I feel the same, especially after I have been reading a lot of older Star Wars stuff in these last couple of weeks such as Classic Star Wars by Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson, the Han Solo Adventures by Brian Daley, the West End Gaming RPG modules, and now the Heir to the Empire trilogy by Timothy Zahn. (after some others talked about how the Hand of Thrawn duology was not as good or strong as the TTT, I had to check for myself again and I do have to agree it is somewhat weaker in many aspects, the Luke Skywalker/Mara Jade sub story was probably my favorite part).
The Prequel Trilogy in my opinion really had inconsistent story telling, parts that really did not feel good, to many underdeveloped characters or bad characterization (I have have been discussing this with a friend who is more of a die hard SW fan, but I still find Anakin Solo and Padme Amidala badly written along with many other characters), very thin plot devices (also no explanation to casual watchers what for example a Sith is), and to much geared towards kids in general, and selling merchandise. (now that last is not new, it happened also with the OT, but this time it felt that the movies were more done to support that than actually telling a good or at least acceptable story)
What bugs more a lot more is how it actually affected the Expanded Universe later, much like with Fallout us fans or the writers had to fill in the plot holes that Lucas left in his 'epic trilogy' rather than adding material to it. (why the old Republic is so different from its depictions in older material, how the rise of the Confederacy of Independent Systems were possible, why the timeline is suddenly so different, why the Jedi Order is now suddenly an order of abstinent monks where as in the past there have been couples, and so many other parts)
Even more, there was suddenly this 'drive' to make Star Wars more mature and serious. Now I admit there has been some material that really did not fit with the rest of the universe (a lot of the original Marvel Star Wars run) to the point that it was ridiculous or even moronic, but then there was a sudden shift to making everything as serious as possible as well as focusing more and more on the Jedi/Force users.
Now before that of course things weren't always better (the writers working for Bantam had a tendency to focus on the New Republic vs the Empire which after a while became rather tiresome, especially as new Imperial warlords and super weapons came popping up) but there was a still a bit of the old style sci fi serials on which Lucas based the Original Trilogy.
Now the Star Wars universe seems to be actually boring if it does not focus on Jedi or galactic wars. The idea of a couple of characters or small group of adventurers going around on adventure without it impacting the galaxy at large seems to have fallen out of favor.
I agree with Hassknecht that there has been some good material released after the Prequels, but most of the material I like seems to take all its inspiration from the original trilogy rather than the prequels; the Jedi Knight games, the Knights of the Old Republic games (ignoring TOR which basically seems to be like a mix of Star Wars movie elements DONE TO THE EXTREME!!!!!)
But in general I have found a lot of the published stories more and more soulless products made by the Star Wars merchandise machine.
It sadly has become so far that I can not even read a comic any more that I would normally enjoy if it has any reference to the Prequel Trilogy (a character, a plot device, heck just the appearance of some of the vehicles or droid army stuff puts me off
)I have to agree with Disney that perhaps getting rid of the old Expanded Universe was perhaps better but I wish that that also included getting rid of the Prequel Trilogy and the stupid Clone Wars cartoon.
Also I really don't think that Disney is going to do any better with Star Wars 7, the fact that Abrams, the guy who IMO basically helped put the final nail in Star TRek's coffin is working on this (I read somewhere he actually worked on the script) is taking away my confidence.
[spoilers]Apparently there is an Empire again (called the New Order) who control a super weapon capable of destroying star systems, there is an opposite movement fighting these guys with the goal of restoring freedom (now called the Resistance), the Jedi are mostly gone (gone into hiding or almost been exterminated) and there is an order of Darksiders who happen not to be called a Sith. And somewhere on a desert planet a young person comes across information that will send her on a journey of adventure, self discovery, and personal growth[/spoilers]
I have just read the part again in which Palleon talks with Thrawn about the instability of the earlier clones during the Clone Wars when the fleet faced them. I want to see those Clone Wars. (not just the part about clones, but these conflicts as they were originally thought to be like)
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