'The' Moment of the Prequel Trilogy :

hey everyone,
At University, In my flat, I am the 'star wars geek' and have been cunjuring curiosity of the saga via my geekdom. my flat mate, Andy, ( who has seen the films before but hasnt seen the OT in a few years) decided that this week we would both do a sorta marathon: a film a night stating with TPM.

last night, when we were just about to start TPM, 4 of my other mates ( AJ, RAE, ERIN & ASIF) asked if they could watch it too.... seeing as they have never seen a single moment of ANY star wars film before. the only thing they knew was the names 'Darth Vader', 'Luke' and Leia'. these four were PERFECT to be my guineas pigs - so to speak..
Anyways, whilst watching episode I, AJ said ' so when does that vader come into it'? . I replied " well this film is the first episode of the saga, so take each character as they come and go... dont think about anything you think you know".... anyways, TPM was over and they kinda liked it, even though AJ HATED jar jar but Asiff, erin and Rae thought he was a comedic genius

tonight, at about 6PM, we started episode II, which was liked. Rae inparticular loved the cheesiness of the romantic scenes, cheered when they kissed and cheered when they got married. she also cried when Shmi Cried. overall, it went down well... well wnough to encourage them all to want to watch Revenge of the Sith straight away after a 20 min break.

Sith was happening, and everyone really got into it. remember, these four didnt know ANYTHING. they were shocked at palps being Sidious, and loved the arrest scene. Even though Asif pissed himself with laughter when palps siad 'NO NO NO you will die!", he Gasped when anakin cut off mace's arm.

anyways, up comes the Knighting scene - and the reaction was fantastic.

palps" become my apprentice etc"

rae" oh no"




palps: " henceforth, you shall be known as darth .... vader!"


then it clicked.

rae " OH MY GOD!"
asif (*slow realatation*) " noooooooOOOOOOOO!"
AJ: " **** me! no way!"


they were like " vader. good god, Anakin IS darth Vader!"

the whole outlook of the movie, hell even the saga, changed at that one moment. eps I and II they were getting the feeling of a action adventure for 6 films, from that moment in three, the saga had changed in thier eyes.
Honestly, it was absolutly awesome to witness as a true fan to see fans who were completely fresh to the saga to have thier Brains explode in that uber cool moment. . In all honesty, This does it for me... to show new fans it in this order. for me, it's the new 'I am your father'.

Rae Cried pretty much the whole last 20 mins and parts of order 66. She honeslty loved the anakin character and the romance. she too was heartbroken and cried. my mates cringed and 'no'ed at anakin being burnt, was in awe again when the helmet was being lowered, and when the twins were named.... for them everything clicked. we are starting the OT on tuesday


I just wanted to share this little experience because I honestly thought I had every angle covered with the whole ' start in episode order' argument.. today really wowed and shocked me. just something for everyone to contemplate if havnt already

Thanks

contemplate it i will

Awesome, I had 1 guinea pig myself. Did they figure something was up with Palpatine on the Invisible Hand, or were they kept in the dark untill the actual revalation?

Carnage

They were kept in the dark for everything. I personally wanted to see how things unfolded for a fan who knew nothing but watched them in saga order. if they had any questions at the end of it ( which for somereason they didnt) I would have answered it.

In episode III, the part where obi wan tells padme " it seems that the chancellor was behind everything even the war... palpatine is the sith lord we've been looking for" cleared things up for the guinea's almost clearly.

another funny memory was when palps was being electro cuted and Erin's reaction: ( " no dont hurt the old man!" she felt really sorry for him at that moment )

Wow. I got goosebumps just reading that. It is amazing to know that for people who've never seen the films, that moment in ROTS is so powerful.

Yep, now that I come to think of it, the main points of the PT (the most impacting ones) would be the Office scene, where Anakin is proclaimed to be Darth Vader, and the "transformation" scene (Anakin gaining his famous suit, and Padme giving birth to the twins).

Its ironic how much more you get from watching Star Wars in sequence, or starting from 1 and going to 6 without knowledge of what happens. I should try this with someone someday.

you should. youll get geeked out by thier response

Fantastic story Wow. I hate to throw out a cheesy Star Wars quote, but that "brings warm feelings to my heart". I'm really interested to hear how they take the OT.

Hey! Great post! You should really join us in the Star Wars Saga forum, under the topic WATCHING THE SAGA IN SEQUENCE! Hope you come!

loved the story

I wish I could have a seperate brain, like an external harddrive, and use it to watch Star Wars 1-6 for the first time. Then, my brains could swap notes and make comparisons.

ill make sure to post more when we finidh the Original trilogy on wednesday

Maybe you could get Captian Antillies to have your mind wiped

Fantastic! Please update us once They've watched the OT.

I'm interested in seeing what thier reaction to Ob-Wan's name first being mentioned. Also what they think when Luke looks off at the horizon. I'm sure they will have fun with how much Luke is like Anakin in TPM.

LOL awesomw idea, keep us posted on what they think of the OT.

Another thing I thought of as a positive about watching the PT first for newcomers is what it adds to the ESB and ROTJ duels between Vader and Luke. Who do you pull for? True that we know in the OT in ROTJ that Luke has to kill his father and it complicates things but having followed Luke since ANH we tended to root for Luke anyway. Now with the PT it could lead to the viewers being conflicted not to mention they will feel that no matter the outcome they are going to feel sadness never expecting Vader to turn on the Empereror.

Damn! That's exactly what I was going to say! Thank you for sharing that story with us, it's so cool.

Courase, all the big plot points of the OT will be ruined.

Like "I am your father" That will no longer be a surpise.

Well, it's not a surprise but it hasn't really been one for a while.

just watched ANH


Before we did, Rae said " Will I cry at this one?" I said " no you wont, its a feel good one. but that may change during episode onwards and you most certianly will at the end of VI"

It was liked alot, but they thought it was the most boring. Mainly Because it didnt involve Anakin at all. the start kinda drags ( which I agree with, untill the point they meet han). The characters were loved, especially Chewbacca .


The most interesting parts though which are worth mentioning:

1) they LOVED the fact that Artoo knew everything.
2) was kinda 'wow'ed with Obi-wana appearance - specially when he says ' Of course I know him ... hes me"
3) they thought it was very funny, but the least emotionally involving
4) the re-match was like a "Uh-oh" moment and they were really really sad when Obi-wan was struck down " OH no" was heard quite a bit. even though they all said ' this Duel is rubbish"

5) With the Vader scenes, they understood straight away that he is pathetic. I was asked " wheres palpatine, the guy who trained anakin".. to which I replied " hes not in this. he shows his face soon, though".

6) the Ending was loved and loved the Vader closing in on Lukes X wing during the battle of Yavin and cheered when Han saved the say and the death star wars destroyed. they didnt make the connection with the death star in episode II AND III, though




basically it was well accepted, definatly. the characters were loved and they enjoyed the story... but becuase It Lacks Anakin and Focus' teh entire film on Luke Skywalker instead, well, that was the only critisism. I explained " Episode V goes that way. Its Brilliant."


we'll be watching 'Empire' tommorow night and if we start early enough we may do a double Bill and watch them both tommororw.

so far so good
everything is positive though.

WOW! Fantastic Story! I have my own guinea pig story myself. Well it all started around last year when me and my mate tom were so bored and we were looking for something to do. I suggested that we watch star wars and his reply was " Oh that nerdy movie? " His arm was in a cast for 1 week (heh heh heh). Well anyways after that week he came over and I suggested again that we watch the movie and guess what he said? Alright! (wonder why...) anyways the movie we started off with was TPM and he absolutley loved it! He apologized for dissing the saga (and not because I broke his arm) and asked when we could watch the second! So two days later he came over ( I had my job interview the day before that to work at best buy ( Battlefront II Discount don't you know? ) Anyways we watched AOTC. He loved every single moment of it! Especially the part when padme's shirt got ripped ( he thought it was all going to come off! ) I said believe me you DO NOT want to know what her tits look like! I decided to make him wait 1 week for ROTS just for kicks. He could of rented it but he didn't because he needed me to explain everything to him. We watched ROTS and he had so many favourite parts I could not list them all. One of them was when Anakin turns around when he is in a cloak and it shows only one eye! COOL! He was quivering at the sight of palps with the deformed face and rejoiced when Anakin became Darth Vader ( I was a bit surprised... ) The only reason I like to introduce people to the Star Wars Saga is because it reminds me of the day when I went to see ANH and I was so amazed there are no words to describe it ( am i getting to emotional? ) We are going to watch IV V and VI next week. He'll probably be dissapointed at the lack of animation but the screenplay and COOL characters make up for it. When will you and your mates be watching the Sequel? - ignore the last too lines sorry i didn't read the part about the empire and rotj (heh)

orn-free-tada, I envy you. I'd love to be able to see the saga through the eyes of a Star Wars virgin. Since the OT was such a huge part of my childhood, it's really hard for me to wrap my mind around how a new viewer would view the saga when watching it from TPM to ROTJ. I can't wait to hear how they react to Anakin's redemption.

Great experiment, orn-free-tada!

Just like Strilo, I got goosebumps reading your post. It's so good to hear how the PT works from someone with a fresh look on it. I now am definetly going to give the 1-3 thing a chance.