How Would You Split the Other 40% of Plot
 

George Lucas has said that 60% of his pre-OT storyline went into Revenge of the Sith. So how would you split the remaining 40% of storyline between Episode I: The Phantom Menace and Episode II: Attack of the Clones?

Was there really much of a story to TPM and AOTC??

First, to reply to Martin... Uhh, yes?

I said 10/30... I honestly haven't watched TPM since I saw it in the theatre for the last time in '99, so forgive me for any errors. But in TPM, you have the very early rumblings of the Clone War.

You have Anakin + his mother, a close relationship that is important to the story. You have Anakin as a slave, something that probably plays into his ascent to the Dark Side in regards to his refusal to accept Masters... Literally, Jedi Masters. You have Anakin seeing that some of the council doesn't trust him in becoming a Jedi. Then there's Anakin and Luke/Leia's mother meeting for the first time and forming a bond.

Finally, Palpatine begins his ascent to Chancellor and befriends Anakin as a youth.

Then in AOTC, Palpatine basically takes control. The Clone War is started by Palpatine. Anakin begins his descent to the Dark Side by killing the Tusken's in revenge for his mother's death, which deeply shakes him. You have all the clones, which are loyal to Palpatine only... Anakin & Padme become lovers.

I think 5/35 will win the majority vote, but despite the godawfulness of TPM, there are some important introductions that basically start the train rolling for Anakin's transformation to Vader.

5-35. 90% of TPM is unnecessary. Like most repeat on the forum a great director could have pulled off the relevent info via flashbacks. Instead we get a bloated, boring film that gives us 10 minutes of info(what coladar posted).

Then we get AOTC which should have been more about the clone wars.

Instead we get the beginning of the clone wars at the end of AOTC and the end of the war at the beginning of ROTS. We missed the whole war! WTF? The time allocated to TPM could have been better used for sure.

Agreed. What little contribution to the overall storyline TPM has (Palpatine becoming Chancellor, finding Anakin) could've been combined with what's in AOTC as a revised Episode I. Then a revised Episode II deals with the bulk of the Clone Wars and the Anakin/Padme romance, with Episode III basically as it is, dealing with the end of the war and the rise of the Empire. A better division of the storyline like this and Episode I would probably be well regarded today instead of generally considered to be the weakest of the films.