zombie84 said:

Lucas would have still repressed the OT for well over a decade and impeded a lot of people' enjoyment of their art and culture, as well as sullying the memory of those films. This should not be forgotten, as though it didn't happen.

To be fair here mate----it really does depend on personal experience and perception.

I think I remember reading somewhere that you said you were 12 in 1997(please correct me if I am wrong).That being the case I would be correct in assuming that you never saw the films during their original theatrical runs.

I am 10 years older than you and did have that priviledge(Ok--sort of---my introduction was to see SW and ESB back to back in 81' and then ROTJ in 83'---so technically I did not see SW and ESB during their original debuts either!)

But nothing(be it SE's or prequels) that has happened post 1997 will degrade/diminish/sully my personal experience/memory of seeing those films during that original/initial era(and I will be forever grateful to Lucas and Co for this).

For a 12 year old kid in 2011 to be deprived of watching SW(in it's original theatrical form)----well I hate to say it -----but there are VHS/betamax/V2000 tapes and laserdiscs!