I only keep hoping that Anakin shows his Sith Darth Vader side on Jar-Jar. Just the first time he really cuts loose, goes balistic and really demonstrates the word "overkill" it's on Jar-Jar. Something like drop the Death Star on his head. Pop pop, squish squish, oh what a mess it is.
Lucas has had a bad time with star wars since he got kids. Don't get me wrong, kids are great, I have a couple of my own, but I don't let them comprimise my integrety.
Look at the first two movies (Episodes 4 and 5). Lukes gaurdians get char-broiled, there's a big squid in the garbage, The Millenium Falcon lands inside a worm, Theres a Rancor eating slave girls and getting it's head crushed by a gate, the scarlac (sp?) eats Boba Fett, Han gets frozen in carbonite, C-3po gets blasted to bits...
All in all, canrage and mayhem.
Then Lucas has kids.
The location of the second Death Star gets moved. It no longer orbits Kyshyk (sp?), Chewbacca's home world where his people are kept as slaves to the Imperials; Nope, now it's around Endor, and the natives there are all teddy bears. Most any death has a comical aspect. AT-ST gets it's head sandwiched between some logs, or trips on some trees, some Ewoks throw rocks on the bad guys heads, an imperial officer gets blasted and falls over backwards over a rail, Ewoks steal speeder bikes, Chewie walker-jacks an AT-ST. The only moments that are really poingant (sp?) are one of the Ewoks trying to wake up his dead friend, and Vader's indecision over whether or not to help Luke, and Vader's death. Oh, and Leia needs a bandaid for her arm.
The good guys can't be hurt, the bad guys get to die and usually in a funny manner, but the Star Wars universe has become a kinder, gentler, more marketable to drooling toddlers place to be.
You can see that the orginal vision for Star Wars would have been more true to it's first two movies if those Ewoks had been Wookies that rip arms off.
