Weekend Roundtable: Worst ‘Star Wars’ Special Edition Changes

Yes, I know. We may be beating a dead bantha here with all the recent complaining about ‘Star Wars’. Nevertheless, with the new Blu-ray release imminent, what else could we pick for a Roundtable topic this week? Of all the stupid changes that George Lucas has made to the ‘Star Wars’ films, which one upsets you the most?

M. Enois Duarte

The most annoying and frustrating change for me is the 1997 alteration in ‘Episode IV: A New Hope’. Obviously, I’m referring to the whole “Who shot first?” controversy between Han Solo and Greedo inside the Mos Eisley Cantina. This created quite a controversy back then. Lucas defends the change as something about giving younger viewers a better message, but seriously, that’s just lame. I don’t recall ever hearing kids complain that Han shooting Greedo first confused them in some way about the character or his eventual rise to heroism. In fact, it’s done more damage by making Han act in self-defense. Not only does the scene look awful and awkward due to digital manipulation, it completely removes, if not utterly ruins, the character’s anti-hero status and the moral ambiguity of the Western theme he’s meant to personify. Lucas can keep adding more starfighters to battle scenes so as to make them seem grander – that doesn’t matter as much to me. But that iconic Mos Eisley scene is the worst change, because it actually alters a viewer’s perception of one of the greatest and most cherished film characters ever created. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Nate Boss

As much as I hate hearing Jar-Jar at the end of ‘Return of the Jedi’, as much as I loathe the “Jedi Rocks” musical number (including new characters Drumming Weequay Asshole, Scat-Master McCGI, and the various dancing hookers that make Boba Fett look like a bonafide pimp), as much as I hate Han’s digital slide in the Mos Eisley Cantina as Greedo fires and misses… the worst change (out of all ten thousand candidates) has to be Hayden Christiansen at the end of the saga. Let’s think about this: Qui-Gon Jinn screams in ‘Episode II’, and teaches Yoda how to become a force ghost in ‘Episode III’. By this time, the man known as Anakin Skywalker was no more, having succumbed to the Dark Side, becoming Darth NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! So how is it that he learned to be a ghost in the first place?

Sure, QGJ has appeared in the CGI ‘Clone Wars’ series as an apparition this last season, so eventually we may see him teach “the chosen one” a trick or two. But since when has the scroungy haired whiny bitch ever been good at keeping a secret? He spills the beans in words and actions. He’s as easy to read as a book. So, if this gets retconned (retroactive continuity) to make QGJ teach whiny bitch era Anakin this maneuver, why didn’t the galaxy’s biggest blabbermouth ever teach Ki-Adi Mundi, or Aayla Secura? What about Mace Windu? Yarael Poof? Even Piell? Ahsoka Tano? Weird dude with no legs who can’t logistically fight worth a shit? Plo Koon? Kit Fisto? Yaddle? Why don’t we just have every fucking Jedi in history show up in the end, to confuse Luke further? It would make about as much sense.

Sebastian Shaw never made sense in the scene in the first place, but it showed that the man still aged. It stopped all this bullshit about the man literally ceasing to be, a line from the first film that has turned from an analogy to a literal statement. No matter what, the Power of the Force (and prior to that, baggied mail-in) figure from 1983 era ‘Star Wars’ action figures is the true Anakin Skywalker, circa ‘Return of the Jedi’. If he isn’t, then what use is that figure? Is he going to be changed to some creepy old molester Jedi? Will his eyebrows sue Lucas for their royalties, since they were scorched off in the last set of changes? Is his family mad that now his character has the galaxy’s biggest codpiece because his other lightsaber was burnt off?

Adam Tyner (DVDTalk)

Okay, so here’s what bugs me so much about Hayden Christensen replacing Sebastian Shaw as the ghostly image of Anakin/Vader at the end of ‘Return of the Jedi’. Yoda was able to stave off the temptations of the Dark Side for, like, a thousand years. Obi-Wan wasn’t that old, no, but he didn’t waver from the path of the right and true either. The ghosts of the best Jedi warriors are weathered, old, and gray. Anakin, meanwhile, blew up entire planets, had amassed a body count of who knows how many billions of lives, and rejected pretty much everything the Jedi instructed him to do at every possible turn. His ghost gets all the cyborg bits replaced with fleshy parts, and the clock’s rolled back to when the guy was in his twenties and at the prime of his life. How is that fair? I mean, Vader’s makeover was kind of a problem in the original version of Jedi too, but dumping Hayden Christensen into that shot just rubs salt in the wound.

Aaron Peck

When it comes to the much-maligned changes that George Lucas has made to his original trilogy, I can’t pick out a specific one that really gets me steamed. On the other hand, what really bothers me is the infusion of CG effects throughout the films. Not only is it jarring to witness CG animation in movies that were made at a time when computer animated effects weren’t possible, but it shows that Lucas thought less of his own movies than we did. What the addition of CGI animals, characters and scenery says to me is that Lucas didn’t realize that we already thought the original trilogy was a modern marvel when it came to visual effects. He thought that they needed something more, so he added in things here and there like an old lady collects porcelain bunnies for her mantel. It’s gaudy and unnecessary, but Lucas likes it so the rest of us have to endure it.

Mike Attebery

As everyone and their grandmother has said, Greedo shooting first was a stupid alteration, and some of the other additions are equally moronic, but nothing is as bad as Vader’s new scream. For the last week, I’ve been discussing this with friends who haven’t heard about it yet, and their first response is always: “Are you kidding me?!” That absurd scream cuts the drama and mystery down at the knees. Just a terrible, terrible change.

Luke Hickman

Like I answered in this week’s poll, I’m done buying ‘Star Wars’. I’ve paid for the original trilogy three times now and the prequel trilogy once. I’m done paying for them. They aren’t even the same films that I originally saw. Therefore, I don’t really care to see the new Blu-ray transfers. I can’t pick out just one annoying change, because they’re all equally ridiculous. It was fine when George remastered the movies, threw in some deleted scenes and touched up FX and audio in the mid-’90s, but now he’s just meddling. I’ve thrown in the towel. I’m done. No ‘Star Wars’ on Blu for this guy. I simply don’t care anymore. Plus, you can’t say that the prequel trilogy didn’t hurt the integrity of the originals anyway.

Dick Ward

There’s a lot to choose from here, but one change stands out in my mind, probably because it was at the very end of the trilogy. Lucas decided to put a song and dance number into the middle of ‘Jedi’, yet for some reason decided that the Ewok song at the end had to go. It’s strange, because “Yub Nub” is exactly the sort of thing we’d expect from Lucas these days, what with his Jar Jars and goofy Dexter Jettsters and Kitt Fistos. So not only is this charge horribly offensive to me (“Yub Nub” holds a very special place in my heart and ends the movie really well, relieving all the tension and letting the audience know it’s all going to be okay), it’s also the one change that I absolutely don’t understand. Ah well, maybe the Gungans will sing it in the special edition of ‘Phantom Menace’ in ten years or so.

Wayne Rowe

Well, I actually think that Greedo shooting first is the second-worst change. For me, the WORST is changing the ghosts at the end of ‘RotJ’ and having young Anakin (ie. Hayden Christensen) appear instead of the older Anakin we originally saw. It doesn’t make any sense for a young Anakin to show up there… Obi-Wan and Yoda both appear AS THEY WERE UPON THEIR DEATHS, not some fancy, younger version of them.

Josh Zyber

Honestly, I hate every single change that George Lucas has imposed onto the original trilogy. Every one of them makes the movies worse, not better. If I have to pick, the alteration that really riles me the most would have to be the new Jabba the Hutt scene in the first ‘Star Wars’.

Everything about this scene is abhorrent to me. First off, the CGI looks terrible (yes, even the latest rendition, which has been improved somewhat since the 1997 version). The bit where Lucas has to digitally lift Han Solo up to make him “step” on Jabba’s tail is an idiotic bit of comic relief (worst in the 1997 version, where Jabba makes a cartoonish googly-eyes face when it happens). Introducing Jabba this early in the trilogy utterly destroys the fantastic reveal of this mysterious and much-discussed character in ‘Return of the Jedi’. And the CG version looks nothing at all like the Jabba we’ll later see in ‘Jedi’!

Worst of all, the dialogue in this scene is nearly line-for-line identical to the dialogue Han Solo just had with Greedo one scene earlier. Obviously, when he shot the footage in 1977 and realized that the scene wasn’t going to work, Lucas made some script adjustments to incorporate the important story points into Han’s conversation with Greedo instead. With the Jabba scene reinstated, we now get that same dialogue twice in a row, back-to-back. This is just bad editing. One of them has to go. Lucas was right to cut the Jabba scene the first time around. It isn’t needed, and just weakens the film. It’s perhaps the most glaring example of how lost in his own head George Lucas has gotten.

Those are the ‘Star Wars’ changes that bother us the most. Now tell us yours in the Comments. Are you most annoyed by the “Jedi Rocks” musical number, or Vader’s pointless new shuttle ride in ‘Empire Strikes Back’? Perhaps it’s the addition of a Praxis ring (lifted directly out of ‘Star Trek VI’) around the Death Star explosion? There are so many options to choose from.

49 comments

  1. Jeremy

    There are so many to chose from 🙂 But for me, the worst change is the conceptual force and consequently the Jedi. The force changes from an all encompassing quasi-religious energy to space bugs. And the Jedi, once mythical, mysterious paladins reduced to bumbling fools infected with intergalactic venereal disease…bah I can’t take it anymore. I won’t be buying the blu-rays.

    • Here here, my friends and I have been saying this for years. I had some poster try to complain (On the website that spawned this very blog mind you) that George Lucas hadn’t done anything with the prequels to minimize the mythos of the original films. I almost choked upon reading those words. I told him basically what you have stated, “one word MIDI-F*#$@ing-CHLORIANS”

      Worse decision George ever made besides Jar Jar and NOOOOOOOOOO!

      Now I want to see that scene with Steven Colbert’s “NOOOOOOOOO!” in it’s place.

  2. Donat Torres

    As much as I hate ALL the changes, my least favorite is the line “Alert my Star Destroyer to prepare for my arrival,” along with the ensuing scenes of Darth arriving to his SD in ‘Empire.’ All it does is add unnecessary exposition, just like the “NOOOOOO…..” I liked the original line better.

    • Tony

      yes, this is my least-favorite as well, because it ruins the previously prefect pacing and musical cure of this scene.

  3. The insertions of Jabba and Hayden Christensen are the only ones that ever really bugged me, I’ve never been a big enough fan to get worked up about this shit too much, but those are just ugly and awful. That said, the “NOOOOOO!!” thing is sure to join this list, ick.

  4. So many to choose from, Greedo shooting first, Jedi Rocks, CGI, Jabba, alternate ending to Jedi!

    All of it is unnecessary, for 20 years these films stood the test of time and all of a sudden, they were changed, not once, not twice, but now three times!

    We don’t need Temuera Morrison voicing Bobba Fett, we don’t need Ian McDiarmid replacing old lady with the baboon eyes and we certainly don’t need Hayden Christensen replacing Sebastian Shaw at the end of Jedi!

    Most of all, we don’t need Ewoks with CGI eyelids and Vader screaming NOOOOOOOOOOO!

  5. Jabba showing up was going to be in the movie originally, it was cut because they decided to not make Jabba human, the whole scene was filmed and scrapped because of that, NOT because they took it out for pacing, Lucas originally wanted that scene to be in there but couldnt do a moving Jabba as a creature back then, if they would have kept the big guy as a human, guaranteed that scene would have been in there, so I see no problem with them re-inserting that scene because it was originally supposed to be there

    In the scope of the whole saga, Anakin at the end of Jedi makes no sense at all anymore, since he wouldnt have learned how to do any of that astral projection stuff he shouldnt have showed up anyways, if only the original trilogy was out it wouldnt matter if he showed up and it worked when that was all that existed, now with the prequels in effect it doesnt matter if he’s old or young, he shouldnt be there at all because in the terms of the movie, he never learned how to do that from anyone, so how can anyone be mad at the change in and of itself when the prequels fucked up that whole idea anyways

    The rest of the stuff I agree with, but its still Star Wars to me, I have my gripes about the prequels just like anyone else, I definitely dislike some of the changes, the worst being Han and Greedo, even the NOOOOO! from Vader isnt as bad to me as that one, as its already been said, it looks horrible and it completely changes Han’s story arc to a guy you can trust and count on, now he’s always that way which was never the original intent and I remember loving him blasting greedo, so that I’ll give an FU to Lucas for because he’s full of crap if he thinks kids ever cared about that!

    • Josh Zyber
      Author

      Chaz, ultimately it doesn’t matter why the scene was cut. The point is that it was. Every movie ever made has scenes that the director shot with the intention of using, and then cut in editing when they didn’t work. The first rule of editing is to get rid of anything that isn’t actually needed to tell the story.

      When Lucas realized that the Jabba scene wasn’t working, he re-scripted the dialogue in the Greedo scene to cover those story points instead. Now we have two scenes back-to-back with the exact same dialogue in them. It’s embarrassingly amateurish.

      • Drew

        Exactamundo!

        I was actually going to include the bit about the dialogue in the Greedo scene, and how we get essentially the same dialogue back-to-back.

        Editing is performed for a reason.

        Jabba has absolutely no business being in Episode IV. The entire scene is an abomination!

      • motorheadache

        I completely agree with Josh– The Greedo scene was clearly supposed to replace the Jabba scene. In fact, I figured a while ago that if George was really unhappy with the Han shootout (since he altered it) and wanted the Jabba scene back in, for the Special Edition he should have just cut out the Han/Greedo scene entirely and used the new Jabba scene instead. Kind of like how Ridley Scott made an alternate version of Alien instead of simply reinserting deleted scenes.

    • Drew

      Once again, it doesn’t matter whether he was originally going to be included or not. The added scene looks like shit. Everything about it is terrible. And it absolutely ruins the reveal of a mysterious character.

    • Donat Torres

      Actually the Jabba scene wasn’t going to have Jabba as a creature back in ’77. Even though Lucas says otherwise, just look at the way Han interacts with Jabba. Inserting a creature would have been impossible with ’70’s technology. It was hard to do even in the 90’s. Not to mention that an effects supervisor wasn’t even there when the scene was filmed. The scene was just taken out do to pacing.

  6. Greedo shooting first is the worst one, but the Young Anakin at the end of ROTJ makes the least sense:

    If it’s young Anakin, why isn’t it also a young Obi-Wan? And if it’s a young Anakin, how does Luke know who the hell he’s looking at, since young Christensen looks nothing like old Shaw? And if George wants a young Anakin there, why not go back and insert Christensen with aged makeup into the scene where Luke takes off Vader’s mask?

    But there’s so many other things George has screwed up with the prequels, does it even matter at this point?

    Why does Leia remember her mother in ROTJ when she died in childbirth?

    Why doesn’t Vader remember either C3PO or R2D2?

    If Obi-wan was trying to hide Luke from the Emperor and Vader, why does he have the SAME FREAKIN’ LAST NAME as his father?!

    You know what, I quit…I’m going to go watch some STAR TREK. 🙂

  7. Drew

    I hate every fucking one of them. There is not a single addition/change that has came close to improving the saga in any way. All ten thousand (I’m only half-way exaggerating) changes/additions made the films worse!

    If I had to rank them in order of the ones I hate the most, I suppose it would go like this:

    1. Noooooooooooooooooooo! (Haven’t even seen it yet, and I already know that it is the most awful, indefensible, egregious, horrifying, and fucking putrified change/addition that could have been made)
    2. Greedo shoots first.
    3. Jabba in episode IV.
    4. Hayden Christensen at the end of VI.
    5. The “Jedi Rocks” musical number.
    6. Sarlac, beak. Nuff said.
    7. Vader flying to the star destroyer
    8. Jar-Jar in VI
    9. Obi-Wan’s new scream in IV
    10. The new ending of VI.

  8. Kenny S

    I hate all these changes as much as the rest of you guys, however the young Anakin at the end of ROTJ has an easy, albeit stupid, explanation. Technically, Anakin died when he became Vader so he was restored to when he was last a Jedi.

    I’m sure that what Lucas was thinking. The other stuff? Who knows?

  9. “In fact, it’s done more damage by making Han act in self-defense.” I still don’t get this. It was always in self defense. Greedo starts by sticking a gun in Han’s chest, keeps the gun trained on him the whole time, and after Han says, “over my dead body.” Greedo says, “That’s the idea. I’ve been looking forward to this a long time.” There has never been a clearer statement of a character’s intentions: Greedo is going to shoot Han.

    I’ve never understood the moral outrage over this one change. It doesn’t affect anything in the movie, except maybe replace a bad effect (a puff of smoke) with a bad CGI effect. It’s just another one of his pointless little changes that doesn’t amount to much in the grand scheme of things. Does the change make sense? No. Does it irrevocably damage Han’s character? No. Should it be the centerpiece of outrage? Not really.

    • True, Greedo plans to shoot Han and take his bounty, or whatever, but it’s clear from the beginning that Han isn’t fazed one bit. He’s not at all threatened by Greedo, and it seems more like Greedo pissed him off. Especially when he mentioned Han losing his beloved Millennium Falcon.

      Han struck out when Greedo was busy acting all threatening and victorious. There was never any reason to change the scene in any way.

  10. Jane Morgan

    The worst ‘Star Wars’ change was the prequels. Fight choreography, art design, expanded force powers. It altered the universe, making the original trilogy ridiculous. You have to be brain dead to enjoy it now.

    I wish I could un-watch the prequels. And the ’97 editions. Except, then, I would only have the memory of my childhood, pre-VHS, with the edited-for-television versions. And I want to un-watch those too.

    I agree with Luke. The original unaltered version of Star Wars is gone. It was a theatrical experience. People bought tickets, consumed the art. It left theaters. And now it only exists in the minds of the lucky.

    Every release since 1977, on home video or in theaters, has been technically and editorially altered. Fanboys argue endlessly about the artistry of the changes. Erasing a wire is fine. Adding a rock is not.

    If the laserdisc edition of Star Wars was released on blu-ray, would we still complain, even though that was not the original unaltered version?

    What if it was released on blu, but it only had a 2-Star video transfer?

    We all have our own individual morality about film restoration. But the law says, as owner of the IP, George Lucas has total authority to CGI his feces over every frame of all post-theatrical editions.

    The only solution to The Star Wars Conundrum is to invent time travel.

    • Glad I can be called brain dead from enjoying Star Wars, way to be nice about it

      Fight Choreography? Really, I dont care if its changed, thats the sign of the times, no way was he going to make new modern day Star Wars movies with the shitty fight choreography from 1977, thats been one hell of an awesome change, the fights were much more exciting and dynamic than the original films, you would have to be brain dead to think otherwise

      Anymore I just laugh at replies like this, people are so damn hurt about a freaking movie its ridiculous, some people really need to worry about other things

      • Jane Morgan

        Chaz, when I called you brain dead, I meant it as a compliment.

        George Lucas’s tragic error was not understanding the audience. People care about the Star Wars universe, a billion times more than they care about the cardboard characters. The prequels should have been set in a different era. New style, new characters, new story arc.

        We’ll just have to agree to laugh at each other. Me, as an elitist fuck. You, as an ignorant nerf-herder.

        • Haha, guess you are right, well that just goes to show why most of the story driven games (like Knights of the Old Republic and the new Star Wars MMO coming out) in completely different eras of the Star Wars universe, end up being so much better than anything he’s done.

          I wish he would pay attention to all of this and realize what people like and dont like, hey if everyone loves the stuff done by other people then freaking let them do something else with Star Wars. I would love to see other movies done in a completely different time frame in that world, but its never going to happen cause he’s a moron, as much as he likes getting money for these things, you know how much money he could rake in with a GOOD Star Wars film that has nothing to do with any from this timeline?

    • Edited-for-TV versions? Really? That’s the first I hear of this. What did they edit for TV? Is there anything questionable or objectionable in the Star Wars-movies?

  11. I have three that anger me most:

    3. Luke says “You were lucky to get out of there!” instead of the MUCH BETTER LINE, “You’re lucky you don’t taste very good!”

    2. Greedo shoots Han, who moves his head and neck in a thoroughly INHUMAN way and shoots back in self defense.

    1. George Lucas mucks up ANY scene in ROTJ with The Emperor, Luke, and Vader. He added a pathetic NOOOO when Vader throws the Emperor over the side of the walkway and into the bowels of the Death Star. I want to cause George Lucas great pain for this monstrosity. You know the old saying “Don’t mess with perfection?” Well, someone needs to pound this into George’s stubborn jackass of a brain!

  12. For me the whole thing is bogus. I grew up with these movies and to go in and change them all around and then act like the original films, the ones I love and watched til I broke the VHS tapes on 3 different sets, is just a direct kick to my nuts. Lucas thinks he needs to perfect everything and that just pisses me off. The draw to Star Wars was that it was a cowboys in space complete with flaws and some corny moments, but that’s what made it FUN! I hate how Vader has become a pussy. Vader was the dark lord of the fucking universe but no, now he has to have feelings. Screw that. George Lucas, you lost my money a long time ago.

    • Of course he has to have feelings, if he didnt he wouldnt have saved his damn son, so that gets expanded on through the prequels and everyone thinks Vader is a pussy now? He still fucking kills kids, Sand People and tons of others, how is he a pussy exactly? Because he says NOOOOO! twice in his whole life?

      Sometimes I think people are really reaching…..

    • That one I do agree with, for some reason I keep forgetting about that, guess thats a good thing….what a terrible idea to put that in even if he wanted a more active performance back then, the song is awful by itself!

  13. Super-VHS

    Don’t know what y’all are bitchin’ about. As his Holiness George Lucas so eloquently said, “Grow up. These are my movies, not yours.”

    Every single change He approved has made Star Wars better. Because CG is better. Duh.

  14. Trond M.

    I think the opposite question would be a lot more interesting. What change does people think actually improves the movie in any way.

    There are many changes that annoy me, and many I don’t mind. However, I think pretty much every single change is unnecesary at best, so I’m really curious about what people like about them.

    • motorheadache

      I actually like some of the alterations– very few, but there are a few changes that tend to be a bit more subtle that I enjoy.

      In A New Hope, I like the restored “Close the Blast Doors” line, which previously you could hear in some mono mix of the film. Also, the bit where Han runs around the corner of the Death Star, I think the moment is funnier revealing that there is a whole hangar of troops waiting. It makes the look on Han’s face funnier.

      Other little subtle things are okay, like adding windows to Cloud City and a few added effects shots of ships and stuff like that. If the alterations were all a bit more subtle, like how Ridley Scott handled the Final Cut of Blade Runner, I would likely have no real problems with the Special Editions.

      • Brian H

        Those windows in Cloud City, aside from screaming CGI, are a complete distraction. ie Lando and Han are walking and speaking, establishing a false trust about how Cloud City has managed to escape the notice of the empire… when bam, a huge and unnecessary CGI window full of vehicles appears in the frame. Those scenes don’t need the Aurora Borealis in the background. Those windows don’t help to sell the idea of Cloud City, or anything in terms of atmosphere or exposition, and while technically impressive, they appear with the same subtlety that a projection of a porn scene on the wall would.

        In comparison, the Final Cut of Blade Runner features some of cinema’s best matte backgrounds and cityscapes. The Final Cut allows the viewer to see the film’s 2019 L.A with optimal clarity. Windows are left to complement their respective scenes rather than packed with visual noise.

  15. even though ESB has the least amount of changes/rape-scenes added, the prequels retroactivaly ruin the film’s big reveal.

    Granted all of us know Darth Vader is Anakin Skywalker, but future kids will have ot have vigilant parents forcing them to watch the original trilogy first. Now the films dramatic centerpiece and what was one of the biggest plot twists in cinematic history is a melodramatic redundancy.

  16. motorheadache

    For me, one change was the one too far.

    Greedo shoots? Looks stupid, ruins the moment. Pretty bad. Never thought it radically changed the character though– it just looked stupid.

    Jabba Scene? Sucks for everything Josh Zyber mentioned, but you could always just hit the NEXT button on your remote.

    And all those other stupid alterations– added CGI, Jedi Rocks, new Obi-Wan scream– all this stuff made the movies worse, but none of it to me was at crucial moments of the films,

    Darth Vader’s “NOOOOOO” at the end of the RotJ is the worst change, IMO. It takes the little tiny bit of dialog that ruined the end of Revenge of the Sith, and was copied over to ruin the ending of Return of the Jedi, which is also the finale of the trilogy, which is also the finale of the saga, and thus ruins the entire saga. Am I exaggerating? Maybe a bit, but I absolutely refuse to ever watch that version of Jedi. I just won’t do it.

  17. I think I am with Dick that the most annoying change is the axing of the Ewok song. Shoot, I can deal with the changes in A New Hope and Empire just fine, but getting rid of the Ewok song, the Jedi Rock song, and the NNNNNNOOOOOOO!!!! are things that REALLY rub me the wrong way. Shoot, half of the changes I didn’t even realize were there beforehand until I started reading this. Blinking Ewoks? I thought they always blinked! Jabba in A New Hope? I can deal with that. Han Shoots first? I must have seen the movie 50 times or more, and never noticed until someone on this board pointed it out a few months ago. CGI Yoda in Phantom Menace? I thought Yoda was CGI in all the prequels, shows what I know. But you take away my Ewok song, and that is just something I cannot forgive!

  18. that1guypictures

    I actually like most of the changes, except for the “Noooo” and Hayden at the end of Jedi. Hayden was a poor choice for the prequel trilogy, and since I hate the prequels…I don’t want to be reminded of them when watching the original films.

  19. I have to ask though, for everyone hating the Noooo! at the end of Revenge of the Sith, what exactly is he going to say after he learns that he just killed his wife? Not exactly like he can say FUCK or something like that right? So him going nuts with the force crushing everything in the room and working his way off the table like Frankenstein (which IMO is great) and screaming Noooo! because he believes he killed the one person he loved the most and was told he could save, really is that bad?

    Sure the Noooo! is a little cliched, but I wonder how I would react in that situation, if I had just killed my wife, the person I love most in this world, I would be angry, upset and probably be saying that line too. So I really dont have a problem with this like other people do, same goes for the added no in Jedi, he’s watching his get killed and him yelling that at the Emperor works for me, sure its weird because I grew up watching it differently, but it really doesnt bother me and I understand why its there, Vader ended up having compassion in that moment and the Noooo! really doesnt mess that up for me

  20. Super-VHS

    It’s always more emotional to have a character say “No” after seeing or hearing something very traumatic or stressful. For example, the other night, I was really craving something sweet. I went into the freezer and I saw a pint of Carvel ice cream laying on the bottom shelf. But once I opened up the lid, I saw that there was about one spoonful of Rocky Road [the flavor]. I was so disappointed that there wasn’t at least one serving of ice cream left, I literally screamed “no” out loud! I’m surprised I didn’t wake up anyone. So if you can imagine someone getting really upset that there actually isn’t any ice cream left in the freezer, can you imagine how a father would react to see his son be electrocuted by Darth Sidious? He would obviously say “no.” – George Lucas

    • LOL, that is funny, as much as I still love Star Wars even with the changes, this stuff always makes me laugh, Star Wars is far from perfect with or without the changes and George DEFINITELY is 😉

  21. The prequel trilogy did ruin much for me. Greedo Shoots First, Blinking Ewoks, the new Vader NOOOOO, the substituted ghost in ROTJ. Too much to complain about.
    Imagine if ole George released The Phantom Menace in 1977? We know the effects would be limited to the time, but the story itself? We wouldn’t see an Episode II.