Hopefully some of you have decided to stay with me since my last entry, and have come back for more. And for those who liked the entry, I hope I can retain your interest on this second go round.

As I began with my last entry, I was discussing the differences between the PT and OT, and the possible reasons for those existing differences. Now, remember, all I make is an educated guess, based on the studies that I have done in college, and by no means am I saying that 'my explanation is right, and anything else it wrong.' What kind of fan would I be if I did that?

Anyway, let's go ahead and begin this adventure. As I mentioned before, I had three examples that I wanted to speak about in my last entry, but sadly started rambling to much about the first one. So I will cover the other two today, mostly because one kind of leads into the other, and is a strong cause of it.

Let's talk about villains. I know I have already talked about them, so I won't go into the long discussion I did about it before. But the villains of the Prequels, are another main reason why the two trilogies feel so different from each other. What did the Originals have that the Prequels didn't? Vader. But it wasn't just the character that I am talking about here, my point is that Vader represented a central villain for the entire trilogy. He was the person that the audience could look at and boo, he was the guy everyone loved to hate, and the guy everyone could blame for the hero's problems.

Now who did the Prequels have? Uhhhh...well...uh...let me think here. The point I am making here, is that the PT lacked a central villain, who was everpresent in all of the three movies, and was immediately known. I know some of you are saying that Sidious/Palpatine was in all of the films, but until ROTS he never really stepped out of the shadows. In Episode 1 and 2 he was constantly behind the scenes, working his machinations, until everything fell into place for him in the end. He was not an autmatic scapegoat, because no one could really tell whether certain events that took place in the movies were the workings of his plans, or just what happened in the universe (you can look on the message boards to see the debates about those).

Darth Vader was there in the movie within the first five minutes, in episode 1 the only bad guys we were introduced to were the bumbling Viceroy, and his assistants (and even they can't be called bad guys, more like greedy, caught in a bad plan guys). Sidious was there, for a second, but he was more of an enigma than a flat out bad guy, namely because he didn't do anything personally. We saw Vader choke out Captain Antilles real quick in the movie, yet Sidious was always relying on others to do his dirty work.

This lack of a central villain, scapegoat really, is necessary, though, in some respects. The intrigue was necessary, to give a little more depth to the story, and to get the audience thinking about what is going to happen next. Also, at that point in time Sidious could not have revealed himself fully, and be the bad guy that everyone wanted. Revealing him completely and openly, would definitly get him noticed by the Jedi, which would have jepardized what he was attempting to do with the senate. Lastly, it was apparent that Lucas wanted to keep the Palpatine and Sidious connection shrouded in mystery. While many fans and audience members could infer that the two were indeed one in the same, the fact that it wasn't openly revealed, makes the audience wonder what exactly his plan is, allowing a kind of empathy to take place between the audience and the characters on the screen, who were completely left in the dark about the whole thing.

So instead of having one strong central villain, there were many throughout the prequels. Now I won't go into why there were so many (if you want that explanation please read my blog: The Greatest Villains Never Used). Which leads me into my next point. In the first two prequels there was no clear battle between good and evil. Now here me out, the Trade Federation never really felt like the bad guys, it was known that they were puppets from the beginning, and so they really weren't all that evil. The one who was controlling them (Sidious) was evil, but he was never in the forefront, the Trade Federation was. They weren't really evil, just greedy.

Same goes for AOTC as well, for the Seperatists were once again puppets for the master plan. There were individuals within them who were evil, but the group as the whole, the people that the Republic were fighting against, weren't completely evil. Plus on top of this, there is the underlying concept that the Republic itself isn't exactly the good guys either, and that's why the Seperatists broke off from the group. There was no clear line drawn between the bad guys, and the good guys. In the OT there was the Empire, and the Rebellion, and we knew where everyone stood.

I know you are saying that the Jedi are good, but remember there were two former Jedi in the movie; one who was the new villain, who had converted to the darkside, and another who ordered a massive army behind the rest of the Jedis' backs. So even amongst their ranks, you can't be completely sure who is on the correct side. This lack of main villain, and central enemy is a big reason why the lines were not clear. There were two many factions, and no clear scapegoat.

The fact is, though, that at the time of the prequels, there were several factions that did exist and could exist. Once the Empire took over, those factions ceased to exist, they weren't allowed to because of the Empire's oppression, so by the time of the Originals there is only the Empire, and the Rebellion. Were there other factions? Sure, there were the bounty hunters, the smugglers, but the Originals did not go into as much detail about those other existing factions as the Prequels did. The time of the PT is different, those factions wouldn't have to be afraid of working out in the open, they wouldn't have to be afraid to operate within the Republic (unless they're Black Sun) like they would with the Empire.

Don't get me wrong, I really do enjoy the Prequels, but I also understand that they represent a different time, a different story, and so required a different way of telling them. So instead of bashing them, I chose to accept them as they were, and found myself truly enjoying them. The two movies have different strengths; the OT had it's great adventure story, while the PT had its subtlties, intrigue, and mysteries.

Remember that these are only possible explanations, reasons why I believe that the Prequels feel so different, and why they needed to. So, as always I am open to comments, and welcome them. Just remember that I try--keyword is try here--to make educated guesses, as to these reason.

Hopefully you have enjoyed this entry, like I hope you have enjoyed the others that I've written, if you didn't I'm sorry, and I will honestly try harder. Any way I have a good topic lined up and ready for tomorrow, and is probably one of the most controversial, at least among the fans: It's about Hayden Christensen as Anakin. Oh geez, I may be in over my head.

Anyway...I hope you will come back to read it; same bat time, same bat channel (well...same bat day at least, but definitely same bat channel).

--DLZ