Obviously he didnt deserve the harassment he got regardless. Like even if he was dogshit he wouldnt have deserved that. But I just rewatched Phantom Menace for the first time in awhile. Young friend of mine are going through the star wars movies because she was a sheltered homeschooled kid and hadnt seen them. Already did the OT, starting on the prequels.
Other than the obvious "oh wow, the racial stereotypes of literally three different alien species in this movie is insane", the main takeaway my rewatch gave me is "wow ok, Jake LLoyd is average at worst". He was just like, a regular kid actor? Nothing to write home about like say, young Maise Williams or something. But absolutely fine?
"The Acolyte" could have done something with a non-Jedi non-Sith Force-using system, but it bumblefucked badly and The Mouse will probably avoid the idea from now on.
I think it's telling that the best Star Wars thing of all time (Andor) had absolutely no Force users or lightsabers whatsoever.
The born-special glowbat wavers were an annoying distraction for me as a kid; I wanted to see more of the cool space battles and shootouts and whenever the camera went back to Luke and his problems I'd get bored and wait impatiently or fast-forward the tape.
This was me as a kid.
And now