Star Wars

My movie blog would not be complete if I failed to include an entire post dedicated to my favorite series of all time, Star Wars. In my previous blog from last semester, I spoke of my introduction to the Star Wars Universe. This post will focus on the films and community surrounding them.

Many people are confused when getting into the franchise. Since the creator, George Lucas, started out with making episodes 4,5,6 first, then 1,2,3 twenty years later, many potential fans are alienated. They don’t know the order in which to watch. Many people say to watch the OG original trilogy then the prequals since that is release order. The people that tell you this are usually older and want you to experience the story the same way they did. Others, like George himself, want people to watch in episodic order; watch the prequels first, then the original trilogy. This gives a flowing order and progresses with character development in the way most stories do. However, if you’re new to this story, I’ll give you my preferred watching order. Dubbed the “machete order” online, I would recommend watching episodes 4 and 5, THEN 1,2,3, and finally conclude with episode 6.

I get it, this sounds ludicrous and confusing. Hear me out. The huge twist in the story occurs in episode five. If you watch the prequels first, the twist is ruined, and the reveal isn’t powerful at all. Therefore, you should watch the first two released to get that shock. After this, the prequels will bring you along for a fun ride and build the universe. The last movie, episode 6, will wrap everything up and tie a bow on top. The suspense will feel real and worthy. This order satisfies the older crowd’s desire for release order, and the creator’s vision of the story, but leaves the last movie for its purpose: being last.

If that tied your brain in a knot, I can understand. And yes, this order neglects the Disney movies. That opens up a whole new can of worms that will divide the community at large, so I’ll just leave it out of this post (however, if you watch any Disney Star Wars movie, watch Rogue One. It’s visually my favorite movie and has a compelling story that is self-fulfilling and doesn’t require expansive background knowledge of the universe). But take my word for it, I’m passionate enough about it to write a blog post so I must know something, right? If you truly haven’t seen the movies yet, stop reading this and go watch!

Of course, everyone knows Star Wars is famous for the effects, music, and spectacle. How many of you know that there are thousands of theories and blogs and YouTube channels dedicated to everything from Jar Jar being the grand master of the Sith to the songs of Max Rebo and the Jizz-Wailers band? Did you know that Star Wars has its own alphabet and language that people actually take time to learn called Aurebesh? Or did you know -and my personal favorite- that there is a substantial online-community of prequel memers? These people make fun of the cheesy dialog of the Star Wars prequels to the tune of individual meme pages with over 126K Instagram followers. With all the hate the prequels have received over the years, the memes salvage what some (not me) call unwatchable movies into comedic adventures. I’ll leave a few of my recent favorites here for you to enjoy.