This is my first time watching any Star Wars content. From what I understand and remember I should be watching it in chronological order and I should only watch I-VI since from what I heard that those are the only ones that are actually worth a watch.
Main question
For the original trilogy I’ve decided to watch the 4K77, 4k80, and 4k83 v1.0 no DNR but I want to know what is the the definitive way to watch the prequels so I wanted to ask which Blu-ray release or fan edit or any release should I look for?
Sorry if I’m asking the wrong community, but I saw a post before in a Star Wars community and it doesn’t look like there was much discussion on it.
Machete order or bust.
4 5 6 stop
watch them in release order for sure, starting with Episode IV and ending with Episode III.
As for prequel versions, wherever you got the 4kXX files from should also have Schorman’s HDTV rips of the prequels that I recommend. That way you get to see ugly ass puppet yoda in The Phantom Menace the way god intended, but you don’t have to suffer DVD quality. If you can’t find them, shoot me a DM or just download any blu-ray/disney+ rip, the prequels didn’t change too much over the years besides some effects being re-rendered here and there.
Also big recommend the Andor TV show and Rogue One once you’re done with the prequels. They connect the two eras nicely.
edit: oh yeah, i totally forgot. watch the Genndy Tartakovsky Clone Wars Miniseries between Episode II and Episode III. It’s not super important to the story but I have a lot of nostalgia for it, and you’ll enjoy seeing General Grievous actually looking cool before they completely squander him in the movie.
What’s the current recommend for the original trilogy? Last re-watch I picked up some fanmade recolours of the OG rips, but not sure what’s hotness today. For clarity, I’m looking for watching Alderaan explode like a poorly rendered image of a candle, not any remastered shit.
Fan orders are a terrible idea don’t do them. Watch in release order, feel free to skip parts that aren’t interesting. The fact of the matter is that the entire series has been written by the seat of the pants of the people making it, meaning that there are absolutely no insights to be gained by watching prequels before the originals, and every entry in the series has taken great pains to be comprehensible on its own. If you skip stuff you might miss out on some “I RECOGNIZE THAT!” moments in later material, but that’s fine.
Also… the prequels are really bad. You may want to skip them entirely. I would suggest watching the Original Trilogy, The Clone Wars (the 2D animated tv movie, not the 3D animated tv show), the Mandalorian season 1, and then Andor seasons 1 & 2. Those series represent everything worthwhile in the Star Wars TV and movie canon, literally nothing else is worth your time.
Completely agree except you forgot Rogue One.
Also, the Han Solo movie was OK.
Prequels were bad, sequels were worse. Mandalorian was good but ended meh. Ahsoka looks promising.
skip it and watch stark trek TNG instead
First watch these:
- Star Wars Holiday Special
- The Ewok Adventure
- Ewoks: The Battle for Endor
When you have finished those, you should be filled with hate and suffering. You will welcome the dark side. Now you are ready.
Start watching
- The Phantom Menace.
Stop watching before the pod race ends.
Play the videogame
- Star Wars: Pod Racer.
Crash the first pod race, killing little Anakin.
Congratulations!
You’ve stopped the evil Sith lords from rising to power. You’ve saved the Ewoks. You’ve saved Jarjar. Balance in the universe remains balanced. You truly are one with the force. You are ready for the light side.
Watch
- Clone Wars
The animated series that aired on Cartoon Network. Not “The Clone Wars”!!! That’s different. Don’t watch that one. It sucks. You want the one made by Genddy Tartakovski, known for his masterpieces, Samurai Jack and Dexter’s Laboratory and his pivotal work in the series The Powerpuff Girls.
You wont need to watch anything else.
You wont want to watch anything else.
Ever.
Try to find the original versions of the first three movies without the added CG that messes with the story a little.
Could you explain how they mess with the story? Didn’t know about that.
After Han steps on Jabba’s tail you tend to shit and cry for a good 20 minutes and that usually prevents you from having a clear undestanding of the following scenes.
I’m a fan of the Machete Order.
There may be some spoilers in that blog post, it’s been a while since I read it, so here it is in summary:
- A New Hope (4)
- Empire Strikes Back (5)
- Attack of the Clones (2)
- Revenge of the Sith (3)
- Return of the Jedi (5)
Phantom Menace is omitted because it’s the weakest of the prequel trilogy and everything that happens in it is summarized at the beginning of Attack of the Clones anyway. If you want to be a completionist then watch it between Empire Strikes Back and Attack of the Clones.
There’s good reasons for following this order, but it’s hard to describe them without spoiling anything. Basically, Lucas assumed you’d watched the original trilogy when he made the prequels, so it’s got a bunch of spoilers in it that the Machete Order preserves quite nicely.
The Phantom Menace goes together with Rogue One as interesting expansions that aren’t crucial to the main plot. Better watched after all the others.
This is the way
I’d recommend watching them in release order, as that’s how most people have experienced them. You’ll have a better understanding of the commonly ascribed strengths and weaknesses of the respective films and trilogies if you watch them this way. It is also very common opinion that each trilogy is substantially worse than the previous one, so if you watch them this way then you have an off-ramp at the end of the first and second trilogies if/when you’ve decided you’ve had enough - you’ll never have to sit through bad films to get to the good ones.
The Machete Order is an interesting idea but I’m a little hesitant to recommend it because so many of these fan edits are designed by people who are in so deep that they tend to skim/omit information that is actually relevant to first time viewers who have no idea what is happening. Star Wars fans, like all fans of these geek franchises, often have a hard time seeing things from the perspective of people who don’t share their obsession. For that reason, I also strongly recommend against watching any of the TV series or filler/standalone films until you’ve finished at least the first two trilogies, because they are written for Star Wars fans to flesh out the events around the main films and are filled with tons of irrelevant references and fan service that are just going to confuse and/or bore you.
Watch in release order. This is the way they were written so it will make the most sense as a first time viewer.
You will hear about the Machete order if you research Star Wars viewing orders, but this is best for subsequent watches.
Aside from the OT and PT, the projects I recommend are the Clone Wars series (it’s a lot though), Rogue One, Andor, and the Mandalorian.
Kenobi was meh but had some really good moments.
Watch the sequel trilogy once if you must, but I think they’re pretty bad and forgettable.
Watch in release order. This is the way they were written so it will make the most sense as a first time viewer.
This, but for nearly everything lol
- Star Wars
- Empire Strikes Back
- Maybe Rogue One
The rest are not so good.
Ctrl+f: “holiday special” - Phrase not found.
This thread epic fail.
Why is it good?
I’d do my best to watch them in the order they were commercially released so you can appreciate how damaging and awful the edits are.
Either or, but the commercial release order is more dramatic. 1-3 are technically prequels, so they are more answering questions and laying backstory. Release order also follows the evolution of the sfx.
There’s also the Machete Order. The TL;DR is to watch the movies in the order of: IV, V, II, III, VI. The reasons why are explained at that link and can’t be discussed without spoilers.
The non-spoiler tl;dr is that it maintains Star Wars as Luke’s story.
Do you mean watching the theatrical release of the original trilogy, then watching the specialized edition, then the DVD re-releases, then the prequels, then the blu-ray re-releases, then the sequel trilogy?
“Is this an episode of The Big Bang Theory?”
Definitely 456-123 order, I know some people have different ways they prefer to watch but I think that kind of detracts from watching how the franchise evolves over the years.
If you want more after that, rogue one and andor is pretty good, clone wars/bad batch has some good stuff (though I’d recommend finding a watch guide for clone wars, some episodes are straight up kids stuff, other episodes are almost literally Vietnam war and decapitations)
I think the sequels are interesting to watch, I’m a bit of an 8 apologist in some areas, but you have to go in with the expectation that there’s a general decline in story progression and making sense from movie to movie.
Honestly though I think the series has a general decline after 5. It’s all not bad, and there’s some good stuff, but if you find yourself uninterested don’t force yourself to continue after like episode 6.
