I was toying with an interesting thought the other day. Since Lucas originally wrote the trilogy as one big movie, I had thought about how to edit the films together into one big movie. Obviously, to actually do this would require more than just what I am going to go into here, nor do I think it's a great idea, but it is an amusing mental exercise.

Combining ESB and RotJ is the easiest since ESB ends by setting up the begining of RotJ with Luke going to meet Lando on Tatooine. It would take little more than removing the end credits on ESB and the opening of RotJ. Maybe altering some musical cues and such, but that's all.

Wedding ANH to ESB could be done similarly, but then I realised the best way to hook them together...

Cutting out the Battle of Yavin.

I know, I know, but here's the thing: part of the reason RotJ is weaker than the other two is because the Empire built another Death Star. I remember when I first saw that movie and saw that in the opening crawl and at the tender age of twelve I thought it was lame. Another Death Star?? Fresh out of ideas, are they? I think this is because the destruction of the Death Star was meant to be the big finish for the movie/series but since Lucas was not sure if there would be a sequel, he put the big finish here. Lots of stuff should have been in Jedi. Such as Wookies, but they were put into ANH in case there would be no future movies. So, cut ANH just after the gun port scene, editing the dialog to remove mention of the tracking device and such so they the heroes make a clean getaway to the hidden rebel base, which is not on Yavin, but Hoth where ESB opens.

It's not a seemless fit, natch, and I would hate to lose the third act of ANH, but it does show that a good deal of the trilogy's chips were cashed in a little too early, which left the final chapter a tad weak via the law of diminishing returns.