The Original Trilogy was my absolute favourite series of movies in my younger days, and it was disheartening to see how GL's 'creative choices' became increasingly erratic towards his creation.
I can't tell you how much I looked forward to his 'Special Editions' when they were first announced, as I was more than happy to see them given a little spruce up for their worldwide theatrical re-release in '97 - especially since GL had so successfully pushed things on the effects side over the years. But while some of the new effects touch-ups were welcome, the likes of ANH's silly-looking Jabba and ROTJ's 'Jedi Rocks' were certainly NOT!
Still, there was always the *original* OT to look forward to on dvd before too long, I thought...or so I believed at the time.
But by the time we ended up with the 'Special Edition' dvds in 2004 (which made things even worse in many ways - due to abysmal colouration, a very unevenly-finished feel to the enhancements, and elderly Anakin replaced by young Anakin...), it was becoming clear that George was looking on these as his preferred, 'de facto' versions of the movies...and seemed to think they were superior to the earlier, *original* releases. But he was wrong about that in many ways!
So by the time his disappointing Prequel Trilogy was completed in 2005, the overall saga seemed 'diminished' to me by that point.
But then to round things off, George finally released the slap-in-the-face that was the non-anamorphic 'bonus' dvd discs in the 2006 release... Far less-deserving movies than the *original* OT were being given lovingly-treated presentations on the format at this point, and it all seemed too little and too late.
However, despite all of George's misjudgements, the particular 'Special Edition' that adywan conjured up with STAR WARS:REVISITED managed to rekindle the old magic for me...and it was far more than I could have hoped for at the time. And as there are further dubious alterations to the 'Special Editions' of the OT on the Blu-ray release, SW:R seems even better still to me. And the forthcoming STAR WARS:REVISITED HD edit will no doubt improve on the current version too. I already know that ESB:R is shaping up to be a revelation as a 'special edition', and am confident that ROTJ:R will too, eventually.
Sure, I hope the rumours of a decently-remastered release of the *original* Original Trilogy come true eventually, for the sake of myself and everyone else who looked forward to that happening years ago. But many will have only experienced the uneven 'Special Edition' versions as their introduction to the 'Star Wars' saga now - regrettably to my mind - and more will continue to do so on future format releases and t.v. showings too...probably starting with the Prequels... So all of George's additional 'creative choices' will endure regardless, no matter if the *original* OT gets a decent release or not at this stage. Too bad.
While I certainly understand that not everyone may like all of adywan's personal changes in his version, I'd have far rathered that George had come up with a 'Special Edition' of ANH more along the lines of the STAR WARS:REVISITED edit...which gave the movie such an impressive extra spit and polish. The movie deserved a better 'enhancement' than it ultimately got from George, as far as I'm concerned...and it was adywan who delivered the 'special' bit for me.