I wouldn’t want to hear the Imperial March before its first appearance in The Empire Strikes Back. Having it hinted at here is the right way to do it.
But why would you watch this movie, or any Star Wars prequel, before The Empire Strikes Back? Logistically speaking, this movie came out 36 years AFTER The Empire Strikes Back, so there’s no way anything in Rogue One happens before it.
I do not understand this post. Since I already lived through the experience of watching these movies in the order they were made, and I understand the story from beginning to end, what’s wrong with watching chronologically?
These movies are not real life, they’re fiction. In this fictional world that has been created, everything that happens in Rogue One happens before Empire, not after.
Exactly. This is fiction. Things aren’t revealed in chronological order like they are in real life. Prequels are designed and written under the assumption that you’ve already seen what comes “after.” Otherwise, there’d be absolutely no reason, for example, to include a scene at the end of Rogue One where Princess Leia receives the Death Star plans. That’s a scene that is written and shot specifically to say, “Hey, this is how this all ties in to what you’ve already seen.”
Music is one of those things that is so out-of-universe that it doesn’t even tie into a potential continuity issue. It’s not as if Vader came on to his bridge in Empire toting a boom box and saying, “Hey, guys. Check out my sick new theme. I just had it composed!” Then its appearance in Rogue One would be jarring. But that’s not the case. The Imperial March has no place in-universe.
It’s why I always rolled my eyes when the prequel trilogy was coming out and people were saying they should have filmed it in such a way as to avoid spoiling Luke’s parentage. Since the whole reason the prequels existed was to show how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader, that just seemed to me to be a huge dose of missing the point. And despite Lucas’s cringeworthy assertions that the prequels should be watched first, he is also the guy who put Darth Vader’s breathing into Phantom Menace. He knew what kind of movie he was making even if his stubbornness wouldn’t let him admit it.
As for what’s wrong with watching it that way, I’m certainly not advocating coming into your home and forcing what goes into your Blu-ray player. Watch them however you like. View them with a new perspective. That’s great. However, I would (and do) vehemently argue against intaking any piece of fiction for the first time out of release order, but that certainly doesn’t apply to anybody here. And by extension, neither does any worrying about spoilers in that regard. But I do feel that worrying about a sequel or prequel spoiling something from a previous movie is like watching Return of the Jedi before The Empire Strikes Back and then complaining that all of Empire’s surprises were spoiled for you.