‘Star Wars’ fans realize they should have expected the prequels after George Lucas’s cringeworthy ‘Return of the Jedi’ edit

The changes George Lucas inserted into the original Star Wars trilogy have become notorious and are generally viewed as making the films worse, but one scene, in particular, foreshadows some of the worst qualities of the prequels, and fans hate it more than Anakin hates sand.

This particular scene happens near the beginning of Return of the Jedi and features an extended song and dance number that was spliced into the original footage. Naturally, George had to add a bunch of poorly animated CG characters who stick out like sore thumbs next to the original physical puppets who are also on-screen. 

But that’s not all. The worst part about this scene is the song one of Jabba’s singers, known as Sy Snootles, sings. Her weird design, mixed with the not-very-good animation and annoying music, make for one of the most cringe-inducing scenes in Star Wars history. Why George Lucas thought it was a good idea to add this scene is a mystery. If you haven’t seen it, feel free to subject yourself to one of the most painful sensory experiences ever put to film.

Fans took to Reddit to discuss the awful scene and they weren’t exactly singing its praises, with many taking the opportunity to completely dunk on it.

Not only that, but fans couldn’t understand how we didn’t see the prequels coming with all the bad decisions that Lucas made with these changes.

The prequels have a lot of the same problems as the edited trilogy, and this scene encapsulates most of them into a minute-and-a-half-long nightmare sequence. The original sequence — largely lost to time unless you own one of those ancient VHS devices — featured a puppet version of Sy Snootles as well as a completely different musical number.