More pain for Star Wars fans?

by Michael Edwards

They've been battered by perennial re-releases, sequels, prequels and merchandising stunts, and now it seems the loyal fans of 'Star Wars' could have more to cry about. Rumour has it that Lucas has done some tinkering with the original audio for the latest re-release, 'Star Wars: The Complete Saga', and it doesn't sound good.

Fan message boards, including TheForce.net, are buzzing with news that there is a disturbance in the original trilogy. Specifically, changes to the audio on two particular scenes.

One comes at the end of 'Return of the Jedi'. If you don't know how it ends, you'd better skip this paragraph, if you do, prepare to be shocked: it's being claimed that Lucas is adding two instances of Darth Vader turning and screaming 'Nooooo!' during the scene where he throws the Emperor to his death. Classy.

If true, the addition would create a laughable cycle for Darth Vader, whose exclamation at the end of 'Revenge of the Sith' was the case of much mockery from film fans.

The other alteration is said to be a change to the Krayt Dragon Call used by Obi-Wan Kenobi in 'A New Hope' to scare off the Tusken Raiders attacking Luke Skywalker.

Both tweaks can be heard in clips, available on YouTube, which sync supposedly leaked audio with original footage. Though the validity of the videos has yet to be officially confirmed.

The news comes after it was revealed that the puppet used for Yoda in 'The Phantom Menace' would be replaced with a CGI version.

If the news does finally convince fans to stop buying these re-releases, maybe Lucas will stop his meddling once and for all. No?