nightstalkerpoet said:
The 2006 release was a response to the petitions and politeness. It seems to me that no release at all would have been the slap in the face. Instead, George did something for the fans that he didn't really want to do.
He wasn't willing to perfect his "first draft", but he was willing to hand us the best copy of it that he had - the 1993 laserdisc master.
The slap in the face was putting it on a DVD labelled "Bonus Disc" and having it's 'special feature' be a trailer for a video game. If it was, at the very least, a real choice to only get the original version you might have a point. He'd have taken a chance of getting completely creamed by the media for releasing a 2006 DVD with only a laserdisc master on it. He didn't though, he shoved the SE 2004 in our faces with that release, proudly presented on disc 1 in anamorphic widescreen. It's a big "Ha ha! I can restore the version you like I just choose not to!!!"
Best analogy I could use for this is this:
What if I bought the Mona Lisa, printed a high quality copy of it, then drew a blimp on the copy presenting that as the Mona Lisa to art galleries. The blimp itself would only change 10% of the picture. I would keep the original in a box in my closet. I say "I'll never let the original Mona Lisa be presented again! I'm achieving my original dream I had as a kid that the Mona Lisa had a blimp in it! I own the rights to the picture! I paid for it!" Mona Lisa SE would be partly my work due to the blimp, so I'de get historians to consider me co-artist of the Mona Lisa itself. While the original rots away in a box in my closet.
That analogy is basically what's happened to the OT.
