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Interesting read.

Now, all they need to do is find another Star Wars viring and have him/her watch it in the order that it was released for a proper comparison.

As pointed out by others, I think this confirms that watching Star Wars from I-VI does indeed remove the shock and awe value.

I don't understand why anyone would consider it "the way it was intended" to watch in order from I-VI. IIRC George once stated that he wanted the audience to be dropped into the middle of the story like many were with the old Flash Gordon shows or something to that effect.

George says a lot of shit, though.

I've become a firm believer that watching it chronologically is the best way. I used to think the narrative order might be better, but that was more musing on 'what if I could watch it over again' and this article has effectively dispelled that notion.

Stofsk wrote:George says a lot of shit, though.

I've become a firm believer that watching it chronologically is the best way. I used to think the narrative order might be better, but that was more musing on 'what if I could watch it over again' and this article has effectively dispelled that notion.

I think that the ideal order is either IV-V-VI-I-II-III or IV-V-I-II-II-VI. It might be best to leave ROTJ for last so that the true resolution of the story is saved for the end, for direct comparison with ROTS. All of the surprises except Leia's true identity are saved, and even that is still a surprise, except that it is placed at the end of III instead of midway through VI.

Fire Fly wrote:As pointed out by others, I think this confirms that watching Star Wars from I-VI does indeed remove the shock and awe value.

We (my friends and I) had this debate during the all-day marathon last year. In certain respects, yeah, some stuff doesn't play as well anymore (most notably the ESB revelation and Kenobi's revelations to Luke in ROTJ regarding how he found Anakin; much as I love the character, this sequence is why I wish Lucas had stuck with his early drafts for TPM and not created Qui-Gon; Kenobi's spirit is essentially channeling Qui-Gon's spirit there, now. )

That having been said, I found ROTJ plays much better now because of I through III. First and foremost, Vader turning on the Emperor is vastly improved as we have seen the history between these two men (and that Anakin is right back where he was midway through ROTS) . And as we have seen Anakin's descent in darkness, Luke appears even crazier and insane to think he can bring his father back from the Dark Side. I also find Act 1 and Jabba's role in ROTJ more tolerable now because of the prequels (we learn in TPM the Hutts control Tatooine, Anakin vows to free the planet and his mother, then loses interest after her death in AOTC. Thus, four films later, his son and friends wrap up this loose end and complete the quest that his father did not).

I almost envied those who saw them in original order, so I too could have enjoyed the shock and surprise of some of the plot's twists and turns.

The only two twists I can remember are Vader and Leia being Luke's family. Sure, the first is cinema history, but isn't that also the downside? Most people know about it either by word or by seeing a parody. It's become much more fun watching Luke and Vader interact afterwards, since they have to deal with the aftermath of the revelation.

The movie comes off as childish and vague

Now, I've gone from loving TPM to just liking it and forwarding most of the Jar-Jar parts, but this is a bit hilarious. GL said he wanted TPM to be a children's movie and lo and behold the guy says it's childish. I guess he succeeded.

And I also like how people whine about things not being explained in the first act. Sure it's nice to have Obi-Wan "explain" that the Force is a mystical energy field and Yoda elaborating later on, but in a way that's now an alternate surprise for later (chronologically speaking), since Luke's parentage and sibling secrets are already revealed in ROTS.

And, yes, ROTJ is much better off thanks to the PT. Before, Palpatine was a cackling old man who was powerful because.... everyone said he was... wooooo. The Prequels actually fleshed him out and gave him a proper background and a reason for Vader to fear and serve him in the OT.

Me and my friends watched the whole saga in order. Although we were passing out by ROTJ from a combination of fatigue and alcohol.

I'd say Episode 1 was painfully slow.

Episode 2+3 went really quickly and were a great relief.

Episode 4 was slow.

Episode 5 went quickly and was enjoyed by all.

Episode 6 dragged like hell and we were all relieved it was over. But then again it was about 2am by then

Fire Fly wrote:Now, all they need to do is find another Star Wars viring and have him/her watch it in the order that it was released for a proper comparison.

As pointed out by others, I think this confirms that watching Star Wars from I-VI does indeed remove the shock and awe value.

My friend Megan has never sat through an ENTIRE Star Wars movie. But she likes the Ewoks, so I don't know if she is a good test subject.

Pax Britannia wrote:Episode 2+3 went really quickly and were a great relief

This is a strange one; despite loving it in theates, I got bored through AOTC during the marathon. Maybe it was the Anakin/Padme scenes, maybe it was the fact that it was dawning on me then just how massive an undertaking we were engaged in, I don't really now. But I felt massive relief as we got nearer to the halfway mark.

11/25 Update -- My sister and I did an all-day marathon yesterday. Yep, AOTC is still boring as hell.

Episode 6 dragged like hell and we were all relieved it was over.

Same here; even having started at 10 A.M., we were all burned out by the time it ended at 1 A.M. It got to the point where I just went "Come on Vader, please turn on the fucker [Palpatine] so we can so to sleep."

VT-16 wrote:And I also like how people whine about things not being explained in the first act. Sure it's nice to have Obi-Wan "explain" that the Force is a mystical energy field and Yoda elaborating later on, but in a way that's now an alternate surprise for later (chronologically speaking), since Luke's parentage and sibling secrets are already revealed in ROTS.

one problem. the heritage thing got scewered towards the end (the prequels) because in the original trilogy in the ROTJ Novelization this is the quote on who Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen were

James Kahn wrote:pg66
When your father left he didnt know your mother was pregnant. Your mother and I knew that he would find out eventually. So we wanted to keep you both safe as possible. So I took you to live with my brother Owen on Tatooine.

but then Georgie boy Lucas made Obi-wan a loser who was going to work as an AgriCorps flunked out Jedi until Qui-Gon rescued him and made him great. All Lucas has to do is relese the originial original stories on books thats all Im asking of him

and the correct viewing of it is I-VI. My problem with the Prequels is that i already knew Anakin was going to screw the Jedi and become Darth Vader

but we all had fun with the marathon last year, good times good times. Even though i wasnt invited to the great SD.net marathon, i had one myself. Watching I-VI and even the Ewok movies. I started at 4am watched TPM then fell asleep woke up at 1pm and said...oh wow ill watch II. Did that at like 2pm and when ROTS ended at like 5pm i said nah and watched the Ewoks the next morning and then officially gave up
good times good times

If George really wanted ep 1 watched first, he would have made ep 1 back in 1977.

The only part of TPM that I find cringe inducing is Amidala begging Boss Nass for help.

Darth Servo wrote:If George really wanted ep 1 watched first, he would have made ep 1 back in 1977.

The only part of TPM that I find cringe inducing is Amidala begging Boss Nass for help.

No he made Star Wars and not Ep I because he couldn't sell that part of the story. As we all saw, it was boring and to much to set up. He should have done with Ep I what he did with Star Wars and just drop us right in the middle of a story again and not try to explain every little thing.

My favourite Star Wars movie is ESB, and the same is true for most of my friends. What was odd after the marathon is that we all agreed that we enjoyed ROTS the most. Now I'm conflicted

Pax Britannia wrote:My favourite Star Wars movie is ESB, and the same is true for most of my friends. What was odd after the marathon is that we all agreed that we enjoyed ROTS the most. Now I'm conflicted

Not that odd. ESB is technically one of the better written and best playing movies in the series, but RotS is very enjoyable if not as good. It's dramatic (if cheesily so at times), it's got action, it's got eye candy... what's not to like?

The scripts in the earlier movies are significantly stronger. The dialogue is more mature and smart. They had to be, if he was going to get the funding to continue his saga. For the newer Episodes, you can practically see George sitting at his Mac on top of his pile of money and giggling as he types lines line ''Whoa, that's tense'' and ''How rude!'' I looked it up and he was never a writer for Full House, which means he came up with those ditties all on his own. It could be the 4 o'clock in the morning talking, but it's almost as if he didn't have anyone proofreading his scripts. And did he even hire a casting director?

So true.

Hmm, initially I was thinking of recommending that any SW virgins I may come upon (perhaps my offspring, someday) watch the prequel trilogy first.
This has made me reconsider; I think that 456123 or 451236 might be a better choice, after all. Good thread, this.


As an aside, I don't think marathons are a good idea. I used to be in the whole gung-ho "if you're a real fan you'd watch them all back to back" camp, but after some thought I considered that the in-universe interval between the various movies ranges from three to twenty years.. so I'd actually rather have someone wait between six hours to a full day between viewings of the various movies.

The exception (perhaps counter-intuitively) would be between The Empire Strikes Back and The Phantom Menace, assuming I had someone watch the saga in the 451236 order.


Also, how do the Clone Wars animated series fit into the deflowering of the SW virgin? What do you guys think?

Cykeisme wrote: Also, how do the Clone Wars animated series fit into the deflowering of the SW virgin? What do you guys think?

Nice but fairly unnecessary. Put them where they're supposed to be-- between AotC and RotS if you decide to throw 'em in.

Galvatron wrote:

The scripts in the earlier movies are significantly stronger. The dialogue is more mature and smart. They had to be, if he was going to get the funding to continue his saga. For the newer Episodes, you can practically see George sitting at his Mac on top of his pile of money and giggling as he types lines line ''Whoa, that's tense'' and ''How rude!'' I looked it up and he was never a writer for Full House, which means he came up with those ditties all on his own. It could be the 4 o'clock in the morning talking, but it's almost as if he didn't have anyone proofreading his scripts. And did he even hire a casting director?

So true.

Uh, Lucas paid for all the movies out of his own pocket except the first one.

My nephews watched the movies in order 1-6. They were very sad at the end of ROTJ. The six-year-old said: "Anakin has a saaaaaaaaad life!"

A girl I used to date only saw AOTC, which she considered unintentional comedy (She kept laughing at "Oh Annie!"). We watched the others with some friends, in order: 1, then 3, then 4-6. She was almost in tears when Anakin strangled Padme and when Anakin died. I was also taken aback. I hadn't seen ROTJ since it was re-released in 1997 (it's my least favorite), but it was greatly improved because of the prequels and was rather moving.

She also said "No wonder you like Harrison Ford in these movies. He's a smartass and a jerk, too."

I take it your preferred model of viewing, Elfdart, is the so-called narrative order? I-II-III-IV-V-VI?

My prefered viewing is ep1, The Clone Wars cartoons, ep3, ep4, ep5, ep6 the Ewok adventures, Droids, The Holiday Special, read the EU novels, the rpgs, comic books, play with the toys, fuck KT in her ass and THEN maybe... maybe watch ep2.

havokeff wrote:My prefered viewing is ep1, The Clone Wars cartoons, ep3, ep4, ep5, ep6 the Ewok adventures, Droids, The Holiday Special, read the EU novels, the rpgs, comic books, play with the toys, fuck KT in her ass and THEN maybe... maybe watch ep2.

You take exception to ep2 but not ep1? Care to explain that one?

I still perfer the IV-V-I-II-II-VI "flashback" viewing method. By watching the saga in that order, the more-effective intro into the universe as provided by the OT is preserved, as is the surprise of the Vader revelation. Though inserting the PT after ESB does mix up the stylistic flow of the second trilogy somewhat, it does add significant emotional emphasis to ROTJ.

Darth Servo wrote:

havokeff wrote:My prefered viewing is ep1, The Clone Wars cartoons, ep3, ep4, ep5, ep6 the Ewok adventures, Droids, The Holiday Special, read the EU novels, the rpgs, comic books, play with the toys, fuck KT in her ass and THEN maybe... maybe watch ep2.

You take exception to ep2 but not ep1? Care to explain that one?

I obviously can't speak for him, but I've seen complaints about Episode 2 not "feeling" like Star Wars. IIRC, Wong has mentioned that AotC is his least favourite becasue of that reason. Me, I put it both above TPM and ANH. It's by far the funniest movie (made me laugh the most), and I'm a total sucker for all the action that happens in Geonosis.

I realize that there are, of course, a limited number of loved ones we'll each have in our lives, and a further limited number of those to which we'll be able to gift with their first exposure to Star Wars.

However, assuming we had an unlimited number of folks to experinent on (or found out how to properly lobotonize/electrocute our loved ones to wipe their memories over and over again), I can think of a few experimental Star Wars exposure methods.

Here's one zany one:
Do the 4, 5, [1, 2, 3], 6 "flashback" method.. but when (and perhaps a bit before and after) Vader speaks the line, "Luke.. *I* am your father", you mute the set.

That way, they know quite a bit about Vader and how mean he is. The black, armored monstrosity will be well established.. but the moment at which the link is cemented beyond all doubt that the kid becomes the tyrant is when Sidious dubs our tragic character "Lord......... Vader."

Too farfetched, for a number of reasons, perhaps. Any thoughts?