The Perfect Order to Watch the Star Wars Saga

[The Dark Knight]

The Jedi Order was basically extinct... and based on Obi-Wan and Yoda's behavior just in the original trilogy, it's hard to see that as a completely bad thing. Or even a mostly bad thing. And if anything, the prequels shine an even brighter light on what a bunch of self-interested jerks the Jedi all were. If anything, Obi-Wan is probably the best among them. But we've set the bar pretty low here.

The later stages of the Jedi Order strongly resembles segments of the Western World right now. I see the same pig headed and complacent arrogance. There are none so blind as those who will not see. Honestly, if the Jedi didn't pick up on the warning signs, screw them. They were completely outmaneuvered by a superior strategic mind. I honestly have zero sympathy. Nothing lasts forever. Empires fall. It's your job to make sure it doesn't happen on your watch.

But back to Rogue One for a moment:

The consistency with ANH extends to Vader's scepticism of the Death Star. In ANH he warns them not to be too proud of the technological terror they constructed. In Rogue One, he says "its power to create problems has certainly been confirmed. A city destroyed. An Imperial facility openly attacked."

Vader clearly isn't that keen about it all, but orders are orders. He does Palpatine's bidding.

I also like how this ANH quote basically now refers to the battle of Scarif:

"Dangerous to your starfleet, Commander, not to this battle station."

[Dagenspear]

The later stages of the Jedi Order strongly resembles segments of the Western World right now. I see the same pig headed and complacent arrogance. There are none so blind as those who will not see. Honestly, if the Jedi didn't pick up on the warning signs, screw them. They were completely outmaneuvered by a superior strategic mind. I honestly have zero sympathy. Nothing lasts forever. Empires fall. It's your job to make sure it doesn't happen on your watch.

They were all massacred, including children to fuel an empirical violent takeover based on lies. Have a very great day!

God bless you all!

[thecolorsblend]

The later stages of the Jedi Order strongly resembles segments of the Western World right now. I see the same pig headed and complacent arrogance. There are none so blind as those who will not see. Honestly, if the Jedi didn't pick up on the warning signs, screw them. They were completely outmaneuvered by a superior strategic mind. I honestly have zero sympathy. Nothing lasts forever. Empires fall. It's your job to make sure it doesn't happen on your watch.

They were all massacred, including children to fuel an empirical violent takeover based on lies.

Oosh, been to an Ariana Grande concert lately?

[thecolorsblend]

I'll say this for the Empire: stuff worked under Palpatine.

For clarification, I should say that my canon is the original unaltered trilogy and not much else. So your opinions may differ from mine.

I'm coming back to this. Right around the time of the theatrical release of Revenge Of The Sith, Lucasfilm released Star Wars- A Musical Journey which used major themes from all of the different movies and mixed them with relevant footage.

When it comes to the material from Episodes I-III, the end result is something which, arguably, tells the prequels stories in a more satisfying way than the prequel films themselves do.

These videos give the flavor of whatever character or subplot they explore but without a whole lot of dialogue or narrative. In retrospect, these mini-movies are probably the best way for older OT-era fans to absorb the prequels.

Not sure if A Musical Journey has very many fans around here but I've included a few samples to give an idea of what the DVD was all about.

Star Wars: A Musical Journey - A Hero Rises

Star Wars: A Musical Journey - A Fateful Love

Star Wars: A Musical Journey - A Hero Falls

[Silver Nemesis]

I enjoy the Musical Journey DVD. I got a copy with the Revenge of the Sith soundtrack when it first came out, but I haven't watched it in years. I never thought of using it in place of the Prequel Trilogy. I suppose that could work.

Of course my opinion of the Prequel Trilogy has improved somewhat since seeing the more recent Star Wars movies...

[Slash Man]

On the subject of Force powers, I loved the way Vader's skills were depicted in Rogue One. I always admired Vader's fighting style in the OT. He didn't need to somersault through the air or perform lots of unnecessary pirouettes. Vader's fighting style was all about power, precision and control. I was worried they might use an overchoreographed prequel-style of swordplay in Rogue One, but thankfully they had him fight the way he did in Episodes V and VI. It felt pleasantly consistent with the OT.

I liked the execution, but the scene itself felt like unnecessary fanservice. His style was consistent, but his motives weren't. Remember when A New Hope opened with Vader single-handedly killing all those Rebels? No, his troop of Stormtroopers did all the dirty work, while Vader only gave glimpses into what he was truly capable of up until he finally ignited his lightsaber in his duel against Ben.

Disney movies are fun "what if?" scenarios apart from the original Saga in my eyes. I really enjoyed Solo, though (even if a brand new Millennium Falcon created some continuity issues).

[Silver Nemesis]

I liked the execution, but the scene itself felt like unnecessary fanservice. His style was consistent, but his motives weren't. Remember when A New Hope opened with Vader single-handedly killing all those Rebels? No, his troop of Stormtroopers did all the dirty work, while Vader only gave glimpses into what he was truly capable of up until he finally ignited his lightsaber in his duel against Ben.

This is true. I still like the choreography in this scene, but you're right – it is fan service and doesn't reflect the methodology of the character in the OT. The OT Vader only drew his blade for worthy adversaries (i.e. Jedi) and let his minions handle the rest. He could have massacred the Rebels aboard the Tantive IV in a similar manner, but he chose to let his goons do the dirty work for him. There's a similar situation in Tolkien's mythology where the Dark Lords Morgoth and Sauron very rarely engage in direct one-on-one combat. But whenever they do step onto the battlefield, it always feels epic.

The Vader in the recent Marvel comics often engages in combat with low-tier enemies, and I feel this somewhat diminishes his aura of formidability. I like the scene in Empire where he enters the Rebel base on Hoth. Everyone else is running around in a panic, but Vader just calmly strolls through the battlefield. He doesn't even bother igniting his lightsaber. He's so powerful he doesn't need to. When a situation arises where he has to kill someone, he simply uses the Force to choke them. That way when he does draw his blade you know the situation's serious.

My in-universe justification of the scene in Rogue One is that this may have been the first time Vader had left the bacta tank and donned his mechanical limbs after a prolonged period of regeneration. He may have sensed the challenges that lay ahead and decided to test himself to see how his physical rejuvenation was progressing; to see whether he 'still had it', so to speak. Of course this is just fan speculation on my part, and it doesn't alter the fact that the scene is pure fan service.

[thecolorsblend]

I don't mind the scene myself. I think everybody who grew up watching the trilogy always wanted to see Vader really cut loose on a large group of hapless fools.

Fan service? Maybe but it bothers me not one bit.

What does bother me (a little bit) is depicting bacta almost as a steroid or something. It complicates something that never needed to be complicated in the first place. I hear that the bacta thing was played up to give the lightsaber battle some kind of credibility. Vader didn't tear anybody up in that way in Star Wars '77 so there has to be a reason he did so in Rogue One... or at least that seems to be the thinking. So the explanation seems to be that bacta is sort of a performance-enhancing drug or something.

It's just idiotic, frankly. But apart from that nonsense, I adore that scene.

[Slash Man]

The Vader in the recent Marvel comics often engages in combat with low-tier enemies, and I feel this somewhat diminishes his aura of formidability. I like the scene in Empire where he enters the Rebel base on Hoth. Everyone else is running around in a panic, but Vader just calmly strolls through the battlefield. He doesn't even bother igniting his lightsaber. He's so powerful he doesn't need to. When a situation arises where he has to kill someone, he simply uses the Force to choke them. That way when he does draw his blade you know the situation's serious.

This in itself is another issue - when supplemental materials show too much. Vader also fought Luke before The Empire Strikes Back according to these comics, which does a great disservice to him preparing to confront Vader for the first time in that film. Revenge of the Sith also presented a long-awaited rematch between Anakin and Dooku, but the Clone Wars series has them fighting like every other week. Same with Grievous and Obi-Wan.

To its credit, we see Vader's true power on display in the movies once again (since the original trilogy). The expanded universe constructed a narrative that Vader became much weaker and more pitiful after his injuries, and I think that contradicts how he was played up as one of the most powerful beings in the galaxy originally. Rogue One Vader demonstrates that he's just as strong as pre-Vader Anakin (if not stronger), and that it doesn't just boil down to acrobatics.