Originally posted by: BeeJay

That combining of the PT and OOT is very personal and ultimately optional. Regardless of what George Lucas says, those two trilogies are very much different entities of film. One trilogy was from 1977-1983, and the other was 1999-2005. Anyone who says the technology/CGI/filmaking is similar enough to make a believable combination of the two is simply wrong. We have to look at the stories themselves.... some of us want Star Wars to be about Darth Vader so we discuss this stuff to help along the PT, while others want Star Wars to be about Luke Skywalker and no one else. The latter are mainly the people like you. Both viewpoints are equally valid.

Beejay, this is long if your interested:

See this is where Lucas lost me, once I realized that he wasn't writing a backstory per say, more of a new linear story that flows right into the next trilogy and now has a whole new meaning.

I wasn't a huge PT basher before ROTS. I thought TPM was average and AOTC was alittle better, but to see more SW on the big screen was kinda cool.

Then in 2004 when the DVD's came out, all of the sudden Lucas started to really focus on Vader alittle too much, and not just with the PT, but he started saying the OT was about his story too. That is where I kinda soured on the PT and the 1-6 saga overall, cause you just can't watch the OT movies in the context of the continuation of Darth Vaders story, cause as I said, the redemption angle was always a minor story that gave the OOT more depth, and that was cool to me.

Then Lucas started tinkering not only with SPX, but with scenes, and I anticipate more to come. He puts in Hayden in ROTJ, he puts in McDiarmid in ESB and changes his dialogue in the process. All of a sudden this backstory I anticipated and wanted for many years wasnt a backstory, it is a rewriting of the whole story in a new context.

Before ROTS, I always thought of the PT as a seperate story that explained the events of the OT, and that is what a backstory does. It is not supposed to be watched before, it is supposed to be watched after to answer those questions from the main story, not totally change the context of the OT!

So all these years I am watching the OOT as Lukes story, and now I am suppose to watch 1-6 and when I get to 4-6, it is the continuation of Darth Vaders tragedy? I am sorry, but that just doesn't work for me, and that is when I kinda turned on the PT, not for the quality issues we always debate via Jar Jar, Midiclorians, and losing the will to live, but the fact of the matter now that the saga 1-6 is WAY different in context now.

Just think of Han Solo in the story 1-6, he is almost irrelevant compared to watching the OOT. The PT is solely about Jedi vs Sith, and sets up the next trilogy for Vader/Emperor vs Luke/Kenobi/Yoda and it all plays out big time in the final half hour of ROTJ, cause that is the new context to the PT story.

Anyone watching it 1-6 now, will they care about Han Solo cracking jokes for 3 movies? Will they give a hoot about Leia/Han falling in love? Will they even care about the rescue of Solo in ROTJ? No, they are going to want to see the main players from the PT, now including Luke, and continue THAT story, cause it was setup so much in the PT. I guarantee you will see new fans who see it 1-6 complain about ANH as this story that is missing Yoda & The Emperor, and not enough Vader.

My whole point is the story 1-6 is not a linear story, cause it has essentially created two different fanbases: Luke, Leia, and Han fans, and Vader story fans. And in the context of the saga, they are TOTALLY different stories. The fact that you can watch the OOT and Darth Vader is just an antagonist whose redemption is a nice subplot in ROTJ compared to the 1-6 story of the full character arc of Anakin Skywalker from little kid to his death. The problem with that is there are huge amounts of screentime that are dedicated to the 3 heroes from the OOT that I think many will see as filler when watching it 1-6 now.

If Lucas just wrote a true backstory, something that shouldn't be watched linearly, then I would still be a Saga fan, cause I could watch the OOT for that story, and the PT for a different story, which does tie to the other story, but it is not a continuous overall story, it is more of a focused substory dealing with why Anakin acted the way he did in ROTJ. That is essentially what the PT is about, it really answers why he did what he did in ROTJ. Now in that respect, that is an interesting sub story to the real story of our 3 heroes beating the Empire, but taken in context now watching it 1-6, Leia/Han are just bit players now.