I rewatched the prequels recently and somehow they're even worse than I remember them... I respect your opinion, of course, but good god, I would never put any of the prequels above the original trilogy.

I saw the Special Editions in theaters but owned the original versions on VHS as a kid and grew up with those. the SE came out when I was 10 I think? TPM came out when I was 13. maybe it's generational? I identify with Anakin, so maybe that's a part of it. I don't know. I like the OT, I like the PT, but can we agree the ST is just bad? lol.

You may ge onto something with the generational thing, yeah. I’m a bit older and grew up with the OT. Ah, I surprisingly liked the new ST so far (even though I didn't jive with some aspects of it) and am excited for Rise of the Skywalker. I guess we can agree that we’re both passionate about Star Wars! :)