Okay, I hate to say this for all of you purists out there, but George Lucas needs to remake the orginal trilogy. They would do horrible box office, don't you think? but they would make more sense alongside the new movies. See, the problem is the story sort of changed between finishing the original movies and making the new ones. The story changed in Lucas' head. You can't blame him for that, it is the evolution of a writer. But there are inconsistancies between the two trilogies that would be cleared up with a remake. Here are some problems as I see it (in no order, jsut as they come to my stream of consciousness brain):

1. The dialogue between Obi Wan and Vader in New Hope doesn't work anymore when placed alongside the dialogue in Revenge. And talk about a terrible fight scene. That scene at least needs to be redone. You can't blame age for Obi Wan being so slow, look at Palpatine and Yoda in the newer movies, come on I want to see Obi Wan jumping around and force pushing Vader. I went home and watched IV after I saw Revenge, and I still love that movie but the fight is such a let down now. That in itself is reason enough to remake the movies.

2. I get why C-3PO doesn't remember anything from the newer trilogy, he gets a mind wipe (and probably needs one poor guy), but does Obi get one too? Why doesn't he recognize C-3PO and R2? He should explain to Luke how they once belonged to his parents. And he shold deffinately recognize R2! He should see him and say something like, "so the time has come." or something.

3. I can't let go of the Leia remembering her real mother thing. George, you're going to have to explain this one to me yourself before I'll buy an explanation.

4. I'm not so concerned about the special effects, although I would like to see the first Death Star battle redone (again) to be a little more spectacular. Oh ,and the escape from the Death Star in IV too. Oh and blasting off from Tatooine could be a little more spectacular. See, just redo the whole thing.

I'll add others things I'd like redone in later entries. All this said, you could never replace the original movies. No actors could replace the originals. Empire will always be my favorite movie, I just still have a hard time reconciling the two trilogies, putting them together.

I figure the originals will eventually be remade. You can wait ten years and then use Ewan as Obi Wan again. And even keep Hayden as Darth Vader. Of course then George's perspective will have changed again and the two trilogies still won't quite fit together. Which will lead to the need to remake the prequals again. You are stuck in a loop here George. Is this a conundrum?

Unrelated topic, here are the movies listed acoording to my favorites (just to do it):

1. Empire Strikes Back
2. Revenge of the Sith
3. A New Hope (in spite of the imperfections )
4. Attack of the Clones
5. Return of the Jedi
6. Phantom Menace

The last three are kind of hard to place in order or preference. These are great movies.