Star Wars Saga Viewing Order?

[Brian]

Since this could fit in either the prequel or Original Trilogy forum, I thought it might fit best here.  We've heard the discussion a lot, but for those of you with kids (or nieces, nephews, or friends' kids) - what order would you choose to show them the Star Wars Saga?  Would you go in order (1-6), in the order many or most of us viewed them in (4-6, 1-3), or some other order of your own (I've heard some say 4, 5, 1-3, 6)?  Maybe you'd skip the prequels altogether .  Anyways, what do you think is the best viewing order for new viewers?  I would sort of lean towards viewing them the way I did (OT first, then the PT), because seeing things like the Vader reveal, the first appearance of Yoda, etc. were some of the greatest moments for me as a kid.  It is possible that it wouldn't be nearly as big of a deal to today's kids, as society has changed a lot since the early 80s.  What viewing order do you prefer?

[JesseVader08]

I'd view them in the same order I saw them: 4-6, 1-3.  Otherwise a lot of the shock moments in ESB and ROTJ would be lost.

[Ben]

I agree, 4-6 then 1-3. Yoda's reveal is great in ESB, whereas he just shows up in TPM. I often wonder if someone sees 1-3 first if they'd be interested enough in continuing on with 4-6.

[Brian]

I agree, 4-6 then 1-3. Yoda's reveal is great in ESB, whereas he just shows up in TPM. I often wonder if someone sees 1-3 first if they'd be interested enough in continuing on with 4-6.

That's a good question too.  The Yoda reveal is one of the big ones for me as well.  Of course, you have the Luke/Vader confrontation with the "I am your father" revelation, but I wonder at this point how many people/kids don't know that anymore beforehand.  You make a great point about Yoda's reveal in ESB, where there is no fanfare whatsoever in TPM.

[A.J.]

I would have them view 4-6 first and then 1-3 just because of all the plot twists.

[Resurrection Bob]

This is actually a current question on the Wii's Everybody Votes Channel.  I voted for OT first.  It should be interesting in a couple days to see whether the masses agree with us on this one.

[Darth Broem]

Gotta go with OT first and PT second. 

[IncomT65]

Quite a while ago I saw this at GH.com as well. In that thread someone suggested something like this:

ANH - ESB - ROTJ up until Ben's "confession" to Luke - TPM - AOTC - ROTS - continue ROTJ.

[77Skywalker]

I view them in this order:

The Phantom Menace
Attack of the Clones
Both versions of the Clone Wars
Revenge of the Sith
A New Hope
The Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi.

Or by episode number and how they happened.  I've been doing that since 2005.

[Brian]

This might be old news to some (I believe these were posted within the past few months), but I've been reading a series written over at hitfix.com by Drew McWeeny (also pka Moriarty at AICN).  He's writing a series about showing the SW Saga to his two sons (ages 6 and 3) with the recent blu ray release.  They have never seen any of the movies before, and seen only a handful of CW episodes, so aside from knowing a few characters they seem to be going in blind.  He chronicles each movie's viewing in these posts, and it is a pretty interesting read.  His order, by the way is:

Star Wars (or A New Hope)

The Empire Strikes Back

The Phantom Menace

Attack of the Clones

Revenge of the Sith

Return of the Jedi

[Phrubruh]

When I showed these movies to my five year old, we started with the OT first. Now he knows who Luke, Han and Leia are. He talks all about them now. Then we watched the TPM and ATOC. He liked Darth Maul alot and all of the Clone trooper action since he watches the CW cartoon. He hasn't seen ROTS since its a very dark and PG13 for him. Maybe later. He is perfectly happy with what he saw and likes TESB the best! He loves AT-ATs!

[Scott]

My boys (9 and 7) still have not seen ROTS.  I don't think they need to see that yet...I think they get what happened but man that stuff is intense.

We have not watched the movies in a year or so...I was thinking they both could go to ROTS 3D in 2014 with me

[Ryan]

I still think that the best way to start is with the OT first followed by the PT. The films would hold a lot more suspense and surprise that way, not that anyone who isn't 6 years old doesn't already know Vader is Luke and Leia's father.

I wonder if anyone has ever asked this question to Lucas? I'd be interested to see what he has to say. I would think he's say PT first.

[JediJman]

I still think that the best way to start is with the OT first followed by the PT. The films would hold a lot more suspense and surprise that way, not that anyone who isn't 6 years old doesn't already know Vader is Luke and Leia's father.

I wonder if anyone has ever asked this question to Lucas? I'd be interested to see what he has to say. I would think he's say PT first.

Agreed.  We're going to watch E5 in the next few weeks I think.  They've just seen E4 so far, but they've seen enough books and other material to know about Anakin and what happens to him.  I hope the revelation isn't totally lost on them.   

[Brian]

Sort of related to this topic, but I happened across this article at Yahoo when I logged out of mail tonight....written by someone who hadn't watched Star Wars since ROTS was released in 2005, and some observations about the Saga in general (including viewing order).  Just thought I'd pass it along:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/blows-yoda-does-watched-star-235315196.html