This has got to be the most idiotic thing I've EVER read. Nothing personal Scruffy, but I think you're insane. As I've said before in a few threads on the forum, I really do not like the prequals or ROTJ. But, I have never gone to the lengths to re-interpret certain things in order to make the story of the prequals more palatable. Your "beliefs" show (at least to me) that you have crossed the line between fan & fanboy. The shame of this is that now I am compelled to show MY level of nerdity in order to set you straight.

See Threepio was not mindwiped at any time after his reconstruction by Anakin. -- YES HE WAS. It's obvious that he was. In ANH, he has NO IDEA who Obi-Wan is, although R2 is FULLY aware of who he is, where he is, and exactly how to Find him. Granted, R2 was told by Leia to find him, but how is it possible for 3P0 (if he never had a memory wipe) to get lost on Tatooine, when he was CREATED there by Anakin. NOWHERE is it stated that he was re-activated or re-constructed by Anakin. All we can assume is that Anakin found various pieces of different droids and then built 3P0 (read the Novelization of TPM for more info there).

Threepio kept quiet because he had NO MEMORY of what happened in the prequals (that is proven in Luceno's recent book Dark Lord: The Rise Of Darth Vader).

The Prophecy of the Chosen One meant that the Lightsiders (Jedi) and Darksiders (Sith) would be brought into approximate numerical parity -- Oh no. You couldn't have missed THIS point more if you & the point were moving in opposite directions. "Balance" has NOTHING to do with numbers of surviving Jedi & Sith. How ANYONE can think that is beyond me. Let me try to explain this in a "modern day" situation. (you need to be a bit open minded to get this, and I'll ASSUME that you are). In modern society, The Government is in control, and the police enforce the law. When the criminals are running the streets, and their is anarchy, things are out of balance. Now, Obviously the Senate (along with the Chancellor) are the government, the Jedi are the Police, and the Sith are the criminal element. When the Sith are in control, and dominating the galaxy, the Force is out of balance. Balance is the status quo. While it's not perfect, the criminals (arguably) are not in control. Anakin DID in fact bring balance in ROTJ by ending the reign of the Sith, and putting the Government back in charge. (Yes, I realize this is a "perfect world scenario where the government aren't corrupt).

Qui-Gon Jinn knew what "balance" entailed. Of Course he did. Qui-Gon could see that something wasn't right, and the the Sith were growing in power. Did he forsee that Anakin would give himself to the dark side and kill his friends & co-workers? Of course not! While Qui-Gon often disagreed with the Jedi Council, his loyalty to the order was NEVER in question. To suggest that Qui-Gon would make his dying request to his padawan to train someone he foresaw murdering everyone he knew is not heresy, it's just plain stupid.

The Jedi were evil and deserved to die.

-- No. The Jedi were full of themselves, and misguided, but they certainly were not evil. Keep in mind that thanks to the EU, the Jedi Order has gone through several incarnations. Each one with thier own sets of rules. The Jedi Order we see in the PT, is just the current incarnation. However, in EVER incarnation, the Jedi have ALWAYS been, "The guardians of Peace & Justice in the galaxy" or, for lack of a better term, POLICE. The job of the police is to go where the government tells them, and enforce the laws.

the Jedi and Amidala collaborated to fake her death

- Bullshit. As much as I HATE it (because it contradicts ROTJ), Padme is dead. There was no faking of her death. End of story. (Read THE DARK NEST TRILOGY to see how Luke finally finds out about his mother)

As far as your comments regarding the Expanded Universe.....

Timothy Zahn's books are boring.

-- You must have the attention span of a fly. Zahn's books were brilliant. Granted, "Survivor's Quest" is a little slow at times, but Zahn was a perfect choice to START the EU. Further more, Zahn worked VERY closely with West End Games (THE Authority at that time) to make sure there were NO lapses in continuity when he used established species, and technology. This brings me to our next point....

Kevin J. Anderson was right

-- Anderson's books were enjoyable (although Darksaber was quite lame), but he TOTALLY disregarded Zahn's attention to continuty & detail, and did whatever he wanted to when writing his books. That's why after Darksaber, Anderson was relegated to telling ANCIENT Jedi stories. Yes, TOTJ: Redemption was VERY good. That's because Anderson was in open territory. He COULDN'T fuck up anything.

X-wing tells the true story of how the Death Star plans were intercepted and brought to the Tantive IV. Maybe Kyle Katarn had some peripheral involvement, but it was mainly the work of listening station Ax-325 in the Cron Drift and Keyan Farlander.

-- The Expanded Universe tells us that the Death Star Plans were in TWO PARTS. The X-Wing game was half, and Katarn retrieved the other half. (Listen to the NPR Adaptation of ANH for a little more detail as to how the plans get transmitted to the Tantive IV)

Finally....

Who the hell is Maarek Stele? Is he a video game character? He must be, because I've read EVERY EU Novel (except Outbound Flight) and ALL of the Rouge Squadron comics, and I've never heard of him.

Scruffy, I hope I didn't offend you too much. Your beliefs are not heresy. They're just plain wrong and border on stupidity. Especially with all the "evidence" that's out there to show you how wrong you are. Keep in mind that this is NOT a personal attack. You could be a great guy. I just feel the need to point out how mistaken you really are. Granted, none of us here are very happy with the way that the Star Wars Saga has turned out. But it's crazy to see everything that's out there & still have those beliefs. Just accept what it is, and dislike it if you must. But re-interpreting things to make yourself happy makes you (and anyone else that does it) just as bad a Goerge Lucas himself for fucking things up to begin with.

(as a tiny footnote, as I'm typing this post, TNT is running the episode of ER with Ewan McGregor as the guest star)