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 LordofHats wrote:

 Vulcan wrote:

 LordofHats wrote:
Han shot first.

Who fired second?

That's the point

Saying "Han shot first" implies that there was at least one more shot. That's not what happened in the cantina.

Han shot. Greeto died. No more shots were fired. Therefore the proper way to describe the scene is "Han shot", or "Han shot Greeto," not "Han shot first."

 Ouze wrote:
4.) Cliche, but Carrie Fisher in the bikini.

I think every straight male who ever saw that movie liked that part.

Like others have said, even the prequels (and sequels) have plenty of good moments and fun action sequences. I know I already said a bunch of my favorites, but I thought of a few more:

In TLJ, when Chewie was getting ready to eat that cooked Porg and the live one is just looking at him with that adorable sad face!

The opening space battle in RotS is still possibly the best space battle scene I've ever seen in a movie. Really shows how three-dimensional space combat actually is, seeing those ships flying over and under each other.

I could probably add the "big reveal" in the middle of the game "Knights of the Old Republic" as one of my favorite moments as well, if we are including video games in this discussion.

And of course, the whole scene with "He doesn't like you!" "I don't like you either" and everything. And the crowd all talking among themselves once Obi-wan takes care of the situation using his lightsaber. That was actually significant even before the prequels were a thing, because of how nobody there had probably ever actually seen a Jedi before, but they knew what one was.

I honestly couldn't enjoy the RotS space battle, it was just to fast for my eyes to track and adjust to what was going on. I had to stop trying, which was frustrating.

The Millennium Falcon EXPLODING out of the Death Star 2 after being chased by the blastwave from the reactor, and Lando's joyful "Yeee haaa!!"

The whole duel scene at the end of Return of the Jedi. The lighting, the choreography, the music and the sound design, it makes the whole thing contradictory - it's the heroic battle at the climax that demonstrates the hero's new power and ability, and at the same time, it's showing the very dangers of the Dark side that his mentors warned him about.

Also, down on Endor - that one Imperial officer who sneers, "you Rebel scum!" at Han. He may only have had one small line, but he gave it everything he had.

My nephew loved the guy on the keyboard as well.

Some of my favorites in no order....

1. "Intensify the forward battery, I don"t want anything to get through!"

"Too late!"

2. The battle with the Tie fighters in New Hope.

3. "No Jabba, No Batta!"

4. The sound of a close Tie fly-by from X-wing vs. Tie Fighter

5. Star Wars RPG- 2nd Edition

6. The Ewok song at then end of RotJ. "Yub-Yub!"

7. "Perhaps I can find new ways to motivate them"

8. "Bounty Hunters? We don't need their scum."

1. Binary Sun.

2. R2 trundling through the Jawa valley.

3. Luke finding the remains of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru and stealing himself for an unknown future.

4. "Mos Eisley spaceport. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."

5. "I have the death sentence on twelve systems!"

The opening of the AT-AT assault on Hoth still gives me chills, it's just epic.

But my absolute favorite scene is Yoda's size matters not statement and lifting the X-wing.

The battle of hoth. It's a bit ridiculous when you think about it, but this desperate fight against the enormous walkers is incredibly symbolic of the entire rebellion: hit hard, win through ingenuity, retreat to fight again.

The double sunset, with the musical swell. It's incredible how slow the first half hour of ANH is, but it still sucks you in.

"You were supposed to be the chosen one!" For one moment, the prequel trilogy has real emotion. You see Obi Wan's disappointment and anger made real.

Cassion "taking care" of the informant. Like Han shooting first, it shows in a flash how dangerous and dirty the rebellion is in practice. I like how it ties to his casual "You aren't the only one who lost everything" late in the second act. This guy has seen some stuff.

As a kid, the moment that blew me away was Vader kneeling to the hologram of the emperor. Just the thought that Vader answered to somebody was shocking.

A few quick ones: the x-wing appearance in TFA, The first appearance of the executor, the capture of the Tantive IV.

 Fifty wrote:
1. Binary Sun.

2. R2 trundling through the Jawa valley.

3. Luke finding the remains of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru and stealing himself for an unknown future.

4. "Mos Eisley spaceport. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."

5. "I have the death sentence on twelve systems!"

Does the whole saga just go downhill for you after the first 30 minutes?

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
that one Imperial officer who sneers, "you Rebel scum!" at Han. He may only have had one small line, but he gave it everything he had.

That's such a great point. What a delivery!

I also love the scream of the guy that gets knocked down when Han throws the box at him in the bunker.

 Easy E wrote:
I also love the scream of the guy that gets knocked down when Han throws the box at him in the bunker.

I think that was the good old Wilhelm(sp?) scream that pops up all over movies. I think it was recently retired though. From SW in fact.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_scream

The bit in RotJ where Han is trying to open the bunker and he goes: "I've got it, I've got it". Secondary blast door closes. And Harrison Ford pulls out his best stupid "nope didn't work" face.

Just thinking about that face makes me happy somehow.

Honestly? My favorite SW moment so far is in dealing with the fans. I, Jedi may be the worst piece of fiction ever to disgrace the SW mythos, but fans defended it, even claiming it was good. The ONLY good thing to come from it was the two pack of figures with Whistler, which gave us a green R2 unit at that size.

As far as fiction? I know I'm going to catch hell for this, but it still has to be the Qui Gonn/Obiwan/Maul fight from Phantom Menace. THAT is what a lightsaber duel should look like.

 Just Tony wrote:
Honestly? My favorite SW moment so far is in dealing with the fans. I, Jedi may be the worst piece of fiction ever to disgrace the SW mythos, but fans defended it, even claiming it was good. The ONLY good thing to come from it was the two pack of figures with Whistler, which gave us a green R2 unit at that size.

As far as fiction? I know I'm going to catch hell for this, but it still has to be the Qui Gonn/Obiwan/Maul fight from Phantom Menace. THAT is what a lightsaber duel should look like.

There is a thread for this, please bring it there. Unless you mean RotJ and not TLJ. Either way, taste is subjective. I personally enjoyed both "Jedi" movies far more than the prequels and TFA and have memorable moments from both.

"I, Jedi" was a novel.

I remember liking I, Jedi, but largely just because I had followed Corran through the X-Wing books. I kind of remember the actual conflict being pretty clunky and poorly resolved, but the middle character exploration portion being interesting.

13 years old. Summer vacation. Watching A NEW HOPE on VHS... Meeting Ben Kenobi & R2's message.

Then pretty much the entire all of EMPIRE from the Battle of Hoth, Cloud City pink sunset, Vader vs. Luke. So great.

Skaorn wrote:

 Just Tony wrote:
Honestly? My favorite SW moment so far is in dealing with the fans. I, Jedi may be the worst piece of fiction ever to disgrace the SW mythos, but fans defended it, even claiming it was good. The ONLY good thing to come from it was the two pack of figures with Whistler, which gave us a green R2 unit at that size.

As far as fiction? I know I'm going to catch hell for this, but it still has to be the Qui Gonn/Obiwan/Maul fight from Phantom Menace. THAT is what a lightsaber duel should look like.

There is a thread for this, please bring it there. Unless you mean RotJ and not TLJ. Either way, taste is subjective. I personally enjoyed both "Jedi" movies far more than the prequels and TFA and have memorable moments from both.

Well, you see...

Manchu wrote:"I, Jedi" was a novel.

So totally ninja'd. It was written by Michael Stackpole, and is all the reason I need to never touch another piece of fiction that he's done.

LunarSol wrote:I remember liking I, Jedi, but largely just because I had followed Corran through the X-Wing books. I kind of remember the actual conflict being pretty clunky and poorly resolved, but the middle character exploration portion being interesting.

The conflict and resolution. The entire Jedi training thing. Actually, the whole goddamned novel. It was boring. Even when there was supposed to be suspense, it was boring. When Doyle and Asimov can do suspense better, you've fethed up.

Not only that, but having this rage tantrum spoiled brat backtalk Luke and Luke caving like a bitch, letting the students basically run the school, was possibly the worst interpretation of the character to date. And don't get me started on how heavy handed the whole Han part was. It was a "Hi! Bye!" cameo with pandering about one random line in ESB. Man, I need to find a copy of this book again just to burn it. It'd be cathartic.

Perhaps we need a worst Star Wars moments thread, too? Then again, we already have a TLJ thread going ...

Ewoks...love them...Carnivorous little warriors with ingenuity...

To be fair, Michael Stackpole also wrote some great Battletech and X-wing books.

Edit: One moment I love is in Attack of the Clones. Count Dooku has Obi-wan captured and lays exactly what the Sith Lords are doing, and Obi-wan in his hubris refuses to believe him ant claims it is a lie because Coutn Dooku is a Sith. However, everything he said was truth. Beautiful.

West End D6 Star Wars game

The Dark Empire comics

And, “I’m altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further”.

 Just Tony wrote:
As far as fiction? I know I'm going to catch hell for this, but it still has to be the Qui Gonn/Obiwan/Maul fight from Phantom Menace. THAT is what a lightsaber duel should look like.

Why would you catch hell for it? That was by far and away the best part of the movie. Indeed, that's the only part of it that I'm willing to watch again.

 Vulcan wrote:

 Just Tony wrote:
As far as fiction? I know I'm going to catch hell for this, but it still has to be the Qui Gonn/Obiwan/Maul fight from Phantom Menace. THAT is what a lightsaber duel should look like.

Why would you catch hell for it? That was by far and away the best part of the movie. Indeed, that's the only part of it that I'm willing to watch again.

While it may be the best part of the movie, it still suffers from the prequels "style over substance" issues. Maul isn't really a character in TPM, there's no connection between him and the jedi to make the fight interesting beyond the twirls and flips. The only part where any of the characters get to show any character in that fight is the aforementioned bit when they are separated from each other by the energy fields.

In all of the original trilogy there is always an underlying emotional conflict to the duels. In ANH you have the master facing their fallen pupil one last time, in ESB you have a son attempting to save his friends, avenge his mentor and his father, in ROTJ you have a son attempting to save his father. Those undercurrents make the fights more interesting as it gives the actors something to actually act about.

Even the new trilogy, with the missteps it has made, has done better in this regard than the prequels. The only fight in the prequels that ever carried any of that emotional weight was Obi-Wan and Anakins, and even that failed to use that emotional connection during the fight (Obi-Wan never, during the entire duel, talks to Anakin except to say he has the high ground). They're meant to be best friends (not that we really ever see that on screen much, they spend most of the screen time in AOTC and ROTS apart, another failing of the prequels), but Obi-Wan tries less than Luke, who had never known his father to be anyone but Vader, to bring Anakin back.


My personal favourites:

Luke vs Vader duels. They are both superbly choreographed and shot. Shots like Luke and Vader silhouetted in the carbon freezing chamber, that long shot of them dueling across the Death Star room with the stairs and ruined walkway coming into the foreground. Exquisite cinematography.

"It's not my fault!" in ESB. One of the best recurring jokes in the series, where each time the hyperdrive fails you are treated to Han's protestations that he isn't to blame. Capped off perfectly when Lando also uses it after the hyperdrive still doesn't work after his engineers were meant to have fixed it.

Another little bit I like is right at the beginning, when C-3PO and R2-D2 wander right through the middle of a firefight between Stormtroopers and Rebel marines, and no-one bats an eyelid.

 Manchu wrote:
Perhaps we need a worst Star Wars moments thread, too? Then again, we already have a TLJ thread going ...

Two words: Holiday Special.

 Easy E wrote:
One moment I love is in Attack of the Clones. Count Dooku has Obi-wan captured and lays exactly what the Sith Lords are doing, and Obi-wan in his hubris refuses to believe him ant claims it is a lie because Coutn Dooku is a Sith. However, everything he said was truth. Beautiful.

That is certainly one of the high points of AotC and the prequels as a whole. Two exceptionally talented actors given a rare opportunity to strut their stuff without any intrusive CGI nonsense or blasters or lightsabers flying about, just a surprisingly well-scripted conversation between two of the most compelling characters the prequels have to offer. If the whole of AotC was up to the standard of Obi-wan's scenes in the first/second acts it would be a far better movie as a whole. Unfortunately, for every conversation like this there's a Dexter Jettster or an I hate sand'.

While we're being nice about AotC though, I do love the sequence where Anakin sets out on his speeder bike over the dunes, tries to rescue his mother then slaughters the Sand People in his fury. There's some superb shot composition there and a score to match, and it's a great example of how, when he wants to, Lucas can do visual, dialogue-light storytelling very well indeed.