fishmanlee said:

and Indy's father just so happens to be captured by the nazi's,

Weak and safe.

indy just happens to crash in "India".

To me, that's where Temple is a better idea than Crusade. It's a completely separate story from Raiders. One that Indy just gets thrown into by accident. No falling back on familiar and established- Nazi's, Marcus, Sallah. No shrinking - scar, fear of snakes, jacket, hat, whip.

besides Lando was a new character, its not like they established Lando in ANH and changed his character in ESB, besides its not here that the shrinkage hurts, its from ROTJ on

Correct. My real problem isn't the convenience of his placement - it's that he's the previous owner of the Falcon. Lucas can't write depth, so he falls back on familiar - to the detriment of all, prior & future.

For the record; I like all the Indiana Jones films a lot, but a little bit of Lucas' inability to write does make it way into all the sequels. Fortunately, Lucas is only one third of the decision making team.