A few weeks ago I was able to take advantage of Revenge of the Sith still being in cinemas, and watch the entire saga in consequtive order, over three days - Episodes I and II the first day, III and IV the second day, and V and VI the third day. There were a few things which stood out to me.

Firstly, just how well the whole thing works when seen as one movie. I know there are points that fans are debating as "plot holes", like Leia's memories of Padme etc. - personally, I think all of these have rational explanations, but when watching the movies, these things really don't matter. Everything fits together wonderfully - even the huge difference in the quality of special effects between the two trilogies fits, mainly because the visual style of Episode III blends very well with IV.

The main thing is that I now watch Episodes IV, V and VI from a completely different perspecitve - as much Vader's perspective as Luke's. Especially when we get to Episode V and Vader takes centre stage again. When Vader talks, it's the voice of James Earl Jones, but in my mind it's Hayden Christensen's voice now. It's certainly a shock to see 78-year-old Sebastian Shaw under the mask in Return of the Jedi! Information in the original trilogy, given in an offhand manner, like the closing down of the Senate, has a much bigger impact - it made me realise just how much control the Emperor now has, if he's able to close the Senate down (Bail's line about this in III is quite prescient). The destruction of Alderaan is more powerful, knowing it's Bail's planet - I almost wish more time would have been spent with it in IV before its destruction. Also, Obi-Wan's disappearing in Episode IV, and his taunt that "I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine", means more now, because we know Anakin was looking for a way to stop death and never found it - but through Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan has found it. The Dagobah cave is also stronger, as is the sub-plot that Luke could go the same way as Anakin.

The completion of the saga has also improved Return of the Jedi for me. It's still my least favourite episode, and the only episode that has aspects to it that I sometimes want to fast-forward through. I'm not an Ewok-hater at all, I actually like them, but I do think too much time is spent meeting them on Endor, and I'm not sure that Endor is the right place to end what has been such an epic saga (though I can see why George Lucas wanted to end it in a natural environment). The first half an hour of the movie also drags until the final Sail Barge battle. But now the movie has much more emotional investment in it, seeing Vader's conflict, his relationship with his son, and the evil way Palpatine has manipulated everything to get to this point. Palpatine is an amazing character now, he has so much more depth and history to him - I hated him for what he did to Anakin, and it's very satisfying to see Anakin throw him down the reactor shaft.

Another thing that stood out was the changes George had made to the original trilogy for the recent DVD release - thank goodness he did make them. Palpatine is conspicuous by his absence in Episode IV, but having Ian McDiarmid once again play the role in Episode V is wonderful, because we've seen the relationship between Vader and Palpatine in Episode III - if anything, at this point I feel I know these characters much better than I know Luke, Leia and Han. Incidentally, it's the same with Yoda and Obi-Wan's first conversation on Dagobah - we've seen their friendship in three movies before this, and I was more anchored to them than to Luke. Another great change is including Naboo, the Senate, and the Jedi Temple at the end of Episode VI - it really rounds it all off, seeing these places again. But for me the best change is including Hayden's Anakin in the end celebration - this is the Anakin I wanted to see redeemed, the strong, kind, brave, mature, good Anakin from the first hour of Epsode III - he's the Anakin I wanted back, and there he was! To see him standing next to Obi-Wan again and smiling is such an emotional moment now. Great change.

So overall, the saga is a much better story when seen as a whole, completed - it's darker and more tragic now, but it works better than ever. Well done, George.