This. Loved every minute of Rogue One, it worked great as a self contained story, then the finale blended so gracefully with the beginning of Ep IV. That is how a prequel should be made.

Newer SW movies aren't that good, but at least they also aren't as bad as Ep. I, II and III, while it seems they're going on the right direction with most of the series.

See, I have to disagree,.episodes 1, 2 and 3 were far and beyond superior to the Disney episodes.

The characters and story fit in the universe. Disney created an alternate reality for their garbage. The Han Solo movie having so much potential and it was the worst of the bunch, worse then the Holiday Special.

Big whoops, I completely forgot about the Solo movie, probably because it was so bad I really removed it from memory. About 1,2 and 3 I probably have to rewatch them as I was so negatively impressed by them, especially 1 and 2, that they're the only SW movies I watched just once while I watch all others almost every year.

Connecting Rogue One directly to the beginning of A New Hope really made the Leia / Darth Vader interactions work differently though.

Maybe you imagined the leadup to A New Hope differently, but I thought it all fit very well.

It originally seemed like Darth strongly suspected but wasn't certain that Leia had the plans. Their interaction sounds extremely odd since he knows for certain she has the plans and she knows he knows.

And letting the droids go is even more inexcusable.