Star Wars Retrospective #0
I’m a big Star Wars nut, and so it was probably inevitable that I would want to do my own Star Wars retrospective sooner or later. In fact, I’d already started it just over a year ago. My first several Star Wars reviews were posted on The Cantina, a Star Wars forum and fansite, though the retrospective was ultimately left unfinished. But now that I have my own blog, I decided it would be a good time to resume with that.
I also previously reviewed The Star Wars Holiday Special here, which I’m now counting as review -#1 of my retrospective, haha.
(originally posted January 28, 2021)
First off, I’d like to thank Angelman for inspiring this. I had already been gearing up for my own Star Wars rewatch starting this year, although I wasn’t necessarily planning to post about it. But then I saw that he has a thread to share his thoughts as he watches through the prequel trilogy and The Clone Wars, and I thought that was a great idea. So here we are.
I will be making my way through the Star Wars saga in chronological order; every film, and every season of The Clone Wars, Rebels, and Resistance. While I have seen them all before, most of it hasn’t been for a good few or several years now, and some of them I only ever saw once. And since we have a bit of a wait now before our next release, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to revisit the series. I don’t think I’m going to rate/rank the films and episodes, as I enjoy the vast majority of the series, but I would still like to share my general thoughts on each.
(The Mandalorian and the other upcoming shows I’d like to get to eventually, hopefully once this is all done, but for now this’ll just be everything prior to the Disney+ era.)
My Star Wars Story
It was my father who introduced me to Star Wars. Way back when I was seven years old, he took me to see the 1997 re-releases of the original trilogy. A lifelong fan was born that day.
My family then owned the Special Edition trilogy on VHS at our old house, which I happily watched over and over again. Alas, I’ve long since lost that set, but I remember it clearly all the same.
In later years, and still to this day, I own DVDs of Episodes I-VI, and DVDs of every season of The Clone Wars and Rebels. Prior to the launch of Disney+, I also purchased seasons 1 & 2 of Resistance on iTunes.
The funny thing is that I’m still a fan long after my father lost interest. A few years ago, we went to go see The Force Awakens when it came to theaters. I really liked it and he didn’t, and then we got into a very heated argument about it in the car ride back home. 😛
But oh well. He still did his duty as a parent by introducing me to something wonderful. Thanks Dad.
While I never stopped liking Star Wars myself, after Revenge of the Sith I did go through a period of time where I wasn’t as actively interested in the franchise and just didn’t think about it as much. It’s probably telling that I didn’t see the Clone Wars film in theaters (the only SW film I never did see in theaters), but instead rented it from my local library a year or two later and watched it at home. And then there were no new movies for a long time after that, which was probably a big factor in my semi-disinterest. I was aware of the ongoing Clone Wars series, but it took a long time for me to actually getting around to watching most of it.
I do remember one time when I was over at a friend’s house and we did a Clone Wars marathon; we watched the film and the first ten episodes (up to “Lair of Grievous”). Even though I liked what I saw, it still didn’t quite rejuvenate my Star Wars enthusiasm (possibly because I hadn’t gotten to most of the truly awesome episodes yet).
Even when the long-awaited Episode VII was finally coming out, I began to get burnt out with all the hype. But then I saw the film and thought it was great, and then suddenly it was a more exciting time to be a Star Wars fan than it had ever been. It was soon after that when I started watching The Clone Wars on Netflix, this time making my way through the entire series eagerly, up to the end of season 6 (and later season 7 on Disney+). Immediately after The Clone Wars I launched into Rebels. Since that one wasn’t on Netflix, I purchased the DVD sets of the first two seasons, finishing up with season 2 in time for Rogue One to arrive. The fire had been officially rekindled.
On a more trivia-related note, the number of times I’ve seen each film/show (prior to my 2021 viewing extravaganza):
- The original trilogy, too many times to count, as a kid and well into adulthood too.
- Saw each film of the prequel trilogy when they first came to theaters, and multiple times afterwards. Not sure exactly how many times, although not as much as the original trilogy.
- The Force Awakens, Rogue One, and The Rise of Skywalker in theaters twice each. The Last Jedi and Solo in theaters once each.
- The Clone Wars film twice, and every episode from “Ambush” to “Lair of Grievous” twice each. All the other Clone Wars episodes I’ve seen once. I’ve also read Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir and Dark Disciple once each.
- Rebels, Resistance, and the first two seasons of The Mandalorian once each.
And with that, it is time to begin the extravaganza. I will check in with you all again after my rewatch of The Phantom Menace. 🙂