There are as many points of view on the Star Wars universe as there are alien races in a galaxy far, far away.
But one ad agency has decided to stamp its viewpoint rather forcefully on the debate that has riven Star Wars fandom: do Episodes I, II and III have anything to bring to the table, in terms of defining what Star Wars is?
See also: Star Wars Saga Continues in 'Kenobi'
The video, above, styles itself an open letter to J.J. Abrams, director of Star Wars Episode VII (or as Lucasfilm has recently been styling it in hashtag form, #StarWarsVII). It offers four rules for creating future Star Wars movies — each one a not-so-veiled attack on the prequel movies released by George Lucas between 1999 and 2005.
(You might think the "Star Wars is not cute" rule attacks the Ewoks in 1983's Return of the Jedi as much as it does Jar Jar Binks, but the Ewoks are featured approvingly in the "Frontier" rule. Let us not forget, it was strongly suggested they cooked and ate Stormtroopers.)
It's surprising, then, to find that the video comes not from a rabid fan but from a creative agency in Portland called Sincerely Truman. The brash young agency has already done work for Nike and Visa. In this video, the company touts its honest and sincere approach to storytelling, while avoiding the word "advertising."

The agency has also created a petition related to the video, which it says it will present to Abrams.
Senior producer Prescott Harvey — a former production assistant on Mission Impossible III who admits to having had one discussion with Abrams about Xbox games — told io9 he had done an "empirical" study of why the classic movies were so great and the prequels so bad. He said he left out a fifth rule ("The Jedi are Pacifists") because he didn't "speak for all fans on this one."
But if I've learned anything in a year of reporting a book on Star Wars culture, it's this: there are fans of the prequels. They acknowledge that not everything in the movies worked (I couldn't find anyone to defend those romance scenes in Attack of the Clones), but believe that overall, they were pretty neat visions.
See also: Star Wars Episode VII to Use Film, Be More Like Original Trilogy
These fans are legion — from the people who dug Revenge of the Sith all the way up to the people who genuinely loved Phantom Menace. They live in the US, and they especially live abroad; most are younger than 30 and saw them as kids, but by no means all. (After all, it wasn't just kids buying those $2 billion of movie tickets the prequels sold.)
One of my favorite quotes came from Bryan Young, a writer for the Star Wars blog and a staunch defender of the prequels. "Star Wars is a buffet," he says. "You can take whatever parts of it you want. Just don't stick your fingers in the mashed potatoes if you don't like them."
Here's what Young had to tweet in the wake of the "4 Rules" video:
I know lots of people who dislike the prequels respectfully. But there are many "prequel bashers" that are simply bullies. It's not okay.
— Bryan Young (@swankmotron) September 26, 2013
What do you think? Do you agree with Harvey that it is possible to do an empirical analysis of what works in the Star Wars series, or is everything in it good "from a certain point of view?" Should Abrams listen? Is this a smart way for an agency to market itself? Have at it in the comments.