Hahaha, I wondered who would put that video up. If no one had I was going to. Thanks Eustace+Jill!

Sooooooo

Yeah.

I'm a big Star Wars geek. Less of one now than I was a few years ago. I was obsessed from when I was about 8 or so to when I was about 14. I'll go movie by movie to help make this post cleaner, hehe.

Star Wars: A New Hope

This was the first one I saw (before the prequels came out). It was New Year's Eve and I was in Oklahoma with my family for Christmas/New Year's. My mom and Aunt were playing Black Jack in the kitchen and while I was interested in learning how to play, I really wanted to watch a movie. So my dad pulls out Star Wars saying I had to watch it. Of course he's my dad so of course I believed him.

So he puts it in. And I watch it. And I love it. I'm instantly obsessed, actually.

Surprisingly enough I can't remember the first time I watched any of the others as clearly as I can remember watching this first one. Anyway, I wouldn't say it's my favorite, but it definitely has a special place in my heart for being the very first one I saw when I was so young. I can't even tell you my first impressions of everything because I was so young I didn't care about acting/CGI/etc. It was the story I was instantly caught up in.

The Empire Strikes Back

A LOT of people say this is the best one, and I'm inclined to agree. There's just so much great stuff in it! The introduction of Yoda, the Leia and Han romance (SOOOOOOO much better written and portrayed than the Padme/Anakin one), the beginning of Luke's training as a Jedi, and of course the big reveal at the end!

When I first saw it all I remember is that I was afraid of the Hoth monster. Hehehe, I closed my eyes when Luke severed his arm, until I was older and saw that it was just a black hole in a puppet and not gruesome at all.

The Return of the Jedi

This one was always my favorite growing up, mainly because its the one where Darth Vader is redeemed. That final battle is just . . . incredible. And the MUSIC! GAH! I have the soundtrack and every time the piece comes on where Luke is fighting Vader with anger and then when Sidious is torturing Luke my chest tightens. It's so moving and emotional and amazing.

The Ewoks never bothered me. Seeing as I was about 8 when I first saw this movie, I thought they were lovable and adorable and I wanted one. However, I am glad they cut the Ewok song from special editions.

Okay, before I go into the prequels let me just say that while I really enjoyed them and LOVE the SFX, the acting is terrible and the scripts are even worse. They made Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor, and Liam Neeson look like horrible actors when they're really not at all! Sooooo sad.

Anyway,

The Phantom Menace

The best part about this was is the final fight scene between Obi-Wan, Darth Maul, and Qui-Gon. Prettttty sweeet and unfortunately interrupted often by shots of young!Anakin up in the sky saving the world (sorry Jake Lloyd, but your acting just wasn't all that great in that movie, though you were adorable ).

Overall the story was good, but George Lucas just doesn't write the best screenplays.

Oh yeah, and Jar Jar Binks never really annoyed me as much as he seems to annoy others. I thought he was funny.

Attack of the Clones

Probably the weakest link, I think. In terms of acting/scriptwriting. Hayden Christiansen was good at playing the angsty!Anakin, but everything else seemed pretty weak. And the romance? UUuuuuuugh. Cheesy, much? "I truly, deeply love you"? Empire Strikes Back was so much better, like I said before. The desperate "I love you!" from Leia and the classic ad-lib "I know." from Han is, well, classic!

But like I said before, the special effects were pretty good/decent. My favorite scene had to be Yoda fighting Darth Tryanus.

Revenge of the Sith

Again, poor acting/scriptwriting. Anakin's transition to the dark side was much too abrupt, I strongly believe. One moment he's agonizing over causing Mace Windu's death, and the very next second he's on his knees in front of Darth Sidious and calling him Master. I mean . . . HUH?!?!?!

But I do like how they tied everything together neatly, with how did Leia end up with the last name Organa and on a different planet than Luke and how did Vader not know that he had a son out there if he already knew Padme was pregnant, etc. So again, the story is pretty good, it's just the delivery that was rather weak.

And my favorite scene would have to be . . . uhhh . . . I'll have to get back to you on that one.

So yeah, I'm definitely in the camp where the Original Trilogy kicks the New Trilogy out of the water. Just so much better on so many accounts.

I love the soundtracks, though now everything done by John Williams sounds like Star Wars.

The books . . . the only books I've read are the novelizations of Return of the Jedi, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith. And actually the book of Revenge of the Sith is soooooooo much better than the movie, I think. Even though it came after, the plot is so much better developed along with the characters. While the cheesy lines are in there still, they somehow don't seem quite as cheesy. That book was written by Matthew Stover and I highly recommend it.

Now the only other books I've read are the Jedi Apprentice series, the Jedi Quest series, and the Last of the Jedi series. YA books written by Jude Watson that go more in depth in the teen-age years of Obi-Wan (Jedi Apprentice), Anakin (Jedi Quest), and then some Resistance build-up between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope (Last of the Jedi). I highly recommend these too if you don't mind that they were written for kids. They're not very "kid-ish" at all though.

Anyway, I normally don't write posts in the SF threads because I know I'll get long-winded, but I couldn't resist this one. Hey, it's Star Wars!

P.S."Brooklyn!"

Probably the weakest link, I think. In terms of acting/scriptwriting. Hayden Christiansen was good at playing the angsty!Anakin, but everything else seemed pretty weak. And the romance? UUuuuuuugh. Cheesy, much? "I truly, deeply love you"?

I tend to the The Phantom Menace is the weakest of the series, but I definitely agree with you here about the romance angle in Clones. It felt more like "puppy love" than love...and Anakin was coming on a bit strong, methinks. They could have done so much better with his character...I can't totally blame Hayden since he was just instructed to walk around and be a moody, lovesick kid. There's not much anyone on Earth could do with that.

And some Star Wars parody videos for everyone's enjoyment!

Chill out Red One!

Self explanatory

Darth Vader the wisenheimer

Star Wars. Awesome!

I saw the original trilogy before Phantom Menace came out. Return of the Jedi was my favorite when I was little (what kid doesn't like giant teddy bears?), but now my favorite is Empire Strikes Back. I remember seeing Empire for what must have been the first time and thinking "He is not Luke's father!"

I saw the prequels in the theater and didn't like them. The Jedi fight in Phantom is awesome, but the rest of the story is rather blah. I did not like Clone Wars at all. Revenge was only slightly better than the other two. I am definitely an original trilogy fan all the way.

I haven't read any of the books and the only video games I've played are the Lego ones. I actually played Lego Star Wars II almost obsessively just a few years ago.

All of these videos are great! Han Solo shot first!

This is one of my favourite parodies. I love the tinny music and how everything is sped up. It makes me giggle. That, and my baby sister said, "Uh-oh" when the AT-AT went down.

"There are some important things my son needs to grow up knowing: one, that Han shot first." YES! So true.

This.

When I first saw [Empire Strikes Back] all I remember is that I was afraid of the Hoth monster.

And this.

Sweeet, I've read a few of the EU books, including the Zahn trilogy, most of the Jedi Apprentice series and the Brian Sibley Han Solo series. There was another one that my friend and I listened to on audiobook, about a younger Han Solo. But I don't remember who wrote that one.

I've also read some of the stranger ones, like... Splinter of the Mind's Eye which is rather accurately summed up by Book-A-Minute. They kind of forgot my favourite part, which is

Yay! It's been awhile since we had a Star Wars SF.

I think I saw my first Star Wars movie when I was 8 or so. It was before Episode I came out, so I couldn't have been much older than that. I got to see Return of the Jedi while visiting some family and fell irrevocably in love. Awhile after that, I got to see The Empire Strikes Back and didn't like it as much. Years went by, I more or less forgot about Star Wars and became a Trekkie. Then when Episode III came out on DVD, I watched it with my Dad and got back into the fandom. Now I've finally watched all of the movies and I've read a ton of the novels and played a bunch of the games. I'd have to say it's currently my number one scifi fandom.

Episode I:
I think this is the only Star Wars movie that has essentially nothing in it I like. Sure some of the space battles are cool and the duels are amazing, but the acting is so wooden you could build a house with it and the script is terrible. Add in a dull plot and Jar Jar the CGI monster from Hades and this is very, very far down on my list of the films.

Episode II:
The plot in this movie isn't much better than the first and the script is much, much worse, but there's less Jar Jar and it has a proper Obi Wan instead of his boring twin. Amazing battles and fights scenes and sadly that's the best part.

Episode III:
Easily the best of the prequels, though it falls apart storywise if you think about the plot too much. Still has bad dialogue, including the ludicrous "Only a Sith deals in absolutes!" line, but not as awful as II. And it has Yoda and the Emperor fighting! I think everyone wanted that faceoff.

Episode IV:
The weakest link in the Original Trilogy, but still much better than the first two Prequels. Better acting, better story, better script. Oh, and no angsty whiny Anakin, even if whining does seem to be an inherited trait on the male side of the family.

Episode V:
The best of the entire saga. Darker, better written, better story, fantastic character interactions, great battles, a good romance, what was a mind-blowing twist at the time. If only the whole saga was like this.

Episode VI:
This movie was so much better in my memories than when I watch it now. It's the Ewoks, I'm afraid. My brain breaks a little bit once we get to Endor. Cut them out and it probably could have been close to as good as Empire. Still, it does have my favorite bit of music in the entire Original Series.

It starts at about the 1:00 mark.

So rankings are:
V
VI
III
IV
II
I

The books are rather hit or miss. Some are very good, Timothy Zahn's in particular. He did give us my beloved Mara Jade after all. I'm kinda iffy on things they've done more recently, Jacen's fate in particular. Still, I'm liking this latest series, Fate of the Jedi, though I'm woefully behind on it. I think it's already finished and I'm still on book 3.

As for the games, I absolutely adore the KotOR games. I just started replaying the first one and I'm gleefully going as Dark Side as possible. It really is more fun than playing the Light Side, in which you have to be perfectly polite to even the most annoying NPC or risk getting *gasp* Dark Side points as well as a lecture from Bastila. Oh, and I killed Juhani. My LoTRO kin and I are planning on playing ToR when it comes out. One of the guys in the kin got to Beta ToR and liked what he saw of it. They let him play the two rogue/stealth type classes. I'm still leaning towards a Sith and a Jedi Consular, but I might give the other classes a try too.

And some favorite Star Wars videos since everyone else is doing it:

Still, it does have my favorite bit of music in the entire Original Series.

It starts at about the 1:00 mark.

YES! That's the exact piece that I was talking about in my post. Gives me shivers every single time I hear it!

P.S."Brooklyn!"

Ah hahaha, I love those HISHE (How It Should Have Ended) videos! My favorites are the Star Trek and Iron Man ones... going back to the subject though…

I was introduced to the series last summer? 2009. Anyways, I've always heard of people talk about the series when I was younger, but maul scared me like crazy so I decided to wait until I was older. So I got my cousin to bring all six (seven if you include the clone wars movie ) movies and we spread all of those movies over three days… HOWEVER, I made the really dumb mistake of watching them in chronological order as opposed to the order it was released (I did the same thing with the Narnia series! I really should start doing these things in publication order) and that completely made the last three not as awesome as they should have been

Phantom Menace- It was a good start to the series, and I really liked the duel (or rather the fight, cuz there were three of them) at the end.
Attack of the Clones- Ok, so with this movie, the whole Anakin plot was a mess. The rest of the movie was cool, but I winced every time something had to do with Anakin… I think it was due to the fact that the romance was really cheesy, it really grossed me out by their age difference (because I watched it immediately after I saw episode I), and the fact that I really can’t stand Hayden Christiensen. Other than that, episode II was a really good movie, I liked how the viewer was able to see Jango (spelling?) and Boba Fett so I could have an “AH-HA!” moment in episode V. And the jedi fights at the end were well done.
Revenge of the Sith- On a personal level, I didn’t like this movie. But on a story line level, I thought that it set things up really well for the other three. Maybe it’s just because I can’t stand to see good characters go bad.
A New Hope- Kinda slow… but I could easily see how it was so popular when it first came out
Emperor Strikes Back- Best of the ‘old ones.’
Return of the Jedi- (for the music geeks) On a side note, when I was watching this I started to complain when Luke and Leia are talking and then Han comes in, I said, “that is so lame. Who says ‘hold me?’” and then my cousin replied, “fermata.” Anyways, I like how Lucas decided to end the series, kinda cheesy to see little fuzzy bears (ok, ok, ewoks) beat giant walkers and guns when they just use rocks… it’s a little too far-fetched for me. Lastly I don’t think that Vader looks enough like Christiensen. Another reason why I don’t care for him…

On another side note, I've recently started netflixing the Clone Wars TV series, it's overly cheesy, and doesn't always follow the storyline of the classic movies, but it's ok...

Overall, Star Wars is not my favorite series, but like Princess Bride, I have so much respect for it because of how different it was for it’s time period. I like the idea that it was the first of it’s time and really wish I was around for when it was first released. It’s too bad that there aren’t many series based on space and adventure, but rather things are now about post-apocalypse/post-some-major-catastrophe survival.

Okay, so I've grown up on Star Wars. My Dad was and still is a big Star Wars fan. By the time The Phantom Menace came out when I was six I had already seen the first 3 several times. I saw Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones the day they came out and Revenge of the Sith within the first week of it's release. Of the first three movies I love Empire Strikes back the most, and Han is by far my favorite character in all three of those. Revenge of the Sith is my favorite of the newer movies, though I must agree that the novelization of Revenge of the Sith is so much better then the film, kinda wish they had used that for the film instead of what ended up on the big screen. I must say though that either Anakin or Padme is my favorite character from the newer films. Even though I find thier story very sappy, and tragic i can't help myself...I love it.
I have read most of the novels including the Thrawn Trilogy which is definatly up there on my favorite ST novels list. I've also read jedi apprentice series and some of the other novels about the first three movies. My favorite novels definatly include the Courtship of Princess Leia, and Star by Star, (though I cried through the whole thing.) I have stopped reading the books however because I can't stand to see what they have done with the storyline of the newer books, plus my favorite character dies, major bummer. As a writer I did do some fan fiction, but I haven't done any in a long time, but it was fun when i did. I still love the movies(despite thier problems) and the earlier books, though and I'll be star wars fan till I die.

Oh, gosh, you like Star by Star? I can understand technical-wise, but I hated Troy Denning for weeks after I read it! I wanted to go up to his house and punch him. Ugh! Stupid, stupid, stupid!

The Yuuzhan Vong are really interesting villains, though. The shapers, especially, were really weird/cool. The New Jedi Order books definitely ended well, regardless of stupid

The characterization is the best part of the Original Trilogy, and the overall plot. It's just so well orchestrated. I'm glad that George Lucas decided to stick to producing the last two of the OT, and let someone else script and direct his story. That was a good decision that he reversed with the prequels. Bad, bad George Lucas! Don't write your own films! You're really bad at it!

His story is marvelous, though. The mere good-guy saving the world from evil theme really revolutionized the movie industry. I know that the special effects revolutionized the technical aspect, but I was watching a SW documentary and the only films they had in the immediate time before SW came out were really dark, depressing movies. The big film companies went to film schools like USC: School of Cinematic Arts and got the guys fresh from college to make films in hopes of reversing the tide. That's how Lucas and Steven Spielburg got their starts, and how Star Wars was able to launch.

Oh! I love the Star Wars films! Though The Return of the Jedi is my favourite there all awsome!

I love Star Wars, too.

So does Jack Sparrow and Will Turner...

~Riella

Okay

Oh, gosh, you like Star by Star? I can understand technical-wise, but I hated Troy Denning for weeks after I read it! I wanted to go up to his house and punch him.

I totally agree with you on the hated Troy Denning part, I mean come on I think mostly the reasons why I like it so much is because that has actually made me cry, I sobbed through the last fifty pages at least, plus it's one of the longest books about all three Solo kids. So I like it on principle, not by how it ended. Sweetlilgurlie I liked your comment about how Lucas and Speilburg got thier starts it was interesting.

*wonders in after months of shameful hiding and gasps when sees Star Wars thread* EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!! I'm sorry guys! No matter how much you guys say you're the biggest SW fan, I'm a bigger fan! I have read books, comics, I get the magazine, I have action figures and dolls, I watch the tv show, I draw pictures of them, I write SW fanfiction, I'm a member of SW forums, which makes me a HUGE fan! I completely recamend checking this site out! http://heruniverse.com/ It's for SW fans that are GIRLS! It's girl clothes! You SW lovin' girls must realize how hard it is to get a girl SW shirt, well that's all over now! Thanks to Ashley Ecksein! Check the forums out as well! If you join, tell them that Leia Organa sent you. Oh, where to start? Where to start? First of all, ANAKIN SOLO RULES! Secondly DO NOT skip reading the Thrawn Trilogy. I liked the series so much that I bought the comic book version which I highly recamend getting after you've read the books. Third, The Clone Wars season three is AMAZING. Yes, well, I think I made it clear that I'm a Star Wars fan.

Please note that this Special Feature will be closing next year ( ), on Monday, January 3, 2011, after which you may continue any Star Wars discussion in the relevant threads: Books or Past Movies.

Also, if you have a Special Feature suggestion, please PM one of the Spare Oom mods and we will be glad to add it to the list.

Happy New Year!

I've just watched the originals for the first time in years (I only have very vague memories of episodes 4 and 5), and I loved them. I kept cracking up at C3PO's accent, and R2-D2 was just cute. I also kept laughing at a lot of Han Solo's lines. And Ewoks are adorable. Especially the babies.
I saw episodes 1 when I was about eight, and I don't remember that much. I watched episode 3 on DVD when I was about thirteen, but the only part I really remember was the end. Anakin burning up really scared me