Okay, this is probably going to be shorter than I'd like it to be (sigh...insert comment here...), because it's late, and my space bar is giving me fits, but I wanted to get the first of what will likely be a multi-part entry down on pixels.

I'm sure that some, if not all of the points I'm about to raise have probably appeared in other places, and quite possibly more eloquently than I'll phrase them, but I think they're worth noting, regardless. So, please bear with me, assuming that I'm not writing this in a virtual vacuum.

Okay, it should be obvious to everyone by now that, for all of Mr. Lucas' creative brilliance, many of the truths we who grew up with only three Star Wars films are now forced (no, I will never intend for that to be a pun, so just stop it...) to cling to regarding the Original Trilogy in the era where the saga has been completed, have been skewed because of the gulf between when the OT was written, and when the PT came about. There are many, many pieces of information given out in the OT that, because of the way the PT backstory was filled in decades later, have either gained meaning, changed meaning, lost all meaning entirely, or worse, had their meaning flat-out contradicted because of the PT.

Here, in no particular order, are some of the many that come to mind:

-Obi-Wan not making any overtures to the effect of having known both 3PO and R2 in the PT when he sees them in ANH, particularly since he is likely to have known that R2's memory would have remained intact since they last saw one another, and there would be very little point in trying to hide the truth from Luke, after all, wouldn't there?

-As was mentioned in Insider #86, Obi-Wan's complete fabrication of the idea that Anakin wanted Luke to inherit his lightsaber, since Anakin only "gave" it to Obi at all because he'd just had his saber arm lopped off.

-Obi-Wan thinking Luke was their "last hope" in Empire, and Yoda having to be cryptic regarding the existence of "another," since Obi was the first living being to touch the Skywalker twins, and would probably remember Leia's significance without having to be reminded by a Muppet...

-The fact that, since he was a new character created for the PT, Qui-Gon is never referenced in the OT, particularly when Obi sends Luke to "the Jedi Master who instructed [him]," and having it mean Yoda, who you'd only know even had any input into Obi's training whatsoever if you'd read Jude Watson's Jedi Apprentice books.

-Leia having a "memory" of her mother in , because the infant who played her for 5 seconds in ROTS had her eyes open while the camera was rolling?!

-And finally for tonight, the capper of all cappers, the whole "let's replace Sebastian Shaw's head with Hayden's" thing for the end of the DVD version of Jedi. ?!?!?!?!?!?! Let's follow the probable "official" reasoning, then contrast it with the larger message it sends as the final moral of the saga. Officially, since Jedi Anakin "died" while he looked like Hayden, it stands to reason that, upon his redemption, he would live in the Force with that appearance. However, two fairly large issues stick squarely in my craw with the whole thing (yes, folks, I have a craw, and things get stuck in it. Go figure...).

First, since they make it a point to include dialogue at the end of ROTS suggesting that maintaining physicality while being one with the Force is a highly specialized talent that ostensibly takes decades of focused, solitary training to master, how the heck does Anakin know how to do it? Making this matter worse is that because the novel of ROTS gives the disembodied Qui-Gon a statement about how the Sith's greed would always prevent them from mastering life after death, Anakin shouldn't know such a thing as Force-Ghosting is even a possiblity, much less have had the time to figure out how to do it.

Second, think of the message being sent by the new cranial substitution: Obi-Wan has made countless sacrifices in his life, from his own career (in the fulfillment of his promise to train a kid he didn't even want coming along in the first place) to having to spend his elder years watching over the son of said kid in complete isolation. His reward for such self-sacrifice? He gets tp spend enternity looking old and wrinkly. Now Anakin? Try this: selfish, arrogant brat who defies every rule in the book, betrays his friends over a girl, and essentially kills everyone who has ever tried to care about him (including Palpatine!)...now this guy...THIS guy, because of one act of redemption that really only cleans up the mess he created in the first place, he gets to look young and hot in the afterlife. Call that justice, 'cos I don't...

Chew on that, true believers. Feel free to comment, criticize, flame, or rationalize at will...