Darth Bizarro said:
Lots of large fandom's break apart into subgroups, and many times, an old franchise will come back in a new form for a newer generation and the older fans might not like it. A great example is Doctor Who. A show that continued on in one form for many years, only to go off the air and come back in a newer flashier form. Lots of fans embraced the new series while others continued to swear by the classic series. If those Doctor Who fans who are totally stuck on Tom Baker and hate the new show decide to go and facebook and "Like" Doctor Who, they are inevitably going to be bombarded with updates about the new season with Matt Smith. And do those fans really have any right to complain that their senses are being bombarded with a new incarnation of their favorite show from their youth that they happen to not like. No they don't. Because someone likes it other wise they wouldn't still be making it.
The original Star Wars films ended in 1983 and for years there was nothing. Star Wars could have been just another one of those franchises like Back to the Future that just ended up as a relic of a by gone era, and your senses wouldn't be bombarded today with anything Star Wars related because it would have died off like any other popular movie from the era, living on only in your memory, some old toys, and your new DVD Special Edition box set. But Star Wars came back in a new form. Some fans accepted it, other shunned it, and many new fans came into the series because of it. So you may not like the fact that Star Wars has moved on without you, but you really don't have any rite to complain about it because that's how things work. You can look back fondly at your memories of a by gone era but you can't become bitter at modern day for not maintaining it for you. You should be thankful that the new stuff is still coming because it's keeping Star Wars alive in the public conscious. If Star Wars had just ended in 1983, how many kids today do you think would have come along and willingly taken an active interest it if it wasn't for the new Star Wars coming along to guide them into it, just like a fan of the new Doctor Who series going back and taking a look at some of the old episodes and finding that they were pretty good too.
So yes, I do, just like you, remember fondly those good times when Star Wars was a much simpler thing. But there is nothing about anything new George Lucas has done since 1997 that will ever take that away and I for one am happy that Star Wars will live on a few generations longer, even if I don't necessarily like all the new stuff myself.
And hell, at least we can still watch the original Star Wars. Sure, it might not be in HD, but it's a lot better than the countless television shows that only live on today in 3rd generation television recordings ripped from VHS tapes. For years, there was no way for me to get Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. They only just recently started releasing those, same thing with Bobby's World. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles only just this past month released it's final season on DVD. And my all time favorite television show from my childhood is Muppet Babies, a show that will likely never see release because of copyright issues regarding the use of the countless movie clips they used in the show that they didn't clear for use outside of broadcast. So the shear fact that you can still watch Star Wars in decent quality is, while not optimal, is still good that it will be allowed to live on for you, with or without the validation of other "purists."
No right to complain, eh? So much for freedom of speech. I disagree on so many levels. First of all, it implies that older fans should be silent because newer fans understand the material - themes, messages, morals - better, or have a priviledge of interpretation that older fans for some reason do not have. That's just a strange argument that ultimately does not rest on any logically valid foundation I can think of. My interpretation of SW is as valid as anyone else's, and the fact that someone came into SW with the CW series in no way means that that person has more of a right to interpret the material than I do.
Further - remember why us ole purists are being grumpy. It's not simply about there being new material. It's about there being new material that completely invalidates the central thematic points of a movie trilogy that belongs to contemporary cinema classics. That's not a trivial issue - or should not be for a fan. Indeed, the fact that I care so deeply about those themes and narratives should, beyond doubt, attest to my qualifications as a die-hard Star Wars fan.
As for "we can still watch it" , well, yeah, kinda. For a while. But I hope that you've noticed how quickly technology is developing now. VHS machines can no longer be bought, to the best of my knowledge. The latest release of the OT was on DVD, but DVD is already an outdated format. DVDs will go the same way, and soon, too. Very soon. Even Blue-ray is on the verge of becoming outdated with HD-TV and Netflix - because who needs to buy a record if you can access your movies in HD directly from the cloud? That possibility is already here.
In a decade, I seriously doubt anyone will care about owning a machine that plays movies on anything other than harddrives. And the OOT does NOT exist commercially available in that format. The ONLY way to see the OOT in that format is through illegal file sharing. You seem awfully complacent about the fact that within a few scant years, the only way to watch the OOT is through illegal copies. This is not a distant future. 10 years or so. Not much more, because DVD machines are not the most durable, and once they break down, or your DVD disks are worn out...well, that's all she wrote.
So, no, the trilogy that created movie history will not live on much longer if Lucas gets his way. I wish the fanbase was more up in arms over this, I really do. It's strange to see so many people who claim to be Star Wars fans just shrug over the destruction of this piece of cultural history - the three movies that created their entire fandom disappears, and they don't care, beause they're too distracted by SW in 3D or some other LucasArts style-over-substance-product that has absolutely nothing to do with central thematic messages of the trilogy that started it all - and when people like me point this out, we're told we have no right to complain. Strange times we live in.
Now I'm going to to cry in a corner somewhere.