Definitive Canon Watching Order.

ibFoxer

Been thinking about this recently and i have been trying to come up with the best viewing order for all the watchable canon. Noting that i prefer Machete Order as a delivery device i offer the following:

Rogue One->A New Hope->Empire Strikes Back->Attack of the Clones->Clone Wars->Revenge of the Sith->Rebels->Return of the Jedi->Force Awakens.

However there are, to my mind, the following major flaws with the viewing order:

1- I feel that Rogue One is as good a starting point as any, given that it leads directly into IV, and you are watching ANH right off the back of Vader being a total Badass, so the fear of his power is understood greater. The problem is, should Rebels be before this, even though you potentially give away Darth Vader identity before the reveal?

2- If you leave Rebels after III, does it put a whole bunch of story in there that should be at the start, before Rogue One (early days of the Rebel Alliance) also noting that it includes Maul, who has no explained backstory without TPM, thus leaving him as a character who could induce potential Who the F**k? moments?

Instead, i wonder would the chronological viewing order be the best, especially given how most watching would already be fans? Start with Menace->Clones->Clone Wars->Sith->Rebels->Rogue One->New Hope->Empire->Jedi->Force Awakens?

I understand there will be those that say there is no need for TPM to be included, start with AotC. I know there will be others who will say that the entire Prequel Trilogy could be left out, but i believe that they are important to the overall story, and given that Rebels and Clone Wars are too good to leave out, they are important to fill in back story.

So what do you guys think? Is there an order i'm missing that could include everything?

judeboy101

ibFoxer wrote: »

Been thinking about this recently and i have been trying to come up with the best viewing order for all the watchable canon. Noting that i prefer Machete Order as a delivery device i offer the following:

Rogue One->A New Hope->Empire Strikes Back->Attack of the Clones->Clone Wars->Revenge of the Sith->Rebels->Return of the Jedi->Force Awakens.

However there are, to my mind, the following major flaws with the viewing order:

1- I feel that Rogue One is as good a starting point as any, given that it leads directly into IV, and you are watching ANH right off the back of Vader being a total Badass, so the fear of his power is understood greater. The problem is, should Rebels be before this, even though you potentially give away Darth Vader identity before the reveal?

2- If you leave Rebels after III, does it put a whole bunch of story in there that should be at the start, before Rogue One (early days of the Rebel Alliance) also noting that it includes Maul, who has no explained backstory without TPM, thus leaving him as a character who could induce potential Who the F**k? moments?

Instead, i wonder would the chronological viewing order be the best, especially given how most watching would already be fans? Start with Menace->Clones->Clone Wars->Sith->Rebels->Rogue One->New Hope->Empire->Jedi->Force Awakens?

I understand there will be those that say there is no need for TPM to be included, start with AotC. I know there will be others who will say that the entire Prequel Trilogy could be left out, but i believe that they are important to the overall story, and given that Rebels and Clone Wars are too good to leave out, they are important to fill in back story.

So what do you guys think? Is there an order i'm missing that could include everything?

You forgot the holiday special. Disney have not categorically stated its not canon so we should watch it.

ibFoxer

judeboy101 wrote: »

You forgot the holiday special. Disney have not categorically stated its not canon so we should watch it.

I will categorically state that it's not canon :P

I'm not even certain, Chronologically, where it would go. after IV?

judeboy101

ibFoxer wrote: »

I will categorically state that it's not canon :P

I'm not even certain, Chronologically, where it would go. after IV?

After 4 and its more believable than midichlorians :P

chrislad

ibFoxer wrote: »

Been thinking about this recently and i have been trying to come up with the best viewing order for all the watchable canon. Noting that i prefer Machete Order as a delivery device i offer the following:

Rogue One->A New Hope->Empire Strikes Back->Attack of the Clones->Clone Wars->Revenge of the Sith->Rebels->Return of the Jedi->Force Awakens.

However there are, to my mind, the following major flaws with the viewing order:

1- I feel that Rogue One is as good a starting point as any, given that it leads directly into IV, and you are watching ANH right off the back of Vader being a total Badass, so the fear of his power is understood greater. The problem is, should Rebels be before this, even though you potentially give away Darth Vader identity before the reveal?

2- If you leave Rebels after III, does it put a whole bunch of story in there that should be at the start, before Rogue One (early days of the Rebel Alliance) also noting that it includes Maul, who has no explained backstory without TPM, thus leaving him as a character who could induce potential Who the F**k? moments?

Instead, i wonder would the chronological viewing order be the best, especially given how most watching would already be fans? Start with Menace->Clones->Clone Wars->Sith->Rebels->Rogue One->New Hope->Empire->Jedi->Force Awakens?

I understand there will be those that say there is no need for TPM to be included, start with AotC. I know there will be others who will say that the entire Prequel Trilogy could be left out, but i believe that they are important to the overall story, and given that Rebels and Clone Wars are too good to leave out, they are important to fill in back story.

So what do you guys think? Is there an order i'm missing that could include everything?

The issue with Rebels is that it could fit before Rogue One easily, but you're in danger of being confused with the recurring characters, and obviously, the impact of certain characters appearing is lost considerably.

If you're including Clone Wars and Rebels though, you need to include The Phantom Menace. There's significant stories within both of those that feed off events and characters from that movie, and you will lost that impact. I actually like your order, bar that omission. Yeah, it's not a great movie, but it has positives. The story is weak, but the action is decent, and it makes the other films after it better with the backstories of Obi-Wan etc. You can argue that it does weaken Vader, but I think Revenge of the Sith does more to weaken the fall of Anakin than a 9 year old former slave.

ibFoxer

chrislad wrote: »

The issue with Rebels is that it could fit before Rogue One easily, but you're in danger of being confused with the recurring characters, and obviously, the impact of certain characters appearing is lost considerably.

If you're including Clone Wars and Rebels though, you need to include The Phantom Menace. There's significant stories within both of those that feed off events and characters from that movie, and you will lost that impact. I actually like your order, bar that omission. Yeah, it's not a great movie, but it has positives. The story is weak, but the action is decent, and it makes the other films after it better with the backstories of Obi-Wan etc. You can argue that it does weaken Vader, but I think Revenge of the Sith does more to weaken the fall of Anakin than a 9 year old former slave.

Actually went through this last night with another mate of mine who's a big fan and we reached this conclusion that the best order is this:

Rogue One-IV-V-II-TCW-III-VI-VII, and that TPM and Rebels could be viewed as supplemental viewing for additional content. That withstanding, not knowing where Rebels will end, it's impossible to fully discount it yet.

EDIT- For clarity the reason I start with RO is because a few characters aside, you don't have anyone from the OT that doesn't do the same thing in IV, Mon Mothma still "leading" the RA, Vader Chasing the plans, Leia running from the Empire, Tarkin still a bad bad dude. All the characters that it focuses on are gone. It is the perfect lead into IV. Why I put Rebels after III is because it features mention of/sighting of characters that have already been seen in both OT & PT- Leia, Obi-Wan, Anakin/Vader, Ashoka (From TCW), Yoda- exception being Maul who without TPM has no introduction. That is why I feel RO as a starting point for the series, and TPM and Rebels being "Star Wars Stories" is a logical solution.

Jan_de_Bakker

I was watching some of the Clone Wars (the Disney animated one - there is another not related to Disney..) and some episodes were great, others were boring, should I continue - I got almost to the end of S1 ... does it pick up in S2 ?

ibFoxer

Jan_de_Bakker wrote: »

I was watching some of the Clone Wars (the Disney animated one - there is another not related to Disney..) and some episodes were great, others were boring, should I continue - I got almost to the end of S1 ... does it pick up in S2 ?

It's like everything, you have to be prepared to take the good with the bad, and the bad isn't terrible. It does go darker and imo it picks up significantly. But I am a bit of a Star Wars nut so I pretty much enjoy almost everything to do with the universe :pac:

Evilsbane

I'd say the most important thing to consider when coming up with a viewing order is to preserve as many "twists" as possible for a new viewer. So for the original trilogy, you don't want to see anything that spoils the fact that Yoda is Yoda and Darth Vader is Anakin until you've seen TESB. So no prequels until after TESB. For the prequels, you don't want to see anything that spoils the fact that Palpatine is the Emperor until RotS, and don't confirm to the audience that Vader isn't lying about being Anakin until you see his fall. So no RotJ before RotS, but also no TPM before RotS because they make it way too obvious that Palpatine's up to something in that, whereas in AotC he just comes across as a milquetoast bureaucrat and the audience would expect him to be overthrown by whoever the real bad guy is. And for Rogue One, the less the audience knows that they're not in any of the other movies, the more unexpected its ending will be. So no OT before R1.

With that in mind, I'd say your order is the correct one, although I'm not 100% sure exactly WHERE would be the best place to put TPM, TCW and Rebels. Obviously TPM needs to be seen before the two shows, but I don't like jumping around in time TOO much. We'll see how Rebels ends, I guess.

chrislad

Now to figure out when the read the novels and comics! The Darth Vader comic is fantastic supplemental material between IV and V.

Talisman

ibFoxer wrote: »

That withstanding, not knowing where Rebels will end, it's impossible to fully discount it yet.

On the basis that the Ghost was with the rebel fleet at Scariff and doesn't feature in ANH it's probably fair to assume that Rebels will conclude with the events of Rogue One.