Saga I want to introduce someone ( I know right?) to star wars.. where do I begin?

Just skip Star Wars and watch Willow instead!

 

Don't worry about spoiling the twists. Did knowing about them ever ruin your experience of the saga? I mean, I know as a movie lover that we like to keep things as fresh as possible for newbies, but these films are enjoyable either way.
But I like the idea that some people are suggesting, of showing them ANH first then in chronological episode order. The main reason being that the PT are so full of action and eye candy that the OT may feel a bit dull to them by comparison. Also, as others have said, ANH is the best intro to the GFFA all around, so I would start there and then go to either TPM or TESB.
What was the order you first saw them in, btw? You may just want to replicate that. Enjoy rediscovering the saga with your friend!

 

I'm sorry, we agreed? No, we didn't.

 

*Sarge waves his hand mysteriously*

This is the agreement you're looking for.

 

"Your mind powers will not work on me, boy."

 

"You should have bargained, darth-sinister."

 

I-II-III-IV-V-VI

 

I have introduced my wife to the saga....
Since I wanted to see her reaction when Vader revealed he was Luke's father, I had played them by the release order: 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3....

At first, Vader meant nothing... He was just another bad guy... If he had died, she wouldn't care...
Then she got AMAZED by Vader being Luke's father....

She had LOVED whenever Luke had called him "father", she was absolutely sure that Luke would bring him to the light....
When Vader died, she cried....

When we were seeing the episodes 1 and 2, she liked very much Anakin because he "was" Darth Vader, and he was somehow "alive" again...
When Anakin got burned she cried a lot.... She was deeply sad about the dark future he was about to have....

So I had asked her if she would like to have seen the saga in the chronological order, and she told me it wouldn't have been so amazing....
I agreed...

 

That's tough one. On one hand I get watching in chronological release order. On the other, I do wonder what it would be like watching in number chronological order. I can only imagine how suspenseful things would be in ROTS and the OT.

Rosmolen075 Please let us know what you decide and how it turns out.

 

I wonder how boring it would be to watch that tedious Tatooine stuff (the desert, the jawas, the Lars, the spaceport, etc...) after so many FAST actions like the Clone Wars, Dooku, Grievous, etc...

A billion starships fighting over Coruscant versus FOUR Tie fighters hunting the Falcon... The saber battles, the Force usages.....
Ohh no... The episode 4 should NEVER be seen right after the episode 3....

ANH introduces the audience to the SW universe: it has one plot that flows linearly about Luke...
TPM happens faster... It has lots of subplots: Amidala/Padme, the Chosen One, Naboo x Federation, the Sith.....
Who is the main character? Anakin (who appears after so much time?), Obi-Wan (who goes like a shadow of Qui-Gon?)... I think it would be either Padme or Qui-Gon....
TPM is acceptable because it is Star Wars... We need to know SW before seeing TPM....

ANH can go slowly, because you aren't expecting anything about it...

BTW, if GL really wanted us to see in the chronological order, he wouldn't have to have hidden Vader's identity to the audience back at the 80's....
TESB shocks people, and ROTS would destroy that feeling....

 

It doesn't bore me going from ROTS to ANH, and when I introduced my dad to SW in chronological order, he made absolutely no comment about it being boring

And likewise Thom, ROTS shocks people and TESB would ruin that. I consider Anakin's descent to the dark side a far more powerful unexpected twist than "I am your father"

 

He made no comment? Was he waked???

Well, ok then....

But Anakin was going to the dark side since always: the Council was afraid about him, he slaughtered Tusken's children and women, Sidious and Anakin were friends, Yoda's speech about "fear and dark side" was constantly reflecting on Anakin's fear about the mother and the wife..... Of course you would never imagine he would kill younglings or fight to death against Obi-Wan, but there were lots of tips on how things were heading...

The father's revelation had no clues... It actually contradicts Luke's knowledge about his father... When Yoda told him he "will be (afraid)", you would never imagine on what circunstances....

But, of course, my opinion is strongly influenced on my personal experiences.... I don't know if I would think the same if I had watched the 1, 2, 3 before the 4, 5, 6.....

 

Of course it makes sense that the Council was apprehensive of him. Yoda was concerned about Luke before training him

Anakin's dark actions can easily be interpreted as red herrings. Most heroes go through dark times in their lives

He was never knowingly friends with Sidious, nor do we know that Palpatine is Sidious until Anakin finds out

Yoda's preaching about fear and letting go could easily be interpreted as foreshadowing not of falling to the dark side, but to show us how he would overcome his fear and end up saving the day. That didn't happen

The reason I much prefer the twist of Anakin's fall is because, unlike the father revelation, it's something that takes place over a long period of time, something that's on your mind the whole time as a constant worry. But you never expect him to fall as he did. It has a much more powerful lasting impact, I think, as opposed to dropping a big plot twist in an instant. Just my preference though

 

I would go with a game. Perhaps Super Star Wars or Rogue Squadron if you have them.

If not I would go with ANH.

 

The ROTS teaser trailer is why I like seeing ROTS last.
Up to then, we saw and heard of the Republic, the Jedi Order, and their fall, the evolution of Anakin's story etc. We've seen the Empire and Darth Vader, now its time to see their creations.

Is it morbid ending it like that? Just a bit but we already know the ending. Just filling in the blanks.

Also, this way C-3PO has the first and last words of the Saga also on the same ship. Tatooine is the first and last planet seen as well.

 

For me, there are questions raised that take you out of the movie if you go I-VI. One big one is that the start of IV makes you wonder, how did Anakin not sense something about Leia while in her presence? Or sense Luke nearby, or even Ben? From I-III, we'd know Anakin's super powerful, so we'd expect he'd be able to sense something unusual. But watching them IV-V-VI-I-II-III or IV-V-I-II-III-VI removes those questions. (They're still there to be asked, but I'd suggest that narrative drive helps you blow right past them.)

And, if you watch I-II-III-IV-V-VI, it seems strange that in IV you would have Anakin arrive over Tatooine - the place where he was enslaved, where his momma was killed - and there be no acknowledgement of that coincidence.

I've been a chrono-by-release-order guy for a long time, but I see a lot of merit in the IV-V-I-II-III-VI order, and I think Jedi's climax can hold up well after seeing the PT movies. The splits in the action are structurally similar, so you don't exactly feel like you're going "backward" in tech, so to speak.

 

There's a counter to that, why didn't he sense Palpatine was Sidious? Sensing through the Force is not an exact science. The fact that Palpatine couldn't sense Luke arrive at Endor, much less Vader sensing that Obi-wan was still aboard the Falcon proves that. As to Vader not thinking anything was odd at being over Tatooine, not really. He'd think that Leia was trying to lose him, following the stealing of the Death Star plans.

 

There are only two ways I'd do it - the first being release order. Much of the enjoyment of I-III was seeing what things were like before the time we all knew, and how things came to be in the OT, and the "foreshadowing." Honestly, I'd say that was 90% of what made them so special - so much of it was obviously made, consciously or not, with the existence and knowledge of the OT in mind. And of course spoiling twists and reveals like everyone says.

The only other way would be to watch the PT in between V and VI, which spoils very little, none of it important except Luke and Leia's relationship, and finding out that way is actually more shocking than the way it was done in ROTJ in my opinion.

For me, watching it I-VI for the first time ruins it.

 

There's still plenty of story twists that people will not see coming such as Palpatine is Sidious, Padme gives birth to twins, the Jedi Purge, Obi-wan's death and who is the Chosen One.

 

This is exactly how I experienced the saga. Even though I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it, the first SW film I saw was AotC after it came out on DVD, and I was instantly hooked. After that I don't exactly remember if I saw TPM before or right after RotS came out (also embarrassing), but I remember RotS being rather shocking. I literally couldn't watch Anakin burn at Mustafar, it was that gruesome to me. But the real fun started when I moved on to the OT. We were watching ANH with my little brother (we were fairly young back then), and 'Oh my God, that's Anakin' was what I said when Vader boarded the ship. Word for word. And what still makes me laugh is my brother angrily saying: "Shh, of course! He wasn't killed on Mustafar, remember?" But to me he was, and he didn't come back to life until RotJ, which was my favorite for years for that specific reason.

 

There's no reason to be embarrassed about having seen it differently from what a lot of us have done. Seeing it differently is one of the reasons Lucas had for putting the Episode titles on the home video release of the Saga.

 

First off show them the movies. Show them some of the later episodes of The Clone War once they have seen AOTC and ROTS if they don't understand some things like Order 66 or the clones. The later episode have some interesting stories, and explain a lot of things that happen between those two prequels. The episode Brothers also brings back a particularly cool and red character from TPM. If they see TPM and enjoy Maul show them the episodes with him.

 

It's just that I feel like I was introduced to SW much later than most. It's not the order that I'm embarrased of, since I-VI is my preferred way of watching the saga.

 

Some people have been introduced to the Saga late in life. You'll find some of them on here. So don't feel embarrassed if you didn't watch it at a particular age.

 

Just watch them in chronological order. I think everyone knows "the twist".