This series also accomplished something new in my Star Wars experience: it made me actually care about Anakin/Vader as a character. I mean, original Vader is cool as a scary villain with a nice redemption arc. The full arc of Anakin is a good story on paper. But Scary-Villain-Redeemed never got to show depth, and Anakin in the prequels suffered from being badly written/directed/acted (in some combination). And while I think Anakin is reasonably well-written/acted in the animated stuff, I never got into it overall. This show, however, wrote an Anakin I actually find relatable and (comparatively) nuanced as a character, and very appropriately tragic. And props to both James Earl Jones and Hayden Christiansen for combining their talents to pull off an impressive “transitional” Vader. I don’t know quite how this happened (good writing, acting, directing?), but Jones delivered his lines in a very Christiansen-like way (I mean that as a compliment to both) that really helped sell the character in transition between RotS and ANH.
Likewise, the casting of young Luke and Leia was very good, and it was nice to see a bit more Luke in this one. Good showing for Owen and Beru too.
All in all, I am very satisfied!
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