Considering it is now 2024, I’m happy that no one bats an eye that I’m a girl who loves Star Wars very much. In fact, people seem excited to talk to me about it. That is, until, they discover I watched Star Wars in (for the most part) chronological order.

That’s right! I watched the Star Wars prequels growing up (that includes the movies and the animated series). And I didn’t actually get around to watching the original trilogy until I was an adult. Now that gets quite a gasp from almost everyone.

And here’s the controversial opinion: the chronological order is (gasp!) the correct way to watch this cinematic universe.

Here’s the thing, unless you were born before 1999, I don’t see any reason for you to watch episode 4 before episode 1. Yes, I know that the common way for people to get introduced to Star Wars is by watching the original trilogy and then viewing the prequels as a villain backstory. And while that may be great for shock value, I find that it doesn’t hold as much weight as forcing someone to watch the journey of a hero only to learn, halfway through, that they were actually following the villain.

And yes, I may be biased, considering I grew up with the Star Wars prequels (in particular Star Wars The Clone Wars and part of Rebels) and didn’t find out who Darth Vader was until I was 16. But you see, when you already know what’s going to happen to the characters, it stops you from being able to connect with them.

***And obviously, spoilers for anyone who is an absolute beginner to this universe and is trying to get into it***

But when you already know that Anakin Skywalker is Darth Vader and you already know that Obiwan Kenobi is destined to sacrifice himself, it stops you from being able to truly connect with them. Instead of simply enjoying the story, you try to figure out where it went wrong and you start exclaiming that it should’ve been obvious from the start that Chancellor Palpatine was the villain all along.

But for me, I grew up with these characters. I saw them as the heroes and so was more likely to overlook their red flags. I thought it would work out in the end because that’s just what you believe when you’re a child. And so when I finally learned that every single character I had grown up with were all destined to either die or live tragic lives, it destroyed me.

There is no way that I would have cried as hard as I did when watching the order 66 sequence, if I had seen it coming all along. And there is no way that child me would’ve had the attention span for the original trilogy when she was spoiled for choice with CGI and graphics.

Without The Prequels, You Don’t Truly Understand Anakin Skywalker

Yes yes, everyone has an opinion on the prequels. But that’s because you allow nostalgia to stop you from truly enjoying those movies. And you expect the prequels to have as much depth and complexity as the main event. That’s the equivalent of someone reading the first chapter of the book and being angry at the writer for making it so boring. It’s the first chapter! It’s a setup, not the main storyline.

In my opinion, if you truly want to understand the beauty in Star Wars, you must be willing to immerse yourself in the extended universe. Yes, I’m telling you to watch cartoons! Use episode 1 and 2 as your introduction and then dive right into Star Wars: The Clone Wars (arguably the best thing to come out of this franchise).

The Clone Wars really delves into why Anakin Skywalker’s story is so tragic. And it introduces you to my favourite character: Ahsoka Tano. You don’t truly understand Anakin Skywalker’s choice to betray the republic until you understand what happened to Ahsoka Tano. Until you see exactly how broken the republic truly is.

The Mortis Arc

The Mortis arc is arguably the best storyline within the Clone Wars. When Anakin Skywalker, Obiwan Kenobi and Ahsoka Tano get pulled into the realm of Mortis, we see Anakin’s fall playout on a smaller scale. Upon discovering who he would become and what he would do to the people he loves, he falls to the dark side. I’m not going to go into too much detail because you really should see it for yourself.

But lets just say, that this only made Anakin’s fall appear that much more inevitable. It was his destiny to fall. Short of completely changing his life and the way that the Republic conducted themselves, he would’ve fallen sooner or later. The world that he lived in did not allow for Anakin to remain good.

Now, this is not to say I don’t also hold him accountable for his actions. I definitely do. His tragic flaw is that he does not know boundaries when it comes to protecting his loved ones. Morality is not an issue if he believes his actions will protect someone he loves. The man commits countless war crimes.

However, he was a child who got brainwashed and pulled into a cult. He was told he wasn’t allowed to have any attachments and was cut off from his only family. Anakin Skywalker should’ve been in therapy instead of being given magical space swords to play with.

I can say that the Republic and Senator Palpatine are responsible for his downfall while also acknowledging that it is his character flaw that made him vulnerable to such manipulation. It is not fair to simply discount him as an irredeemable villain. It is also not fair to claim he has no responsibility for his actions and should be forgiven for one small act of good in the end.

The truth is, Anakin Skywalker is the embodiment of everything wrong with the Republic and the Jedi Order. He is simultaneously a victim and the worst of them. That is the tragedy of Anakin Skywalker. He cannot help but pull good people into his sphere, because he is good, on some level. And yet, he also cannot help but wreck the life of everyone who loves him because he is also darkness. It is his nature, from the very beginning. He only needed a trigger.

Ahsoka Tano: The True Light Side Of The Force

Ahsoka Tano has been my favourite Star Wars character since the beginning. I don’t care if people found her annoying. She was a teenager at the beginning of the show, of course she was annoying. But she had character development. Through her, we saw just how badly the Republic and the Jedi Order were messing up.

She was the embodiment of the light side of the force. And that is not a metaphor (if you want to know how, watch the Mortis arc). She had every reason to turn to the dark side of the force, to turn her back on people, and she did neither. Not even when it would’ve suited her to do so.

She showed that it was impossible for someone truly good to stay in the Jedi Order. To be a Jedi in the order is to compromise one’s morals and values. It is to devalue the sanctity of human life and the cruciality of human connection for oneself (and yes, that is an oversimplification). Even when she left the Jedi Order, she never turned her back on innocent people. She is everything Anakin Skywalker should’ve been.

And through her, we see the inevitability of the Republic’s fall. The Republic tried to control too many at once and thereby failed to protect them all. Their policies were flawed and their members were filled with mainly self-interested individuals. This was never going to be a sustainable solution for an entire galaxy.

The Clones

The clones are your first hint into why the Republic is so messed up. You’re telling me that they cloned an army of soldiers just to live their whole life following orders until they die? And these soldiers are specifically designed to age rapidly to make them ready for battle faster, but this also means that they die quicker? These soldiers are between the ages of 10-13!

That is so messed up!

They have no say in their purpose. They have no life outside of this war. They were made for it and at any time, their free will could be taken from them. But they are human beings with their own unique personalities. Part of the reason why each of the clones in The Clone Wars has a nickname is to let them feel their humanity.

Because they are unique individuals. They have hopes and dreams, they feel love and pain and they are essentially children when they are sent off to die. And when the war is over and the Emperor is in charge, the Clones are discarded. Their entire life had no value to the entities responsible for their creation.

When I reached the ending of The Clone Wars, I bawled my eyes out. I could not stop crying because these people were completely robbed of their free will. They were essentially treated as if they were expendable by both sides.

Going Into The Original Trilogy

If you start the original trilogy with no background information of what happened before it, your entire understanding of the world is coloured by mainly what Luke Skywalker knows (which is very little). You don’t get to see the intricate politics at play and just how vast the galaxy is, at least not straight away. You may like the main trio but you haven’t built any connection to the world yet.

You don’t truly understand just how devastating it is for Obiwan Kenobi to be killed by his own apprentice, his own brother. You don’t cry because you realise this man has lost everything: his family, his friends, his lover and his home. If you feel sad at his death, it is only through the empathy you feel for Luke’s grief.

Obiwan Kenobi (as portrayed in episode 4) is a meh character. He is an Uncle Ben. He dies, that is his own purpose. But if you had followed his journey through the prequels (which most importantly should include The Clone Wars), this death will devastate you. You have a personal connection to the man. And you feel horror that he was killed by someone he considered a brother. Prequel Anakin Skywalker had many flaws but he would’ve never hurt his own friend.

Final Thoughts

Without having watched the prequels and extended universe, the original trilogy does not have as much of an impact. If you watch the original trilogy first and then the prequels, the reveal is little more than temporary shock value. You’re not going to be as devastated by each death because you have no context.

Vader torturing his own children is simply perceived as a villain hurting the heroes rather than a father hurting his own children. His killing Obiwan Kenobi is again, simply a villain being a villain rather than a man killing his best friend.

I simply do not see the value in reducing these connections to plot twists that serve as little more than temporary shock value. It is significantly more interesting to follow the journey of a hero who falls from grace and is soon replaced his own son.