Tyrphanax said:

This was originally part of my second reply to the George Lucas thread, but I decided it was too long-winded and off-topic and would fit better here:

I can't speak for anyone else (though I have a suspicion that many will agree with me) but I care because his stance on film preservation applies to all films but his; that he was actively suppressing and attempting to destroy the originals (covering up or removing hard work done on the originals by other people, et cetera), through neglect really peeved me and many others. The fact that Star Wars is such a huge piece of cultural and cinematic history made it all the more egregious.

And I know many other people care so much because the original versions of the films were a huge part of their childhood, and now they don't have access to that part of their childhood anymore.

I can't claim that, because I grew up watching the Special Editions, but when I finally found the Original Unaltered Trilogy through fan preservations, I realized how much better the films were before the changes. I went into my first fan preservation without the "taint" of anti-Lucas, anti-Special Edition, anti-Prequelism, thinking "Well how much different can it be? I like the CGI stuff from the Special Editions!" and I came out a changed man. They're just better in their original format.

This is basically what I wanted to say, and when I came to the part where you said that you grew up with the Special Editions it was actually close to tears in my eyes, because this proves it's not about a sentimental bunch of old nerds who grew up with the originals. You see it as clear as we do. Thank you!