About Leia remembering her mother. I must agree with you that the specific, “Your real mother” line does indeed suggest that Luke knows that Leia’s adopted, and that he was asking about her birth mother (because it’s the perfect lead-in to the fact that her mother is HIS as well). I always figured Leia was probably about 3 when her mother died. And I believe the line IS still in the super-duper version of ROTJ (which I watched about 2 weeks ago, and I’m pretty sure I’d have noticed if it were gone). I, too, was expecting to see one of Padme’s doubles die in her stead so that Vader and the Emperor would think she was dead, not necessarily intentionally, but to have it happen so they could take advantage of it. But, I think Lucas just felt that it would be better for the audience to have some closure on Padme in this film rather than either being left to assume she died of a broken heart a few years down the line, or left wondering (if they didn’t remember Leia’s comments) whatever happened to her….

So, given THAT assumption, I have two possible explanations that probably work okay for Leia telling Luke that she remembers her mother, both of which involve her being mistaken about actually remembering this stuff. Her description to Luke about her mother being, basically, “Very beautiful and very sad” fits Padme to a “T” in this movie, and very clearly, Bail Organa knew Padme fairly well, and certainly spent time with her during this very difficult time leading up to the babies being born, and her death. Assuming that Leia was told that she was adopted (which fits with JEDI), I can see her foster parents telling her about her mother when she’s very young, without telling her that her mother died in childbirth (Just that “she died when you were very young”), and the young girl getting it garbled in her memory as something she actually did remember (“Just images, feelings, really”) — or, perhaps more entertaining as a possibility, but less likely — Bail Organa looking at the little one and thinking how much she looks like Padme, and thinking about Padme, and this little potential Force user picking up the images from his mind and not realizing what she’s doing…..

Either way, she could have internalized it as something she remembered. Think about your own memories of early childhood, especially things that people have told you about, or you’ve seen photos of. It’s very easy to reach a point where you don’t know if you REALLY remember them or not…

Hey, I rationalize with the best of ‘em!

I actually didn’t mind the Emperor transformation too much, as the intensity of that scene, where Anakin makes the choice, seemed more important, then the transformation itself.
Although I have to agree with the fact that it didn’t work in ROTK.

The animated clone-Wars saga was great, the only thing that annoyed me (at first) about them was that they were only 5-10 minutes each. But when you see them all together, I suppose it can be treated as one mini-movie.

Mace Windu, was much cooler in the clone-wars.

I like the connection with ROTS where Grievous has an obvious cough, caused by Windu at the end of the Clone Wars Saga, where he crushed his insides/windpipe (if he has one), which again proves just how much lacking Mace Windu was in ROTS.

I actually didn’t find it odd that the final battle of the clone wars was one by a jedi with a blaster and not with a lighsabre, because I think it mirrors how things should be, and how future jedi’s will fight.

Consider Luke, he’s the first jedi to carry, and rely in battle on his blaster in episodes IV and V, not to mention all the books that take place afterword where jedi’s also carry blaster’s when neccesary.
Alright, Luke may not of been a full jedi in IV and V, but at least he wasn’t as arrogant as the jedi’s of the old republic were, by relying too much on their skills and reliance on the force.

I mean, look where it got them when the clones took aim, (apart from Obi-Wan and Yoda), most dead and few surviving in the galaxy.

Another words: Arrogance is the path to the dark side. (or death).

As for the “Noooooo!” being cheesy without a facial expression, it got an extra helping by being a fake voice. Those of us who’ve seen the original trilogy know that it’s a very un-Vaderlike thing to say, and the voice is so alien to the Anakin characterization that it throws you out of the moment. Sure, it’s classic characterization to show someone powerful being or seeming helpless at the start, but we didn’t get to see the full course of this with Vader-in-the-suit—namely, an eventual rise to strength—in Ep III. So, it doesn’t work.

Mace Windu…..definitely more interesting in Clone Wars. Even in the one where he had no dialogue.