I forgot to say that I was testing the DVD-9 and had my wife (a moderate Star Wars fan) sit down and watch the extended Alderaan Destruction Sequence. She saw bits and pieces of the XVID version, but hasn't seen the whole thing yet.

I asked her "You want to see the coolest thing that's not in the movie?"

She was like "Sure", kind of rolling her eyes.

I think I heard her gasp, and afterwards she said "That was awesome! Why didn't he put that in?!"

"Because it takes away from the pacing--" "So?!" "And Obi-Wan said they cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced."

"Who cares what Obi-Wan says?! That was so cool!"

And this from a girl who doesn't mind Jar Jar.

I'm still fine with it being right where it is, just letting you know how cool it is. I expected the shorter version you put online a while back, so I was blown away when I first saw the "final" version too.