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Renewed Faith

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Hi. I'm an early signature on the petition but didn't get on the boards until this week. Never did the message board thing before. Just wanted to give a shout out to this community, my faith in Star Wars has been rekindled.

I've been reading through a lot of the old threads, and it's clear not everyone's coming from the same place. Some love the PT, some don't. Some just prefer the OT, some won't take anything else. Some hate George, some are just disappointed that Star Wars has moved on. Some love the edits, some think they're preposterous.

But everyone here knew Star Wars as it once was, and whether or not they love the new stuff and re-done stuff, EVERYONE loved the old stuff. I haven't been around a crowd who really appreciates and remembers what it once was in a while, or a crowd who cares so much.

Shout out to the the web host, the DVD guys, the cover art guys, the star wars philosophers, the minutiae-ists, the argumentative types, the purists, the optimists, the collectors, the experts, and the simple enthusiasts. You have brought back a part of me I didn't realize I'd lost; the part that watched episode 4 every week for two years growing up and stayed up at night marvelling at the psychology of Threepio.

To everyone here, thank you.
If you're going to take forever, then I'm having a hotdog!
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Great post. So where do you sit in the whole Star Wars old vs. new debate?

“You know, when you think about it, the Ewoks probably just crap over the sides of their tree-huts.”

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Ah, stir up the old pot again, eh?

I'm a philosopher and a purist, but not die-hard purist. I recognize many of the crucial changes and disagree with almost all of them, but for some I recognize the need. In general, I now feel like the OT was a masterpiece based on 1) teamwork 2) coincidence. I don't think George ever knew what made them what they were. Like Speed 2 (I hope you didn't see it). They tried to lift the elements out of Speed 1 that made it work, but they lifted the wrong elements.

In brief, some of the mistakes that were made: replacing puppets, costumes, scenery, and models, replacing *ingenious* forms of communication with subtitles and cultural accents, replacing a character-development driven story with a plot-development driven story, filling Threepio's old role with Jar Jar (yeah, that didn't so much work as...not work...), having George monopolize the process by writing the script and directing, and replacing the microcosm with the macrocosm and so sacrificing depth in the experience.

And so on. I guess the details aren't that important, just want to show that I have reasons behind "it doesn't feel like star wars," I recognize those reasons, and I think they not only undermine the new trilogy, but start to erode the foundation of the old trilogy. Each of those reasons deserves it's own thread and discussion, but that's not what this is about.

I CAN, through rationalization and exposure, enjoy the new trilogy more and more. That's what I was doing. But what I was talking about in my first post is that doing so takes away from what I had in the old trilogy. I value more what I had before Episode I was around than what I can get with this expanded universe.

What am I going to do? I don't know. I'll likely continue to try to straddle both worlds, try to focus on the old trilogy but still develop an appreciation for whatever continuous story Georgie finally develops, because I can't help myself. It's Star Wars. But I will boycott this release, on the principle that we who loved the old trilogy made George what he is today (well, we were the vehicle through which his movies made him...). If he wants to forget about all that, I still want to remember. And if he has no interest in what was important to us, then I will not take an interest in what is important to him, whether it's as shallow as more money or as noble as completing a 25 year old vision. If he wants to throw out our treasure, it's ours now, and I at least will try to take care of it.

What that means is preserving what the OT used to mean to me and how it spoke to me by keeping it pure in my memory and sharing in it with all you kindred spirits.
If you're going to take forever, then I'm having a hotdog!
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Here here!

“My skill are no longer as Mad as the once were” RiK

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Yeah well put.

“You know, when you think about it, the Ewoks probably just crap over the sides of their tree-huts.”

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great posts!
and welcome to the boards!!
"Never. I'll never turn to the darkside. You've failed your highness. I am a jedi, like my father before me."
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First of all, if I haven't done it yet, Welcome. Nice to meet you. Secondly, Bravo to all that you've said in this thread. As I watch my dvd-r set of the OT I too realise when I'm watching TPM or AOTC that it is a different journey I'm seeing. One no longer driven by characters but by story as you so elequently put it. I am always open to new points of view and new ideas but when you take out someones heart, they cease to live and exist. And I do believe that GL has done just this. The actors are great but the story they bring to life is not the same emotion-driven tale that brought out the hero in all of us so long ago in a galaxy far, far, away.

Cheers Mate!!! Cheers for coming back home and for reminding us why were are all truly here, and why George Lucas, is truly someplace else.

The OT RULES!!!!