Slart

Rikter said:

I have and will always call the film’s by their names with no episode or SW prefix. Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Force Awakens, Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker. Oh and of course the Tragedies.

Exactly this. I’m not going to say, “Star Wars Episode V, The Empire Strikes Back,” and I’m not going to call Empire “Star Wars.” I say “Star Wars” when I’m referring to the first movie, and I don’t think that confuses anybody.

You have to make your own decisions for your own kids, but here’s what I went with:
Star Wars
Empire
Jedi
Force Awakens
Last Jedi

We started before Force Awakens came out, so they got to see the sequels in the theater. I consider the current trilogy to be “their” trilogy, but they had to have a schooling in the classics first.

They know of the prequels, but I just said, “They’re not very good” and that was the end of it. The special editions have never been mentioned.

NeverarGreat said:

“R2, stay and watch over the camp.”
(nervous beep)

Exactly. He’s clearly out in the rain because he’s not supposed to be there at all.

you could have removed Vader from the film entirely and had Tarkin fill both roles

I’m picturing a force-choking saber-weilding Tarkin, and it’s pretty funny.

CGI may keep improving, but I’m confident they would do better to use a practical effect, or a mix. Hopefully they’ve figured that out, based on the use of practical effects in TFA and R1.

Tarkin looked pretty good in R1, but IMO the ROTJ Jabba was more realistic. 😃

More seriously, it is interesting that Han and Lando share that line. It helps to remind us of their history together.

I’ve got a bad feeling about this…

Oh god, just please no CGI jabba. He looks awful every time.
Not optimistic about this movie in general.

I thought C3PO would be hard at work programming binary loadlifters.

The mythology we formed in our own minds was probably better than anything that could have actually been filmed, even if it had been done well. Some things are better left to the imagination.

The dumb thing is that you could make this somewhat funny if you ditched the misogyny. The last 3 panels are Anakin joke, Luke joke, Rey joke, and the last one could have been something about being self-trained. Bringing gender into it is unnecessary and basically makes it a non-joke.

Yeah, that’s basically what I’m doing with the PT. We’re enjoying the ST though. I’m happy with it so far, and as I see it it’s the Star Wars of their generation, for them to judge themselves.

The SE is just a weird hacked version that will hopefully go away, so I don’t feel like I need to mention it. Spinoff movies can wait until the ST is complete, and will be judged (by the Star Wars boss of our house (me)) on a case by case basis.

Someday my kids will be able to make their own decisions about Star Wars, but as a responsible parent I’m staying on top of things.

Every once in a while my kids (7 and 10) will see a reference to the prequels and ask me about it. My standard explanation is that they’re “not the same” and “we’ll watch them someday.” For now we’re just sticking with main episodes starting with IV. They don’t even know that the special editions exist.

When I hear them singing “yub nub” I’m saddened for the day they see ROTJ SE somewhere and wonder what happened. In fact, my youngest doesn’t even call them Ewoks–she calls them “E-chop a yub-nubs”. 😄

Whether you call it canon or not, what we’re talking about here is what “really” happened in the Star Wars universe, within our own little headspaces.

For me, these things are real:
OUT, TFA
and maybe R1. Still haven’t absorbed that yet. I see the PT more as a legend within the SW universe–a collective creative remembering of things that might or might not have happened, which is why it doesn’t make a lot of sense. The only things I consider true about the PT are the things referenced in the OUT.

I like the “That’s impossible” line too, because apparently he was right. Maybe Luke was unknowingly using the force to bullseye those womp rats.

Anybody else ever notice that Wedge was dubbed? It’s never been obvious to me.
Maybe I’ll notice now on my next viewing, which will be kind of unfortunate.

This might be old news to most, but I looked something up on a whim today that I’ve always wondered about.
When I was a kid, I always thought the pilot in the briefing room that Luke was talking to was Wedge. After a while I began to doubt it though, because he didn’t look the same. At some point I just started pretending it was Wedge because I thought it was cool for him to appear there.

Anyway, after about two minutes of research I just discovered that it is supposed to be Wedge, but he was played by Colin Higgins rather than Denis Lawson.
https://futureofstarwars.wordpress.com/2017/01/01/the-mystery-of-wedge-antilles/

Who knew? According to that article, Denis Lawson’s lines in SW and Empire were all dubbed over, too. They must have done a good job, because I’ve never noticed.

Bonus question: What’s your favorite Wedge Antilles quote?

I was only 2 in '77, so I’m not sure when I first saw Star Wars. We were early VHS adopters, and at some point we taped it from somewhere. I don’t know how many times I watched that tape with “SW” written on it.

I saw Empire in the theater, although the only moment that I clearly remember is my mom being grossed out by the tauntaun guts.

Tobar said:

I weep for the Ewok duology, it’s not been represented here once!

Yeah, I guess I would insert them between ROTJ and TFA. 😉
Actually I remember enjoying those as a kid. Wouldn’t want to spoil that by seeing them as an adult though.

I’ve never understood machete order. It seems like it’s just a half-assed way to try and do something with the PT. Like it’s there in the pile and you have to put it somewhere.

It’s really better to just ditch it, IMO. What are you missing? It’s sad, yeah, but that’s just the way it turned out. I don’t watch the holiday special either.

For some reason R1 just didn’t click with me, and seems unnecessary to Star Wars.
This is the order I showed the movies to my kids, and is my preferred viewing order:

SW
ESB
ROTJ
TFA

I’m assuming that next they’ll see EP8 and then EP9. Any prequel/offshoot movies they’ll have to discover on their own when they’re older.

Thank the maker for Harmy’s despecialized editions, so we don’t have to watch them on VHS, and TFA for being AMAZING compared to the PT.

I love your Hidden Fortress project, ssj! That clip was awesome.
Keep us posted as you make progress please. I would be very interested to watch this.

Thanks for the advice everybody. We've been watching the despecialized editions and they're amazing. Thanks Harmy!

She loved SW and Emprire, although she got a bit stressed out because she was worried that Luke would turn to the dark side. She wanted him to listen to Yoda and stay on Dagobah!

So, just ROTJ to go, as soon as we get the chance. The experience has been a success so far, and I have to give Harmy (and everybody who contributed to the DE) some of the credit for that. Thanks.

CatBus said:

* And if they get curious about Star Wars beyond the Original Trilogy, I've got the Holiday Special too.

Haha. :)

That would be next on the list, I guess. I don't plan on going there though.

Thanks for the info, everybody. I had a feeling I would be getting into the world of fan edits for this venture. Personally, I haven't even watched Star Wars since I retired my CRT and VCR a few years back. Sad, really. I used to re-watch the OT every once in a while.

Hopefully my daughters will love it and it will be the beginning of a new era, and (extra hopefully) maybe someday Disney will decide to clean up and release the unaltered trilogy. Hard to tell. Always in motion is the future...

Hi all. I've been reading the forums here for a while but just joined.

I'm planning to introduce my 8 year old to the OT over summer vacation, so she'll be prepared for Force Awakens when it comes out. First, though, I need to figure out what format to watch it in. I have my trusty VHS tapes, and I have a friend with a VCR--but I'm not sure how that will look on a modern TV.

There's also the GOUT, which I *should* have picked up when it came out... but of course I didn't. I could get it, but it looks like it's not cheap, and from what I know the quality is pretty disappointing. The question is, is it worth it? Which is going to look better on an HDTV: VHS or the GOUT DVD? Has anybody compared the two?

Thanks!