Watching Star Wars: What Order?

Television, Movies Games and Books Star Wars
#1

For those of us planning on participating in the Star Wars re-watch, he real question is, which order to rewatch in?

1-2-3-4-5-6, or 4-5-6-1-2-3? Or another technique (no skipping! This isn’t Black Market territory, people.)

I’ve done both in the past, and I don’t really like either! 1-2-3-4-5-6 gets me in the transition from 3-4 - I have to admit, I was never really into Star Wars until the prequels. Part of this probably has to do with I’m the oldest, I was only born for Return of the Jedi, and I wasn’t obsessively into anything until about middle school anyways (Pern novels and MZB… ah, fantasy.) the style change just shocks me. Plus I miss my pretty Darth Vader.

…but 4-5-6-1-2-3 sure ends on a downer. The last few times I watched it that way, at the end of 3 I watch the end of Return of the Jedi (Luke, tell your sister, you were right…). Thoughts? What are your plans?

#2

I’m fond of 4-5 myself.

Quit while you’re ahead.

#3

Ouch. Not that I can really say anything, since I do skip BM in my BSG rewatches… and parts of Ep. 1… and parts of Empire (sorry!).

To each their own. But it’s interesting nonetheless.

#4

Lucas’ preferred order is in sequence 1-6, to appreciate the full story. The fall and redemption of Anakin Skywalker. IMO, it just doesn’t feel right when I watch it like that. I’ve always preferred watching in the order of production. You can appreciate the progression of the technical achievements.

#5

And more importantly, the evolution of the story.

OTOH, the nonsensical nature of it in “Chronological” order may be more telling.

Han’s scepticism about the Jedis was one that rankled me in particular. (And yeah, you can come up with an explanation. The fact that you have to is telling.)

Have I pimped The Secret History of Star Wars (free PDF. Whoever hipped me to that take a bow) in the past five minutes? No. Well, done.

#6 
*takes a bow* ;)
#7

That never bothered me. That’s just who Han is. The cool kid who doesn’t need to be bothered with such trivial things.

I’ve been meaning to try 6-5-4-3-2-1. Haven’t gotten around to it yet.

#8

I’m going to try 4-5-The first fifteen minutes of 2-the last half hour of 2

That’s about all I could take in one sitting.

#9

I’ve done that. Also, 2-4-6-1-3-5, 1-3-5-2-4-6, etc. I’m sick I know. I’ve done it with the Star Trek films as well.

#10

Oh, my! You did that with Star Trek. Hell, you coulda skipped the odd ones (well, ST3 was okay). I was down with the Star Wars movies until the Ewoks and the Gungans.

#11

How about 2-4-6 1-3-5? Just to be weird.

Makes the story end very strangely for Han Solo too…

#12

Wait…ONE sitting? I don’t think I could do that. It’s been 15 years since I’ve been able to watch 4-6 in one sitting. I’m just too damn old now.

#13

LOL

I have to give ya props for going outside the box.

This would be an interesting combo…
1-4-2-5-3-6 or 4-1-5-2-6-3

#14

I had this discussion with a friend recently who wanted to see what the whole epic was about but stalled out on Star Wars after seeing the Phantom Menace (“meh, this is not for me”). She thought 1-6 was the way to go… but the more I thought about it I had to disagree and go with in order of release.

Mainly the surprises and screenwriting gems of the Original movies each and as a whole are established in 4-6. Arguably, those motifs worked best in those movies as well. The recurring themes don’t feel like they originated in 1-3 but served more as inside jokes or fanservice. Watching the series, as 1-6, weakens the wit and cleverness of the original writing by turning much of the dialog, surprises and key moments from rather ‘epic storytelling with a serious narrative’ into ‘nudging jokes and childish irony.’

I don’t go as far as others and say “Lucas raped my childhood” but his prequels had the unintentional effect of lowering the quality his original work. Almost outright making a farce of 4-6. Personally I don’ think the fancy CGI added much to the stories other than make it easier to sell more toys.

As someone who really enjoyed and was greatly inspired by Star Wars, I do agree 4-6 is the best way to go, then quit while you are ahead :stuck_out_tongue: It’s kinda like listening to a symphony orchestra play Mozart but first listening to children play the same music on kazoos. Not that Lucas is Mozart or anything like that, of course. haha

(I also thought the “special Edition” was actually pretty cool… tho the effects didn’t always work… I enjoyed the majority of the added or redone content. I would recommend them for th emost part… but some f the changes which stall the story or just have clearly mismatched effects are a bad move… but on the whole, the gains outweigh the flaws and the original holds up.)

#15

4-5-6.
The End.
Although I have to look away when a young Hayden Christiansen appears next to an old Alec Guinness.
(Alec: If only I were made of crude matter right now, instead of this luminous craaaap, I’d smack you upside the pretty head.)

#16

So we discussed this quite a bit, and I think we’re going to attack them in story chronological order: I-II-III-IV-V-VI.

Why? Well, in standard GWC style we’re not going to as much critique the specifics of the movies as dive into the story and characters. Yeah, Jar Jar will definitely get smacked a bit. But really the story in the prequels is quite deep and fun. The tough part is that a) it takes some research (which we’ll help with if you haven’t done it yourself already) to get what’s going on, b) it’s difficult to surpress the “IhatethemIhatethemIhatethem” or “they’renotasgoodastheothersthey’renotasgoodastheothers” and just enjoy what’s there, and c) it’s been a while since they were in theaters.

Anyway, I think it’s going to be a lot of fun, and I really look forward to everyone’s opinion on the whys and hows. How much of Anakin’s mess can you really forgive? Any? Did Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and others set him up for failure? How does a whole people just give themselves over to the Empire – and how does that relate to situations where we’ve done that here on Earth. Great, great stuff.

And don’t forget the expanded universe. Some here on the board have already mapped out the novels for you, and I’ve put a couple of months into developing a massive Dark Horse Star Wars comic “compleat” timeline. It’s an ungodly-sized spreadsheet right now, but I’ll get it formatted and out on the site somewhere before we jump in.

#17

LOL
Here’s my Fanboy in denial justification… The reason we see young Anakin, instead of crusty Anakin, is because when he was young is when he truly died as a Jedi. At the end when Luke redeemed his father he saved that young vibrant Jedi and not the old twisted husk that Vader became.

#18

So are you taking calls ahead of time or will this run a series of podcasts treating different parts of the story on their own? I definitely want to share how Star Wars affected me and my professional life, but there is much to discuss.

Also, our very own Philosopher Jedi edited the Star Wars and Philosophy book in the Pop Culture and Philosophy series. Not that we have to read it, but it adds to a further exploration of the deeper themes in the films.

#19

We’re happy to take calls now – we’ll just queue them up for the proper podcast. Besides all the individual episodes, we’re also going to do at least one “all call” 'cast just to share and relate to everyone’s personal experiences. In fact, don’t be afraid to call more than once for separate comments – like one about episode whatever and another more personal story, etc. We’ll handle 'em. I’ve got folders ready.