I'm visiting my Dad for the week and have hoodwinked him into a prequel era watch-through. I suggested watching Episode III last night since it's my favorite, and he said "Why not start at the beginning? We've got all week." (I knew that would happen, but now it seems like it was his idea haha.) He enjoyed The Phantom Menace enough to be down for more, so I'm taking this as permission to fill the entire week with Star Wars viewing from this era in roughly chronological order 😂 We're a late-night binge type of family so I think we can average about 3 hours a night from now until Sunday night.
Some background: Dad saw the original trilogy in theaters in his 20s, probably brought me to see at least one of the prequel movies when I was a kid but doesn't remember, and has seen most of the Disney era live-action movies and shows. So he's basically fresh to this particular part of the timeline.
He's got some patience for animated material, but not a ton, so I'm easing him into it with some Tales and Clone Wars arcs in between the live-action material with the goal of building up to Maul: Shadow Lord and maybe finishing things off with Solo (if we get that far) to tie in to the original trilogy.
My aim here is to provide a full-ish appreciation for the interconnected narrative of this era and whet his appetite for canon novels and comics (he's very big on reading in general). Anything you consider essential that I'm missing that would enhance the experience? Anything that you think I could cut? How do you think it will flow? Do you think we'll make it to the end? (I'm a little worried about losing him with all the Clone Wars arcs back-to-back but we'll see.) I'm leaving out Nightsisters since they don't become super relevant to live action until the Ahsoka series, and clone-focused material just in the interest of time. Maybe next visit I can plan a Bad Batch/Rebels/Ahsoka watch!
Without further ado, here's my planned viewing order (with approximate runtimes):
"Fall of the Republic" Abridged
- Episode I: The Phantom Menace (2hr 10m)
- Tales of the Jedi E2-4 (45m)
- Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2h 20m)
- Clone Wars S2 E12-14: "Death Watch" arc (1hr)
- Clone Wars S4 E21-22: "Maul Return" arc (45m)
- Clone Wars S5 E1, E14-16: "Maul Mandalore" arc (1hr 30m)
- Clone Wars S5 E17-20: "Ahsoka Trial" arc (1hr 30m)
- Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2h 20m)
- Clone Wars S7 E9-12: "Siege of Mandalore" arc (1hr 30m)
Epilogues for Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, and Maul
- Obi-Wan Kenobi E1-3 (2h 20m)
- Tales of the Jedi E6 (15m)
- Obi-Wan Kenobi E4-6 (2h 20m)
- Maul: Shadow Lord S1 E1-10 (4h)
Finale (Original Trilogy Tie-In)
- Solo (2h 15m)