Just thought I'd post a little story and thank you here.

I brought up something about Star Wars at work one day a few weeks ago, and to my surprise, half the people I talked to hadn't seen it. Amazed in disbelief, I decided to have everyone over to watch them later this month. The place where I live has a little clubhouse thing you can rent out with a tiny theater room for about 20. Perfect.

I haven't seen Star Wars myself, aside from on TV and VHS a few times, since the Special Edition versions came out in the Theaters. Which at the time, I thought some parts were neat... but I didn't realize the Special Editions were at the expense of THE Star Wars I knew and loved. As the years have gone on, thinking about the Special Editions just annoys me more and more, and even parts that I thought were neat then, I've come to hate.

So when looking for what version to show everyone, I would like them to see the versions that made them the greatest trilogy of all time... you know... the original versions. I was excited to see that the newest DVD set included the originals! Perfect! Then I saw them........ I think my VHS tapes look better (slight exaggeration, I know). It's pathetic. And 4:3 means they won't scale to the screen. Eh.

Annoyed, I figured maybe I'd just show the dumb Special Edition ones. Little did I realize the Special Editions on the new DVDs aren't even the Special Editions I've come to know and hate... They've been changed again! STOP IT GEORGE. PLEASE. Han is supposed to shoot first, he's kind of a jerk. THAT'S THE POINT OF YOUR STUPID MOVIE. Then I have to see some deleted scene reinserted, where Han jitters up and down, no new information is offered, and everything is just repeated from the last scene. It was left out for a reason, wasn't it? And now to make things worse, at the end of the whole thing, as the ghosts appear, Vader is now some teenager giving us a creepy stare? It doesn't even make sense! It's just weird! Then add in all the stupid breaks I take from the actual movie to watch Jawas flying around, or little robots do nothing, or animals running around, standing around, standing in the way, singing. STOP IT PLEASE.

Sorry, I got carried away there.

About to give up hope completely, I found this site, and ANH:R. I was totally blown away reading about it. I coudn't wait to look at it, and had a hard time finding it. To be honest, though, I had never heard about Fan Edits. I have to say, initially I expected any Fan Edit to be a poor hack job. Luckily I was completely proven wrong.

I can now say that ANH:R is THE best version of Star Wars I've ever seen! What an amazing job, man! I just can't get over how well done the whole thing is... it really is totally impressive to me. I just can't get over it! THANK YOU!!!

-------------------------------------------------------

Now I have a new problem. I was going to show ANH:R, and then just the bad looking original versions of the other two, when I found Adywans version of Empire. Again, very impressed, and excited for the fix (for yet another Lucas edit I was unaware of until this whole unfortunate revelation).

So now I'm showing ANH:R, Empire 1080p, and .................

I'm not sure what version of ROTJ to show! Should I show two great looking movies, then the original awful looking ROTJ? I think it's my only option. The CGI in Jabba's place is really awful, but it's only a minute or so. But I can't get over the ghost thing.

If the 1080p ROTJ was out within the next few weeks, I'd for sure show that, but knowing how much effort it takes, I can imagine that may be very unlikely.

I think it's almost worth just showing the original ROTJ in poor quality just for the old ghost. But then would it be distracting showing two great looking versions, and a bad quality finale? Going from two great looking versions to a bad one can be distracting. Is there another version floating around close to the original and in better quality (or even the 1997SE) that anyone would recommend? Anyone have any opinions?

Anyway... Sorry for the long post. I can't thank you enough Adywan. I'll try to donate a little once I can afford it, but it might not be able to be much, so I apologize.