It’s weird, looking back. I grew up with the Special Editions. I have fond memories of watching them on VHS as a kid. At the time, I wasn’t thinking in the long term or wondering about what would happen to the older versions. The Special Editions were just a neat novelty, and they hadn’t started to look dated yet.

In hindsight, I can still appreciate them in an “experimental tech demo” sort of way, since that’s basically what they were. With those versions from 1997, you can tell that a lot of time, effort, and resources were put into them, especially for ANH. But they should’ve just remained as a neat alternate version put together for the 20th anniversary. The versions that came after are Frankenstein edits, with changes that are a lot more phoned in. But the main issue with those later releases is that they removed the “special edition” label and abandoned any pretense of being alternate versions.

It is weird to think that the Special Editions have now been around longer than the OT was in 1997. The novelty of the mid 90’s CGI has definitely worn off.