It’s easy to be critical of the Star Wars prequels. However, some fans have gone too far in their attacks of George Lucas’ much-maligned film trilogy. While criticizing Jar Jar Binks for being a racist and unpleasant caricature is understandable, slamming a young boy’s performance is harsh and uncalled for. That is, at least, how Mark Hamill sees it.

Hamill is one of the most ardent proponents of Star Wars and Star Wars fans in the world today. He seemed to like the enthusiasm that people exhibit for those films. However, there is one instance where he disagrees with fandom’s fervor. He’s still irritated by the hatred directed at the young Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

Jake Lloyd’s portrayal as a 9-year-old Anakin was harshly panned, and his career was cut short. For many, obtaining a starring part in Star Wars is a blessing, but for Lloyd, it became a curse.

It’s now 2017, with a new trilogy in cinemas and a more happy fan base thus far. Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) owes his whole career to Star Wars, and he understands Jake Lloyd’s plight.

The Star Wars actor recently spoke with Vulture, and the subject of the prequels came up. As someone who faced criticism for his first performance as Luke Skywalker in 1977’s A New Hope, it’s unsurprising that Hamill would express his disgust with the way Lloyd and the prequels as a whole were regarded by some. In fact, he’s still irritated by it.

“I couldn’t believe some of the things they wrote about the prequels, you know. I mean really, beyond ‘I didn’t like it’. I’m still angry about the way they treated Jake Lloyd. He was only ten years old, that boy, and he did exactly what George wanted him to do. Believe me, I understand clunky dialog.”

Over the previous two decades, fans’ widespread disdain for the Star Wars prequels has become a legend in its own right. There is a lot that people don’t like about them, whether it’s the plot’s concentration on galactic politics instead of smugglers and Jedi, CGI characters with bad language and obnoxious accents, or senseless pronouncements like the coarseness of sand.

However, back when there was only one prequel film to criticize, Jar Jar Binks and Jake Lloyd, the actor who played Anakin Skywalker as a youngster, garnered the most critical feedback.

Regardless of one’s feelings regarding The Phantom Menace and its creative qualities, it’s difficult not to agree with Hamill’s observations. Lucas, the self-proclaimed “King of Wooden Dialogue,” was never much of a writer. Remember, the original trilogy had plenty of cringe-worthy lines; Hamill’s own complaining about Tosche Station is still mocked to this day. And, while Lloyd’s performance was a little stilted, he was only a child when he went through that extraordinary experience, and no one deserved to be pummeled by reviewers and fans the way he was. Yes, there were high expectations for Episode I, but many of the film’s flaws were beyond Lloyd’s control. In the aftermath, he became an easy target as individuals sought an avenue to vent their rage.

Ahmed Best ended up in the same situation, despite the fact that he was an adult by the time he took on the part of Jar Jar Binks. Here’s what he told Vice about the unfavorable reaction to Jar Jar and the prequels in general:

“It didn’t happen until the New York press junkets. The first person who kind of gave me an idea of where it was going was a writer from The New York Post. I didn’t really think much about it because I always felt like the The New York Post was a paper that fed off of that type of energy, that type of negativity. Growing up in New York you know which papers give you the news and which papers give you the gossip and the Post was definitely heavier on the gossip side than anything else. But I was really surprised that everyone picked up on that afterwards. It’s a very American thing to take somebody down when they’re at the top and a lot if it had to with that; people really wanted to see George crash and burn. Unfortunately, this character was so new, so experimental; he became a lightning rod for all that. It was me, and it was Jake Lloyd who took a lot of the heat for the movie. Fortunately, I was in my 20s. I wasn’t eight years-old like Jake, who I think took it worse. Jake had it far worse than me. I’m a 20-year-old from from the Bronx; I’ve seen and I’ve done things that were a lot harder than criticism in that newspaper. Although it hurt me emotionally and it was hard to take at the time, it wasn’t debilitating for me. I just put my shoes on and went back to work. But Jake had a difficult time.”