With all these… viewing orders…
I sorta think too much emphasis is placed on these, maybe even a little unnecessary? If you’re a die-hard fan, you’ve already seen each film an excessive amount of times. You already know all the plot points, and hell, have many lines of dialogue memorized. You could watch any one film without context of the previous or next in line sequel. The stories are relatively simplistic and doesn’t require hours of keeping track of who said what or how such and such event happened.
To me, a first time viewer can easily follow chronological or release order. Sure, they might get hung up about where Rogue One and Solo fit, but after some light research or asking a friend, they can figure it out. However, I imagine it may look overwhelming to find all these fan-suggested viewing orders.
I’m not saying that there shouldn’t be fan favorite viewing orders, and of course it’s just harmless enjoyment. I’m just saying, if you’re a die-hard fan, you’ve already sunk hours into analyzing the expanded universe material, seen the cartoons, read the novels, comics, etc. Watching the main saga in whatever order, in my opinion, doesn’t really recontextualize the story. It’s not like while I’m watching ROTJ, I forget that, “Oh yeah, what did they say Anakin was in the Phantom Menace? The Chokin… Oh yeah yeah, the Chosen One! Wow cool, he totally is fulfilling that prophecy!”
I guess what I’m trying to say is that, don’t most Star Wars fans just watch whatever the hell film they wanna see? And that most fans would probably suggest release order to new viewers anyway? These viewing orders just seem to imply that there’s something inherently wrong with the more traditional route and that the fan-method is somehow more necessary in order to fully enjoy these films.