logo Sign In

Post #1501583

Author
AndersonCouncil
Parent topic
What is Your Preferred Watch Order, and Which Versions (Fan edits/official releases)?
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1501583/action/topic#1501583
Date created
25-Aug-2022, 7:26 AM

This is something I have spent a lot of time thinking about (much like the vast majority of users here) since I have two young children now who in a few years will be ready to experience “Star Wars” for the first time. To say I can’t wait for that day when the “A long time ago…” text comes on screen and it’s mere moments until that blast of the John Williams music and it all begins is an understatement!

I’m not really a fan of the prequel movies as-is but I can see the massive potential in them and the story that GL was trying to tell, which for my money is brilliant but flawed due to some of the questionable decisions made during the making of those movies.

But they are part of the story and from the mind of the man who created it all so I absolutely intend to show them to my kids. To that end, I have sourced the L8wrtr copies of the Prequel Trilogy and either the Harmy Despecialized editions of the Original Trilogy or the Adywan Revisited Original Trilogy movies. For the latter, I’m patiently waiting for his update to “A New Hope” and desperately hoping he manages to complete “Return of the Jedi” in a shorter amount of time than his “The Empire Strikes Back” edit did (though it is pretty masterful!) My boys are only 3.5 and 1 so I have some time yet.

I keep changing my mind as to whether to go 4-5-6 and then 1-2-3 or the often recommended “flashback” viewing order of 4-5-1-2-3-6. I think I need to try and watch all the movies again with that order in mind and do my best to clear my mind of any prior Star Wars knowledge and just pretend I am watching it as though for the first time. But if I decide that it works I’ll definitely go with the “flashback” viewing order since I think it will lend much more weight to the redemption of Vader in ROTJ and choosing a different path.

So to that end, my choice would be:

Episode 4: “A New Hope” (Revisited HD) by Adywan
Episode 5: “The Empire Strikes Back” (Revisited) by Adywan
Episode 1: “Shadow of the Sith” by L8wrtr
Episode 2: “The Republic Divided” by L8wrtr
Episode 3: “Rise of the Empire” by L8wrtr
Episode 6: “Return of the Jedi” (Revisted) by Adywan

And then finally, on second viewing I will introduce “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”. I don’t think you can really get as much out of “Rogue One” if you haven’t at least seen “A New Hope” first. I also don’t think it’s the best movie to start with since the Skywalker story is the main one and there are no Skywalkers (Leia cameo notwithstanding) in “Rogue One”.

I would also someday like to have an Obi-Wan Kenobi fanedit sandwiched in between Episode 3 and 4 but by that point my kids will hopefully be very familiar with the world and characters of Star Wars that a 1-2-3-RO-OWK-4-5-6 viewing order would work fine as they’d already know all the big reveals.

Oh and as far as I’m concerned, the story ends with “Return of the Jedi”. The Disney sequels serve no narrative purpose whatsoever so I won’t bother with them. I tried, honestly I did, but my heart broke after “The Last Jedi” and by all accounts everything I have seen and heard of “The Rise of Skywalker” is absolute crap. They don’t come from the mind of George Lucas and therefore aren’t proper canon in my opinion.