Hello everyone!

Well, it's good to be back. I haven't posted in months, and I'm so happy to finally have the time to come back here. It's really sad that my school has to be cancelled (due to weather) for me to come here again!

But anyways, I have a serious problem with the Ep. I podrace. I know a lot of people like it, but ever since I saw Ep. I in theatres with my Dad, those few (long, long...) minutes erk me. To me, it's kind of irrelevant to the overall plotline, and it doesn't - for lack of a better explanation - feel Star Wars-ey enough for me.

Honestly, the only thing relevant that resulted from the podrace were these things:
1) Anakin got freed because he won
2.1) The audience saw that Ani was strong in the Force and that
2.2) he was a good pilot.

None of the aforementioned things required a lot of time to demonstrate. I think they spent far too much time on this sequence. I would have been much happier if more screen time had been given to the final battle, or some more stuff with Sidous and Maul. I found their relationship very interesting, and I thought Maul got jipped. He was such an awesome character, and yet he hardly got anything to do. (But that's another entry, isn't it... )

So imagine my chagrin when I finally convinced my parents to buy me the Ep. I DVD (I had had the VHS since it came out, and my parents didn't seem to see why I needed two copies...). I opened the gleaming package, reveled in my victory for a few short moments, and put the disk in the player. I was ecstatic with the changes made, and then the podrace scene came up. I went to get a mid-movie snack, as I always did before in this sequence, and saw that there was some added stuff there. I thought, I guess this is kinda cool... we get to see some more of the other racers....

Then it kept going.

And going.

And going.

I don't generally have many complaints about add-ins or extras in 2nd release/edition movies, but this is one that I feel very strongly about. I guess I'll have to live with it... it's the way it is, now. (I guess I can get some more chocolate on my mid-movie snack break now, though... )

Am I alone in this, or are there other race-haters out there??

May the Force be with You, Always!

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I wish to propose for the reader's favourable consideration a doctrine which may, I fear, appear wildly paradoxical and subversive. The doctrine in question is this: that it is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatever for supposing it true. I must, of course, admit that if such an opinion became common it would completely transform our social life and our political system; since both are at present faultless, this must weigh against it.
- Bertrand Russell
Skeptical Essays, I (1928)