The machete list

astroboy

Master Member
So I introduced star wars to my kids recently. We watched in a version of the machete list. (I included the phantom menace because I thought they would relate to Anakin more if the knew him as a child). My kids are 4 and 6

So we watched them like this:
A new hope
The empire strikes back
The phantom menace
Attack of the clones
Revenge of the sith
Return of the Jedi.

There were a couple of very interesting things.

- return of the Jedi really is that much better after the prequels. It's nice returning to old friends at that point. And it truly is the joyous end of the saga that had my kids really ramped up.

-my kids really loved the reveal in ROTS that palpatine was the emperor. It all clicked once they realized the leader was actually the bad guy and that those friendly clones turned into stormtrooper. Up until that moment, they kept asking why that nice man always talks so sneaky

- the payoff of Vader saving Luke at the end was much stronger because they were invested in his story. Oddly enough, my son doesn't call him Darth Vader anymore. He calls him Anakin.

-the reveal that Luke and Leia were siblings is SO much better in ROTS. It also made my daughter excited that she knew the secret before Luke, Leia, han and Vader. So when those reveals happened to the characters in ROTJ happened, it was far more interesting.

-oddly enough, I realized that Vader died knowing he had a daughter, but he didn't know it was Leia. You think Luke could have said something.

-sadly, the slapstick of the prequels REALLY worked on my son. He didn't like jar jar, but he laughed at him.

-on the whole, I think I liked ROTJ far more than I ever had. Even though there was a second death star, the film was good enough that it felt natural. Not like they ran out of ideas.

-i also felt that ROTS was a bit of a horror show, considering how invested you get with 8 year old Anakin. It was pretty sad when he started to do bad things

https://youtu.be/57Novv2nh0Q

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I long labored over how to intro my kid to the saga as he got older. Then one day I picked him up from my mom and she had found ROTJ on TV randomly andnthey started watching it in the middle. So she ruined that.

I ultimately did OT than PT, but along the way something interesting happened. The Clone Wars cartoon came out and pretty much every boy in his school, and plenty of girls, got into that cartoon. I had always assumed SW would be something he'd be into, Injust never thought he'd have his own connection to it. For 3-4 years Star Wars was only that cartoon to him.

After it wrapped he watched all the movies in episode order. He favored the PT, but the older he got the more he liked the OT. By the time he hit 11, he decided the PT was for little kids. Now, at just shy of 13, Rogue One is hands down his favorite, and the ST is just "ok."
 
I guess I'm going to reveal (or, rather, confirm for the millionth time) my lack of hipness here: what does machete list mean? Is that a thing?
 
Back when the internet was hot on debating what order to watch the SW movies in, one theory became a viral hit and was dubbed the machete order. It went:

ANH
TESB
AOTC
ROTS
ROTJ

No TPM at all. The idea was to make the saga about Luke's arc by starting his story where it always did, and then after the Vader/Anakin cliffhanger/reveal in Empire, you watch Vader's backstory. Then you'd be able to go into the finale with equal weight behind Luke and Vader for their final confrontation.

I personally always thought the best order to watch them in was:

ANH
TESB
ROTJ on occasion.


...see what I did there?

If one is being all-saga film inclusive, it obviously doesn't work as well if you add in R1 and the ST.
 
Back when the internet was hot on debating what order to watch the SW movies in, one theory became a viral hit and was dubbed the machete order. It went:

ANH
TESB
AOTC
ROTS
ROTJ

No TPM at all.

It never dawned on me that there was enough exposition at the beginning of AOTC to get away with this, even for a newbie. Very cool!
 
Oh, so this blogger calls himself machete so he named his list after himself? That's it? We were supposed to know that? ;)
 
Oh, so this blogger calls himself machete so he named his list after himself? That's it? We were supposed to know that? ;)

machetekillsinspace-129900-1280x0.png.jpeg
 
Oh, so this blogger calls himself machete so he named his list after himself? That's it? We were supposed to know that? ;)
He called it this so it would stand out. So that it's easily googleable and wouldn't get mixed up in any other fan thing.

Like adywan or harmy.

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Back when the internet was hot on debating what order to watch the SW movies in, one theory became a viral hit and was dubbed the machete order. It went:

ANH
TESB
AOTC
ROTS
ROTJ

No TPM at all. The idea was to make the saga about Luke's arc by starting his story where it always did, and then after the Vader/Anakin cliffhanger/reveal in Empire, you watch Vader's backstory. Then you'd be able to go into the finale with equal weight behind Luke and Vader for their final confrontation.

So, basically, the "Godfather Parts 1 and 2" approach.

I personally always thought the best order to watch them in was:

ANH
TESB
ROTJ on occasion.


...see what I did there?

If one is being all-saga film inclusive, it obviously doesn't work as well if you add in R1 and the ST.

For years, I said I'd never show my kid the PT. Now I think I might...after she's had a chance to see the OT first, on its own, in the non-special edition format. Although a lot of this changes with the new films, which I quite enjoy and think she will too (when she's old enough).

I recently went back and re-watched ROTS, and I enjoyed it, but I enjoyed it a LOT more after having started watching the Clone Wars cartoon. So, maybe I'll factor that in as well. I MIGHT include AOTC. There is zero chance that TPM will ever be viewed in my house.

But still, the way I see it, the ideal introduction is the original trilogy only for the first viewing, and after that, you can play with viewing order and start working in the sequel trilogy and spinoff films.

It never dawned on me that there was enough exposition at the beginning of AOTC to get away with this, even for a newbie. Very cool!

AOTC stands just find on its own, although it would've held up better as the first chapter in a three-part story, with the middle part being something akin to the Clone Wars cartoon (only focused on Anakin and his adventures). You could've delayed his dabbling in anger/rage/dark side until the 2nd film that way, too.

TPM is entirely superfluous. It serves ZERO narrative purpose in the overall story, in my opinion.
 
So, basically, the "Godfather Parts 1 and 2" approach.



For years, I said I'd never show my kid the PT. Now I think I might...after she's had a chance to see the OT first, on its own, in the non-special edition format. Although a lot of this changes with the new films, which I quite enjoy and think she will too (when she's old enough).

I recently went back and re-watched ROTS, and I enjoyed it, but I enjoyed it a LOT more after having started watching the Clone Wars cartoon. So, maybe I'll factor that in as well. I MIGHT include AOTC. There is zero chance that TPM will ever be viewed in my house.

But still, the way I see it, the ideal introduction is the original trilogy only for the first viewing, and after that, you can play with viewing order and start working in the sequel trilogy and spinoff films.



AOTC stands just find on its own, although it would've held up better as the first chapter in a three-part story, with the middle part being something akin to the Clone Wars cartoon (only focused on Anakin and his adventures). You could've delayed his dabbling in anger/rage/dark side until the 2nd film that way, too.

TPM is entirely superfluous. It serves ZERO narrative purpose in the overall story, in my opinion.
The clone wars helped me make peace with the prequels.

I love that show

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I find the Phantom Edits of both TPM And AOTC better than the theatrical versions, but no matter what you do TPM is totally unnecessary, and the PT is better without it.
 
...no matter what you do TPM is totally unnecessary, and the PT is better without it.

I've come to embrace this approach since I found about it, but at the same time, it makes me feel like I'm dismissing Liam Neeson's efforts. That guy came to play, in spite of so much nonsense around him. How often can you pull such an iconic character from an otherwise heap of mediocrity, eh. Such a conundrum. :-\
 
It's sad, cause Neeson brought it (so did Ewan McGregor) but ultimately he was a character that never needed to exist. It should have been Yoda. I know the tech wan't there yet-- but I'd love to see a fan edit (which is impossible) that somehow makes it Yoda and Obi-Wan coming to Naboo-- and during the escape, Yoda stays behind while Obi-Wan alone escapes with Padme... so you know, HE could discover Anakin like it was always insinuated he did.
 
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