Maclunkey
Seriously though, I like the changes in the later versions of the movies, outside of the random CGI animals, I don't see the problem with them. I haven't seen the original special editions in a while, though.
Edit: the video doesn't seem to be working, what happened?
I saw them in the theater, the originals that is. The special editions were horror show when they came out in the 90's, most especially the music scene in Jabba's palace. Edits after that were made to help to correct the breaks in continuity that the prequels created (sloppy writing), and to soften a lot of aspects of the characters, themes, and such, such as Han Shooting first, or Luke attempting to kill himself in Empire.
The only way to see the movies in their original format would be to hunt down the DeSpecialized fan edits on the internet or a a Comic convention... a place now reserved for people who don't read comic books.
Anyhow, I'd really like to go on a rant about how Legacy Star Wars is better in every way, and how the emergence of the Clone Wars cartoon series and the murder of Karen Travis' Imperial Commando novel series and removing it from cannon was the last straw, but I'd be kicking a dead horse as I know I can only really appreciate this material alone and in privacy as I can't even relate to Star Wars fans these days on any level.
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the best legends material was made after the release of episode III
and you're here like "legends good, special editions bad"
even if it isn't to your taste, tell me how greedo shooting first "broke" star wars
I would not say that all of the best only came out after the prequel era as there was already a vast amount of fantastic stories before then, but for sure, Karen Travis' Imperial Commando series blew me away, as did Shatter Point, Labyrinth of Evil, Dark Horse Comic's material at the time, etc. In fact I believe that the Imperial Commando series was perhaps my favorite Star Wars reads ever.
That said, despite all the effort of those passionate authors (yes the authors of Star Wars once had passion), they still could only do so much in regards to attempting to fix the problems Lucas Prequel stories introduced to the Cannon as he not only contradicted the establish Expanded Universe at the time, but also contradicted his original theatrical releases. Still though, the authors took what they had to work with and tried to fix that train wreck as best they could and give things the sort of explanations that actually fit into the Star Wars realm of possibilities rather than how Lucas, the Clone Wars TV series, and now Disney has handled things which is to take the original films and EU and instead force them to half ass work with the train wreck they've created.
Speaking of the Clone Wars, it was because of this TV series that Karen Travis was told to stop writing her Imperial Commando novels. While writing them she was told as the rest of the authors were told, that her material would be cannon, but when they decided to make Star Wars full on retarded, the pulled her off them, leaving us fans empty handed, and instead was tasked with the job of writing the children's novel version of the animated Clone Wars movie that released in theaters in order to draw attention to the upcoming series.
