# A new way to watch Star Wars: "The Machete Order" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 29, 2019, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-way-to-watch-star-wars-the-machete-order/839402 "2019-08-29T08:41:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-way-to-watch-star-wars-the-machete-order/839402/1 "2019-08-29T08:41:04Z")
> **[The Star Wars Saga: Introducing Machete Order » Rod Hilton](https://www.rodhilton.com/2011/11/11/the-star-wars-saga-suggested-viewing-order/)** > > Watch them in this order: IV, V, II, III, VI. Skip I. 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: > [@](#): > > Simple, watch them in this order: IV, V, II, III, VI. 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: > [@](#): > > The reason to skip Episode I isn’t that it’s bad, it’s that it’s **irrelevant**. If you accept my suggestion that Star Wars, the saga, 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, then you’ll find that everything that happens in Episode I is a distraction from that story. > > Seriously, think about it for a minute. Name as many things as you can that happen in Episode I and actually help flesh out the story in any subsequent episode. I can only think of one thing, which I’ll mention later. > > Every character established in Episode I is either killed or removed before it ends (Darth Maul, Qui-Gon, Chancellor Valorum), unimportant (Nute Gunray, Watto), or established better in a later episode (Mace Windu, Darth Sidious). Does it ever matter that Palpatine had an apprentice before Count Dooku? Nope, Darth Maul is killed by the end of Episode I and never referenced again. You may as well just start with the assumption that Dooku was the only apprentice. Does it ever matter that Obi-Wan was being trained by Qui-Gon? Nope, Obi-Wan is well into training Anakin at the start of Episode II, Qui-Gon is completely irrelevant. > Search your feelings, you know it to be true! Episode I doesn’t matter at all. You can start the prequels with Episode II and miss absolutely nothing. The opening crawl of Episode II establishes everything you need to know about the prequels: a bunch of systems want to leave the Republic, they are led by Count Dooku, and Senator Amidala is a senator who is going to vote on whether the Republic is going to create an army. Natalie Portman is called Senator Amidala twice in the first 4 minutes of the movie, so there’s no question of who’s who. 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. ---
**Author:** ![DerNils](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@DerNils](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DerNils)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-way-to-watch-star-wars-the-machete-order/839402/2 "2019-08-29T08:48:48Z")
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… ---
**Author:** ![SykoSkotty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@SykoSkotty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SykoSkotty)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-way-to-watch-star-wars-the-machete-order/839402/3 "2019-08-29T13:04:13Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-way-to-watch-star-wars-the-machete-order/839402/4 "2019-08-29T13:08:53Z")
> [@SykoSkotty](#): > > 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. Having Anakin create Threepio is both stupid and irrelevant, and should be ignored. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-way-to-watch-star-wars-the-machete-order/839402/5 "2019-08-29T13:12:31Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-way-to-watch-star-wars-the-machete-order/839402/6 "2019-08-29T13:19:09Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![DerNils](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@DerNils](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DerNils)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-way-to-watch-star-wars-the-machete-order/839402/7 "2019-08-29T13:38:30Z")
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 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-way-to-watch-star-wars-the-machete-order/839402/8 "2019-08-29T13:39:35Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-way-to-watch-star-wars-the-machete-order/839402/9 "2019-08-29T14:19:45Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-way-to-watch-star-wars-the-machete-order/839402/10 "2019-08-29T14:24:40Z")
I had almost mentioned this in my Star Wars rewatch [thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=881099) 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. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-way-to-watch-star-wars-the-machete-order/839402/11 "2019-08-29T15:26:21Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > 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. 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.