Twitter Thread Lists 100 Reasons Why Star Wars Prequels Were Good
From Inverse:
“Once a year, artist and blogger Glendon Mellow likes to poke the beast that is Twitter by offering up seemingly random reasons to praise the infamously panned Star Wars prequels.
Now, with fans finally starting to change their tune and even the upcoming Star Wars Battlefront II featuring the final battle of The Phantom Menace, Mellow thought there was no better time to casually drop 100 fast facts in praise of the prequels.
“The prequels are filled with flaws, and came at a time when nostalgia for the original films was high by bitter 20- and 30-somethings,” Mellow tells Inverse. “In fine art history, we have to look at painters and their work of the past as a whole. The merits of it at the time, and the flaws we perceive now. The prequels get held up for their legitimate flaws a lot, but I don’t think we should throw out all the creativity on display based on the flaws.”
Even for Star Wars fans that still dislike the prequel trilogy, it’s hard to refute some of the great points Mellow makes, which range from respect for symbolism to artful analysis of the themes or character arcs.
Check out the start of the thread right here:
All right, it's time.
1 Like = 1 cool thing about the Star Wars prequels.
Let's go. pic.twitter.com/LZhFZZUz2Y— Glendon Mellow (@FlyingTrilobite) June 6, 2017
[…] But there are also a number of poignant assessments of Anakin’s alienating personality that likely contributed to his turn to the Dark side. Luke had friends. Anakin did not. “He’s good with machines and animals, not people” partially because he’s basically “a teen monk.”
My wife once said to me, maybe his dialogue is cringey because he has zero models of how to speak romantically to someone. He's a teen monk. pic.twitter.com/2V8LIALCwS
— Glendon Mellow (@FlyingTrilobite) June 6, 2017
[…] There’s also the visual representation of the Republic’s sophistocation as communicated through their elegant architecture, which is all but eroded by the end of the prequel trilogy:
By the end of Revenge of the Sith the hellish industry of war that dominates the griminess of the original trilogy is shown. pic.twitter.com/d0hhu2pX3h
— Glendon Mellow (@FlyingTrilobite) June 6, 2017
[…] In contrast, doing less exposition and characterization with Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace makes him that much more terrifying as a villain. He’s “scarier as a relentless nightmare.”
Sympathizing with villains like Vader (or Magneto to continue that comparison) is interesting. Maul is scarier as a relentless nightmare. pic.twitter.com/TwmxkqGxL8
— Glendon Mellow (@FlyingTrilobite) June 6, 2017
[…] The running theme through Mellow’s many points is that internet culture is so focused on the written aspects of the films, but it’s less adept at visual criticism and recognize the smart symbolic nature of what’s shown. “I think as an online culture, we still have a way to go in developing shared vocabulary about visual symbols and language. The prequels are filled with them, much like Renaissance paintings. An apple isn’t just an apple; a robot hand isn’t just a robot hand.”
Aside from being a definitive prequel trilogy enthusiast, Glendon Mellow is an artist, art historian, and blogger that is one of the principal bloggers for Symbiartic, a blog about art inspired by science and all the science fiction that’s associated. Check out the entire Twitter thread starting here.”