Saga I-VI Marathons with SW "Virgins"

I eagerly await the update!

Oh, believe me, I know! I've never understood how anyone could have trouble with their identities, but I have indeed had to stop "TPM" to explain that "this isn't Luke, it's his father" to people unfamiliar with the PT, but who've seen the OT.

And no, they weren't always drunk.

While I can understand this would be a problem for some people, I haven't seen it personally. Star Wars is so ingrained in popular culture that nearly everyone has heard of "Jedi" and "The Force" and "lightsabers", so it didn't need THAT much introduction. And halfway through the film the give an explanation (a better scientific based one for the modern cynical generation IMO, than the mystical religious one of the 70s) of what exactly the Force is.
When I showed Star Wars for the first time to my little brother, I did it chronologically. He had no problem grasping the concepts in TPM without seeing the OT first, though as I said, he knew basically what Star Wars was thanks to popular culture & LEGO

He, like me, still enjoy TPM the most of the entire saga. Followed by ROTS.

Exactly. I just showed my husband TPM a couple weeks ago (sorry, haven't done a SW marathon yet, our schedules are both ridiculously hectic this month), and he stated that it was "long", I believe for these very same reasons. It was fun for me to watch, and actually, I was entertained by Palpy manipulating Queen Amidala in the senate, something I never noticed before...for some odd reason. But, I definitely think my husband was overwhelmed with the political plot. He did mention he liked the scenes with Darth Maul and Sidious. I told him that it will only get better with each film. Which I think is the beauty of showing the films in chronological order. Anywho, I think we're going to have a marathon next weekend. Sorry it has taken so long. We both attend university, so its been rough here lately.

_ _ _ _

Yes, for most people I think that's true. It reminds me, though, of the fact that the prologue to the novelization of the original Star Wars - i.e. what we now call "Episode IV: A New Hope" had already told us, long before, that Palpatine was the Emperor and thus, we could deduce, Sidious. I grant you, the novelization doesn't quite fit with the way Palpatine is portrayed on screen, but here are the lines in question:

"...the ambitious Senator Palpatine caused himself to be elected President of the Republic. He promised to reunite the disaffected among the people and to restore the remembered glory of the Republic.

"Once secure in office he declared himself Emperor, shutting himself away from the populace."
_ _ _ _

The warning was always there. Incidentally, it's the prologue to the novelization of ANH that mentions the Whills for the first time. The prologue is described as being "From the First Saga, Journal of the Whills".

Okay, we are now having a marathon. Just finished episode II and wanted to update you all.
He was highly entertained by this one. The action, the suspense, the mystery, he even liked the romance between Anakin and Padme. He knew Anakin and Padme were going to hook up in the very beginning. lol. LOTS of questions on what specifically is a Jedi and what specifically is a Sith. He was really curious about who Count Dooku was. I had to explain to him several times that he is a Sith that was once a Jedi. That the Sith are more powerful than the Jedi, but are evil. I also had to explain what the Jedi are allowed to do and what they are not allowed to do (regarding celibacy, revenge, etc) He was very impressed with the Force in this episode. Specifically the scenes where they move objects with the force. He kept asking me why Yoda was the most powerful Jedi. And was amazed by his power in the fight against Dooku. He kept saying "Coño!!!" (Venezuelan spanish for "Damnnn!!!") during the Yoda force and lightsaber scenes. He thought it was quite funny he entered and exited the scene with his walking stick.
He was also impressed with the clone army and intrigued by the mystery surrounding their origins. He also mentioned during this part of the film that he appreciated the graphics of the SW films. "Very high definition" he said.
Lastly, he has obviously heard John Williams' Imperial March before, because during the scene in which the clone troopers and ships were leaving Coruscant, he hummed right along. Even during the "I killed them all" scene, in which they play an undertone of the imperial march after Anakin spills the beans to Padme, he hummed along. BUT, he never mentioned the correlation of that song to Darth Vader. He truly has no idea what's coming. I am also very surprised, like everyone else, that he hasn't mentioned anything about Palpatine and Sidious. I guess for true SW virgin, it is very easy to miss.
Well, I am very amused that after being bored by Episode I, he is very curious after Episode II. I can't wait to see his reaction after Episode III tonight. Stay tuned y'all!

It's been forever since I've done an actual SW marathon. Obviously means I need to get on that!

Just finished episode III. Pretty much the same type of reaction to episode II. Lots of questions throughout. However, the "surprise" wasn't really much of a surprise to my husband....
He actually pieced together the Palpatine/Darth Sidious/Darth Vader mystery quite early in the film. His exact words after watching the complete film were: "When Darth Sidious was talking to Grievous about taking a younger, more powerful apprentice, and later Palpatine asked Anakin for help, I knew Palpatine was Darth Sidious and Anakin was going to turn to the dark side because he was younger and more powerful." During that very same scene (Palpatine: "I need your help, son"), my husband jumped out of his seat, pointed at Palpatine and said "He's the bad guy!!!" (I found this reaction quite suprising. The "big reveal" watching the movies chronologically is not about Anakin/Darth Vader anymore, but rather about Sidious/Palpatine). I couldn't contain myself and said, "Yes, you're right." Later, when Sidious revealed himself to Anakin and the possibility of saving his wife from death, my husband said he naturally assumed that Anakin was going to turn because, duh, he loved his wife so much. BUT, he did not correlate the "man in the big black suit" to Anakin UNTIL Darth Sidious gave him that name, and when he did, his eyes shot over to me in surprise, because "Darth Vader" didn't look the part to him, so he was confused. It wasn't until after Vader was put into the suit that everything all made sense. Near the end of the film, when Vader joined Sidious, I remember he said "That sucks" and I said "Well, we have 4, 5, and 6 to find out what happens, though!" and he said quite excitedly, "Ok yeah, we're going to watch all three episodes tomorrow, right??!!!!!" to which I said yes, then he said "That was very interesting. I really liked it alot." And then he got up and like a little boy, turned on an invisible lightsaber and swung it around as he made his way to the kitchen......LOL. I believe I have hooked my husband on Star Wars. I feel very accomplished right now.

I'm really interested to hear all these perspectives on people seeing I-VI for the first time. I've been a diehard since I was 7 (24 now) and I just assumed that everyone had seen Star Wars. I couldn't believe it when I started dating my girlfriend because she had never seen any of them and knew so little that she wasn't even aware that Vader was Luke's father. She also had the impression that SW kinda sucked and that it was only appealing to sci-fi nerds. Since I'm an OT fan and I, personally, think I and II are the weakest, I decided to introduce her to the OT first because I felt those were the best and would best convince her of the greatness of SW. I was like "I'll only make you watch the original 3 and you can watch the prequels after - only if you want to." I kinda knew she would want to - haha.

Her reactions to each movie:
IV: Resisted at first, made fun of the weirdness of it - aliens, spaceships, talking robots, etc. Scoffed at seeing Vader the first time ("I bet he dies in the end," she said. I was thinking yeah, but not at all in the way you're imagining...). The movie settled in and she got into it through Luke and then later Han and Leia. About halfway through, she made a comment like "this is like Harry Potter." Ironic, because Harry Potter is like Star Wars, but at that point I knew she was into it - she was looking beyond the surface level appearance of it and thinking in terms of character development/plot structure. The next day, she was like "you know, that movie was really good!" I was like no sh** - haha.

V: Now convinced that SW was pretty good, she was excited because she said ESB is the one she had heard of the most. She was into the Han/Leia romance (she finds Han really sexy) and she LOVED Yoda. When I found out she didn't know the Vader/Luke relationship, I guarded that secret like crazy until we watched this movie. She was absolutely STUNNED to find that out - I would say this fundamentally shifted her perception of the saga - Vader wasn't just the big, bad guy anymore. He now had depth and she needed to find out what happened to him.

VI: Excited to see Yoda again but devastated when he died. Excited to have Han back out of the carbonite. Loathed the Emperor and thought the Ewoks were cute and lovable. Generally enjoyed it and - again - was stunned when Darth Vader came to the rescue in the end. Also, she didn't know who Hayden Christensen was when he popped up in the end. I had to explain that it was Anakin/Vader and she was like "why is he younger?" She now had high respect for the saga and wanted to see the rest.

I: We saw it at the theater in 3D. She wore a SW t-shirt and we brought lightsabers. Now, I did tell her that I thought the OT was better than the PT, but I told her that I still enjoy the PT and I didn't go into any specifics at all. Like, I didn't mention anything about Jar Jar or little Anakin or anything. She came out of the movie excited - she thought it was overall pretty good, but she said that she felt the characters were generally less interesting than the OT characters. She found Jar Jar to be insufferable - I was relieved, I was worried she might actually like him - haha! She missed some of the iconic OT elements such as the Death Star, Vader, the Big 3, the Imperial March, Wookiees, etc. She enjoyed the podrace and the Darth Maul duel, though, and said that it was "the best 3D movie she's ever seen."

II: Watched this one recently. I told her it was a little better than I. After the movie, I think she disagreed with me. This was her least favorite so far. She didn't buy into the Anakin/Padme relationship at all and that really took her out of it, I think. She found Anakin creepy and called him a "stage-6 clinger" and wondered aloud what Padme saw in him. She described their scenes together as "Bachelor-dates." This took her out of it so much that she didn't really enjoy the final battles at the end because she didn't really care about these characters. I also realized that some of the things I like about this movie - such as the birth of Stormtroopers, the beginning of the Clone Wars, and Jango Fett - are things I like because they harken back to story elements from the OT and weren't quite as interesting to her.

III: She hasn't seen it yet. So far, she sees SW as taking place in two different worlds - the OT world and the PT world and she's a bit confused at their connection. III will clear up most of her confusion, I think. Then I hope we'll rewatch the OT so she sees the complete story in order. Also, she hasn't made the connection that Sidious is Palpatine yet. Of course she knows Anakin's future now, but I'm very interested to see how she reacts to his turn, especially considering that she didn't like him that much in II. I also look forward to her realizing that Palpatine was the Emperor the whole time.

I am wondering if people who see the OT first generally like the PT less than people who see it I-VI. It could be possible. However, my cousin was a SW virgin so I introduced it to him a few years back. I can't say as much about him because I didn't actually watch them with him, I simply lent him the DVDs. I introduced him the same way - IV - VI, I - III. He, however, is a huge PT fan and considers it as good as the OT. He even told me recently that he likes Jar Jar because you grow up with him throughout the PT. I am always interested in hearing more about people's first experiences with SW.

It will also be interesting when the ST comes out to see how the viewing order changes. I don't think most people start with IV - VI because then what would you do, go I - III after that and then VII - IX? Seems too confusing. Seems like I - IX would pretty much become standard viewing order.

He drank the cool aid! bwahahahahaha

Finished 4, 5, and 6 yesterday night. I believe these episodes further hooked him in line and sinker!

Episode 4- He was really put off by the downgrade in technology in this one. I had explained to him several times before I started ANH that the technology would not be as good in this one, but I guess he didn't understand my meaning. I told him that ANH was made in 1977 and he was totally confused by it. I had to go into complete detail on the film history of Star Wars so that he could understand me lol. Anyway, I think he was sort of bored by the beginning of the movie until Obi Wan came in. He really really LOVED the jedi mind tricks that Obi Wan was so fond of using. When Obi Wan told Luke how his father died- he was like: "No!!! He's lying!", and I was like "Yeah, he doesn't want Luke to really find out". ESB and ROTJ cleared that up for him, though....
He asked me where "the little green frog" was. lol. I told him he would come in the next episode. He later expressed to me that his favorite character is Yoda. He also likes Chewbacca. Anyway, his reaction to this film was sort of dry compared to II and III, but he didn't hate it, it just was "okay".

Episode 5- I could tell he liked this one. Mainly due to the storyline. He really loved the scenes in Dagobah with Yoda. What was interesting for him (and me!!) to notice while watching these films chronologically is that you know something bad is going to happen when Anakin and Luke try to "save" or "help" one of their friends/family. You start to see a pattern in almost every episode, and you almost are fighting for Luke to stay on Dagobah with Yoda when he's spouting off a rescue mission to save his friends. Because of his father's history behind your belt, you want to stop him. That was really fun for me to experience and relive as a SW fan, and I shared this with my husband: "He's trying to save his friends, just like his father", to which he nodded his head in agreement. Of course when Vader told Luke of his heritage, he wasn't surprised by it. But I could tell by this part of the movie he was totally engrossed in it. I've never seen my husband watch three movies, let alone two movies straight through without him falling asleep. He was totally mesmerized and I don't blame him. You get a totally different experience watching them chronologicaly. It's almost as if you are watching Shakespeare. At least, that is the feeling I got from this experience.

Episode 6- I told him that in this one he would see a return of Darth Sidious, which was exciting for him. He really liked Leia in that metal bikini, too. LOL. I did not expect that of him, but he had sort of crush going on for Leia during that part of the movie. Ha! No male is unimpressed by Leia and her metal bikini. I guess I'm going to have to buy a metal bikini for a special occassion. LOL.
Moving on.....He was sad that Yoda died (I was like "he's 900 years old, dude!!), but was intrigued by his vanishing body. I had to explain to him the whole Qui Gon discovering this new immortality who in episode three passed on to Yoda, who passed it on the Obi Wan. He was like "Ohhhhhh!!". That information served him when Vader died and Ankin turned into a force ghost. I told him Luke was merely burning his armor.
Anyway, he was very impressed with the way things turned out with the redemption of Anakin and the death of the Emperor. At the end of the movie, all he could say was "Wow." which was quickly followed up by "When is the next movie coming out???!!!!!" I then informed him about episode 7 coming out in 2015.
I remember feeling so happy when he asked me that question. I'm no longer an isolated SW chic! Yay!

He mentioned to me that the movies were "very fun". What he loved the most was the storyline and the adventure/fantasy that the films delivered. I can tell that we will be watching the films again in the very near future, he really had a good experience watching them, and it was really fun for me as an avid SW fan.

And with that folks, my husband's SW virginity has officially been taken. Glad I was his first. LOL.

Oh I believe he drank the koolaid and licked the glass it came in.

Mata2010, I would like to insert here that from reading your tales I have come to one conclusion:

Best.Girlfriend.Ever!!!

This thread is making me dream about one day buying a "complete saga" 9-movie set, then show those to my kids the moment they hit 4 years old.

I think it's funny how almost nobody, after viewing the complete saga, says they don't like Star Wars. Most of the people I know who say they don't like it have only seen bits and pieces, and dismiss it because hey don't like Sci Fi films in general.

Best Wife. Yes. And thank you very much!

Ha! This is sort of off-topic but, what a nice parallel for my husband after watching the emperor being overthrown in SW on Sunday and being told on Tuesday that the oppressive leader of his country has died! What's even better is that he was once very involved with the opposition over there (until an attempt was made on his life). Anyway, I guess thats not too off topic. I just see a rather nice parallel. I told him that now people in Venezuela are having a party much like the one at the end of ROTJ. lol.

Many people have said this and I agree, you start with the original and then the prequels. You don't want to ruin the moment when Vader reveals himself as Luke's father. It makes you want to see his fall to the dark side. And starting a 6 movie saga with the worst of them in the phantom menace might make a person quit and not give the other movies a shot.

I didn't have this sort of issue. Maybe this holds true for some, but for others, not so much. Yeah TPM is hard to digest at first, but actually I really quite enjoyed watching them chronologically. Like I said, its like watching Shakespeare. And just read my posts above. Watching them this way obviously doesn't disapoint. Yeah, it's only one experience, but it seems to me that those who watch the OT first are put off by the PT.

Anyway, this is not a thread about the best way to watch the saga. It is about SW virgin experiences. There are tons of threads for that sort of discussion elsewhere.

*Not trying to act like a mod....(sorry)

Absolutely right

And this thread proves otherwise.

I forgot this thread was the be end of all

Guys lets not turn this into a debate on which order the films should be viewed in. Personally I think each (Chronological, Release, and Flashback) have their unique advantages and disadvantages. But this thread deserves its own dedicated topic because so few people (though the number will grow as time goes on) actually get to see the films for the first time in chronological order. So lets keep that discussion pure.

That line makes completely no sense in context, terrible writing.

So you're a pregnant Padme, and your husband betrays everything he believed in (the Jedi), everything you believed in (Democracy), murders children and just choked you to the point of unconsciousness. Somehow she feels there is still good in him. (A) that's the first indication that she knows that, presumably through the force because Luke says the same thing later and he knows it through the force, and Padme has never, ever shown any force sensitivity whatseover; (B) As she's laying there dying for no apparent reason and not showing any will whatsoever for the two fatherless babies she has just brought into the world, she's worried about her murderous, choking husband being redeemed, when she doesn't even know how far he's fallen since she asks if he is "all right" when they leave Mustafar. Also since he literally just turned, and did such inexplicably evil things topped by slaughtering children, who is even worried about whether there is "still" good in him? Is that how people react when their loved ones go on a rampage? Did any of Christopher Dorner's family say there was still good in him???

Do I have that just about right?