Saga Viewing Order Post-TFA

What do you mean? There is no episode number when the movie begins

 

Lol, alright, 10 seconds in

 

Lol nah, he's not starting with Empire, he's starting with the original movie, remember?

 

Gotta get dem '06 discs with poor proportions right

#OOTreleasePlz

Anyways. We're getting off track. So

Revenge of the New Phantom Clone Awakens and Returns to Strike Back

 

Wasn't awkward throughout the 80's and 90's when I watched the OT and there was no PT yet. You have to understand I am one of those fans who wanted the ST over the PT going back to the mid 80's after ROTJ.

I like stories that go forward as I'm not a fan of Prequels. Didn't care for the The Hobbit Trilogy, but loved Lord of the Rings. Loved Silence of the Lambs but never cared for any Prequel about Hannibal Lector.

Prequels always disappoint, and the SW Prequels are no different. Not knowing someones backstory is far more interesting then seeing it play out cause it's bound to disappoint, along without any suspense.

SW to me was always about Luke, Leia and Han as I really never cared for how Darth Vader came to be. I have no problem with anyone who enjoys the PT, as to each their own. But my movie shelf has Star Wars, Empire, Jedi and The Force Awakens, and I love every minute of that story, and can't wait for Episode 8 & 9.

If Disney decided to make a Prequel Trilogy on Kylo Ren, I wouldn't be interested one bit.

 

Nah, gotta get the Blurays (for moral reasons) and then get Harmy's Despecialized edition.
#youCanWatchOOTinHDifYouKnowWhereToLook

But yeah, to return to the topic, I watch it in the release order: SW, TESB, ROTJ, TPM, AOTC, ROTS, TFA.

Some I like more than others, but I do watch all of them for both contextual reasons and because it's fun to think about & pinpoint why exactly I don't like a certain aspect of a movie. Plus, there's always at least something to like about each one (for me anyway).

 

That stands out to me and is a trend I notice that, while not for every single individual of course, seems to be fairly consistent

That is, if one wants to see them more from a real life perspective thinking "these are great movies" and observe them with cinematic history in mind, release order is preferred
And conversely, if one prefers to experience just the story and characters and forget reality for a while, it's chronological

As I said, not a guarantee for everyone. But I certainly do see that a lot. Much like also those who prefer to call the 1977 film "Star Wars" rather than "A New Hope" even though that's the name of the entire franchise

 

4512367 because...



...should always be the beginning of Star wars for me.

Also because I think it works pretty well to have 'I am your father' followed by explanation of how that could be.

And because this keeps episodes 3 and 4, the least and most modern films (until recently), a decent distance apart.

 

Well personally, and this is just me, I also get more enjoyment out of the story and characters with the release order (in addition to the contextual reason). I see it as the OT being the story, and then the PT are sequels that tell the backstory. The reason is that everything seems to flow in a logical way from that original movie:

1.) Mythology of the Force:
We start off with a simple explanation of the Force in ANH (I'll call it that for ease of discussion lol). Then we see more of what it can do when we see Luke and Yoda lift things with it in TESB. Then we see even more of its utility in ROTJ with Force lightning. Then we learn more about the details of how the Force works in TPM with the midichlorians. And by the time we get to ROTS, we are introduced to the idea that the Force can even be used to create life. This seems to me like a very natural flow of things we learn about the Force; our knowledge keeps increasing in a stepwise fashion from movie to movie in a way that I don't think the episodic order accomplishes. In the episodic order, we basically learn everything in the PT, with nothing really new in the OT.

2.) Preserving the intentions of the story:
George Lucas has been quoted as saying that the prequel trilogy was designed to be able to do two things: work as sequels to the OT and work as their own forward-moving story. And if you watch I, II, then III, the forward-moving story works. But then the structure of the OT is diminished because things that were intended to be surprises no longer are. Obi-Wan's explanation to Luke (and the viewer) about what the Force is now seems redundant. Watching Luke train is not as magical because we already know what a fully-trained Jedi is capable of. The "I am your Father twist" is no longer a shock to us. The brother-sister reveal is also not a surprise anymore. And finally seeing who this Emperor is and what he can do is also not satisfying because we've already seen what he can do. Those original films were narratively designed to accomplish very specific things by revealing very specific bits of info at very specific times. But when you already know all the information they give you, it kind of diminishes their intended narrative structure and shoe-horns them into serving a purpose that they were never created to have in the first place. On the other hand, the prequels were created such that they could also be enjoyed by an audience that had already seen the PT so they don't have that same problem. I know that the "twist" of Anakin falling to the dark side might be ruined by the OT, but Lucas also designed those movies for an audience that had already seen the OT; so they can function as "how" movies as well, whereas the OT was designed for a new audience alone, so those movies don't have that dual functionality.

3.) Lightsaber battles:
This is kind of a shallow reason, but still a reason nonetheless. Lucas has stated that he wanted to progress the sword fighting with each film; and each movie in the release order progressively steps up the dueling. But with the episodic order, you're so used to these crazy acrobatics that seeing the Obi/Vader duel in ANH might be a little underwhelming, especially if that last duel you saw involved lava surfing and moves that you'd swear were artificially sped up (even though they weren't). You might wonder why General Greivous, a full machine, was able to duel so fast while Vader, a partial machine, was comparatively slow. You might also wonder why Count Dooku, an old man, could duel so fast while Ben, also an old man, was comparatively slow.

4.) Hiding the plot inconsistencies:
For example, when the sibling twist is revealed in ROTJ, it is a twist that is referring to both of their pasts; as such, you think about the past and how it's odd that Leia would remember her mother, considering that she died in childbirth. But, if you're watching in release order, this inconsistency doesn't exist in ROTJ; and in ROTS, you're more focused on the "here and now" of the story, so you're less likely to think about Leia saying she remembered her mother...probably kind of similar to Lucas' thought process when making the movie. Another example: Obi-Wan mentioning how Luke's father would've wanted him to have his lightsaber. In the episodic order, we just saw in the previous episode that this was not the case so it seems more questionable. But in the release order, this line occurred 5 movies ago so we're less likely to be thinking about that by the time we get to ROTS...again, probably like Lucas perhaps not remembering or not thinking it was important to connect each and every dot.

I might be forgetting some other reasons but here's a TL;DR: The movies just flow better for me narratively, mythologically, and contextually such that I simply enjoy the release order more.

 

I think you are confused young one. We have sequels and prequels. You're complaints is invalid...

1>2>3<2<1

 

Prequels are, for all intents and purposes, merely sequels set prior to the film(s) they're released after. But, in terms of building on what's been previously established? Sequels.

 

Oh my "complaints is invalid"? Shoot. My mistake. But thanks for pointing it out. After all, I wouldn't want to make invalid complaints in the future so it's good that you brought this to my attention. Also, thanks for actually addressing my points instead of just doing a hand-wave dismissal of them.

EDIT: I should add, my post was not "complaints", but rather just an explanation for why I prefer the release order over the episodic order. Also, my points don't hinge on the semantics of "prequel" vs. "sequel".

 

By definition, "sequel" literally means any work that comes after, whether in the story of or in reality, another work, based on the Latin word "sequi" (from which we also get the word sequence)

So Ezon Pin, it's fine for theMaestro to say what he did because "prequel" is in itself a pun; a portmanteau of the prefix "pre" and the word "sequel". It's perfectly valid in the sense of wordplay alone

 

I'd like to watch it I through VII if possible. The prequels aren't perfect but I think that they do add varying layers of characterization to both Obi-Wan and Anakin/Vader that I would want to go through them first if I'm going through a marathon. I watched it with some first timers though and all they knew about Star Wars was that Vader was Luke's father and nothing else.. so I showed them the originals first and I think it's the best choice for newcomers.

 

Well you missed my hyper thesis and joke...


1>2>3<2<1

Is implying that 1 & 2 are prequels to 3 and vise versa. While 1, 2 & 3 are prequels to the OT. Therefore, my comment of Sequels and Prequels wasn't false. We have 6 SW prequels..and 7 SW movies.

But I was also messing with you hoping you knew the thread from Pyrogenic but ahh...You didn't follow on that due to thinking I was taking a pin at you(My name is Ezon "Pin" you know)

 

I didn't follow it because I'm not familiar with the thread or the idea. But since we're talking about it, a prequel, by definition, is a sequel whose story takes place before that of a previous work. So TPM is a prequel to ROTJ, but TPM is not a prequel to AOTC. This is explained on Wikipedia, in case you're confused. So technically, there are still only 3 SW prequels....unless your inside joke disagrees lol.

But anyway, none of that is relevant to the points ("complaints"?) I was making. It's really just semantics. If you think anything I was saying is "invalid", feel free elaborate on why you think so.

 

EDIT: *Sigh*, I was just messing with you my fellow user..

http://boards.theforce.net/threads/...f-the-clones-→-i-the-phantom-menace.50037652/

 

Yeah I get that now lol. Often though, these types of "messing with you" posts do tend to have some bits of truth sprinkled into them, hidden between the jokes and references. So all I'm saying is that if there's any part of you that thinks that the points I raised are off base, then I'd love to hear why. But, on the other hand, if it was 100% just messing with me with no opinion on anything I said, then okay....carry on

 

Oh dude no, I really liked you're breakdown post.

What I was actually serious on was the 6 prequel part. But...That's a weird topic for another day...

 

Why trying to overcomplicate things? 1-7 all the way but since I always feel a disconnect between the 6 movies and TFA, I prefer to wait a little before watching it on its own.

 

I'll never watch the machete order. I prefer the lightsaber order.

 

What? No X-XII?

One poster included ATCW and Rebels. So, as a variation,

I
II
III
TCW
Rebels
Han
Boba
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX

But I have no idea how young Han and Boba are in their movies.

 

If I’m showing them to someone who’s never seen them before, release order (and I might just skip THE PHANTOM MENACE and ATTACK OF THE CLONES). Of the seven films released, only one of them was actually designed to introduce people to this universe, and that’s the 1977 film simply called STAR WARS.

I also always like to point out that the structure of that film really is all wonky if you view it as the fourth film. Look at the scene in Obi-Wan Kenobi’s hut, for example. If you approach STAR WARS as the first film, it provides a bit of necessary background and exposition for this universe. If you approach it as the fourth film, it just becomes clunky and grinds the film to a halt, since it’s literally just 5 or 6 minutes of Obi-Wan explaining things that the viewer already knows. It’d be like if Peter Jackson took that prologue that opens THE LORD OF THE RINGS and instead decided to have it happen halfway into THE RETURN OF THE KING.

Maybe it’s because of how I first saw the films, but I never viewed the prequels as being “the other half of the story”. To me, it was, at best, an interesting bit of backstory to the real story. Yeah, it fills in a few details that the first three movies left vague, but the first three movies tell their own self-contained story just fine. It’s a bit of supplemental and tangential background, nothing more.

 

Don't show him or her TPM or AOTC?

She might as well be smothered by an Eopie with the Glass cannon!

 

This is the reason, I think, that the idea that TPM or AOTC or anything could be "skipped" actually started to exist. There were people, and they were and are quite a few, who expected the PT to supplement or "serve" the OT instead of expanding the whole existing story and giving it a new meaning in their quest to explore new things and themes. That's when some people started to watch the Prequels really selectively, only caring for the things that were directly and visibly relevant to the events of the OT era and starting to obsess about the smallest changes to the way they saw the Originals, the "real story" in their eyes.

Suddenly, it became insanely important to show Anakin and Obi-Wan being best friends all the time while the very interesting story of a group of people fighting a growing force of evil by joining forces and still unwillingly allowing a devil to succeed felt secondary. The complete scope of the story, of a dying society and the evolution of the characters got overlooked while everyone was starting to complain about Leia's memories of Padmé.

I'm not sure what I'm trying to say, acutally, but I think it's that our perspective of the story ultimately determines our "viewing order".