See-Threepio

Not sure where else to put this, didn’t think it warranted its own thread, but I got to thinking about all the planets/worlds in the SW films and wanted to rank them in order of how memorable/iconic they are. List includes all of the major worlds from the nine main episodes plus a few from Rogue One as well(for some reason I haven’t gotten around to watching Solo yet, but I suspect at the very least Corellia would make an updated version of the list afterwards). This is just my opinion. Wrote it out so I figured I’d post it in here.

30. Hosnian Prime

The capital of the New Republic, destroyed in TFA. I don’t think we actually see it at all.

29/28. Jaukku/Pasaana

The planet where Rey starts off in TFA, and the planet where the trio finds Lando and Chewie “dies” in TROS. They’re Tatooine clones.

27. Crait

The site of TLJ’s final battle, the Battle of Cait. It’s a Hoth clone.

26. D’Qar

Where the rebel base is located in TFA, but we barely see it.

25. Polis Massa

The place where Yoda/Obi-wan/Bail meet after the Obi-wan/Anakin duel, and Padme gives birth, before everyone goes into exile in ROTS. Not much to say, as we barely see the place.

24. Eadu

Where the Empire is experimenting with Kyber Crystals for use with the Death Star in Rogue One. Jyn finds her father Galen here in Rogue One. I think this place looks pretty cool, but it feels a little too similar to Kamino.

23. Exegol

I know everyone thinks this place - the home world of the Sith introduced TROS - is so cool, but I can’t dissociate it in my mind from the silly resurrection of Palpatine. Nonetheless, it does look visually memorable.

22. Takodana

Where Han/Rey/Finn go to talk to Man Kanata, and the First Order attacks them and kidnaps Rey. It’s very scenic and pretty, but it feels a bit to close to Endor, if Endor had water.

21. Ahch-to

Where Luke trains Rey in TLJ. Absolutely gorgeous - and it should be, having been shot in Ireland.

20. Kashyyyk

The Wookie planet, as seen in ROTS. It is visually very memorable, but it doesn’t have much screen time and not much happens there.

19. Ajan Kloss

Ajan Kloss got a lot of criticism for being an Endor retread, but I don’t fully see it. Endor was forest. Ajan Kloss is a jungle. I enjoyed Rey’s training scenes there, and though it was divisive, I also enjoyed the flashback of Leia’s training with Luke that occurred here. It’s novel because we hadn’t really seen a jungle planet before, and a fair amount of time is spent there.

18. Kijimi

A frigid, occupied planet run by criminals and gangs when the First Order isn’t looking, this is one of the more interesting worlds introduced in the ST.

17. Utapau

The dry, rocky planet with sinkholes and water in its underbelly that Obi-wan finds General Grevious on in ROTS. Particularly memorable for its role in Order 66.

16. Ilum AKA Starkiller Base

This is this high mainly because I think the Rey/Kylo/Finn duel is the most memorable lightsaber duel in the ST for me. We’ve had forest planets before, and we’ve had ice/snow planets before, but we hadn’t seen snow-covered forests before, and I just think it looked really cool with the lightsabers lit up against it, even if the duel doesn’t carry the emotional heft of others. It’s also the location of Han Solo’s death.

15. Geonosis

The Separatists’ base of operations in AOTC. Mainly notable for the arena battle and the Dooku/Anakin/Obi-wan duel. The arena - like a nod to the Roman Colosseum - is quite memorable, but the arena battle on the whole is one of the more underwhelming climaxes in SW, imo, so I can’t put it higher.

14. Jedha

The desert planet housing the ancient holy city seen in Rogue One. I found Jedha striking from the first time I saw Rogue One. Saw Gerrera and his rebels, the Kyber Crystals and the Temple Of The Kyber, the monks, just the idea of a holy city in the galaxy far, far away is fascinating.

13. Scariff

The site of the final battle of Rogue One. Look, this is simple for me. It looks gorgeous - a beach planet! - the battle is amazing, and watching Jyn and Andor wait for their deaths at the end is one of the most emotionally affecting moments in SW, imo.

12. Canto Bight

Bare with me. This is by far the most memorable world introduced in the ST. Everybody remembers it, and its name, from TLJ. Mostly because everyone was complaining about it.

Here’s the thing - the Canto Bight subplot felt like a total non-sequitur in the movie, it added little to the main story and could have been cut out completely without hurting anything. It dragged in the context of the movie. But it actually is a really interesting world. Casinos? High-rollers and mercenaries? People who don’t care who wins between good and evil as long as they profit? You could build a whole D+ series around this place, and it could end up being a good show.

It’s just that in TLJ, it felt like you were watching a different movie when those scenes came up.

11. Kamino

As the planet where the Clones are created, with it’s dark atmosphere, oceanic makeup, and alien-like inhabitants, I find it highly memorable.

10. Yavin

Site of the searched-for Rebel base in ANH and site of the Battle of Yavin and Death Star Trench run. It seen as the rebels prepare to take on the Death Star, and again afterwards, as Leia presents Luke and Han with medals. It is seen in even more detail in Rogue One, as the rebels are operating out of it.

9. Alderaan

The home planet of Bail Organa, Princess Leia(by adoption), and also Cara Dune from the Mandalorian. Although it is seen from a distance as it is destroyed in ANH, and then seen briefly at the end of ROTS and Rogue One, it is not seen in detail until the OWK series, where we get to see Bail and his wife and the young Leia in their home. Still, it is one of the oldest worlds in the franchise, and one of the most well-known.

8. Mustafaar

The site of the Battle Of Heroes in ROTS, a fiery, hell evoking lava planet where Anakin ends up burning until Vader is what remains. His fortress is built there, and we see it in Vader’s Rogue One cameo.

7. Naboo

The home planet of both Padme, mother of Luke and Leia, and Palpatine, Supreme Chancellor and future Emperor. I’ve always loved Naboo - the scenery, the costumes(Amidala and otherwise), the palaces, the titular starfighters, even the whole symbiotic relationship with the Gungans is interesting even if the Gungans themselves are annoying(I actually really dig their underwater city on a visual level).

It is also the site of the Duel Of The Fates and Anakin/Padme’s love story(however flawed it is).

6. Coruscant

First seen in the Thrawn Trilogy during New Republic times, then again in Shadows Of The Empire in Empire times as the location of Xizor’s Palace and the capital of the Galactic Empire, it is in some ways the central location of the prequel trilogy as the capital of the Old Republic.

Featuring locations like the Jedi Temple, the senate chamber, the Jedi library, senators’ offices, Padme’s apartment, and a spaceport, it essentially tells the story of how the Old Republic functioned. In addition to all of that, the speeder chase in AOTC does a good job of painting a picture of the underbelly of the city-planet, with its assassins, seedy bars, and neon signs.

5. Endor

Home of the Ewoks, site of the speeder bike chase, the second Death Star, the Battle of Endor, Luke v Vader II, Anakin’s death, Palpatine’s apparent death, and the yubnub celebration including force ghosts. The Empire ended here. A different moon was returned to in TROS for nostalgia.

4. Dagobah

Is there a planet more associated with The Force, or with Yoda?

3. Bespin

A city in the clouds is a victory in premise. It looks awesome. But beyond that, it’s where Luke v Vader I happens; where “No. I am your father” happens. It’s where “I have altered the deal, prey I don’t alter it further” happens. It’s where carbonite happens. It’s where “I love you/I know” happens. And it’s where we meet Lando. Quite simply, it is the setting for one of the most famous third acts in cinema history.

2. Hoth

Completely iconic. That first half hour of ESB might be the best half hour of SW. The snow and ice, echo base, the wampas, the tauntauns, and then add the imperial walkers - AT-STs and AT-ATs - and probe droids. I mean, how many video games did it inspire?

1. Tatooine

The home planet of the Skywalkers, seen in ANH, ROTJ, TPM, AOTC, the very end of ROTS, the very end of TROS, an episode or two of The Mandalorian, and the OWK series. Boasting binary suns and locales such as the Lars homestead, Mos Eisley Spaceport, Jabba’s Palace, the sarlaac pit, the pod racing track, and more, this outer rim backwater planet, technically outside the purview of the Republic and The Empire, was never supposed to matter, but it is one of the most famous fantasy worlds in all media.

Six or seven years ago, I may have gone with the sequels, as they were still coming out, and I would’ve pointed to the overall superior acting, darker tone, more practical effects/more seamless CGI, and the presence of Hamil/Ford/Fisher. But now, with over three years having passed since the end of the sequel trilogy, I find myself not feeling that much when I look back on that trilogy.

With the prequels, despite their numerous and obvious flaws(wooden acting, at times poor dialogue, questionable pacing, overuse of CGI, rushed plot movements, continuity errors with the OT), there are still things about them that excite me to this day, 24 years after TPM and 18 years after ROTS.

1. Despite the subpar execution, there IS a compelling story being told throughout the trilogy: the story of a Jedi falling to the dark side, and the story of a man manipulating a Democracy into kneecapping itself and handing him the power to transform it into a fascist dictatorship, while using said Jedi to accomplish this task. This story is compelling enough that it still motivates people to try to salvage/fix/improve it via fan edits two decades later. The story told in in the ST was compromised by the lack of a single vision at the top. I wonder if people will care enough about the ST story twenty years from now to still be making fan edits of it.

2. The Sequels showed many new worlds/planets, but some of them were obvious retreads of worlds we already know(there is little to distinguish Jakku and Pasaana from Tatooine, Crait[and to some extent Ahch-To] are love letters to Hoth, and Takodana[forest planet from TFA where Rey gets taken] feels a lot like Endor) and the ones that aren’t weren’t defined or fleshed out enough to be very memorable. The Prequels gave us a handful of new, immediately recognizable locations in SW lore. The forest planet of Naboo(home planet to Padme and Palps and site of the Trade Federation dispute), Coruscant(cyber-punk city planet, government capital, home of the Jedi), Kamino(obscure water planet where the Clone Army was created), Geonosis(Separatist headquarters), Mustafaar(fire planet, location of Obi-Wan/Anakin dual). Even the Wookie planet of Kashyyk and Utapu(where Obi-wan fights Grevious) are memorable. The world-building in the prequels is just much better. (To be fair, I will say the one really interesting and well-defined new planet from the ST was Canto Bright. It didn’t fit the TLJ, it felt like something from a different film, an unnecessary distraction, but it was a genuinely interesting world that I could totally see as the setting of D+ series or EU novels or something.)

3. The Prequels have a bunch of genuinely iconic visuals - the Pod Race, the Dual Of The Fates, Maul’s character design, Queen Amidala’s costumes, the silhouette of Anakin and Padme kissing as they’re moved into the arena on Geonosis, the Clone Army marching at the end of AOTC, Anakin with the two sabers on either side of Dooku’s head, the Order 66 montage, the Obi-Wan/Anakin Dual, the mask being put on Vader’s head for the first time, etc. Apart from any questionable dialogue or plot points any of these things might entail, they are visually, in terms of cinematography, classic, indelible images that stick in your(or at least my) mind. I struggle to think of any equally iconic visual moments from the ST, off the top of my head.

4. The Prequels introduced three indispensable pieces of music to the SW canon - Dual Of The Fates, Across The Stars(Anakin/Padme theme), and Battle Of Heroes. Anakin’s Betrayal and Padme’s Ruminations are good too. I honestly can’t, off the top of my head, think of any new, classic piece of music from the ST.

5. The Prequels introduced a handful of memorable new characters - Qui-gon is one of my favorite characters of the whole saga(and Neeson’s performance is the best of the prequels for me), Chancellor Palpatine is an interesting character when he’s not too over-the-top campy(I know he’s not really new, but we only saw The Emperor in ROTJ), and Maul - even though he’s a costume more than a character - is awesome. Also, the fact that people have complained for two decades about Christopher Lee/Dooku not getting more screen time is a good argument that he too was a good character. Finally, I may be in minority, but when the deleted scenes(addressing the senate, her family on Naboo, the negotiation with Dooku, the Rebel Alliance stuff in ROTS) are taken into consideration, I think Padme is a compelling character too. Even Windu - though there’s a little too much SLJ in him - plays an important role as the most hardline against Anakin and the conservative counterpoint to Qui-Gon’s maverick. I think the only genuinely memorable new character from the ST was Kylo and even he is very flawed, despite Driver’s great performance. Oscar Isaac, John Boyega, and Domhnall Gleeson were all wasted, imo.

I’m not as down on the Sequels as all that makes it sound, but with a few years’ distance, this is how I feel. OT over both though.