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Controversial Tinkering Continues on Star Wars DVDs

George Lucas must love this stuff. In 1997 he enraged "Star Wars" traditionalists by reworking the original films (the infamous "Greedo Shoots First" tweak really got fur up), and now Lucas is at it again with the long-awaited "Star Wars" DVDs.

CNN.com and TheForce.net have a full rundown on major changes in the new DVD editions, but for our purposes I'll cover the single most egregious alteration.

The Tweak that Should Not Be Named comes at the end of "Return of the Jedi." In both the 1983 original and the 1997 reissue, the final scene shows Yoda, Obi-Wan and the freshly cooked Anakin as they all revel in the Force's blue postmortem glow. So what's the change? In the DVD version, the visage of Anakin has been replaced by the "new" Anakin, Hayden Christensen.

Uh. Oh.

Lucas could certainly justify the change as a consistency edit, but I don't think that's going to sit well with fans. And, technically, the consistency logic doesn't hold up: If Christensen is in there, shouldn't the "new" Obi-Wan, Ewan McGregor, replace the "old" Obi-Wan, Alec Guinness? TheForce.net suggests that once a Jedi turns to the Dark Side, his or her spirit remains at the age when they turned, but that seems a little too convenient ... and this line of discussion seems a little too geeky, so I'm going to let it fade before that Boba Fett costume gets pulled out of storage.

The "Star Wars" DVD set -- changes and all -- will arrive on store shelves tomorrow.

For more "Star Wars" news check out our spotlight page. -- Mac Slocum

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Posted by Mac on September 20, 2004 09:48 PM
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