I actually liked ROTJ, EWOKs aside. I had always wondered why Darth Vader would defer to a mere Emperor. ROTJ explained why the Empire was so unbeatable and why Vader didn’t run the galaxy. It just wrapped up so many things on a rational level. I was a teenager and I was dismayed that SW took a turn for the kids. I always cheer when the Ewok dies as a protest to Lucas’ kid-pandering.
Episode I started downhill with the pod race. But what killed the whole Star Wars thing for me was when the Force became Midichlorans that lived symbiotically with the Jedi, Sith, etc. and gave them their powers.
I always thought that Lucas brought out this gimmick to rid himself of the Christian groupies who used Star Wars as a Christian parable. The Force was too much like the Holy Spirit and he was sick of too many New Testament analogies. In other words, he did it just to p*** them off. I bet in 1977, the Force was just a force.
