"I think he is typing up a post."
...
"That's no post... it's a space station..."
"It's too big to be a space station."
"...You're right, it's just a really long post."
I only regard the original trilogy as canon, and the expanded universe material as things that COULD have happened, but don't necessarily have to and not necessarily in that exact way.
What I like about the original trilogy is that it is pretty effective in what it tells you and what it omits. It gives you just enough input to keep you invested in the story, but still leaves enough unclear to allow you to fill in the blanks. If you look at the movies with that in mind, you can actually discover some neat things.
For example, there's actually some fancy symbolism going on with the lightsabers in that trilogy. They're basically a visual cue for the progression of the characters. Luke starts out with the blue lightsaber he inherited from his father. The blue lightsaber represents the ideals of his jedi father before he became Darth Vader. Luke looks up to those ideals and so he wields his father's old weapon proudly.
Darth Vader one held up these ideals as well (illustrated by how the blue lightsaber once belonged to him), but he discarded them for the dark side. He starts using a red lightsaber, basically a corrupted form of his original weapon, symbolizing the corruption of his ideals.
Then in episode 2, Luke and Vader meet in battle. Luke confronts Vader, their ideals clash (literally, because this is a lightsaber battle), and because Luke lacks the maturity and conviction to accurately represent his ideals, Vader remains unfazed and wins. He then reveals to be Luke's father. Luke just breaks down. Everything he believed about his father and what he stands for has been a lie. He can no longer look up to his father. The ideals he tried to hold up just shatter, and to help cement that fact, this is also when his lightsaber is destroyed/lost.
Then comes episode 3. Luke has completed his jedi training and is much more secure than he has ever been. He has risen above the shame of his father, the betrayals of his old ideals. Luke has formed his own identity, reminiscent but independent of his father's. To visually represent this change, he now wields a green lightsaber, a weapon reminiscent but distinct from his father's. And in the end it is that identity, his own ideals, that allow him to redeem his father and destroy the empire.
Then a bunch of shit with Ewoks happens, buuut.... let's just ignore that!
Anyway, there is such a simple brilliance in that negligible detail, it's amazing if this was intentional. And it only works because the original trilogy is such a tightly self-contained story. This in turn is the reason why I am annoyed that outside of the original movies, red and green lightsabers are popping up everywhere. No! Bad! Those lightsabers are relevant to the characters that use them! If you put them everywhere in the hands of everyone, they lose their meaning
Sometimes less is just more in the long run.
