is a TAD hard for me. Don't get me wrong, I can still find plenty to enjoy, but overall I think the writing on that show surpasses anything done in EITHER movie trilogy.

Funny, I have the same, but it's really a problem with packing a decade of political-economic-social-character development into a 2 hour format. I like that TCW can delve into one specific character development arc over the course of several episodes, it feels far more grounded. All the movies now feel like a Coles notes of the history of a galaxy far far away.

I had the sense that Portman didn't much like Hayden, she probably had to work pretty hard to show any affection at all. Also, with the move to mega-CG, often the actors didn't have much to work with. The whole scene on Kamino is Obiwan talking to sticks in the air. Can't be easy. Then again, Mark Hamill spent weeks on the Dagobah sets, and pulled off some pretty compelling stuff.

There are some actors that portray couples that like each other well enough, they just simply don't have any onscreen chemistry, and the scenes are painful to watch no matter how good the script is. If you've watched the earlier seasons of Smallville, you saw this clear as day in the Clark/Lana scenes, as there was just no "pop" between them, but there was plenty of chemistry between Clark and Chloe, as well as Lois when she showed up (though I think Erica Durance was enough of a spitfire to have chemistry with pretty much anyone).

I had the sense that Portman didn't much like Hayden, she probably had to work pretty hard to show any affection at all. Also, with the move to mega-CG, often the actors didn't have much to work with. The whole scene on Kamino is Obiwan talking to sticks in the air. Can't be easy. Then again, Mark Hamill spent weeks on the Dagobah sets, and pulled off some pretty compelling stuff.

They were actually dating. I guess that means you couldn't be more wrong... or you couldn't be more right.

Lol, I didn't know that.

Feel kinda bad beating up on the prequels too much. I did like parts. I liked Grievous a lot, always thought he was neat. I loved Ewan McGregor in the duel with Anakin telling him how he failed him, thought that was a great scene. The films were not without their moments.

Feel kinda bad beating up on the prequels too much. I did like parts. I liked Grievous a lot, always thought he was neat. I loved Ewan McGregor in the duel with Anakin telling him how he failed him, thought that was a great scene. The films were not without their moments.

My favorite scene in all the movies is in E3, near the end, when Padme and Anakin are looking at each other across the long expanse of Coruscant and the sun is slowly setting. That scene has everything in it at once: love, doom, pain, beauty, and all the fantastic depth of the universe behind it, where billions of beings are blithely going about their business unaware that everything is about to change.

Feel kinda bad beating up on the prequels too much. I did like parts. I liked Grievous a lot, always thought he was neat. I loved Ewan McGregor in the duel with Anakin telling him how he failed him, thought that was a great scene. The films were not without their moments.

I was kind of disappointed with Grievous--they really could have done more with him in the movies. I mean, the guy has a bunch of lightsabers, and is alluded to as being dangerous, but we never see that until we get the Clone Wars cartoon, in which Grievous is pretty bad ass. He put up a good fight against Obi Wan, but I would have liked more, at least enough to get a good sense of how dangerous he was supposed to be.

Darth Maul could have used a bit more build up, but at least he had the earlier fight with Qui-Gon, where we see the Jedi Master retreat, and then the culminating fight with Maul goes pretty long.

To be honest, though, I have basically the same problem with Boba Fett--all my friends love the guy, but in the original films, he does very little of note, and gets embarrassed by a blind Han Solo, and then eaten by a Saarlac. He looks cool, sure, and he anticipates Han's garbage escape, but what else did he do in the films to earn such fervent fanboism?

I like my villains to be built up a bit.

Feel kinda bad beating up on the prequels too much. I did like parts. I liked Grievous a lot, always thought he was neat. I loved Ewan McGregor in the duel with Anakin telling him how he failed him, thought that was a great scene. The films were not without their moments.

My favorite scene in all the movies is in E3, near the end, when Padme and Anakin are looking at each other across the long expanse of Coruscant and the sun is slowly setting. That scene has everything in it at once: love, doom, pain, beauty, and all the fantastic depth of the universe behind it, where billions of beings are blithely going about their business unaware that everything is about to change.

I always think about this scene during Return of the Jedi when Anakin pisses Luke off for the last time. That moment on Coruscant was literally the last moment he had love in his life before throwing it away... and in RotJ he nearly throws it away all over again.

Being alone is a choice; so is being loved.

General Grievous is cut from the same cloth as villains like Dr. Doom and Cobra Commander; over-the-top body language, absurd evil schemes, new super-weapons every week, an antagonist of every hero-type out there with a special hatred for ONE special person (Obi-Wan/Reed Richards/Duke, etc), and above all else an absolute coward who's nevertheless proves difficult to capture or defeat.

Grievous was a flash of the past to me. By the third movie I was thoroughly saddened that I just didn't love them. I wanted to but couldn't. So when he stomped out it was like a feeling I had when I saw the originals. Whether anyone agrees the distinct impression I had was here was a guy straight out of the late 70s and early 80s Star Wars I loved. Not sure why I had that impression but I did. So I've always had a spot for Grievous as one of the elements of the prequels I really enjoyed because it reminded me of the originals. A nice single minded bad guy who didn't have some complicated issue with his mom not loving him or something, he was just bad and he looked good doing it.

General Grievous is cut from the same cloth as villains like Dr. Doom and Cobra Commander; over-the-top body language, absurd evil schemes, new super-weapons every week, an antagonist of every hero-type out there with a special hatred for ONE special person (Obi-Wan/Reed Richards/Duke, etc), and above all else an absolute coward who's nevertheless proves difficult to capture or defeat.

Dr. Doom is a more well-rounded character than that! And not a coward!

And as far as super-weapons go...that's kind of Star Wars staple...the Emperor has the Death Star, which fails...so he builds another one. He's got Super Star Destroyers, and if you get into the EU books, or Clone Wars TV show, you've got all sorts of other super-weapons, most of which are impractical in one or more ways.

General Grievous is cut from the same cloth as villains like Dr. Doom and Cobra Commander; over-the-top body language, absurd evil schemes, new super-weapons every week, an antagonist of every hero-type out there with a special hatred for ONE special person (Obi-Wan/Reed Richards/Duke, etc), and above all else an absolute coward who's nevertheless proves difficult to capture or defeat.

Dr. Doom is a more well-rounded character than that! And not a coward!

And as far as super-weapons go...that's kind of Star Wars staple...the Emperor has the Death Star, which fails...so he builds another one. He's got Super Star Destroyers, and if you get into the EU books, or Clone Wars TV show, you've got all sorts of other super-weapons, most of which are impractical in one or more ways.

Oh don't get me wrong, Dr. Doom is the greatest villain in comics bar none, not to mention a crystal-clear inspiration behind Darth Vader himself. But he's most DEFINITELY a coward in the truest sense; why else would he have so many Doombot decoys? You never see the man, only proxies in disguise.

Doom is a classic Silver Age villain who embodies that era of comics in numerous ways. That's what I was trying to point out about Grievous -- that he's a villain in an old-school, classic sense.

Badasses though they are, Doom has been defeated by Squirrel Girl (in a comic by Steve Ditko, no less) and Grievous has been defeated by Gungans... and yet they still managed to weasel their way back into power and challenge greater heroes, dangerous and intimidating as ever.

(They also both enjoy flowing capes, making fists, posing, posing while making fists, and cursing the name of their arch-nemesis. )

I don't presume to speak for FF, but I believe (at least my reasoning), is that characteristics are meant to be difficult to raise because IRL they are difficult to raise. I mean, you don't just BAMF more intelligence. The dedication and time needed to get to the upper levels would be almost impossible to do, over the course of a few game sessions, because you're not "just doing that". As you're supposed to be noobs at the start, I always suggest to dump as much into stats then, as they represent what you're starting with, which is nothing.

In addition, because they affect so many things (like all associated skills), they can get kinda game breaking if allowed to go unchecked. Before you know it, you have players rolling 5 yellows for half their skill list. It becomes hard to challenge those players.

Anyway, that's my take. I honestly am kinda bewildered by some of the posts about these types of things, as they never really come up in my games.

Be well,

Getting 5 yellow dice for "half your skill list" -- assuming you only have 6 skills -- would cost 315 XP. This includes the cost of getting a base characteristic of 3 up to 5, and assumes all 3 skills are tied to said characteristic.

In short, what you have here is a lobsided, uneven character who would be immensely challenged by literally any situation that didn't involve one of his three skills.

I'd GM that all day and laugh.

Hello.

Getting 5 yellow dice for "half your skill list" -- assuming you only have 6 skills -- would cost 315 XP. This includes the cost of getting a base characteristic of 3 up to 5, and assumes all 3 skills are tied to said characteristic.

In short, what you have here is a lobsided, uneven character who would be immensely challenged by literally any situation that didn't involve one of his three skills.

I'd GM that all day and laugh.

Each gaming groups deserves its comic-relief character ... Unless the gamer is not too serious about his character, he would enjoy some laughable moments as well. At least: Although I never approached any game in that way yet, I could think of doing so the first time now with SW EotE.

Best wishes!
Mad

Feel kinda bad beating up on the prequels too much. I did like parts. I liked Grievous a lot, always thought he was neat. I loved Ewan McGregor in the duel with Anakin telling him how he failed him, thought that was a great scene. The films were not without their moments.

I was kind of disappointed with Grievous--they really could have done more with him in the movies. I mean, the guy has a bunch of lightsabers, and is alluded to as being dangerous, but we never see that until we get the Clone Wars cartoon, in which Grievous is pretty bad ass. He put up a good fight against Obi Wan, but I would have liked more, at least enough to get a good sense of how dangerous he was supposed to be.

Darth Maul could have used a bit more build up, but at least he had the earlier fight with Qui-Gon, where we see the Jedi Master retreat, and then the culminating fight with Maul goes pretty long.

To be honest, though, I have basically the same problem with Boba Fett--all my friends love the guy, but in the original films, he does very little of note, and gets embarrassed by a blind Han Solo, and then eaten by a Saarlac. He looks cool, sure, and he anticipates Han's garbage escape, but what else did he do in the films to earn such fervent fanboism?

I like my villains to be built up a bit.

He was hyped in the various media and unless you watched the first Clone Wars cartoons (the 2D cel shaded 5 minute episodes), then you never really saw him as the badass all the hype brought up. Then the new Clone Wars cartoon series (the 3D show) came out and he was retconned to being what we see. The coward surrounded by the incompetent.

He's still a badass in his own right, though. He has killed Jedi -- including Masters -- and he also wiped out the entire Nightsister clan on Dathomir in one day. It takes Obi-Wan Kenobi literally years to defeat him.