I was originally excited when the special editions came out. When they were released on video, I finally realized what the "One Last Time..." tagline in 1995 had meant. It didn't bother me at the time, but when DVD became popular, and I learned that VHS deteriorates, therefore rendering a lot of the original versions (including my own) on the track to death, I got worried. The prequels had me torn throughout their run. I'd be excited to see them, and I'd enjoy them for the most part, but I couldn't get over the continuity errors and the fact that they just weren't as good (hoping that the next one would explain what seemed so strange in the current one). It wasn't until 2004 when I learned that, not only would these releases be even more drastically altered than the '97 ones, and that Lucas was denying the existance of the originals that I finally gave up on him. I'd already preordered them, though. Besides, by that point, I had already made up my mind that I was against any filmmaker tampering with his work.