Okay so it’s from 2011 but I just found it and this seems super cool.
Rod Hilton offers us his take on the “correct order” to watch the first 6 Star Wars movies in. He rejects both sequential (1-6) and release (4-6, 1-3) as pretty weak in terms of story structure, and presents the following alternative:
So this article is super cool.
Basically the gist of it is that by couching the prequels after the cliffhanger of Empire, you avoid the main weakness of the sequential order (spoiling the quite excellent twists of Empire) while also dodging the main weakness of the release order (the prequels feel irrelevant, tacked-on, and weak). It supposedly feels more cohesive as a whole, offering episodes 2 and 3 as an extended flashback to help resolve the tension of the twists in episode 5.
I also love that it cuts out episode I entirely:
I think this is super cool and can’t wait to try it out at some point.
No word on how it would work with things like Rogue One or Solo.
The only Thing missing is the awesome Duel of the Fates. But as that actually diminishes the end of Episode III (“I have the high ground, you can’t win!”), I agree it is better to leave it out. If only Attack of the Clones romance wasn’t so cringeworthy…
Just to play Devil’s Advocate here; I will point out that C-3P0 was created in episode I, so I think that counts as a major character with some importance to the overall storyline.
The true order is to skip the prequels because they’re all trash movies. If you must, read the wikipedia pages and listen to the Duel of the Fates on youtube. That song is the only good thing (I’m fairly confident) in the 6 hours of film.
I don’t see the point; either watch the first six in the filmed order or watch them in the “intended” order. That way, you have the historical air order, or you have the writer’s intended order.
Anything else is basically second-guessing him- we don’t KNOW that the story is “really about Luke’s journey and his decision to accept his hero’s burden by saving not only the galaxy from the Empire, but his father from the dark side as well”. I’d even argue that in light of the first couple of films of the second trilogy, it’s not intended to be Luke-centric as an overall, 9 movie story arc.
Personally, I think people have put WAY too much stock in the whole Star Wars universe, and are basically trying to cobble together some kind of coherent story out of about 4 decades of retcons and grafted-on stuff, meanwhile trying to reconcile each set of films with everything else.
I mean, at least the Machete order also omits Episode 7 and 8
If you want to, you could actually start with Rogue 1, but then you will spoil the Death Star.
I would avoid Solo, as it sets up a different storyline that will probably go nowhere, references Darth Maul who you will not meet, and the recast young Hanwas nice, but leads to some headscratching when meeting the Original. That can be added once you have judged how much of a Han Fanboy your offspring is
Sounds great. Only problem is, I’ve already seen all of these movies, so what order I re-watch them is irrelevant. I already know what happens, no matter what sequence I watch them in.
I reject the notion Star Wars is about Luke’s journey. It’s about the Skywalker family. Or as sure as sugar that is at least what Disney will do with the franchise.
I had almost mentioned this in my Star Wars rewatch thread from a few days ago. I don’t like the Machete Order mainly because if you are watching just the base episodes I really like how Episode III leads into A New Hope and his order loses that.
Yeah, as I told a friend when Episode I came out it’s not longer about Luke’s journey, the narrative path is about the fall and redemption of Anakin Skywalker.
I’m not say it was a good thing, but Anakin is the throughline all the way from beginning to end. No other character runs the course.
