Don’t worry, this post has barely anything to do with Star Wars Episode 7. I’m in fact being so secret about it that I’ll only give out my spoilery thoughts if someone wants to know what my current thoughts about The Force Awakens are. (Just ask if you really are curious)

This is something that mainly pertains to the previous six films. And something I want to confess as it may be somewhat an unpopular opinon. Granted it’s not a really, really, really unpopular thing like I think Phantom Menace is the best movie, heck no, I do definitely understand and say myself that it is the weakest Star Wars film (Though I don’t hate it with as much vitriol as some fans of Star Wars do)

But it is something that I’m sure if there’s anybody who finds my blog who’s a pretty strict “Original Trilogy only” person that I might get a bit of hate mail from. So brace for it after the break

Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is now my favorite Star Wars Movie.

I’m a little surprised to be saying that myself since for a long time I’ve always had Return of the Jedi as my favorite before now. But I recently rewatched it and now I realize that there are some… well… awkward and/or slow scenes pulling it down as much (Ex: Most of the Jabba scene) as I still love most of Luke’s scenes with Vader and The Emperor. I know it’s mostly considered blasphemy that any of the prequels are favored by any over the originals. But this what I’m thinking: The Original’s are mainly consistent so despite Episode 3 being my favorite I will definitely say that as a whole the Original Trilogy is still way better then the Prequel Trilogy. As the Prequels still have Episode 1 with Jar Jar silliness, and Episode 2 with awkward romance and utterly rather boring movie (until the Battle of Geonosis starts) bogging it down too much. But if nothing else, I feel the prequels got a very, very, strong ending with Revenge of the Sith.

With the originals. A New Hope was definitely a good start though it certainly has it’s first installment weirdness. Empire Strikes Back is the best of the Originals but for some reason I’ve always avoided saying it’s my favorite even though it’s pretty much everyone’s favorite at this point (And I’m not one to be a hipster, I think I’d be considered a sheep for most fictional stuff given how much I like that are actually popular lol.). I can’t exactly explain why I just can’t pick Empire Strikes Back as my favorite right now, but I do say now that it is the best of the Original Trilogy. Return of the Jedi I’m just realizing now is the weakest in the Original Trilogy as I said previously

Episode III just starts off with a bang and even when some of the most disliked parts of the prequels rear their ugly head such as the cheesy Romance you still feel something’s going on rather then being dragged through it like in Attack of the Clones. And while I do get that there is odd dialogue choices and rather questionable acting as well. The Star Wars series has never been 100% perfect about that even in the Original films.

I think one thing I’ve been thinking about that’s made me realized is this: Episode III shows alot of the promise of what the Prequel trilogy could have been if had been directed better from the start. I literally thought of a What If scenario that instead of having Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones… What if Revenge of the Sith was literally the entire Trilogy? The events would maybe feel a little less rushed. Here’s what I’m thinking how it would go all down

Episode I: Starts with the Battle of Coruscant as depicted at the beginning of Revenge of the Sith. We already know from the Original Trilogy since Obi-Wan mentions that the Clone Wars happened so the audience gets the idea that they’re in the middle of the Clone Wars. Most of the movie goes along and probably expands alot more on the Clone Wars itself probably giving the needed exposition of both the Clone Wars and any important events from before such as Palpatine’s emergency powers when Obi-Wan and Anakin get back to Coruscant. The goal of the first film is the defeat of General Grevious. The fight with him and Obi-Wan would be much extended and his death would be the triumphant ending similar to the destruction of the Death Star in A New Hope.

Episode II: Would generally cover Anakin’s temptation and turn to the Dark Side. And more time to show what his relationship with Palpatine is like to show more of why he trusts him more then anybody (Perhaps a full flashback/longer story version of Palpatine’s story of Darth Plagueis). When he has bad dreams/premonitions about Padme’s death by childbirth. He may also be haunted by flashbacks of his Mother’s death that we saw in Attack of the Clones within the same nightmare. The ending of this would be when Anakin helps Palpatine kill Mace Windu. There will have been enough foreshadowing of this throughout much of this and the first film (Such as Anakin listening to Palpatine when ordered to kill Count Dooku). And the credits may even roll not too long after Palpatine names Anakin as Lord Vader for the very first time and/or Anakin marching into the Jedi Temple with Clone Troopers behind him.

Episode III: Would greatly expand upon Order 66 and it’s initial effect on the galaxy. As well as the rise of the Empire. So much more time to to really bring the point home before you get to the climatic battles between Obi-Wan and Anakin as well as Yoda and Palpatine. Both battles themselves also being expanded upon. Perhaps even more things that lead into the Original Trilogy.

The only problems I could probably see is we would miss just how Anakin became Obi-Wan’s student and some other more minor stuff such as where the Clones/Stormtroopers came from that was shown in Attack of the Clones. Though that’s nothing that proper time for exposition or a book taking place before the movies could show. But the key is to have all the strong and/or exciting parts of Revenge of the Sith expanded upon across three films as for the most part. Revenge of the Sith already makes Episode I and II kind of useless in Hindsight because you could probably skip the first two as long as you’ve seen the Original Trilogy to get what’s going on. Imagine if Revenge of the Sith was the entire trilogy on it’s own and I think you have an argument for a Star Wars Trilogy that at least has the potential to surpass the originals. Cause Revenge of the Sith truly showed at the very least what potential the Prequels could of had. The fans seem to love it most when the Bad Guy wins given how Empire Strikes Back is often considered the best one. This would effectively have the Prequel Trilogy have two of the three films where the bad guys win in the end.

Despite this, I think Revenge of the Sith on it’s own is definitely a good condensed version of this idea on it’s own and even with flaws such as the questionable acting. I nevertheless feel it’s the one Star Wars movie that’s pretty strong at least in action and/or stuff happening throughout all of it. Feel free to call me a blasphemer if you feel strongly about the inferiority of absolutely everything in the Prequels to the Originals. But I have my reasons. I explained that Episode III feels very much what the Prequels promised from it’s start with a potential story that could surpass the Originals and I stand by that even if the final product wasn’t objectively as good. The idea was still there. I still love the originals alot, but standing on their own I feel their are spots in every one of those films where I kinda feel like tuning out at times where as in Revenge of the Sith something is happening nearly every minute the film runs.

This includes even with having seen the 7th film. As I actually don’t know how to rank it yet. There’s many unanswered questions in that film that will need to be answered in the next film in order to fully understand what the film is going for. But I can say how I personally rank the other 6 myself.

III (RotS) > V (ESB) > IV (ANH) > VI (RotJ) > II (AotC) > I (TPM)