Aggravation of the Day

[krpalmer]

It was irritating to run into another dose of anti-Special Editions comments on an anime message board yesterday (taking the usual stance that two five-second changes bring the Star Wars movies crashing down in utter ruin), but of course it wouldn't be worth mentioning... except for that the day after, I woke from a dream in which an old web site I used to go to (one of the subsidiary MSTing sites) had returned, only to have its front-page item be more anti-Special Edition comments somehow based on creating versions of the cantina scene. That made for a dark morning. (Still, when you dream about an old web site returning from the ether, you do have to wonder how exciting your life is...)

Comments

[may-child.livejournal.com]

From what I've heard, the O-OT discs didn't sell that well. So for all the screaming and fussing the anti-SE folks did, they sure didn't rush out to buy the O-OT when it became available.

[krpalmer.livejournal.com]

I recall you mentioning that about the "Vintage Editions." There's one ambiguous thought I have about that, though... some might say that while of course there's some vast pent-up demand for the Vintage Editions, most of those people wouldn't compromise their principles to buy something ripped straight from the laserdiscs as opposed to lovingly restored from film prints... Still, I do recall those who owned laserdisc players once gloating about how they could "watch the true versions!" and all that.

[may-child.livejournal.com]

I suppose. It was interesting, though, how many of the principled bashers weren't too principled to purchase bootlegged versions ripped straight from the laserdiscs before the vintage editions came out, or to shower The Phantom Editor with praise for "improving" TPM and AOTC.

Not to mention, the numerous bashers who, after tearing Lucas a new one for the SE changes, went on to provide lists of what they would change -- er, sorry, improve -- about the OT, such as replacing the Ewoks with Wookiees in ROTJ, and having Han or Lando die in ROTJ to "add depth" instead of "the stupid kiddie happy ending we got instead."

It was also interesting to see how many of the same people who called Richard Marquand a no-talent hack and claimed that "Luca$ only hired him to direct ROTJ because he wanted a yes-man lapdog" -- their proof being their hero Gary Kurtz's similar assertion in his various anti-PT interviews, one with the odious Chris Gore, aka Professional Basher Extraordinaire), suddenly became Marquand's fiercest champions, portraying him as a "wronged artist" who, having died in 1987, cannot voice his approval or disapproval of the SE changes to "his movie," ROTJ.