MJPollard said:

once again, a thread derails from its intended purpose into "b*tch about that fracking evil a**hole George Lucas" territory.

Yeah, and it only took two years.

You guys just can't help yourselves, can you?

No, sometimes I can't.

And for the record, I see discussions of the terrible writing & story of the prequels as being relevant in this discussion because a lot of what makes up the EU is back story to the first three films. By it's very nature, a discussion about what we like in the novels will sometimes include how poorly those elements were handled by Lucas.