zombie84 said:
On the contrary, I've thought about it so much that I even wrote an article about it.
I stand corrected and apologize. You clearly have considered the question of episode order.
But how much have you considered the idea of something like 4-5-1-2-3-6? Have you ever tried it? Your article indicates that you have considered 4-5-6-1-2-3, 1-2-3-4-5-6, and possibly “The PT and OT are independent works and which one you watch first makes about as much difference as whether you watch Raiders of the Lost Ark before or after On Golden Pond.”
I don’t expect a point-by-point response to the many arguments I made in favor of 4-5-1-2-3-6, but I would appreciate it if you’d go to the other thread, read those points, and give them fair and open-minded consideration before dismissing my conclusion. The several people who posted in that thread after reading my points unanimously considered them convincing despite initial skepticism of my conclusion.
Well there you go. It's ultimately preference. Personally, my preference is 4-5-6, and then maybe 3 if I am in the mood. Based on "logic and experience", as you put it, there is no order that includes the prequels that is fully satisfying simply because they are poor films and if you like 4 and 5, which we both agree one should start with, it is very likely that you will dislike some or all of the prequel films.
That’s certainly a reasonable position. I said above, “Depending on how you feel about the PT, the best order is either 4-5-1-2-3-6 or 4-5-6-done.”
I believe the prequels are best redeemed by using ADM’s edits and placing them between ESB and ROTJ. You seem to consider them absolutely unredeemable, in which case I’m not sure it matters where you put them in the viewing order; the only reasonable choice is to exclude them from the viewing order altogether.
I’m proceeding from the assumption, as posed by HotRod in the OP, that the viewer intends to watch all six films and is deciding the order in which to watch them. Given that question, there are three reasonable candidates: 1-2-3-4-5-6, 4-5-6-1-2-3, and 4-5-1-2-3-6.
Lucas advocates 1-2-3-4-5-6 but you and I both dislike that intensely. That leaves us deciding between 4-5-6-1-2-3 and 4-5-1-2-3-6. For a number of reasons I prefer 4-5-1-2-3-6 to 4-5-6-1-2-3. The best argument for 4-5-6-1-2-3 seems to be that you can commit suicide after 6 and thereby spare yourself from the PT.
That's a main reason why 1-2-3-4-5-6 falls on its ass
I don’t think that’s relevant, as no one in this discussion is advocating that order.
there's too huge a disconnect
I believe there’s also a huge disconnect between 4-5 and 6. ROTJ was made long before the PT and doesn’t have the same quality of visual effects or ubiquity of CGI. Despite that, I believe that in many ways — some of which I listed in the other thread — the storytelling in ROTJ is more consistent with the PT than with 4-5.