That's exactly the point. By virtue of the way in which he chose to "tell the story" of the PT, he COMPLETELY ruined the fun, drama, suspense, and surprises of the OT. With a thoughtfully written, carefully orchestrated and directed story, he still could have told the story of the PT while completely preserving the surprises of the OT. It really wouldn't have been that hard to do. Just a little imagination and creativity is all that it would have taken...oh, that and actually giving a shit.

And I totally agree with the Jabba the Hutt ROTJ comments. That characters was a BIG reveal for us back in 1983. There was a ton of mystery and anticipation surrounding this often mentioned but never seen bad guy. It was awesome when we finally got to see him. And, it was a HUGE "wow" when we finally did.