Anghraine

I think Luke would always have a certain stature in the Order, even if he went off to meditate in the desert, but more as Luke Skywalker than as Grandmaster. I suspect he'd always have influence by virtue of being who he is, but he'd be fairly leery about using it. Leia, not so much. And I can definitely see it being a bone of contention between them.

Anakin would definitely stick around anyway! I suspect Luke and Leia would too and they'd be an awesome ghost triad of emotional attachment and badassery. (I could never quite believe Legacy, because it seemed incredible that Anakin wouldn't have shown up to slap some sense into his descendants by that point. I mean, if Luke's showing up to badger them, you just know Anakin would be too, and Leia's not what you'd call uninvolved either.)

I completely agree about the ... unfinishedness, I guess. The last time I watched ROTJ, I promptly ran off and wrote an AU where Vader turned back early on (it was a pre-Revenge vehicle for my other Issues With ROTJ, so there's more AUness, but that too) and thus lived to deal with the fallout. But these days I'm more interested in your scenario, since there's so much more baggage and that makes it all the more squee-worthy. :D

(I think that's partly why I like the Vader-accepting-Luke's-offer scenario -- it basically allows for the same basic thing. I've only seen it done once, too, and that version was okay but not really how I see it.)

Quality-wise, hmm, ESB has the edge for me despite its sequel-ness just because it's everything I liked about ANH only more. I'd go ESB-ANH-ROTJ-ROTS-TPM-AOTC -- so wow, we are mostly on the same page! But subjective-enjoyment-wise, I'd go ESB-ROTJ-ANH-ROTS-AOTC-TPM -- AOTC beats out TPM for the same reason that you said, ha (TPM is more consistent but kind of blah for me), ROTS because it's just so much better, and the Luke-Vader plot in ROTJ makes up for everything. ;_;

When it comes to the "lol hatred," I keep hearing people ask, "why do you keep paying attention to it if you dislike it so much?" I mean, not to me in particular, but I'm like "duh, because it's fun." I don't know, maybe not everyone enjoys disliking things quite as much as I do, but honestly given the Internet, I doubt it.

The Vader/Leia is a lot more subjective, but still. Ick. I think he says that he'd like to show her all the things he can do with his lightsaber, if she'll promise not to pass out. ...Yeah, this was before ESB.