For this reason, I decided to put together a small guide to drive you through the Star Wars (expanded) universe in the most comprehensive way. Don't get scared just yet: my purpose is to give you all the material to acquire the essential knowledge in the shortest amount of time possible.
To this purpose, I decided to fully embrace the Dark Side: I will present only what Disney decided to consider as Canon, leaving the old literature outside of my synthesis. The reason is that there is no way to catch up with the Star Wars universe if you have to include everything. It has been a painful process for me since I grew up with those stories that are not Canon anymore, but life is made of choices and this post will make a lot of them. Moreover, the new material is taking inspiration from what now is called Legends (the old Canon), thus it is better to stay away from it to not spoil the surprise or, even worse, be disappointed.
Your Star Wars expertise has to be built in layers. The basic layer is made by the movies, the most essential and brief view for people that is coming among us for the first time. After that, I decided to insert the Animated Series because they contain great stories that will expand your understanding of the characters and the events you loved to see in the movies. At last, for those that want to push their knowledge to the limit, the comic books will play a role, providing the ultimate expertise. There is also a certain number of novels and they are not included. The reason is simple: while I can indicate a number of episodes or issues to get a specific knowledge, I can't just ask you to read part of a novel, thus losing the opportunity of being brief. A list of such novels is available online and you can consider them the fourth layer.
Here I will present the 3 layers one by one: first the movies (below), then the animated series and the comic books in two separate posts. At last, in this final post, you can find a list of everything here explained, presented in chronological order (that is the shortest way to read the guide, if you blindly trust me).
Disclaimer: Yes, choices will be made in the interest of a good synthesis and these choices can eventually piss off some hardcore fan. No, this is not a guide to tell you what to do, it is not by any means the only way. My intention is to give you an overall look of something I love, providing you all the elements that I can think of in order to make you create your ideal path.
First Layer: the Movies
The first approach has to be done with the real deal. Star Wars defines its own universe through the movies and thus they must be considered the starting point. Here you can follow different strategies.
My original method to watch them was (for lack of alternatives) to proceed following the order of their release (4-5-6-1-2-3-7). It is the order that made me love the franchise, I have to suggest it to those approaching this universe for the first time. If you decide to follow the chronological order instead (1-2-3-4-5-6-7), you will experience a story that will probably look more fluid but will lack tension.
At last, I would mention the so-called Machete Order (4-5-2-3-6-7) that is dedicated to maintaining the best tension effects of the saga and, most importantly, will save you from the very criticised Episode I. A personal note on that: since I was still reasonably young when it came out, Episode I is a good memory for me and I can't help it but recommend its vision. I do admit that it doesn't add any information to the full story but it also contains amazing battle scenes with Darth Maul, one of the best villains of the saga. Regardless of including or not Episode I, be aware that following the Machete Order will make you span 20+ years of cinematographic techniques. The rhythm, the visual effects, and the language will be very different. Someone can find rather challenging to keep the attention up during such changes.
At last, I have to mention the newest product: Rogue One (reviewed here spoiler-free). Although it doesn't belong to the saga, can be safely viewed right before Episode IV since it provides a totally different perspective on that movie.
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| From Star Wars, #22 (the comic book, not the movie) (yet) |
Most importantly, you will find yourself in front of a story taking place a long time ago, in a Galaxy far far away. A story of how a Republic found itself in a civil war and then became an Empire. A story of the rebellion against such Empire and, with the newest trilogy, of the aftermath. You will learn what the Force is, what is the Dark Side of it, and how the two fights in defining an individual. You will be amazed by space battles and sword fights in what is, by many means, a western movie in space.
If you need this layer, I can't tell you anything more than that without spoiling your first view.
Thus, I send you to the next short chapter of this guide: the animated series.
Here the final result, if you are lazy and trust my selection without the need of any explanation.
The origins of Anakin and Padme, the emergence of the Separatists, the beginning of Palpatine's rise to power, and the appearances of Darth Maul and Qui-Gon Jinn are nothing? Sure, the Gungans and the Senate talks are tedious and (in the case of the former) unnecessary, but Episode I is perhaps the most dense story of them all. By all means skip a few scenes but why would you even consider skipping the whole movie?
ReplyDeleteFair enough. But, as you can see, I do recommend its vision :) It is how the machete order was designed.
DeleteThe guide is excellent but the reasoning is what irked me. You said that it adds no information to the story and suggested you only watch it out of nostalgia.
DeleteAnd the machete order makes no sense. You might as well watch them in alphabetical order.
I understand your point. What I am saying is what the machete order is saying, I didn't invented it. The all point of that order is to not spoil the big twist at the end of the fifth. You have the big reveal and then a 2 movies long flashback about the origin of that reveal. Those that invented it excluded episode 1 because you don't really need it to understand episode 2: you can simply assume there is war, there are separatists, there is a senator named Palpatine, there is Anakin that now likes Padme (you don't need to see a child to understand that he likes her). Darth Maul and Qui-Gon are gone, so you don't need them for the other movies. In this sense is not essential. You don't need everything explained all the time, don't you? Episode 4 came out of the blue, you don't need to see how the Empire was born, you just start from there.
DeleteHowever, it fits perfectly in the spirit of knowing the expanded universe since it explains a lot of thing regarding the character (in the same way the upcoming Maul comic book, the next month I think, will explain who Maul is).
p.s. my order is the release order, the machete order is a fancy construct of 5 years ago
I'm not a hard fan of SW. Actually I'm not fan at all. But I was very interesting in SW_1st ep because of Quigon. And 3rd ep is interesting also. Now SW Rogue One had appeared. It's interesting also, but lesser.
ReplyDeleteMy question is: why people (you said) are critisizing SW_1ep and actually all prequels?
There are different reasons. The first is surely that the bar was set very high by the original trilogy and the fans expected something on the same level. It wasn't and the disappointment was high.
DeleteSecondly, it doesn't have the same impact in terms of messages.
Then many people didn't like the unnecessary explanations or some character (Jar Jar in primis).
Not to mention every objection about the acting.
I personally like all of them, although not at the same level and not for same reasons. Seeing the Empire rising was amazing to me and changed a lot my opinion on the rest of the saga.