Originally posted by: CO
Zombie, I still will say that alot of OT fans went with the changes from 77-83, cause all of my friends saw SW in '77, and we all knew by '83 that Luke/Leia/Vader family affair was changed, but the movies were so good, you kinda went with the story. And I think that is what alot of people miss, if the quality is good, I am willing to change my views towards the movies.
I loved ESB, but the Vader/Luke angle came out of nowhere, and the series seemed to get away from the macro aspect of ANH, to a more personal story in ESB with Luke/Vader, and that finally all came to head in 1983. I will be honest, I am one of the few who don't love Vader/Luke revelation, as I think it created just as many fans as it turned off, but ESB is damn good of a movie, I accepted the story. For me personaly, ESB is the only sequel besides Godfather II that is just as good as the original, and that to me is a real achievement to have movie magic in 2 movies from the same series.
I think SW will always live on with kids as we get older, cause I see my nephews and their friends enjoy the movies now, but the difference is when they get older they are going to discover the quality issues we discovered too. It is very easy for a kid to fall in love with a lightsaber or the millenium falcon, hell I did it back in 1977, but it is another thing for those same fans to still love those movies 10-15 years later, and that is where the PT/Saga fans will become a true niche fanbase, once the PT generation grows up.
I always use ROTJ as my analogy to the PT kids who love the movies now. I loved ROTJ as a kid in 1983, I thought it was better then ESB, but once I hit highschool and plopped in the trilogy on VHS around 1990-91, all of the sudden as an adult you understand what are the better movies, and ROTJ was just OK only cause it was SW. Now think of the PT, and times that by 3 movies, do you think kids in their 20's aren't going to notice Jake Lloyd & Jar Jar in TPM? The AOTC romance with Padme/Anakin? The ridiculous events that eventually lead to Anakin turning in ROTS? This is all stuff they will notice as they get older, just as I noticed as I got older that the Ewoks are kiddy, Jabbas Palace goes on too long, and the kiddification of SW actually began in 1983.
Trust me guys, quality always rules out in the end.
I have to say, I am not as optimistic. We keep telling ourselves this to make us feel better but evidence seems to suggest otherwise. A cursory glance at the opinions of the mainstream younger fans reveals a nearly complete allegiance to the PT/SE/Saga version of the franchise. Places like this give us sanctuary on the internet--but i mean, why do you think, for instance, The Bashers Sanctuary was closed on TFN? Yes, its because TFN is blatantly pro-LFL--but this is ignorning the larger issue. The larger issue is, why is TFN blatantly pro-LFL? Because they represent the largest mass of Star Wars fans on the internet, and one that is predominantly under 30. I hate to say it, but we are a marginalised speciality group in terms of the fandom, and we are shrinking by the year.
Most of us were introduced to the saga by the OOT, we grew up on the films before the PT and some of us were even around to see them in theaters. We were influenced by the guidance and by the community of people that had the same experience as us. But we are dissapearing. Why do you think that each year the OOT dies a little more? We are getting older and moving away. In 1996 everyone on the net had grown up with the films and at least half had seen them in theaters. In 2001, most of the people had grown up with the original films and some had seen them in theaters. In 2005, some of us had grown up with the original films and a few of us had seen them in theaters. By 2012, a few of us will have grown up with the originals and I will be surprised to see anyone that had seen them in their original run. Its a confirmed fact--look at the age brackt of those individuals: these are mainly in the 35 year old range and represent the people who saw the original when they were four or five. But what happened to the millions who saw them when they were ten and twelve? What happened to the millions who saw them when they were eighteen and twenty? The answer is that they are all in their fifties now and don't belong to the fandom anymore--they continue watching the OOT and have moved on in their life. The sad fact is that the same thing will happen to us. In fifteen years the fandom will be exclusively populated with people who grew up on the PT, and the few old farts like us that are floating around will be such a minority that our opions will not matter or be visible--like all those millions that only like SW 77. Where the hell are all those people now? Anchorhead may literally be the last one around. But OT and Saga fans marginalised that fanbase, pushed them out and now basically no one views the series as just SW 77 anymore.
Star Wars will always be remembered but it will only be with film scholars. They will look at it as a monumental piece of cinema, and some of the more educated fans will appreciate it for that status and will attempt to view it as a historic stand-alone film that gave birth to the saga--but very few, if any, will just watch the OT. Especially since they will see the saga in order and the OT will look like an inconsistent piece of crap (which i have to agree with--when watching it from the PT perspective its not really possible to "get" the OT in such a way that will harbor allegiance).
With regards to quality, you are also right in a way--the quality will determine things. In this case, the PT will be liked but not super-devoted to the way the OOT was with us. You won't have such passionate fans as you did in the 80's because the films aren't really that enjoyable to provoke such devotion. But, like every blockbuster franchise, their will be fans but they will be mostly casual and moderately-hardcore in nature. The other faction will be super-sci-fi nerds that wank off on the parallels to Faust and Hamlet, and the Saga will become a super-specialised niche fandom of nerds and adolescants who haven't yet realised that the films arent great.
Its sad, but i just can't help see it in those ways. Spending time here, and with likeminded OT fans gives you a warped perception of how things are progressing--i hate to say it, but the Starwars.com and theforce.net message boards are more typical of the state of the fandom in some ways. Lucas killed his greatest achievement.
I don't even think he is the producer, just executive producer, someone else will be actually managing the daily production chores. Lucas' importance just seems arbitrary. So much for directors having complete artistic control, eh George?