A Radical New Sequence to View the Star Wars Saga

We know there has been quite a bit of debate over the years on when to watch the PT (if at all, in many opinions). Should you watch them first so they are logically chronological, per the King Lucas decree? Or after the OT, as most fans initially viewed them and so none of the surprises are spoiled? Neither viewing is very satisfactory, IMO. If you watch them for the first time before the OT, as I said before, many of the wonderful reveals in the OT are completely spoiled. There is so much initial wonder in the OT that is completely deflated if one already knows the entire backstory. Obi-Wan should be a mystery. Ditto Yoda and Darth Vader. We get to learn along with Luke who these people are and what the story has been. Yet if we watch the PT post OT, it leaves such a sour taste for the entire Star Wars saga and likely will be jarring when paired with the upcoming films. 

What if there was another way to fit the prequel story in? George Lucas has gone on record stating the point of the PT was to depict the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker. Much of the PT is complete bloat if that was the objective. That story could have been told in 1 movie, which it pretty much did with EIII. That basis for the film also reminded me of another saga that told 2 diverging stories of a father and son: The Godfather. In Godfather Part II, Coppola (GL's close friend, mind you), masterfully intercut scenes from the rise of Vito Corleone in the early twentieth century with the fall of Michael Corleone in the 1950s. 

Now, I don't think you could (nor ever should) radically re-edit the OT movies to intercut footage from the PT. But what if you watched just ROTS post ESB to give that same powerful effect? This would come close on the heels of Vader revealing he is Luke's father, so then we could immediately jump back in time and see how he got to the point of almost killing his son. We then might have just a little sympathy for Anakin going into ROTJ and understand his ambivalence so much better. It also gives the entirety of ROTJ more weight going in, perhaps making it a much stronger film than it really is. Will Luke go down the same path as his father? That conflict is made much more immediate having just seen Anakin go down that path, making the stakes of ROTJ much higher. Watching ROTJ straight after ESB, there is little doubt Luke will always do the right thing. Watching ROTS in between, however, there is more tension. We also get to see the Emperor in ROTS as such an evil SOB, we would already have some fear for him when he is introduced in ROTJ. I’m telling you, this is the definitive way to watch the Star Wars saga. You also (thankfully) would never have to watch the first 2 prequels. 

There still are, however, some problems with ROTS (even though it’s by far the strongest of the PT), so perhaps a really great fan edit could be substituted as the definitive version of that film. 

 What do fellow fans think?

(PS forgive me if somebody else has already come up with this without my knowing! I’m not as rabid a reader on this board.)

I think the PT -- any part of the PT -- is best left ignored and forgotten.

Machete order is similar to this, except that it also throws in AOTC post-ESB, making the overall sequence parse out as 4-5-2-3-6. Really should get around to watching the movies in that manner some day. 

I would just say start with 4-6, then jump back to 1-3 if you really want to watch them. Star wars wasn't meant to be episode 4 until years after its release, so you should just watch them in the order they were made instead of episode number, cause it's a mess otherwise.

I used to want the 1-6 order to make sense as well as the 4-6, 1-3.  Now I am convinced that only 4-6, 1-3 is appropriate, if the prequels are included at all.  I have hopes that Adywan will make the 1-6 order workable, but considering how long it will take and a pragmatic view of the movies as they are, I don't think it should be seen any other way at the present.