Before the fan edits such as Harmy’s and 4Kxx came along, what was your preferred way of watching the trilogy? Did you put up with the low quality of the GOUT, watch on an old VHs or LaserDisc, or just give up and watch the special editions?

For me personally, I first saw SW in the early 2000s on an old 80s VHS tape, that was obviously pre-special edition. After that though, I mostly would rent the DVDs from Blockbuster, without even paying attention to whether they were special edition or not. I was still too young to care.

Around 2012 or so when I found out about the special editions and all the changes that had been made, I was determined to only watch the theatrical cut from them on. I went on eBay and bought the GOUT DVD for Star Wars. I was unimpressed with the quality (I was watching on an HD TV), but I was happy to be once again watching the theatrical versions, at least.

Before I could get to the other two though, I discovered that Harmy’s Despecialized was a thing. That’s been my go-to way to watch the trilogy ever since. I prefer the “cleaner” look over something like 4K77.