Betrayal

WHAT?! Ricci and I got the original Star Wars movies on dvd from some friends as our wedding present. We were pumped. And I'm still grateful don't get me wrong. But we just watched Return of the Jedi and it had all the extra garbage George Lucas decided to slap in (rather un-seamlessly I might add) in 97. Like the nasty singing dancing alien thing in Jabba's palace. And replacing the sarlac with Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors. And the scene with the fireworks on all the planets when the Empire falls apart. I saw these with my family in theaters as a fourth grader when they were rereleased as "Special Editions" in 1997 so I had adjusted to their unnecessary stupidity. I didn't like them but I didn't let it ruin the movie for me. Unbeknownst to me however was that after making episodes 1, 2 and 3 Lucas re-added things to the originals, I can only assume to try to make the horrible gap between the trilogies less ragged and ugly.

Things like when it shows a particular planet during the fireworks scene, we hear a familiar (aka loathed, detested, hated with the fire of a thousand suns because he is the worst character in the entire series) yell, "Wesa Free!". Okay... I thought maybe I'd never noticed that because I saw it before Phantom Menace. It was plausible that since PM came out only a few years later they were already well into making it and wanted to give a little tease. I could have believed that. Until the worst betrayal of all. Worse than Lando giving Han over to Vader. Worse than Sal helping to set up Michael Corleone's assassination. In the final scene where Luke smiles to the ghosts of Yoda and Obi Wan Kenobi, his father appears but as Anakin Skywalker and not Darth Vader. It is a nice moment where we see what Anakin could have been if he had chosen the path of good. But that wasn't good enough for Lucas, no. He replaced Sebastian Shaw with Hayden Christianson. That cardboard hack of an actor from episodes two and three! WHAT?! Why?!

Thanks Georgy! Seeing as you didn't screw it up enough when you made 1, 2 and 3 so that I have to show my children these movies in the order they were made in so that when Vader says "I am your father!" they don't go "Yes...and...? Didn't we already know that?" But now when I show them 4,5 and 6 at the end they will go "Who's that long haired sissy dude next to Obi Wan dad?"

What next? Are you gonna tell me Mr. Rogers was a drug dealer? I'm more upset about this than the fact that the moon landing may have been faked.


Sigh....tear.....deep breath......okay....I think I'll be alright......

Moving on...To quell some of my earlier anxiousness to get out into the unknown, I took Grimm to Brother's Park and we followed the creek bed through the woods. I packed a pop tart, two water bottles, binoculars, a camera and my knife into my backpack and we headed out. I tried to use a cloth belt (army belt/d-ring belt/whatever you call it) to strap my knife sheath to my thigh but it kept sliding down so I put it on my actual belt. We saw a rabbit and a squirrel and it was a lot of fun. We may go back this weekend. I'll let you know.