Why hasn't George Lucas directed more films?

[ChrisIII]

I bought a DVD of all the movies available to that date a few years ago so up to and including TFA. The collection included the original versions of the original trilogy or close. "Star Wars" was not the original from 1977 but the slightly altered version from the next year or the one after, '78 or '79. No "Episode 4: A New Hope". Empire was the original '80 version and Return the original '83 version.

Anyway, I noticed right away Leia telling Luke she had memories of her mother in RotJ. That's definitely not consistent with RotS where Padme died right after the twins were born.

There are other problems like Chewbacca and Yoda knowing each other in the prequels. That's not an inconsistency but, if someone had never seen any of the movies before and watched them in numerical order, they would expect a payoff like Chewie and Yoda meeting in Empire or Return. Also, they would expect Obi-Wan to say, "I thought I could train your father as well as Qui-Gon Jinn could" or some mention of him.

But none of this nitpicking is a big deal to me. Somehow, the prequels just didn't have that magical feeling of wonder that the original trilogy did. And it's not because I was older. I've experienced that wonder at movies long after the original trilogy. And it's not nitpicking little details. Somehow, they just didn't have it, whatever it is, compared to the originals.

I mean, on the surface, that would be hard to argue. But some essence felt different.

I don't see it as a huge deal. I kind of get the impression that Luke didn't share many of the details of his Jedi training with Han & Chewie anyway, especially given their initial skepticism. Although it could explain why Obi-Wan seems casually familiar with Chewie in the cantina, although Chewie later seems to suggest to Han that Obi-Wan is weird ("Boy, you said it Chewie. Where'd you did up that old fossil!?). Although given we can't understand Chewie, he could've been saying that he served with a similar man in the Clone Wars for all we know and we only have Han's word for that.

[Powerboy]

I don't see it as a huge deal. I kind of get the impression that Luke didn't share many of the details of his Jedi training with Han & Chewie anyway, especially given their initial skepticism. Although it could explain why Obi-Wan seems casually familiar with Chewie in the cantina, although Chewie later seems to suggest to Han that Obi-Wan is weird ("Boy, you said it Chewie. Where'd you did up that old fossil!?). Although given we can't understand Chewie, he could've been saying that he served with a similar man in the Clone Wars for all we know and we only have Han's word for that.

Well, it was never said that Chewie knew Obi-Wan, only that Chewie knew Yoda.