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How You Should Show Your Family and Friends 'Star Wars'!

May the force be with you...

By Jonathan SimPublished 6 years ago 6 min read
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You're hanging with your girlfriend, the lights are getting dim, you guys are having a nice conversation, everything's getting nice, and then all of a sudden, she mentions that she has never watched Star Wars.

GET THE POPCORN!!! YOU GET THE MOTHERF%^$&ING POPCORN NOW!! WE'RE MARATHONING THIS!!!

But freeze––

What order are you going to show your girlfriend, your siblings, and your kids Star Wars?

This article is going to tell you how to watch Star Wars for the first time, because I recently watched the original and prequel trilogies for the first time, and I think I watched them in the best order possible.

So, there will be spoilers in this article. If you haven't seen Star Wars yet, just send this article to your friend who has seen it, and have them show you how to watch the films.

Some of you may know that the films were released in the order: IV, V, VI, I, II, III (4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3). And there are three main ways you can see them.

The first way is Episode Order, which is I, II, III, IV, V, VI. You'd be essentially watching these films in the order that they happened, and I initially planned on watching the films in this order. But the problem with this order is that the prequels reveal how Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader.

Therefore, when you watch the scene in The Empire Strikes Back where Darth Vader reveals to Luke that he is his father, there's no impact. You saw it coming, and it doesn't come as a surprise at all.

But if you're thinking that the line, "Luke, I am your father," is just common knowledge, chances are, whoever's watching it for the first time will still find it as kind of a shock.

I mean, look at these kids' reactions when they first found out.

Another problem with watching the prequel trilogy before the original trilogy is that the prequels are just...kind of boring. They're not that good, and they're essentially just setup for the original trilogy.

Now, another possible option is Release Order, which is the order that they were released (IV, V, VI, I, II, III). It's the original trilogy, and then the prequels, but there's a glaring issue with this as well.

Yeah. It's true, and the reason is the ending of Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

In the last scene of Episode VI, Luke looks over and sees the ghosts of his deceased mentors, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, and some other guy that you've never seen before.

While re-editing Return of the Jedi, George Lucas digitally inserted Hayden Christensen into the film. Christensen was the actor who played Anakin Skywalker in Episodes II and III.

But if you're just watching A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, and then Return of the Jedi, you have no idea who that guy is, and you have no idea that that's supposed to be Anakin. You'd have to watch the prequels first to understand that that's Anakin, and we already know that that's a problem.

Another possible way is just showing the original trilogy, and not the prequels.

But this might be even worse than Release Order, because now they NEVER know what Anakin looked like, and they have to just take your word that that's supposed to be Anakin.

So, in what order should you watch Star Wars? Well, blogger Rod Hilton has written a blog post that gave a pretty good order for how you should watch Star Wars. It has been dubbed the Machete Order and here it is: IV, V, II, III, VI (4, 5, 2, 3, 6).

This is actually the perfect order to watch the films. I watched the films in this order for the first time, and I have no regrets. You may notice that Episode I is missing from the order – we'll get to that later.

But here's why this is the perfect order to watch the films: you start off with the two best films in the series. You're getting a kickass way to start your Star Wars experience with A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. That's two really good stories about Luke's adventures with Princess Leia and Han Solo.

In The Empire Strikes Back, you have a crazy plot twist where you find out Darth Vader is Luke's father. You're still not quite sure if it's true or if Vader was trying to manipulate Luke.

But then, you get Episodes II and III, which focused on Anakin Skywalker's path to the Dark Side, and how he eventually grew to become Darth Vader. Then, after the prequels, where you see Anakin become Darth Vader, you get one last film that ties Luke and Anakin's stories together: Return of the Jedi.

But here's the question to ask now – why is Episode I: Phantom Menace not included in the Machete Order?

Okay, yes, it was the worst Star Wars movie. But that's not why – Phantom Menace was just...unnecessary. It didn't have anything in the plot that served anything in the prequels.

Episode I has no Luke, and Anakin doesn't really show any signs of turning to the Dark Side. It was just a story about Obi-Wan and his master played by Liam Neeson.

Let's put it this way – Darth Maul is a good villain, but he is killed and isn't mentioned again in any other film. Qui-Gon (Neeson) is also killed in Phantom Menace, and he didn't really serve a purpose when it comes to the story of Anakin or Luke.

Characters like Anakin, Padmé, Master Windu, and Darth Sidious are all better established in Episodes II and III.

If you skip Episode I, you'd actually not be missing out on much. First off, you'd be getting a lot less of Jar-Jar Binks, the most annoying character in Star Wars. Jar-Jar is pretty annoying, and he has a relatively large role in Episode I.

However, he is only in about two or three scenes in Episode II and has a non-speaking cameo in Episode III. Less Jar-Jar = Better Star Wars.

Now yousa don't have to see meesa!

We're also getting none of nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker. I mean, he was a young slave who was freed to become a Jedi master and that's literally all you need to know about young Anakin. You don't need anything else.

You're also not getting anything about midichlorians or pod racing or any confusing/stupid plot point where Padmé switches with the queen. You're not getting any of that useless stuff, and by the time you reach Episode II, she's just a Senator.

And that's the simple reason why you don't need to watch Phantom Menace.

And this works even better – after The Empire Strikes Back, you have a cliffhanger where Darth Vader is Luke's father and Han is frozen in carbonite. Then, you get two stories about Anakin, and you understand who this is at the end of Episode VI.

So, that is how you show your family and your friends and your partner and your children the Star Wars movies.

After they watch the originals and prequels in Machete Order, they can then watch The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, and they can then also watch Rogue One. If they really want to, they can then watch Phantom Menace.

And that's it!

My source is listed here:

movie
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About the Creator

Jonathan Sim

Film critic. Lover of Pixar, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Marvel, DC, Back to the Future, and Lord of the Rings.

For business inquiries: [email protected]

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