Because it was fucking ridiculous and just looked really stupid.
To you maybe, but not to 99% of the people watching the movie, including me.
I always thought Yoda would just use the Force to control his lightsaber; but I never thought he could just "out Force" his opponents, because if he could, why'd he let Darth Vader go around killing everyone?
I wouldn't say it was one of the biggest injustices, though, simply because the fact that the prequels exist is the biggest injustice of them all.
I.. really can't get behind this..
Yes, Lucas fucked up the prequels, but to be 100% honest, I'm glad they were made, and I'm glad he continued the Star Wars franchise. I was excited then, and I left the movie theater excited for the next one.
The story is much like what many of us expected from the Expanded Universe (general plot line was somewhat consistent); and I think many of us really enjoyed watching these movies in theaters even if the acting was terrible.
Cinematically, these movies are horrid, and no we didn't need The Phantom Menace, but overall if you like Star Wars then these movies are worth watching just to get a better understanding of the universe.
As a lifelong Star Wars fan, I can't sit here and say that the franchise would be better off without the prequels.
See, there's a timeline problem here. You're telling me that Yoda went from a spry young creature
Who said Yoda was "young" and spry in the prequels?
He walks with a cane, or even uses a floating wheel chair to hover around and go place to place.
After the fight, he's clearly gripping his back and is in pain.
who could do crazy flips and wielding a lightsaber to literally dying of old age in less than 25 years (roughly the time between the Clone Wars and the end of Empire)?
I think this is a major stretch.... Yoda dies at the ripe old age of 900. We don't know how his species ages, or whether or not he went to Dagobah simply to die.
Twenty-five years of virtual inactivity and solitude would definitely age someone more so than had they remained active; at least, IMHO.
That's just ridiculous to me, especially when you consider that Yoda's species supposedly lives for centuries.
But people age at parabolic rate, not a linear one... Many animals die after certain events in their life, particularly after reproduction. And we don't know what causes Yoda to live for 900 years; it could be the Force - we have no idea.
We also don't know anything about Yoda's species at all without the EU; and in the EU they establish Yoda as a swordmaster... So, either we accept the idea that we have no clue as to how Yoda should or shouldn't age, or we accept the EU which clearly goes into detail on all of this and answers your questions explicitly.
Yoda should have been damn near equally as old during the Clone Wars as he was during Empire, based on his species' average lifespan.
Where is his species' average lifespan established in the movies? It's only mentioned in the EU AFAIK, which also says Yoda is a master swordsman..
No, this was just another example of Lucas going for spectacle and a new line of toys over practicality and sticking with his established lore.
Nah... I think a lot of people were very hype to see the Yoda fight. I think you're being a bit overly cynical and missing the forest for the trees here.
And I guess even if he contradicted his own lore he could just go back and change the original films again.
I just don't see it...
The Star Wars prequels were very much in line with what folks thought they were going to be, including Anakin's fall, the reason he fell, the fight at a "volcano," fighting alongside Obi-Wan in the Clone Wars, etc...
If anything these
next films seem to be taking a lot more liberties with Star Wars lore than the prequels did, especially with the retconning of the EU as canon. And that's okay! Just make everything make sense and I'm fine with it.
But to your point, where is Ben Skywalker and Jacen Solo in this movie? No one is named Ben, Jacen, or Anakin so far in the credits, AFAIK, and the names of the characters have supposedly been accurately revealed.
But look man, I hear you, the prequels were bad movies; but some of this stuff is over the top critical.
