I’m sorry, but this is the same excuse that people have been using since the prequels (and really, the weaker parts of ROTJ) to get away with bad storytelling. Claiming that these stories are “just for twelve year olds” doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t justify bad filmmaking. It doesn’t justify putting childish things into the films. If these films were really meant for children, they would not be the phenomena they are today. The whole reason they are so important in pop culture is because they appealed to more than just children. Furthermore, quoting Lucas doesn’t make what you say absolute truth. He’s just a man; he’s not a god, and he’s certainly not responsible for everything that’s great about Star Wars. Let’s remember that this is the man who says Han didn’t shoot first; that wrote a screenplay about the Jedi-bendu named Mace Windy (that’s the name of the main character in the first draft); that wanted to include a line in Raiders of the Lost Ark about Indiana Jones having had a relationship with a minor (check out the transcripts of the story meetings between Spielberg, Lucas, and I think Kasdan). A big reason why these films have been moving towards a younger audience since ROTJ is for two reasons: one, children were an untapped market for merchandise that Star Wars essentially set the precedent for; and two: George was getting older by the time of the prequels, and the older you are (and the younger children you have in your family), the less likely you are to be edgy. Look at Spielberg and the infamous removal of the guns from E.T. I’m not knocking George, but continuing to come up with these kinds of arguments against other people for not liking the new films (or the prequels, or EU, or the cartoons, or whatever) are not fairly looking at criticisms of the films. Calling people whiners, or saying the film “isn’t for them”, or that it’s just a “kids’ film”, is to totally discount any real grievances and to put down or invalidate other people’s opinions. Are there total trolls out there that are just angry and want to bash everything? Yes, definitely. (I think TLJ especially taught us that). But let’s just get back on track talking (respectfully agreeing or disagreeing) about TROS, without using inflammatory language or discounting real discussion on this/these films. Ultimately, I could just say “Well, in the long run, movies aren’t really important. There are so many things that actually matter and that we should actually spend money on, yada yada yada.” But that doesn’t help anyone and this isn’t the place for that. Asking people not to post negative things is too tall an order with this much passion (and nostalgia) involved, especially on the internet. Asking not to hear anything negative just because you want to believe that everyone likes something as much as you is avoiding reality. If the people over on the R1 stormtrooper thread are allowed to complain a little because the helmets are symmetrical and the lines along the sides aren’t just stickers, I think we can allow people to dislike these films a little. Just keep things civil, keep complaints (or rebuttals, sorry again Joek3rr, nothing personal) from getting nasty, and let’s try to just talk about the available information from TROS.