A bit of a dilemma ....

[theorangemonkey]

In a My wife and I have reached a bit of an impasse on something - usually with parenting issues we end up on the same page, but on this issue we've become polarized.  We were discussing Star Wars, and could not agree on which order to first have our son watch them in.  I know that it's still early days, and that there is still plenty of time to

Comments

Star Wars?

[anonymous]

What is this Star Wars of which you speak?
Heather

Re: Star Wars?

[theorangemonkey]

It's kind of like Harry Potter, but the wizards all have laser swords instead of wands.

[theorangemonkey]

Thanks for all the thoughts, everyone - for the record, my wife is quite pleased that everyone agrees with her :oD

[citizenofzozo]

I don't have a particular leaning either way, though something my brother told me some years ago I found interesting - story-wise, the release order of Star Wars was very effective. Throughout A New Hope, you have the mystery of who Luke's father was, and the underlying idea that there is more going on than the characters/story are willing to reveal at that point. Then, when Empire came out, there's the sudden, startling revelation, and of course, at the end you're wondering how can that be, is that really the truth. There's the acceptance and explanation in Jedi, but you don't really know the rest of the story until you watch the prequels.

I hadn't thought about it from your point of view, though; seeing it as a story fundamentally about Anakin does change the overall interpretation of the series. Ultimately, I don't think I've seen the movies enough times to have a strong enough opinion (Jans has seen 4-6 too many times to want to watch them much now and I've only seen 1-3 once).

[theorangemonkey]

Yeah, as much as it wasn't really all planned out in advance, it does all fit in together really nicely. And the prequels do really effectively make you rethink the OT a lot - like the fact that Obi-Wan is just flat out lying when he says he doesn't recognize R2D2 affects how you appreciate that character in the rest of Episode 4

[epi_lj]

An important argument in favour of watching 4-6 first:

If, on the off chance, he loses interest and stops watching them after three movies, which three would you rather he have seen?

[theorangemonkey]

Good point (and one I hadn't considered!)