I’ve decided that ranking these movies as some abstract exercise in filmic quality is folly. So I’m going to numerically rank them in terms of how I felt when they actually released:
First, the Star Wars:
- Star Wars - A stone cold timeless classic which has never been topped
- The Empire Strikes Back - The best Star Wars sequel and a perfect coming-of-age tale
- Return of the Jedi - A worthy sendoff of the trilogy with some of the best optical effects ever made
Next, the Attempt at Recapturing Star Wars:
- The Phantom Menace - A fascinating if flawed space adventure with a good mix of practical and digital effects
- Attack of the Clones - The inflection point of the saga, whiffing on almost everything except the score
- Revenge of the Sith - Taking all the poor choices of Clones and doubling down, officially killing the prequels
Finally, the Never Coming Close to Star Wars:
- The Force Awakens - The opening crawl throws Star Wars in the garbage, and it manages to get worse from there
- The Last Jedi - A sophomoric postmodernist deconstruction of the garbage fire that is this IP
- The Rise of Skywalker - An attempt so pathetic that it truly becomes so-bad-it’s-good
So yes, the Episode numbers exactly correspond with the quality of the saga, simply because each misstep of the previous entries becomes part of the story and lessens it. The story of Star Wars is legitimately worse because of the prequels, and the 1-6 ‘Saga’ is trivialized and trashed by the ST. Attack of the Clones is better than The Last Jedi simply because TLJ never had a chance to be part of a meaningful story.