The dialogue is the problem with the Prequels. It looks good, the stories track and all nearly fit into the wider Star Wars universe, it’s just that George Lucas has no idea how actual humans communicate. There was also an absolute tsunami of 3rd party content around the Prequels from comics, video games, YA novels, TV shows, and toys that cemented the Prequels into the cultural Zeitgeist that Disney was completely unable to replicate.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, quite the opposite really, but I do want to point out that Hayden Christensen’s portrayal of Anakin got way too much flak when the movies were still fresh. Yes, his dialogue (especially with Padme) was the cringiest thing in Star Wars at the time, but honestly I think that fits his character. He was a slave boy, not even ten years old, taken from his mother (with permission), had the closest thing he had to a father die very shortly after, and was then raised by a religious order who put “minimizing emotion” as one of their core tenets while also letting it be known that he was probably ‘the chosen one’. Didn’t help that they assigned him to Obi-wan, he was literally still a Padawan when they met and therefore had zero experience in training one of his own (plus they weren’t too dissimilar in age). It’s no wonder Anakin grew up not knowing how to talk to girls, getting into fights with his Master who never passed up an opportunity to belittle him (from Anakin’s perspective), and doing emotional, impulsive acts of bravado to prove himself
The dialogue is the problem with the Prequels. It looks good, the stories track and all nearly fit into the wider Star Wars universe, it’s just that George Lucas has no idea how actual humans communicate. There was also an absolute tsunami of 3rd party content around the Prequels from comics, video games, YA novels, TV shows, and toys that cemented the Prequels into the cultural Zeitgeist that Disney was completely unable to replicate.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, quite the opposite really, but I do want to point out that Hayden Christensen’s portrayal of Anakin got way too much flak when the movies were still fresh. Yes, his dialogue (especially with Padme) was the cringiest thing in Star Wars at the time, but honestly I think that fits his character. He was a slave boy, not even ten years old, taken from his mother (with permission), had the closest thing he had to a father die very shortly after, and was then raised by a religious order who put “minimizing emotion” as one of their core tenets while also letting it be known that he was probably ‘the chosen one’. Didn’t help that they assigned him to Obi-wan, he was literally still a Padawan when they met and therefore had zero experience in training one of his own (plus they weren’t too dissimilar in age). It’s no wonder Anakin grew up not knowing how to talk to girls, getting into fights with his Master who never passed up an opportunity to belittle him (from Anakin’s perspective), and doing emotional, impulsive acts of bravado to prove himself