#tentacles are pretty fun to draw once you get into the groove

[somekindofsheepl]

One of the things I made for @mserm during the AI Tony exchange.

[kingofthewilderwest]

top 5 Star Wars Movies?

My list of top five favorite Star Wars movies is going to be like no one else’s but here we go. XD Thanks for the fun prompt!

First, for those who notice this trend and are curious as to why: I’m not putting Rogue One, The Last Jedi, or The Force Awakens on this list. I’ve seen each movie only once so my opinions on them haven’t solidified, so I can’t easily emotionally put them on this list yet. Chances are that, after a few more watchings of Rogue One, it’d hit somewhere in the #4 or #5 range, while TFA and TLJ wouldn’t be in the top five list. So this list would probably be pretty much the same even if I did include the latest Star Wars movies, which are always a thrill to attend the theatre to see.

SO HERE WE GO!!! Haddock’s list. This is based entirely on my emotional attachment to the movies and not on objective features of storytelling quality.

5. Attack of the Clones

While most people herald Revenge of the Sith as the “best” prequel trilogy movie, and I understand why, personally that one for me had the fewest gripping arcs - especially when I was a kid and this movie was first coming out. The opening battle in III is where I have the most fun (good visuals, hysterical antics between Obi-Wan and Anakin, great action). Then after that, I’m less appealed in ROTS. 

Attack of the Clones, on the other hand, has some plot arcs that truly do jive with me. The final climactic moment when war breaks out is long action fun, I believe the chemistry between Anakin and Padme is the strongest in this episode of any of the live action films, and the opening Zam Wesell chase scene is a blast.

4. The Phantom Menace

Okay. But. This movie is my childhood. It came out right before I entered the first grade, and that was the perfect time for it to be formative. I was at the young, innocent age that could legitimately enjoy Jar Jar (and hell did I love Jar Jar). 

But, even more: Podracers. were. my. life. YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND. To this daaaaay I can obsessively list off every single podracer alien and vehicle from Star Wars Episode I Racer and analyse how each of their pods handle. I can recognize everyone’s flags still, for fuck’s sake. I passed that game so many times and I could do it without buying a single upgrade. This last year I figured out how to get that old game to work on my new laptop. I owned (and still do own) many minis of the podracers that I could race across our family’s hardwood floors. I made a twenty minute long stop motion podracing movie with my Lego sets! 

Podracers influenced my first grade self to create my own galaxy with its own set of racers - a huge kickstarter to many childhood tales I wove - which in turn kickstarted many other stories I wrote, worlds I built, and on and on and on. It was a boost of my own creativity, world building, and dreaming of heroes. For that reason alone, I have to give The Phantom Menace #4 on my list. My creative writing worlds would be so completely different without it.

3. The Empire Strikes Back

I’ll admit a somewhat unpopular opinion: I personally never fell into the groove that TESB was the best SW original trilogy movie. I know why it was revolutionary but that doesn’t mean I find it the strongest and most appealing film. It doesn’t jive for me in the same way that IV and VI do. From childhood to adulthood, I always have felt the least connected with this one of the original trilogy. TESB to me lacks the same sense of heroics, emotional heart, and achievement. 

Perhaps that’s because many of this movie’s arcs involve characters just getting into issues - Luke nearly dying on Hoth, Luke not jiving with Yoda during Jedi training, the Millennium Falcon going through technical difficulties, Lando betraying the main gang, Han Solo getting captured. 

But what hits me more is plot structure, which is always something I’m majorly sensitive to when it comes to drawing to movies. This movie’s plot has less to start from and “conclude” with, since it’s a middle chapter, and middle chapters are about unraveling and problems brewing. That’s just the nature of middle chapters. They do a good job but it’s still that “unraveling” middle chapter. Since we don’t have that same sense of firm ground and motion and conclusion, it makes the plot not as structurally appealing to me (even if SW movie scaffolding is pretty consistent until TLJ or Rogue One). 

Finally, some conflict arcs like the broken Falcon and Luke’s Jedi training, while fun, don’t stand out to me as do Ewoks, destroying Death Stars, podracers, or a top-speed city chase.

2. Return of the Jedi

The conclusion of Star Wars is great and memorable. It’s got great, memorable moments start to end, be it blinded Han tryin to shoot a Sarlacc tentacle, Luke heroically standing up to the Sith, or Lando piloting the Falcon in an attempt to blow up the second Death Star. Return of the Jedi has momentum, many things happening, and a happy, fulfilling conclusion.

1. A New Hope

There’s nothing like the original story to me. To me, it’s the classic, unsurpassable model of Star Wars. It’s the one I draw to the most whenever I feel like entering the world of Star Wars, and it’s definitely the episode I watch the most. It’s what brought us all into this galaxy far far away - and there’s a good reason this movie caught our interests and imaginations. This is the movie that introduced lightsabers and Jedi, X-wings and rebels, Stormtroopers and Darth Vader. I love the variety of adventure we get into, from bumblingly rescuing a princess, to boldly flying X-wings into the Death Star’s trenches. And it introduces the characters, the fun and humorous character dynamics, and everything it means to be a story of Star Wars.