There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s just not well written. Andor’s politics are one of the best parts of the show, it’s just that the prequels are… not good.
@@MemesOfProduction69Where to start. First of all, they fail because the story’s they are supposed to uphold are not good. The prequels tried to tell a Shakespearean tragedy, which could have worked but it flopped so hard. The sheer fact that they’re memed on shows how despite the artistic idea being to make it a tragedy, they failed in doing so. Now the politics were meant to show this, but while they do it’s not explained very well. And oftentimes in the prequels, things that could’ve been interesting, were undercut by the terrible dialogue.
The best part of the prequels is the politics IMO. People said they were boring, but they were literally the point of the prequel trilogy! And look what happened with the sequels because Disney decided to cater to nostalgic fans and completely ignored politics and a coherent follow-on political narrative…
Yup, disney didn't want to alienate rabid troglodyte crowd, did everything to appease them including ruining episode 9, and yet they still drowned the setting in vicious howling smears in hate thanks to political message of 'oh, people other than white old conservative dudes exist and can do nice things sometimes too' wooo...
To be fair, the evil empire consuming the galaxy, dismantling freedoms, and showing a thin veneer of respectability while being a cutthroat, avaricious engine of death known as Disney probably astutely noted that putting any more political messaging than the bare minimum of character representation might have made people realize how evil they really are. That and their revenue is like 80% nostalgia, due to all the parks, cruise ships, etc, alongside their "recycle every creative property we have" media business model.
Whenever someone tries to say that the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy is, “For kids,” I ask them how many kids they know that love politics, trade negotiations and the rise of fascism in an ineffectual, corrupted and atrophied democracy…
Exactly, no one, so the politics of the prequel are superfluous, not because they arent important, but because they are in the way of other stuff that makes movies good
And after having read at least a half dozen books on the subject of the Weimar Republic (I would recommend to anyone the two part biography of Adolf Hitler's life by Ian Kershaw) that there were just so many different political Parties that, even though they were different as night from day in their Political philosophy, they (nearly) all held one thing above all others, that was their utter contempt for the democratic underpinnings of the Weimar Republic (Germany 1919-1933) and their constant efforts to undermine it. Nearly all of them. Even the so-called "Christian Parties" like that of the Zentrum, and the Bavarian People's Party, to the Nazis greatest foe, the Communist, and of course the Nazis themselves, all wanted an easy way to get rid of the democratic system, not the least of whom was the Supreme Head of State, the President, in the Personage of one of the heroes (in the minds of the German populace, themselves) of ww1, General Paul Von Hindenburg, even he privately expressed his disdain for everything "Democratic," and would, himself have more than once expressed the desire to be rid of the shakels of democracy and to take over at the head of the German Army of the time (known as the Reichswehr) and then ran Government as he saw fit as a Military Dictator.
Attack of the Clones has always been my favorite Star Wars film (mainly cause of the plot and music like any other Star Wars film) but also due to the political and socioeconomic idealisms that George Lucas was really telling. There’s so much to learn and take from this film that changes the course of everything in the Star Wars universe, and it’s kinda sad that some people overlooked what George was trying to get to. The Clone Wars show builds so much upon that and I thought that was genius. Great video!
The cut line about Palpatine retiring at the end of his term helps explain why the Jedi are more anti-Palpatine in Revenge of The Sith when they were more indifferent before.
I never caught the Padme/Palpatine term limit contrast, very neat. Have you read the Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire yet? I'm loving it so far and it seems right up your alley
There's a cut ADR'd response from Padme when Anakin brings up the constitutional amendment, on how it's not something to be toyed with and "it gives the people what they need, not what they want"
Even though it was kind of awkwardly presented in Ep 1 and 2, I'm glad the analogies of real-world politics exist in the prequels. It's the reason we're able to get that kind of depth in shows like the Bad Batch and Andor.
andor is so good it makes me mad at how it's taken until now for a 'top priority' official TM star wars piece of media to tackle the actual imperial system
@@michaelandreipalon359If you ignore the filler and focus on the episodes about the actual damn clones, it tells a pretty good story about veterans being betrayed by the system they serve
@@arthurg.calixto3338 True, but it being connected with slogs like Kenobi does make it lose its value. An expanded universe shouldn't be that annoyingly hit-or-miss.
The thing I find funny is that the Prequels are more blatantly political than the Sequel Trilogy and yet people look back and love the Prequels more fondly than the ST despite Lucas taking inspiration and more heavily blatant allegorical inspiration from real world events to create his world than the ST creators did. Really says a lot there. I think most people who hated the politics in the Prequels hated the more in universe politics and political scenes more than what Lucas drew inspiration from. I remember all the Prequel hating reviews from the 2000s and early 2010s complaining about how the in-universe politics were boring, but I find them interesting since it shows how a Democratic Republic can turn into an Empire. But they didn't complain about the real-world stuff Lucas was inspired by unlike people did with the Sequels. Very fascinating to me.
Because George lucas didn’t have some weird agenda to include only feminist men and women with poor story telling but dramatic love scenes or boring conversations about somebody’s past (acolyte) then 2 mins of action, George and Lucasfilm back then actually paced the films right with good exciting story’s from the prequel films to clone wars
@@mr.floxks5884 It was good writing people care about the most. Most people actually don't care if a story has allegorical themes inspired by real world events and politics, they just want good writing with the story and characters.
@mr.floxks5884 you are the first person I've ever seen accuse George Lucas of good pacing. Sadly, however, you're exactly the kind of ignorant this comment is talking about; you're not upset about political ideas, you're just upset that any new Star Wars 1) wasn't the exact same thing you watched as a child, or 2) contained less than the maximum possible percentage of white male characters. There are legitimate complaints to be had about Star Wars movies. Yours is not one of them.
@@mr.floxks5884George Lucas literally named villains after conservative politicians he hated. Can’t get any more of an agenda than that. The creators of the sequel trilogy had an agenda, but it definitely wasn’t feminism or any progressive agenda as George Lucas would’ve intended. Disney’s message is “make money off of nostalgia”. Notice how there was ZERO political messaging in the sequels. That’s because Disney didn’t want to alienate conservative viewers by injecting political messaging into the story. And ironically, conservative viewers STILL ended up being upset because to them, women and black people being in movies is “a political agenda”.
I think some of why people consider the politics being the boring part of the Prequels is because they come at it from the angle that Star Wars is often geared to 8 to 12 year olds aka "kids" movies. I know that's how RedLetterMedia reviewed it waaaay back (15 years ago? Man, I'm old).
They just assumed it was cause George was an old, out-of-touch rich guy complaining about taxes rather than the starving artist he used to be, which is so off-base it's almost funny.
A thing to note about the "this is how liberty dies scene". It's a direct reference to Bush receiving massive applause for among other things "either you are with us or the terrorists" which of course is paraphrased in Anakins statement.
That’s probably a coincidence. Like when people say darth vader sounds like dark father in Dutch. Lucas didn’t originally plan for vader to be Luke’s dad
These are my favorite videos to share with my friends because although they are Star Wars fans, they are unaware of many of these real-world inspirations for the stories.
The Star Wars Prequels are what got me so interested in politics in real life. It's unfortunate, but the government and its politics control everything.
You can actually say that the structural issues with the PT can be examined as George trying to comprehend the (currently in progress) shifting politics of America. Obviously it was happening long before the 90s and 2000s, but it became more obvious and pronounced and George was trying to capitalize on his critique as current as possible.
Something that I think in regards to star wars and expecially with these parallels drawn to real world politics is that the republic was lost before Sideous was even on the stage. While he did push for the Trade Federation to invade Naboo and such, the fact that it was even allowed to happen and would have had zero consequences without interferance by himself and the jedi just points to a failed system that allowed such a person to seize power. Trump, Biden, Tredeau, Nixon, whoever you want to place into the role of aspirant dictator the root cause of the problem existed before the politicians did. Just as the Republic we sold out long ago, only now do we see the consequences.
Barely anyone talks about the prequels in good faith and is actually fair and is not just talking out of their ass or regurgitating something they saw on a video. Episode 1 criticism is still extremely shallow and no one does their research. When every video is complaining about the same thing and acting like they’re being original(Jar Jar, Midi-chlorians, Politics)surface level shit and not engaging. Everybody consumed that mess for almost two decades so what do I know?😂
There's something I don't think I've ever heard anyone talk about in-depth before: the fact that the Separatist council is composed of the leaders of the Trade Federation, Techno-Union, Commerce Guild, Banking Clan, and other large corporations. I know there's in-depth analyses of those individual groups, but to me the important detail is that the Separatist leadership consists primarily of the heads of major corporations. This isn't a case of people deciding to leave the Republic because they feel like it doesn't represent them - this is more like if Amazon, Lockheed-Martin, Bank of America, ExxonMobil, Kroger, and AT&T seceded from the United States and tried to claim all territory west of the Mississippi. And I'm not sure about the others, but the Trade Federation for sure has a senator. It would be like if Walmart had its own senator in Captial Hill. I have NEVER heard anyone comment on this.
The legends expanded universe goes further and provides details of how the trade federation essentially strong armed smaller, poorer systems into letting the trade federation represent them in the Senate in exchange for financial support. Presumably these same systems were also forced into leaving and joining the CIS by the trade federation. The separatists are for sure not the good guys
No Silly, politics is not when you talk about taxes, war, or base key characters on contemporary politicians, it's when there are women and minorities in the movie!
Darth Bane told Zannah the importance of keeping the republic intact was to keep galaxy under one banner who kept Jedi Order in line since Jedi had mistaken aline themselves with the government. And of course, the dangers of Democracy of allowing everyone to vote but not up hold the responsibility. Since majority didn't care about Naboo which is why Naboo incident was key event to show how backwards the republic justice system with lack of action to an unjust invasion. It what insprise majority system creating CIS. While senate give republic all the independence power to one centerize power structure, giving empire complete military control.
I mean, I knew the Prequels had a major supporter of the CIS be big greedy mega corps, but that cut dialogue practically sounds like it comes from Reagan. George may've not been subtle, but considering how many people argue the prequels were "totally a-political" I think he may've not gone far enough. The people who rag on the sequels are a bunch of self absorbed morons, especially considering the themes of the prequels and sequels.
As a communist who grew up with the prequels, I appreciate these political series videos. Many thanks for your work. If I have the chance I'd love to buy the Ep. 1-3 Archives book to learn more.
We know for a fact if George was the Create the Sequels we would Have a First Order member named or even a New Republic Senator named after Trump for sure
@@bottombarrelbudgetfilms1854 Of course most of those rage grifters are conservative and they have the nostalgia goggles bolted on. That and are utterly media illiterate.
Sheev Palpatine pursued politics, and this is the direction of The Lore. Politics is the junction of all roads -no matter the intentions involved (this is automatic). It's like Chess" How the pieces move (are the only rules) [politics], -strategy is your own design [intentions].🤨
Politics is precisely what would have made the prequels better than the original trilogy. Pity Lucas didn't took advantage from that through writing better scripts.
@@timewarpdrive77 Not really. All he's saying is that the prequels are better than the originals, but the script writing in the originals was better. One is comparing the whole of each trilogy, whilst the other is comparing a specific aspect. A part of a product can be inferior to the same part of another product even when the whole product in aggregate is better than the other.
@@delrunplays2903 You talk as if the prequels only fell short in script-writing, but script-writing is the entire story. The prequels have some interesting world-building and ideas, but in every other aspect they're outclassed. OT has superior script-writing, the acting is better, the direction was better, and it has superior effects. Although it has those interesting ideas, the prequel's scripts fumble them. The movie is the script and you have a bad script, your intended ideas or themes mean nothing. Ideas and themes a garnish to the plot. It doesn't matter if Shakespeare is coming up with your ideas if Tommy Wisaeu is your scriptwriter. The OT isn't as politics focused (though they're certainly there) because its more character focused. Being focused on one or the other does it better or worse, its just a different type of story... When the characters writing suffers because the scriptwriter has that larger political scope, it does become a problem (which maybe an issue with the prequels).
Only that Lucas gain nothing by selling Star Wars, maybe some tax cuts by giving all the money to charity by selling Star Wars to Disney, but I think that he was basically scam to do sell it, because one, the harassing of the OT fans, and two, because the family friendly image of Disney, even that they were becoming a massive corporate monopoly, Lucas was basically was stab in the back the moment that he sign the contract because Iger throw his script to the trash the moment that he become owner of Star Wars.
@@Hamentsios10 Theres a difference between 'the republic is crumbling' and just shoving diversity hires into your movie. Both are based in politics, but they are not the same.
@@timewarpdrive77 I'm guessing idpol is short for identity politics? Which is a vile thing, to be fair - quite literally the root of racial discrimination and the like. Not quite sure how to make sense of the sentence as a whole, however. Perhaps he meant 'is' instead of 'isn't'?
JarJar…I blame JarJar. He was a bit too much for me, with Anakin being the final nail in the coffin. What? “Anakin Shrugged?” Not really a John Galt, think?
The Anti-Trilogy tried to do this with TLJ, but completely treating its audience like buffoons and idiots, children to be handheld throughout its runtime. 💀
I still see uninformed comments and videos criticizing the prequels, saying, “Really? You’re telling me they started a war because the trade routes got taxed?” Ya. You must not know of the long history of human conflict. This is not a new concept. It doesn’t define every conflict, but a significant number of them either as the main reason or as a secondary reason. The politics and economics in the prequels might be one of the many reasons I studied it in college. It’s just incredibly interesting and much more thought out than many give Lucas credit for.
Looking at the text in the crawl for Episodes 1,2,and 3 and the first shot of each movie tells you exactly what state the galaxy is in. Peace being interrupted, Uneasy Tensions, and a full-scale-war. You have to start slow to build to something big and that is what people miss.
@@delrunplays2903it still explained that the state of the galaxy used to be a lot better under the republic and don’t forget that they destroyed an entire planet!
Believe me when I say that most of us never had issues with the politics in Star Wars mainly because under Lucas, politics was used to enhance the stories, characterization and world building. Plus, it had nuance and was well handled. That's why when the disney sequels tried so hard to avoid it, they inevitably crippled their world building and story potential. Then, when they tried overdoing it, they ended up alienating fans and casual viewers alike.
@@orboakin8074 Right. Da politics is good from the stuff I watched as a child, before I knew what politics were. Even with the characters named after real life politicians.
Darth Sideous is Space Dick Cheney, but not nearly as evil or smart or cunning. He manipulates some stupid Asian stereotypes he’s already roped into one asinine plot into one involving getting systems we don’t know or care about to defect from the Republic for reasons that the movies never get into because it doesn’t really matter: Darth Evil just wants to start a forever-war so he can grab power. Essay over.
people like to say the politics were 'boring' which yeah perhaps; but i think despite his best efforts, Lucas committed a bigger sin with it- it's actually quite misinformed/incomplete in both the overall framing and actual depiction of how democracies turn into dictatorships and fascism. fascism does not arise from just one sith guy, the callback to the Union Army (Grand Army) and sorta equating it with the clones while drawing parallels between the CIS and the Confederacy (at least by name) is pretty distasteful given that the clones end up being the fascist jackboot- as if the Confederacy in either timeline were just manipulated fools. and on the topic of fascist jackboots- complete misread of the social base of fascism. I'm not even talking about like post ww2 marxist analysis of aggrieved petit-boug as the shock troops of fascism- I mean that there's bsaically zero depiction of how the social base of the Galactic Republic buys into militarisation and dictatorship. It does not just come from a military coup. It also needs the support of Core Worlders fired up, labourers scared of droid labour, humanocentric psychos etc. That nuance at most, comes in with EU stuff and usually late EU 'let's actually fill in the gaps' stuff. At least we have Andor!
In my opinion, the prequels are somewhat in line with what Naomi Klein would later call the Shock Doctrine. The terrorist attack of 9/11 not only triggered the Iraq war, but also an increase in military spending, privatization of parts of the defense system, and an increase in control over the population under the premise of increasing national security: increased security measures at airports, increased surveillance cameras in cities, spying or mass surveillance of citizens, etc. Not to mention that part of the criticism of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, at least outside the U.S., was that the reason for the war was mainly economic, Oil and Opium in the case of Afghanistan. On the other hand, the original trilogy is temporally located in the context of the Cold War. The U.S. government and American and European economic lobbies supported the creation of fascist dictatorships under the pretext of the alleged Soviet threat, where the most illustrative case is the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. The 7 seasons of Clone Wars, in my opinion, expand this idea that the Clone Wars are inspired by the Cold War, even the "separatist" concept alludes to decolonization, which was one of the contexts of the Cold War. The decolonizing processes of European countries. I like Andor, but I think that the prequels and Clone Wars provide a more expansive, more global vision, although it may be naive or generalist at times.
Much as Andor is a good show, don't get me wrong, am sure annoyed at how many comments I see about people blindly praising it like it's the Messiah. Really, the show loses its quality because of its connections with flawed works like Kenobi and Jedi: Survivor.
Why was Lucas so concerned with the idea of Nixon having a constitutional amendment to serve three terms, when FDR served four terms and the 22nd amendment was only ratified in 1947? With the 21st amendment repealing prohibition, the idea of backtracking on a previous amendment was already established. I'm not sure what George's perspective is, since he applauds the Roman senatorial elites for killing Caesar, despite the fact that they primarily did it to protect the power of their class, not to defend democratic ideals. I don't know what to believe about his views when, as pointed out in the video, George undermined his whole philosophy by selling out Star Wars to the biggest entertainment corporation on the planet, contributing in no small part to the increasing accumulation of social influence by corporatism.
Im old school woke going way back. Im so woke I share housekeeping duties with my female partner. Im so woke I wipe. Im so woke I remember Princess Leia and Mon Mothma being the two primary on screen leaders of the Rebel Alliance in the late 1970s and early 80s. Im an SJW, I think thunder applause is the patriot act like Sir George Lucas said.
still don't know why they pronounced it as Count Dookie in the movie when the rumor before release was that it was pronounced Dough-ku - which is Japanese for poison
@@ironinquisitor3656 Affected by politics, yes, but all of society is not political. In other words, let me ask you a question: what political statement are you making by your choice of toothpaste brand?
Man, Lucas sure wanted to be as on-the-nose as Disney Star Wars and Tom Clancy post-Without Remorse. That's one reason why I'm not even hyped on possible Director's Cuts of the Prequels... they're good enough as they are, and the side material does the fleshing out of certain events better. Wish this video explored more on contemporary movies at the time as well, like The Lord of the Rings. Believe me, the early 2000s were quite a sensationalist hotbed for certain movie genres because of events like the War on Terror and the Cold War hangover. Gotta admit, though, I sure the miss the early 2000s. Strife and controversy was still around, but at least it wasn't as chaotic as the 2010s and the current 2020s. Addendum: I still think the Gulf War and the liberation of Iraq is still justified by ending a tyrant's rule no matter what. Shame we can't do the same with Afghanistan... in short, I would love to see a good piece of work that's a neat antithesis to Lucas' somewhat childish philosophy someday.
On the addendum, in those wars we simply became the tyrant. Like it or not, Hussein and the Taliban were/are more representative of their countries than the foreign invaders imposing foreign values and means of governance. It's all well and good for the tyrannized to overthrow their tyrant, but there is no virtue in one tyrant overthrowing another.
I really don't understand these kinds of comments people make. You're on an in depth video about a subject and you disagree with the video, but instead of actually addressing the points laid out in the video you just go "nuh uh". if you disagree heavily with something you should be able to address exactly why
I always liked the politics of the prequels. Gives the galaxy world-building and intrigue.
There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s just not well written. Andor’s politics are one of the best parts of the show, it’s just that the prequels are… not good.
@@this_is_a_cat3437 what exactly about the writing of the politics isn't good in the prequels?
@@MemesOfProduction69Where to start. First of all, they fail because the story’s they are supposed to uphold are not good. The prequels tried to tell a Shakespearean tragedy, which could have worked but it flopped so hard. The sheer fact that they’re memed on shows how despite the artistic idea being to make it a tragedy, they failed in doing so. Now the politics were meant to show this, but while they do it’s not explained very well. And oftentimes in the prequels, things that could’ve been interesting, were undercut by the terrible dialogue.
Suffice to say, Star Wars Legends worked better on its side material, and that's OK.
@@this_is_a_cat3437 how exactly did it flop?
"Anakin Shrugged" lmao
The best part of the prequels is the politics IMO. People said they were boring, but they were literally the point of the prequel trilogy!
And look what happened with the sequels because Disney decided to cater to nostalgic fans and completely ignored politics and a coherent follow-on political narrative…
Probably why Andor is often considered the best part of the Disney era.
@@DM_Chromie
The dialogue and character interactions were probably the worst part of the prequels TBH.
Yup, disney didn't want to alienate rabid troglodyte crowd, did everything to appease them including ruining episode 9, and yet they still drowned the setting in vicious howling smears in hate thanks to political message of 'oh, people other than white old conservative dudes exist and can do nice things sometimes too' wooo...
@@DM_Chromie Which why the sequels are worse than the prequels in my eyes, they had no coherent vision and were simply a cash grab for disney.
To be fair, the evil empire consuming the galaxy, dismantling freedoms, and showing a thin veneer of respectability while being a cutthroat, avaricious engine of death known as Disney probably astutely noted that putting any more political messaging than the bare minimum of character representation might have made people realize how evil they really are.
That and their revenue is like 80% nostalgia, due to all the parks, cruise ships, etc, alongside their "recycle every creative property we have" media business model.
"Are we going to end up with a bunch of little wars as trade breaks down[...]?"
Haha, based George.
We call them "escalations" now.
The irl parallels are uncanny in this day and age.
A circles round, it has no end...
A pity it feels too much at times, especially now. Am slowly preferring J.R.R. Tolkien's use of applicability instead of allegory.
At the same time it not a 1 to 1 with any real life moment.
@@randomusernameCallinNo, it’s more logical.
@@randomusernameCallinit isn’t 1 to 1 because Palpatine hasn’t declared his empire yet
I can't believe he cut Kurl Marlix and Sardam Smoth from the script.
😹 this isn't how i thought those two would be responsible for me being dead
Whenever someone tries to say that the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy is, “For kids,” I ask them how many kids they know that love politics, trade negotiations and the rise of fascism in an ineffectual, corrupted and atrophied democracy…
I did but I’m an anomaly 😂
@@thedavidj1996 I mean, I did too but, I am also very much an anomaly.
I’m Sure ot kids kids loved diplomatic missions to Alderaan and mentions of regional governors and maintaining diplomacy…
Exactly,
no one,
so the politics of the prequel are superfluous, not because they arent important, but because they are in the way of other stuff that makes movies good
your exploration of political ideas in the context of star wars continues to be my favorite thing about this channel
Totally agree! I’d love to see these analyses continue into Clone Wars arcs!
Hear hear!
I did a whole paper in AP US History about how Episode 1 and 2 mirror Hitler's rise to power. Definitely political.
Man, WW2 is one of my favorite subjects. That sounds like the greatest paper ever written!
And after having read at least a half dozen books on the subject of the Weimar Republic (I would recommend to anyone the two part biography of Adolf Hitler's life by Ian Kershaw) that there were just so many different political Parties that, even though they were different as night from day in their Political philosophy, they (nearly) all held one thing above all others, that was their utter contempt for the democratic underpinnings of the Weimar Republic (Germany 1919-1933) and their constant efforts to undermine it. Nearly all of them. Even the so-called "Christian Parties" like that of the Zentrum, and the Bavarian People's Party, to the Nazis greatest foe, the Communist, and of course the Nazis themselves, all wanted an easy way to get rid of the democratic system, not the least of whom was the Supreme Head of State, the President, in the Personage of one of the heroes (in the minds of the German populace, themselves) of ww1, General Paul Von Hindenburg, even he privately expressed his disdain for everything "Democratic," and would, himself have more than once expressed the desire to be rid of the shakels of democracy and to take over at the head of the German Army of the time (known as the Reichswehr) and then ran Government as he saw fit as a Military Dictator.
Post that shit somewhere! I wanna read it
What a great topic for a paper! Well done. Not to mention the empire has...stormtroopers!
@@frenzalrhomb6919 Ian Kershaw is a book I read for a class on Nazi Germany.
Attack of the Clones has always been my favorite Star Wars film (mainly cause of the plot and music like any other Star Wars film) but also due to the political and socioeconomic idealisms that George Lucas was really telling. There’s so much to learn and take from this film that changes the course of everything in the Star Wars universe, and it’s kinda sad that some people overlooked what George was trying to get to. The Clone Wars show builds so much upon that and I thought that was genius. Great video!
The cut line about Palpatine retiring at the end of his term helps explain why the Jedi are more anti-Palpatine in Revenge of The Sith when they were more indifferent before.
I never caught the Padme/Palpatine term limit contrast, very neat.
Have you read the Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire yet? I'm loving it so far and it seems right up your alley
There's a cut ADR'd response from Padme when Anakin brings up the constitutional amendment, on how it's not something to be toyed with and "it gives the people what they need, not what they want"
I haven't read it yet, but I am looking forward to it
George Lucas overdid the poetry so much, people can't even catch it anymore
Even though it was kind of awkwardly presented in Ep 1 and 2, I'm glad the analogies of real-world politics exist in the prequels. It's the reason we're able to get that kind of depth in shows like the Bad Batch and Andor.
andor is so good it makes me mad at how it's taken until now for a 'top priority' official TM star wars piece of media to tackle the actual imperial system
Can see how that goes in Andor, but why The Bad Batch?
@@michaelandreipalon359If you ignore the filler and focus on the episodes about the actual damn clones, it tells a pretty good story about veterans being betrayed by the system they serve
@@arthurg.calixto3338 True, but it being connected with slogs like Kenobi does make it lose its value. An expanded universe shouldn't be that annoyingly hit-or-miss.
@@michaelandreipalon359 I agree. Kenobi sucks balls
The thing I find funny is that the Prequels are more blatantly political than the Sequel Trilogy and yet people look back and love the Prequels more fondly than the ST despite Lucas taking inspiration and more heavily blatant allegorical inspiration from real world events to create his world than the ST creators did. Really says a lot there. I think most people who hated the politics in the Prequels hated the more in universe politics and political scenes more than what Lucas drew inspiration from. I remember all the Prequel hating reviews from the 2000s and early 2010s complaining about how the in-universe politics were boring, but I find them interesting since it shows how a Democratic Republic can turn into an Empire. But they didn't complain about the real-world stuff Lucas was inspired by unlike people did with the Sequels. Very fascinating to me.
Because George lucas didn’t have some weird agenda to include only feminist men and women with poor story telling but dramatic love scenes or boring conversations about somebody’s past (acolyte) then 2 mins of action, George and Lucasfilm back then actually paced the films right with good exciting story’s from the prequel films to clone wars
@@mr.floxks5884 It was good writing people care about the most. Most people actually don't care if a story has allegorical themes inspired by real world events and politics, they just want good writing with the story and characters.
@mr.floxks5884 you are the first person I've ever seen accuse George Lucas of good pacing. Sadly, however, you're exactly the kind of ignorant this comment is talking about; you're not upset about political ideas, you're just upset that any new Star Wars 1) wasn't the exact same thing you watched as a child, or 2) contained less than the maximum possible percentage of white male characters.
There are legitimate complaints to be had about Star Wars movies. Yours is not one of them.
It's because they don't actually understand that what they are seeing is a bad thing. They welcome Caesar.
@@mr.floxks5884George Lucas literally named villains after conservative politicians he hated. Can’t get any more of an agenda than that.
The creators of the sequel trilogy had an agenda, but it definitely wasn’t feminism or any progressive agenda as George Lucas would’ve intended. Disney’s message is “make money off of nostalgia”. Notice how there was ZERO political messaging in the sequels. That’s because Disney didn’t want to alienate conservative viewers by injecting political messaging into the story. And ironically, conservative viewers STILL ended up being upset because to them, women and black people being in movies is “a political agenda”.
I think some of why people consider the politics being the boring part of the Prequels is because they come at it from the angle that Star Wars is often geared to 8 to 12 year olds aka "kids" movies. I know that's how RedLetterMedia reviewed it waaaay back (15 years ago? Man, I'm old).
They just assumed it was cause George was an old, out-of-touch rich guy complaining about taxes rather than the starving artist he used to be, which is so off-base it's almost funny.
Still not fond of RLM lambasting Star Wars. Geez, they're just as worse as the folk who think the Nolanverse did Batman better than the DCAU.
With all the allusions to "how things used to be" in the OT, I appreciated seeing it in the PT
A thing to note about the "this is how liberty dies scene". It's a direct reference to Bush receiving massive applause for among other things "either you are with us or the terrorists" which of course is paraphrased in Anakins statement.
Btw. doekoe is slang for money in Dutch. "Count Money." Also until you mentioned Newt Gingrich, I used to think Gunray referred to gunboat diplomacy.
Nah it's even simpler than that, it's Reagan switched around
@@CoreysDatapad I never would have gotten that *self-facepalm* This is why you earn the big republic credits.
@@CoreysDatapadRonnie RayGun, who was gonna gave us Star Wars missile defense!!
I miss Ron.
That’s probably a coincidence. Like when people say darth vader sounds like dark father in Dutch. Lucas didn’t originally plan for vader to be Luke’s dad
Let's be honest, the most politically radical aspect in this video is Corey's pronunciation of "Kaminoans". Very suspect...
Theses videos are fantastic. Some of my favorite star wars discussion in recent memory.
Love this series of videos Corey, looking forward to your next one!👏🏼
This is why I find the prequels more interesting than the OT
Same!
These are my favorite videos to share with my friends because although they are Star Wars fans, they are unaware of many of these real-world inspirations for the stories.
Another great video corey, these are really insightful and well researched
Great video Corey! Nice job Mar!
Very interesting topics. I wish this video was longer.
I've always thought the politics were overhated in AoTC. This was the point of what George sought to depict.
They were terrible and void of any l9gic. All the characters are especially stupid
The Star Wars Prequels are what got me so interested in politics in real life. It's unfortunate, but the government and its politics control everything.
This showed attack of the clones from a different perspective than I had thought of before. Loved it!
Fantastic video! Can't wait for the ROTS version of this.
You can actually say that the structural issues with the PT can be examined as George trying to comprehend the (currently in progress) shifting politics of America. Obviously it was happening long before the 90s and 2000s, but it became more obvious and pronounced and George was trying to capitalize on his critique as current as possible.
Something that I think in regards to star wars and expecially with these parallels drawn to real world politics is that the republic was lost before Sideous was even on the stage. While he did push for the Trade Federation to invade Naboo and such, the fact that it was even allowed to happen and would have had zero consequences without interferance by himself and the jedi just points to a failed system that allowed such a person to seize power. Trump, Biden, Tredeau, Nixon, whoever you want to place into the role of aspirant dictator the root cause of the problem existed before the politicians did. Just as the Republic we sold out long ago, only now do we see the consequences.
The heckin orange man
@@generalj216 Orang man BAD!!1!!1!!11
@@hueylong3918 😮😮😮 (there’s no soyjak emoji)
@@generalj216 let me ask my wife's boyfriend if he has a soyjak we could use
@@hueylong3918 Yes! He’ll have one.
Great analysis and research! I wish more people would put this much thought into their opinions and discussions
Barely anyone talks about the prequels in good faith and is actually fair and is not just talking out of their ass or regurgitating something they saw on a video. Episode 1 criticism is still extremely shallow and no one does their research. When every video is complaining about the same thing and acting like they’re being original(Jar Jar, Midi-chlorians, Politics)surface level shit and not engaging. Everybody consumed that mess for almost two decades so what do I know?😂
If one thinks that Star Wars is not political then he clearly didn't get the message behind all the media
There's something I don't think I've ever heard anyone talk about in-depth before: the fact that the Separatist council is composed of the leaders of the Trade Federation, Techno-Union, Commerce Guild, Banking Clan, and other large corporations. I know there's in-depth analyses of those individual groups, but to me the important detail is that the Separatist leadership consists primarily of the heads of major corporations. This isn't a case of people deciding to leave the Republic because they feel like it doesn't represent them - this is more like if Amazon, Lockheed-Martin, Bank of America, ExxonMobil, Kroger, and AT&T seceded from the United States and tried to claim all territory west of the Mississippi.
And I'm not sure about the others, but the Trade Federation for sure has a senator. It would be like if Walmart had its own senator in Captial Hill. I have NEVER heard anyone comment on this.
.
The legends expanded universe goes further and provides details of how the trade federation essentially strong armed smaller, poorer systems into letting the trade federation represent them in the Senate in exchange for financial support. Presumably these same systems were also forced into leaving and joining the CIS by the trade federation. The separatists are for sure not the good guys
cool to see the t-6 shuttle in the background concept art.
No Silly, politics is not when you talk about taxes, war, or base key characters on contemporary politicians, it's when there are women and minorities in the movie!
you are talking about idpol. a wretched stain
@GG_1318 tell me you hate minorities without telling me you hate minorities
@@eventide_64 you are a fool
I can already tell I'm not the target audience for this. Clone Wars was pretty cool.
Darth Bane told Zannah the importance of keeping the republic intact was to keep galaxy under one banner who kept Jedi Order in line since Jedi had mistaken aline themselves with the government.
And of course, the dangers of Democracy of allowing everyone to vote but not up hold the responsibility. Since majority didn't care about Naboo which is why Naboo incident was key event to show how backwards the republic justice system with lack of action to an unjust invasion. It what insprise majority system creating CIS. While senate give republic all the independence power to one centerize power structure, giving empire complete military control.
I mean, I knew the Prequels had a major supporter of the CIS be big greedy mega corps, but that cut dialogue practically sounds like it comes from Reagan. George may've not been subtle, but considering how many people argue the prequels were "totally a-political" I think he may've not gone far enough. The people who rag on the sequels are a bunch of self absorbed morons, especially considering the themes of the prequels and sequels.
Another good video but also I love the sneaky dig at Lucas himself with the allusion to the Disney acquisition lol
As a communist who grew up with the prequels, I appreciate these political series videos. Many thanks for your work. If I have the chance I'd love to buy the Ep. 1-3 Archives book to learn more.
excellent video! thank you!
We know for a fact if George was the Create the Sequels we would Have a First Order member named or even a New Republic Senator named after Trump for sure
9:11
Lmfao i was totally thinking about this at the beginning of the video
Politics is funny
Ragegrifters will talk about how they miss when Star Wars wasn't political; meanwhile Star Wars...
@@bottombarrelbudgetfilms1854 Of course most of those rage grifters are conservative and they have the nostalgia goggles bolted on. That and are utterly media illiterate.
Sheev Palpatine pursued politics, and this is the direction of The Lore.
Politics is the junction of all roads -no matter the intentions involved (this is automatic).
It's like Chess" How the pieces move (are the only rules) [politics], -strategy is your own design [intentions].🤨
Yeah, it was just as deep as a rain cloud. Trust me it's not that nobody got this, it's that nobody cared.
😅Imperious Palpatinus!!😅
Pretty sure the Alien n Sedition act of 1918 was about Nemoidians
Politics is precisely what would have made the prequels better than the original trilogy. Pity Lucas didn't took advantage from that through writing better scripts.
You admit they have worse written scripts, but then call them better. Absolute doublethink
@@timewarpdrive77 Not really. All he's saying is that the prequels are better than the originals, but the script writing in the originals was better. One is comparing the whole of each trilogy, whilst the other is comparing a specific aspect. A part of a product can be inferior to the same part of another product even when the whole product in aggregate is better than the other.
@@delrunplays2903 You talk as if the prequels only fell short in script-writing, but script-writing is the entire story. The prequels have some interesting world-building and ideas, but in every other aspect they're outclassed. OT has superior script-writing, the acting is better, the direction was better, and it has superior effects. Although it has those interesting ideas, the prequel's scripts fumble them. The movie is the script and you have a bad script, your intended ideas or themes mean nothing. Ideas and themes a garnish to the plot. It doesn't matter if Shakespeare is coming up with your ideas if Tommy Wisaeu is your scriptwriter.
The OT isn't as politics focused (though they're certainly there) because its more character focused. Being focused on one or the other does it better or worse, its just a different type of story... When the characters writing suffers because the scriptwriter has that larger political scope, it does become a problem (which maybe an issue with the prequels).
@@timewarpdrive77 I was pointing out that the OP was not engaging in doublethink.
I made no statement regarding what I thought of the PT or OT.
@@delrunplays2903 Regardless, my point stands. The script-writing is not a single aspect, it is the story.
That what interested me the most in the prelogy
Only that Lucas gain nothing by selling Star Wars, maybe some tax cuts by giving all the money to charity by selling Star Wars to Disney, but I think that he was basically scam to do sell it, because one, the harassing of the OT fans, and two, because the family friendly image of Disney, even that they were becoming a massive corporate monopoly, Lucas was basically was stab in the back the moment that he sign the contract because Iger throw his script to the trash the moment that he become owner of Star Wars.
"EUGGHH P O LI TI C S??? I N *MY* SPACE WIZARD MOVIE??? NOOOO" - Some dullard
Always loved the politics in the Prequels!
Star Wars was always political, the prequels are VERY political. It's always about execution
Political yes. Social politics of our world? No.
@@Hamentsios10 Theres a difference between 'the republic is crumbling' and just shoving diversity hires into your movie. Both are based in politics, but they are not the same.
@@timewarpdrive77 agreed
when someone says something is political it means they are talking about idpol, a vile thing
huh?
@@timewarpdrive77 ?
@@timewarpdrive77 I'm guessing idpol is short for identity politics? Which is a vile thing, to be fair - quite literally the root of racial discrimination and the like. Not quite sure how to make sense of the sentence as a whole, however. Perhaps he meant 'is' instead of 'isn't'?
@@delrunplays2903 I got no idea
@@GG_1318 At least when it isn't your identity being massaged.
Many movies are political in some way. But movies like this show how it's done right!
the real struggle is between the jedi and the sith; the trade federation and kaminoans are nothing but tool
If only they could add a good story to go along with it
This is your reminder that Star Wars has been political since A New Hope.
Making it political was the best decision Lucas made. Makes it more relevant.
JarJar…I blame JarJar. He was a bit too much for me, with Anakin being the final nail in the coffin.
What? “Anakin Shrugged?” Not really a John Galt, think?
About that pronunciation of “Kaminoans” ……
The Anti-Trilogy tried to do this with TLJ, but completely treating its audience like buffoons and idiots, children to be handheld throughout its runtime. 💀
I still see uninformed comments and videos criticizing the prequels, saying, “Really? You’re telling me they started a war because the trade routes got taxed?”
Ya. You must not know of the long history of human conflict. This is not a new concept. It doesn’t define every conflict, but a significant number of them either as the main reason or as a secondary reason.
The politics and economics in the prequels might be one of the many reasons I studied it in college. It’s just incredibly interesting and much more thought out than many give Lucas credit for.
Looking at the text in the crawl for Episodes 1,2,and 3 and the first shot of each movie tells you exactly what state the galaxy is in. Peace being interrupted, Uneasy Tensions, and a full-scale-war. You have to start slow to build to something big and that is what people miss.
there's some pretty old politics in star wars as well. you know... bordering on blasphemous politics. the fun stuff.
You cant exactly have a war without a conflict. Just saying the other side is evil is simply not enough.
The Sith: things were fine before the damn Schism!
Tbf, worked well enough with the OT.
@@delrunplays2903it still
explained that the state of the galaxy used to be a lot better under the republic and don’t forget that they destroyed an entire planet!
@@mikenadj.j4355 ?
I love the Chinese Space Federation.
Now these are politics im intrested in
Believe me when I say that most of us never had issues with the politics in Star Wars mainly because under Lucas, politics was used to enhance the stories, characterization and world building. Plus, it had nuance and was well handled. That's why when the disney sequels tried so hard to avoid it, they inevitably crippled their world building and story potential. Then, when they tried overdoing it, they ended up alienating fans and casual viewers alike.
@@orboakin8074 Right. Da politics is good from the stuff I watched as a child, before I knew what politics were. Even with the characters named after real life politicians.
I can't believe they made star wars woke and political
Too woke. Subscribed!
Darth Sideous is Space Dick Cheney, but not nearly as evil or smart or cunning. He manipulates some stupid Asian stereotypes he’s already roped into one asinine plot into one involving getting systems we don’t know or care about to defect from the Republic for reasons that the movies never get into because it doesn’t really matter: Darth Evil just wants to start a forever-war so he can grab power. Essay over.
I'dont like Sand!!!
people like to say the politics were 'boring' which yeah perhaps; but i think despite his best efforts, Lucas committed a bigger sin with it- it's actually quite misinformed/incomplete in both the overall framing and actual depiction of how democracies turn into dictatorships and fascism. fascism does not arise from just one sith guy, the callback to the Union Army (Grand Army) and sorta equating it with the clones while drawing parallels between the CIS and the Confederacy (at least by name) is pretty distasteful given that the clones end up being the fascist jackboot- as if the Confederacy in either timeline were just manipulated fools.
and on the topic of fascist jackboots- complete misread of the social base of fascism. I'm not even talking about like post ww2 marxist analysis of aggrieved petit-boug as the shock troops of fascism- I mean that there's bsaically zero depiction of how the social base of the Galactic Republic buys into militarisation and dictatorship. It does not just come from a military coup. It also needs the support of Core Worlders fired up, labourers scared of droid labour, humanocentric psychos etc. That nuance at most, comes in with EU stuff and usually late EU 'let's actually fill in the gaps' stuff. At least we have Andor!
@@FlameQwert
Given how much corruption the CIS had I don’t think they were supposed to be sympathetically portrayed.
@@bkjeong4302 true, they are very much literal corporate armies haha
In my opinion, the prequels are somewhat in line with what Naomi Klein would later call the Shock Doctrine.
The terrorist attack of 9/11 not only triggered the Iraq war, but also an increase in military spending, privatization of parts of the defense system, and an increase in control over the population under the premise of increasing national security: increased security measures at airports, increased surveillance cameras in cities, spying or mass surveillance of citizens, etc.
Not to mention that part of the criticism of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, at least outside the U.S., was that the reason for the war was mainly economic, Oil and Opium in the case of Afghanistan.
On the other hand, the original trilogy is temporally located in the context of the Cold War. The U.S. government and American and European economic lobbies supported the creation of fascist dictatorships under the pretext of the alleged Soviet threat, where the most illustrative case is the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile.
The 7 seasons of Clone Wars, in my opinion, expand this idea that the Clone Wars are inspired by the Cold War, even the "separatist" concept alludes to decolonization, which was one of the contexts of the Cold War. The decolonizing processes of European countries.
I like Andor, but I think that the prequels and Clone Wars provide a more expansive, more global vision, although it may be naive or generalist at times.
Much as Andor is a good show, don't get me wrong, am sure annoyed at how many comments I see about people blindly praising it like it's the Messiah. Really, the show loses its quality because of its connections with flawed works like Kenobi and Jedi: Survivor.
👍
Why was Lucas so concerned with the idea of Nixon having a constitutional amendment to serve three terms, when FDR served four terms and the 22nd amendment was only ratified in 1947? With the 21st amendment repealing prohibition, the idea of backtracking on a previous amendment was already established.
I'm not sure what George's perspective is, since he applauds the Roman senatorial elites for killing Caesar, despite the fact that they primarily did it to protect the power of their class, not to defend democratic ideals.
I don't know what to believe about his views when, as pointed out in the video, George undermined his whole philosophy by selling out Star Wars to the biggest entertainment corporation on the planet, contributing in no small part to the increasing accumulation of social influence by corporatism.
Im old school woke going way back. Im so woke I share housekeeping duties with my female partner. Im so woke I wipe. Im so woke I remember Princess Leia and Mon Mothma being the two primary on screen leaders of the Rebel Alliance in the late 1970s and early 80s. Im an SJW, I think thunder applause is the patriot act like Sir George Lucas said.
LOL, I'm so woke I put the seat down and refer to myself as being "housebroken".
still don't know why they pronounced it as Count Dookie in the movie when the rumor before release was that it was pronounced Dough-ku - which is Japanese for poison
There is a difference between having politics in a story and having political issues in a story.
All art deals with and reflects society to a degree.
@@ironinquisitor3656 Yeah, but not all of society is political. Well, unless you under a totalitarian state, of course.
@@delrunplays2903 All of society is affected by politics what you talking about?
@@ironinquisitor3656 Affected by politics, yes, but all of society is not political.
In other words, let me ask you a question: what political statement are you making by your choice of toothpaste brand?
Young Jedi Knights: Diversity Alliance is now ahead of its time
Too woke. Unsubscribed
Man, Lucas sure wanted to be as on-the-nose as Disney Star Wars and Tom Clancy post-Without Remorse. That's one reason why I'm not even hyped on possible Director's Cuts of the Prequels... they're good enough as they are, and the side material does the fleshing out of certain events better.
Wish this video explored more on contemporary movies at the time as well, like The Lord of the Rings. Believe me, the early 2000s were quite a sensationalist hotbed for certain movie genres because of events like the War on Terror and the Cold War hangover.
Gotta admit, though, I sure the miss the early 2000s. Strife and controversy was still around, but at least it wasn't as chaotic as the 2010s and the current 2020s.
Addendum: I still think the Gulf War and the liberation of Iraq is still justified by ending a tyrant's rule no matter what. Shame we can't do the same with Afghanistan... in short, I would love to see a good piece of work that's a neat antithesis to Lucas' somewhat childish philosophy someday.
Fighting Israel’s wars for them was never a good thing. Make no mistake that’s who we were fighting for all those years.
On the addendum, in those wars we simply became the tyrant. Like it or not, Hussein and the Taliban were/are more representative of their countries than the foreign invaders imposing foreign values and means of governance. It's all well and good for the tyrannized to overthrow their tyrant, but there is no virtue in one tyrant overthrowing another.
Come and see the violence inheritant in the system Come and see the violence inheritant in the system! Help! Help! I'm being oppressed!
What politics? They were shitty and void of logic lmao
I really don't understand these kinds of comments people make. You're on an in depth video about a subject and you disagree with the video, but instead of actually addressing the points laid out in the video you just go "nuh uh". if you disagree heavily with something you should be able to address exactly why