When all three prequels are released, there will most certainly be a box set that includes the three Special Edition films as well as the prequels, in both VHS and DVD format. First of all, how will the tapes be arranged? 1-2-3-4-5-6 or 4-5-6-1-2-3? If it is the latter, then perhaps there is the implication that the movies are indeed meant to be watched in chronological order of production. If it runs from 1-6, then perhaps they are to be watched in that order. But until then, the order in which the Star Wars saga is to be watched is completely shrouded in ambiguity.

Suppose we watch the completed six-film saga in order, beginning with TPM and ending with ROTJ. Since George has confirmed that ROTJ is the ending, then isn't the ending of the entire Star Wars saga a little too... expected? This is sort of like watching Citizen Kane's ending, and come out knowing that "Rosebud" is Kane's sled for twenty years before watching how it begins. (Now, I do hope that you have watched Citizen Kane, because I just spoiled the ending.)

Firstly, we know that Anakin becomes Darth Vader. Who doesn't? It has been published in every newspaper and entertainment magazine. Never mind that a local cable channel thought that Anakin was actually a young Luke. Never mind that Entertainment Tonight said Princess "Leah" (Leia) was going to be in the prequels, when she isn't even supposed to be conceived until the end of the third episode. But that is a moot point when you consider that, watching the first trilogy, you already know that Luke is going to be Darth Vader's son. ESB's lightsaber sequence ("I am your father!") will no longer be a climatic turning point as it was the first time I watched the trilogy; it will merely be confirmation of the obvious.

Now, even though everyone knows that Anakin becomes Darth, why not hide it so "future generations" can watch the six episodes in order and be surprised when we find out Darth Vader is Luke's father, and therefore can reason that Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader only then, and not before? Let's say that Anakin turns to the Dark Side in Episode III, near the beginning. Later, OB1 kills him in the much-rumoured lava pit sequence that originated from some novelization. The movie would be about the fact that Queen Amidala is pregnant, and OB1 tries to hide her. Then, suddenly, the greatest enemy yet appears; it is none other than Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith. George should make sure that there is no connection between Darth and Anakin until ESB.

Now, of course, we will know that OB1 is lying when he tells Luke back in the Tatooine farm-boy days that Darth Vader killed his father. We can reason that OB1 feels so much guilt over the fight between Anakin and himself that he decides the best thing to tell the young son of Skywalker that everything can be blamed on Darth Vader. Can you imagine how disappointed Luke would be if he found out that Old Ben of the Dune Sea killed his father (or so we should think, if Episode III follows my plan)?

For this to work, it would have to be mentioned in Episode III that Luke is Anakin's son. There should obviously be no mention of Leia, because that would spoil ROTJ. I never thought making Leia the "other hope" and Luke's sister was a very good idea anyways, and it was never well-developed in the first place. I still suspect that George threw that in because he forgot what he was doing in ESB when Yoda slipped in that line: "There is another."