".... and Finale/End Title"

So what's everybody's favourite piece that plays during the credits? Typically a musical recap of everything thematically significant in each episode, playing the most major themes

Gotta hand it to TPM's. Anakin's theme followed by the full rendition of "Duel of the Fates" was one hell of a way to get me to stay in the theatre even if I desperately needed a bathroom break

(Side note: is there anywhere online to legally find the SE versions of the OT credits? Certain parts had to be extended to make way for the additional credits, and I'd like to hear those versions. Love me some Imperial March)

 

1. The Empire Strikes Back - It's impossible to beat the combination of the uptempo performance of Yoda's theme, Han Solo and the Princess, and the Imperial March.
2. A New Hope
3. The Force Awakens - An excellent summation of the score's narrative. The moment when Rey's theme combines with the Force theme is probably my favorite ending of any Star Wars end credits and one of my top John Williams moments in general.
4. Return of the Jedi
5. Attack of the Clones
6. The Phantom Menace - two awesome concert arrangements pasted back to back fairly unimaginatively . The Imperial March ending is killer though!
7. Revenge of the Sith - Not a fan of the extended performances of the Throne Room at the end of this one. I do love the performance of Princess Leia's theme and the well-executed transition to Battle of Heroes.

 

I never actually really like the credits suites. On the soundtracks, the music is almost always collected separately as well, making the credits suite just a repeat. For example, both Anakin's theme and Duel of the Fates have there own tracks in addition to the credits, which is pointless. The ROTS credits had a nice slowed variation of The Throne Room, but that's about it.

Now ask me about the Indy credits, and I will definitely go with Temple of Doom. That suite is phenomenal.

 

The prequel end credits suffer from "copy-and-paste" syndrome but the OT and TFA suites all feature fresh new arrangements.

I love the counterpoint of Indy's theme with Shortround's. All of the Indy films have great end credit suites, even Crystal Skull.

 

While I agree with you on ANH and ESB being something more, the ROTJ one is just Luke and Leia and the Parade of the Ewoks isn't it?

 

Mine was TFA until they changed it for the home release. Now it's probably back to Empire or ROTS.

 

Saywhat?!

What was changed?

 

It's the other way around actually, Duel of the Fates comes before Anakin's theme.

To be fair, the Throne Room section isn't part of the end credits suite in the film (and I do wonder if it was intended for the film or just as an album suite).

From a soundtrack fan point of view, the "copy and paste" versions of concert suites during the credits seem a waste, but keep in mind that you don't hear the concert version in the movie! So I do like the end credits of both Phantome Menace and Attack of the Clones (even though it's a shame the album ending isn't used!). I do think that Revenge of the Sith credits are slightly at odds with the music heard within the movie (the intention was clearly to link both trilogies).

But of course, having proper end credit suites with brilliant transitions is just awesome. Empire has the best suite probably, (although that's only because we take the suite from the first SW movie for granted), and Jedi the "worst".
Ironically, the same can be said about the Indy suites (Temple of Doom has by far the best end credits suite, while Crusade has the "worst").

 

The end credits piece of Attack of the Clones is really beautiful and powerful. It is also ominous and contains nice subtext.
Really musically sums up the movie (and the prequels).

Especially listen to the bit from 5:01 onwards to the end. Genius.

 

I love the Empire one because of the Imperial March and the TFA one because it works so well with the ending. The ANH one is also great because of how uplifting it is.

 

Right at the 4:00 mark in the soundtrack version, there's this awesome rendition of Rey's theme on some kind of horn (?) or something. It's only a few seconds but I just remember sitting in the theater and those few seconds gave me this sense of completion of the all the years of buildup and finally seeing the movie. Turns out that part is completely gone on the Blu-ray and instead there's like a minute of Scherzo For X-Wings shoved in before Kylo's theme. I mean I like Scherzo as much as the next guy but I just fell in love with those few seconds so it kind of throws the whole thing off for me.

 

My favourite track of the Jedi Steps is the Jedi Steps, although I do love how it goes from the climax of the film into the classic Star Wars outro music and the various TFA themes and the very, very end of the track is the Star Wars theme done simply with a ... piano is it? I dunno, it's a mucho powerful and subdued way to end it.

 

Temple of Doom is not only my favorite movie in the saga but also has my favorite end credits music. The "Slave Children's Crusade" theme has to be the best theme of all Indy movies. But the love theme and "Short Round's Theme" are not bad either. Too bad the soundtrack album has a shortened version of the music, not the movie version. Or is the full one available now?
As for SW it used to be ESB, but now my favorite is AOTC, because "Across the Stars" for me is easily the best piece of music in any SW movie.

 

If we're talking about the credits score, then for me the list would go a little something...a like this:

1. ROTS (captures many of my favorite bits of score from other parts of the saga, and an epic ending to an already incredible film score)
2. ESB (a nice blend of elements from throughout the film with a unique but enjoyable finale to the piece)
3. ANH (memorable themes throughout, blending perfectly with the Throne room finale, which is my favorite piece)
4. AOTC (mostly because I love the score)
5. TFA (again a nice blend of themes from the film)
6. ROTJ (I love that dramatic ending)
7. TPM (I didn't really like the TPM score other than Duel of the Fates)

If we're talking about the final iris out score just BEFORE the credits, then:

1. ANH
2. AOTC
3. ROTS
4. ROTJ
5. TFA
6. TPM
7. ESB

...But I suppose that's technically another topic...

 

Slightly different pov: I love the RotS credits suite to death, because it's the most beautiful encompassing homage to the saga. Think about it - that was it. There wasn't going to (we won't get into my personal opinion here) be any more Star Wars and John Williams chose to tie many relevant musical themes from the saga together. It bridges the gap between PT and OT in the most emotionally moving way.

 

I love the first half of the ROTS suite with the beautifully performed rendition of Leia's theme and the awesome transition into "Battle of Heroes".