How did you picture the prequel era/story before the prequels?

[Venardhi]

I have little doubt that a significant contributing factor in the disappointment with the PT was how it didn't seem to align with expectations about what the Star Wars galaxy is like on a fundamental level.

I had a clear image in my mind of 30-something Obi-Wan and his friend/protege Anakin in service to the Alderaanian royal family. Knights of the Jedi Order, gentleman warriors with a code of honor sworn to serve but also to do everything in their power to maintain justice and peace in the galaxy.

I imagined a civil war within the Republic. Of Palpatine and his Sith cohorts using cloning technology to build not only an army of soldiers but clones to replace key politicians, royals, etc to gain influence. I imagined a handful of core worlds holding all the political and economic power and the Senate being a much less inclusive political body. Of a human-dominated political system and humans as the "white men" of the galaxy.

I imagined the galaxy as a throwback to WWI Europe as well as late Shogunate Japan. As a civilization on the verge of revolution, preparing to throw off the yolk of old traditions and institutions. Kings and queens, warlords and honor codes.

I imagined a less. . . orderly Jedi Order. More like Samurai or the Knights Templar or a Monastic order. A remnant of earlier ages reduced largely to symbolic positions as advisers and champions in a galaxy that has lost much of the respect it once had for them.

I imagined Anakin as a roguish "Top Gun" military pilot that Obi-Wan encounters and convinces to train with him. Strong in the force but lacking in discipline in the way that people who are naturally good at many things often are. I saw his star-crossed romance with a woman of royal birth promised to Bail Organa. Of the schism that formed between Obi-wan and him over their role as Jedi in the galaxy and his sympathy for the revolutionary ideals of the other side.

Little of it was based on anything in the actual text of the films, but it was just as "real" to me in spite of it.

I can't imagine I'm the only one who had such preconceptions going into those films, and I'm curious how much they align (or not) with those of other fans who grew up with the films and the EU.

 

[Commander Richard]

I didn't have much of an image of what the world looked like but I did envision Anakin differently. He didn't look so boyish and wore the more traditional jedi outfit like Obi Wan instead of the darker more rebellious one we saw. Both he and Obi Wan looked like eachother. Brothers, equals, joined at the hip, both the same before Anakin became Darth Vader.

 

[Tosk]

Apart from Anakin being older (which was fo' sho' the original intent) I never had any real mental image of the years before Star Wars. ...Except that I recall as a kid I thought that the Clone Wars meant clones fighting each other.

 

[LJones41]

I never had a clear image on how the Prequel movies were going to pan out. I thought it would be best to allow Lucas to surprise me. He did and in the end, did not disappoint me.

 

[Set Harth]

Apart from Anakin being older (which was fo' sho' the original intent)

If you go by ROTJ, that is. There's really nothing in either ANH or TESB that necessitates Anakin having been older. Alan Dean Foster's ANH novelization even refers to Darth Vader as a "boy" when trained by Obi-Wan.

 

[Tosk]

If you go by ROTJ, that is.

Which is what I meant. The whole "aged by the dark side" thing is justification for Anakin's appearance in the prequels, just like the harsh suns of Tatooine drying out Obi-Wan, Beru, and Lars.

 

[Ithekro]

I'd assumed Anakin was older when he started. Closer to Luke's age, to Obi-wan being the Han Solo type, rather than ten years old.

Aside from that I don't know if I had much of an idea what it would be like. Aside from that it was assumed that Luke and Leia's mother lived past the events slightly. On the run from Darth Vader, which made her sad. I'd pictured the last movie as being Obi-wan and their mother on run from the Empire. Anakin having betrayed the Jedi Knights and was hunting them all down, not knowing he had children, or perhaps knowing he had one, but not two. Obi-wan would cut Anakin down muck like we saw, but they would somehow fake the mother and children's death, so that Vader doesn't go looking for them. In the Empire Strikes Back, originally he didn't seem all that surprised about having a son, though at that time we don't know Luke was his son, nor did we know that Vader was Anakin just yet. That wasn't until half the movie later get got that dropped on us.

 

[Reverend]

It's an interesting question because to be honest, I really don't remember in any detail what I imagined.
I think I had a vague notion of the clones being jetpack super-commandos with white "Boba Fett armor". The clones were being made by the Empire to conquer the Republic, with the Jedi being the only thing holding them back and when Anakin turned traitor the Republic lost the war.
Of course most of the time I would have been imagining such things I would have been about 8 years old so the larger concepts of the Republic becoming the Empire and exactly why the war was being fought wouldn't have occurred to me, but I wasn't all that far off.

I think some of this was also coloured by my reading the novelisations as I always pictured the fight between Anakin & Obi-Was as being on a volcano of some kind and Leia's recollection of her mother as described in the book: -

"He looked down at their intertwined fingers. “Leia … do you remember your mother? Your real mother?”
The question took her totally by surprise. She’d always felt so close to her adopted parents, it was as if they were her real parents. She almost never thought of her real mother—that was like a dream.
Yet now Luke’s question made her start. Flashes from her infancy assaulted her—distorted visions of running … a beautiful woman … hiding in a trunk. The fragments suddenly threatened to flood her with emotion."

I'd assumed Anakin was older when he started. Closer to Luke's age, to Obi-wan being the Han Solo type, rather than ten years old.

I might be alone in this but I always pictured Anakin starting young, though mostly I think because I read some of the early drafts at a young age and they had some of those elements that ended up in the prequels already in place.
I still pictured Anakin as Sebastian Shaw though because to a child, all adults look "old" in a non-specific kind of way. That he actually looked older than Obi-wan never actually occurred to me.

 

[Shawnster]

This: http://starwarz.com/starkiller/looking-back-to-the-future-of-star-wars/

From the lines and crumbs scattered throughout the OT, the above link pieced together what the prequel was all about before Lucas reinterpreted his art.

THE CLONE WARS
Episode One: “The Clone Wars.” - The Clone Wars is raging across the galaxy as a series of simultaneous conflicts. General Kenobi recruits a young adult Anakin Skywalker. Together they save Viceroy Bail Organa. Meanwhile, Palpatine uses the genuine threat of The Clone Wars to seize power through manipulation and subterfuge. All the major characters are introduced, including Lady Arkady (Amidala) who later will marry Skywalker

THE SEDUCTION OF DARTH VADER
Episode Two: “The Seduction of Darth Vader.” - Years have passed since the victory of The Clone Wars and the Old Republic has declined into complacency and bribery. Palpatine's Sith Lords have come to power and have pushed the need for the Jedi aside. Jedi Anakin Skywalker faces the most tremendous test of his life and succumbs to the Dark Side. Palpatine manipulates and molds Skywalker into an incredible source of evil. The climatic battle, similar to the duel on Mustafar, ends with Kenobi defeating Skywalker and leaving him for dead on a lava world.

FALL OF THE REPUBLIC
Episode Three: “Fall of the Republic.” - Claiming they have betrayed the Republic, Palpatine directs Darth Vader to hunt down and destroy the Jedi. Kenobi is distraught with grief over his failure in adequately training Skywalker. It is revealed that Lady Arkady is pregnant. Since Palpatine knows that any children of Skywalker's will become powerful Jedi, Kenobi is tasked with saving Lady Arkady and her (unborn) children. The twins are separated with Luke going to Tattooine and Liea staying with her biological mother on Alderran.

Again, all these points were what Lucas said was what happened in the novels and films. Mandalorians were soldiers who fought in The Clone Wars (perhaps as Clones). Leia remembers her mother because she lived with her. Skywalker and Kenobi served Organa in The Clone Wars.

Personally, the last few years I thought it might have been a good idea to have Aunt Bearu to be Anakin's sister. This allows Owen and Bearu to know Anakin well enough to say that Luke was just like his father. In the PT Owen and Bearu barely know Skywalker. Making Bearu the connection also explains why their last name is Lars and not Skywalker.

 

[2takesfrakes]

When I saw The Phantom Menace, it so went against all of my expectations and was so very long ago that it's very hard to remember, exactly, what I was hoping to go see. One thing was for sure and that was that I would have to wait until The Attack of the Clones to see what Anakin Skywalker was really all about ...

That first shot of him in the elevator with Obi-wan was a STAR WARSian moment that I'll never forget. This lanky, strung-out-looking teenager with his robes hanging on his shoulders like a curtain on a rod was Anakin ... Darth Vader. This. I felt myself starting to get up out of my seat, ready to walk out of the theatre. I suspected that Lucas had lost his edge by this time, but now? I was convinced he'd lost his mind, altogether.

When Hayden bulked up for Revenge of the Sith, he was not huge by any means, but the weight looked good on him. He didn't look like a drug-addict, anymore and that relieved me. But from the moment I first saw him and Obi-wan flying through videogame-looking graphics for a full 10 minutes, with moronic "Buzz Droids" making cutesy noises and fluttering about .... I was kind of pissed off. It became clear to me that Lucas was not going to be interested in investing ANY of his prequels with strong writing, or great directing.

Hayden always broke my suspension of disbelief, in the role of Anakin. In a spoof, maybe, a send-up, he might be perfect in the part ... but not in the real deal. And it's such a shame, because there is something likeable about the guy. But he didn't embody the persona that defined Vader. Darth Vader was a Man in command, at all times. He was a force to be reckoned with and did not evoke pity. When he came into the room with you, you knew you were in trouble. Hayden's looks and acting -- to say nothing of the material he was given -- really didn't measure up to any of that. His Anakin was nobody I ever cared about or routed for ... or could. He's little more than a fool ... a smacked ass.

 

[suarezguy]

Not a lot of specifics but I also pictured the Jedi as less public figures and Anakin being older, closer to a contemporary of Obi-Wan, and also that there wasn't any prohibition against marriage. I think I also felt that Anakin more explicitly/directly supported Palpatine's political-military endeavors, that his turning to the Dark Side was more about him also trying to get that kind of power.

 

[JD]

The clones were some kind of invaders, or at least an army from an enemy of the Republic, and they fought against an army of the Jedi.
Anakin and Obi-Wan reported directly to Bail Organa, and were close friends with him.
Years later Empire came in and took over a weakened Republic.
Eventually Anakin turned traitor and joined up with Empire.
There was no rule against Jedi marrying, so the Skywalker twin's mother was a well known public figure, possibly even another Jedi, who went into hiding after the fall of the Republic.
Once she realized Vader was closing in on her she took Luke to Anakin's brother and his wife, and to gave Leia to Bail and his wife, who she was very close to and who she knew weren't loyal to the Empire.

 

[Set Harth]

When he came into the room with you, you knew you were in trouble. Hayden's looks and acting -- to say nothing of the material he was given -- really didn't measure up to any of that.

Tell that to the younglings.

 

[Tosk]

Tell that to the younglings.

They didn't seem that worried about him. Crappy Child Actor #7 was stoked. The lightsaber not so much.

 

[2takesfrakes]

Tell that to the younglings.

>>SNORT!!!<<
That business with the Yuenglings doesn't ... doesn't count.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I guess I was expecting it to be a bit more like it was portrayed in the Thrawn trilogy. Ok, so that trilogy wasn't perfect by any means, but I did really like certain aspects of it, like the information it gave us on the clone wars, which made it feel a bit more historical than what we got. It felt a bit more historically significant. Instead we got movies that were just very flashy.

 

[Set Harth]

You can't get any more historically significant than the role of the Clone Wars as depicted in the PT.

 

[fireproof78]

I guess was expecting to see more of the Clone Wars, than just the opening battle and the closing battles.

Also, Anakin didn't come across as very heroic to me, and I figured, as others had stated, that he would be older, and closer to a contemporary of Obi-Wan's. The Jedi were also kind of, odd, for lack of a better word. I didn't have a good idea of what they would be like, but after watching TPM the first couple of times, I felt like something was missing from them. I guess I felt like they missed that heroic element, so, in that way, Anakin fits the mold very much of this presentation. However, it's also frustrating because the Jedi are supposed to be the good guys but they don't come across as "good" save for in comparison to Palpatine's plans.

 

[Ithekro]

That was a benefit of The Clone Wars at the least. Seeing Anakin being a hero from time to time.

 

[2takesfrakes]

I guess was expecting to see more of the Clone Wars, than just the opening battle and the closing battles.

Also, Anakin didn't come across as very heroic to me, and I figured, as others had stated, that he would be older, and closer to a contemporary of Obi-Wan's. The Jedi were also kind of, odd, for lack of a better word. I didn't have a good idea of what they would be like, but after watching TPM the first couple of times, I felt like something was missing from them. I guess I felt like they missed that heroic element, so, in that way, Anakin fits the mold very much of this presentation. However, it's also frustrating because the Jedi are supposed to be the good guys but they don't come across as "good" save for in comparison to Palpatine's plans.

You make such a great point about the Jedi and it's always bothered me about the prequels. Lucas was clearly not interested in the script, or in directing the actors. They just said what they had to say to connect the dots and bridge FX sequences and very little else. It was almost as though Lucas resented having made so much work for himself in the script-writing process. But he didn't want to involve others in that, for reasons that completely escape me.

What George Lucas really should've done, from the start of The Phantom Menace, was co-direct the prequels with Steven Spielberg. Have Steve help him co-write and direct the actors -- which Lucas clearly couldn't give a toss about -- and have George concentrate on whatever ILM was conjuring up (which was all he ever seemed interested in). Some have described the prequels as a Demonstration Reel for ILM and I suspect that they were completely correct in that assessment.