CT How To Watch Star Wars 456123 or 123456

So I have been a new dad for a few years now and the time in coming shortly where I will show my son all the movies and I am stuck on how to show them to him. Now while I have heard Lucas say they are meant to be seen 123456 I can't help but want to deviate from this plan and here is why. I love star wars. Empire is my favorite movie of all time. With that said as much as I like episodes 1, 2, and 3 they do not even come close to being in the same room as 4, 5, and 6. If someone showed me episode 1 first there is no doubt I would like it but if I really think hard about it the reason I love star wars so much is because of 4, 5, and 6. If 1, 2, and 3 were never made we would all love star wars just as much. The fact that I would have to sit through jar jar again and then explain to my son why this character is horrible and has no bearing on 4, 5, and 6 (I don't want to hear about his vote in the senate) is silly. Think about your first experience being the opening of episode 4 or episode 1. There is no contest.

4, 5, and 6 are why we all love the films and I am leaning towards showing him that way.

I would love some feedback

Darth Peechadool

 

456.











Seriously, I watch them in the order they were released.

 

Honestly, everyone on these forums is a fan of Star Wars, so we're all obviously going to recommend that you show them to your son in the order that each of us saw them. My advice to you would be to find someone who doesn't like Star Wars, ask them what order they saw them in, and then ask them why they didn't like the films. I think you'll find those responses to be rather helpful, as it might give you a better indicator of what might prove to be most confusing/"boring" the first time around. I love all six films and I saw them in 124563.

If I may say, though, I think you've already subconsciously made up your mind. You posted this query in the Classic Trilogy forums, even though it suits Saga discussion better, after all. I think you should go with your gut. You'll be happier in the long run.

Also, I urge you not to say anything or make any comments during your viewing. Kids will often pick up on adults' reactions and mimic them. Let your son come to his own conclusions. I can tell that you don't like Jar Jar much, but try not to color his perception of the character with your own feelings. I have a younger brother who loves the guy. Plus, it's fun to watch kids' reactions -- they pick up on things adults might miss.

 

Firstly, HERE's a related thread on viewing order... but it's not necessarily about viewing order for introducing the Saga to kids.

My son is 4 1/2, and he's been watching SW with me for about a year now. We started with ANH, then TESB and ROTJ. Then we watched TPM, AOTC, and ROTS. This wasn't by my design, though; he first got interested in SW from looking at my Visual Dictionary of the OT, so when he realized I had the movies to go with that stuff, he wanted to see the movies that had Luke, Han, Darth Vader, etc. in them. But he got interested in the whole thing and asked lots of good questions while we watched, so he understood that the PT was set before the OT and therefore it all made sense to him. We have since watched them 1 - 6, but usually we just watch whichever episode he feels like. The interesting thing is that he doesn't seem to have a preference for any episode, and he just enjoys the whole thing. Luke is his favorite character, and he is surprisingly moved by how Luke helps Anakin redeem himself and then Anakin saves Luke from Palpatine.

 

Jar Jar is responsible for the Empire. There may be a lesson there.

Then again, SW is fantasy. In real life, frightened bumbling idiots would never vote a tyrant into power.

 

If you love Star Wars and Darth Vader -

READ THIS!!! http://zumsblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/reconsidering-darth-vader.html

 

Great advise everyone (except jar jar creating the empire) that is and always will be nonsense in the sage as far as I am concerned. That would have happened regardless of that scene.

Piets Hat you really do make a lot of sense and I really agree with letting him experience this the way he will and not have my opinion bias him. Even if he ends up not liking any of it at least I get to watch someone have that experience who has never seen the movies before.

Unfortunately to ask someone over the age of 30 that hasn't seen the movies would be very hard to do. I don't know anyone that hasn't seen at least ANH.

I will try to ask more people that aren't hardcore fans and maybe that will give me some more information. However I am heavily leaning towards 456123 but I can appreciate having to go back and explain everything to a 4/5 year old might make me change my mind. We all had 14 years to put some of the puzzle together.

 

45, after that they just start getting embarrassing. However, I might bite the bullet and endure ROTJ. The rest though? I'm thinking about selling the PT DVDs at some point and not replacing them. I just don't watch them and wouldn't want my kid to watch them because they're so ghastly.

 

Honestly, I'd do it 456123.

I'm not a prequel hater at all, I like them just as much as the originals, but if you want your son to have a similar Star Wars experience as you did, you'll show him that way.

Another way is 4-1-5-2-6-3. (Showing the prequels as flashbacks)

 

That's... not any of the "flashback" methods I've heard of. That just looks like alternating between OT and PT episodes, and I'm not sure to what end. Flashback involves some variation of 4-5-1-2-3-6; my preference is 4-5-6 (stop 6 after Obi-Wan talks to Luke on Dagobah), then 1-2-3, then the rest of 6.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 - definitely.





One man's nostalgia is another man's "meh"
/LM

 

It's actually a very interesting method of veiwing them, whether it's a very known method or not.

However, I wouldn't recommend making this method your first way of viewing the saga.

 

456, 123. The primary appeal of the Prequels was in seeing the backstory of the Classic Trilogy. The subtle references in the Prequels are lost without knowing what happens later. Where would TPM be without noticing, for example, the blue senate guards are wearing uniforms like the red Emperor's Royal Guards?

 

it's best to view them in chronographical order....123456 works best when trying to explain the saga as a whole

 

This already has a thread in the Saga forum:

http://boards.theforce.net/star_wars_saga/b10456/31642079/p1/?85

 

412536?

 

Well, my Dad introduced me to Star Wars when I was seven. I watched it; 312564. Mostly why I watched three first was because we went out to the theater, and I was pretty much clueless about everything, but now, I'm hooked. I have to thank my dad.

But, another thing was, I was really confused about how they were made.

 

Mr Fantastic,

Sorry I didn't look through the archives for 5 hours before I posted. By the way. Someone posted something about star wars 4 seconds ago. Oh wait there's another post that just came in 2 seconds ago. The nerve!

 

At least he didn't chime in with the obnoxious "Google is your friend" comment that a number of forums I lurk in tends to provoke.

The order in which the films should be viewed in is a very hotly debated topic which tends to get away from the actual practical question you're asking, which I think gets to the heart of it, & at least you're open to the possibility that the way you prefer might not be the best way for a 4/5 year old in this Foul Year Of Our Lord 2011 to do so.

For a little kid of that age, I'd still go for 456123, as the PT heads towards a very downbeat conclusion after the more kid-friendly TPM is over (ROTS is particularly brutal, it's the only SW film to earn an 'M' rating in Australia, I actually had to tell a workmate it might be a bit much for his little boy), while the OT follows a more classic route towards a happy ending, despite the relative inconsistency between the style & approach of the films. They are still very much two separate trilogies, not a straight series of six films.

ROTJ does end with a few questions unanswered, which is what the PT is there for, & if your son enjoys the OT enough, he'll want those questions answered. Even at that age, he'll still understand the 'prequel' concept if he likes the OT & wants to know what happened before - I certainly did at the age of six, when I first heard about the PT (in 1980, after seeing ESB for the first time). I'd just be inclined to show him each film with a bit of a gap in between, rather than stuffing the whole lot in over a couple of weekends.

And if you really want to go full-blown with his enjoyment of Star Wars, get him an action figure featured in each film before he's seen it. Not necessarily a main character, something to inspire curiosity. C-3PO, a Bespin Security Guard, an Ewok - worked perfectly for me, & here I am in my mid-thirties posting on a Star Wars forum.

Maybe you should just ban him from seeing Star Wars films altogether...

 

Watching IV,V,I,II,III,VI works well with connecting them, having the prequels between V & VI gives us a glimpse into vaders mind and all the thoughts he could of been thinking about between Empire and Jedi.

 

I would say 456123. Star Wars (or A New Hope) is simply the best, most simple, and most entertaining introduction to Star Wars you can have in. The prequels may also be better for when he is a little more mature, especially ROTS, and he could be confused by the politics in TPM.

In my opinion, trying to get Star Wars to fit together perfectly as one chronological saga will never work anyway.

 

456. The prequels are optional non-essentials.

 

123456. It seems the OT tends to get peoples hopes up and the PT lets them down. This way, the prequels are seen for their own story instead of "the unsatisfactory backstory".

 

I am 21, and I have a guy friend who i'm trying to get into Star Wars...and he's 23. He's reluctant to watch it, because he saw TPM about 6 months ago and couldn't get past the first 30 mins (he blamed a lot of it on Jar Jar).
I wanted to show it to him as Lucas intended...123456...but now i'm going to show him 456123.
But in all honesty, i really think it depends on age. This friend of mine is 23, so most people his age (including myself) have seen the Star Wars saga as 4 5 6 1 2 3. That's the way my generation grew up with it. And in some ways i think it's a part of why i'm the massive fan that i am. Although my heart was torn from my chest in ROTS, i cried in the cinema like a child...(even though i was 15) but i was actually quite happy that i ended it on the greatest tragedy of all time. So i want my friend to experience all the same emotions. Because if you watch it 123456 or 456123, the emotions the person will gather from the saga will be different.
To me, ANH explains a LOT about the Star wars universe and the force then TPM does. Even though ANH is in the centre of the saga, it really does feel like a simple beginning and the fact that you have no idea who anyone is, or the fact that this menacing man in a suit is actually a victim (which you don't find out for another 5 movies), adds to the hype and suspense.

While if i was showing it to a child under 5...i would probably show it 123456...because that's the generation THEY were born in, you know?

So i really do think it depends on age.