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There are probably too many SW threads on the forum at the moment, so hey, let's start another one... BUT! Rather than another contentious thread where people rank things against other things and take exception to it, why not just a thread of absolute positivity? What your favourite/best moments across the entire saga/spinoffs/cartoons whatever? What makes Star Wars great to you? Those times you get goosebumps, or that tingle down your spine that just can't be faked.

For me:

1) Luke waling on Vader, RotJThe one scene that gets me every time. Luke is in a bad place. He's bitten off more than he can chew in trying to turn Vader and is starting to realise it. He's held his own up until now but his plan is in tatters and the Emperor has him where he wants him. Vader, stalling for time himself, reveals too much and it tips the balance in Luke - he finally goes on the offensive. John Williams' Emperor's Theme suddenly flares up as Luke's destiny edges closer to closer to darkness. Eventually the camera cuts to a low angle and we see Luke, no finesse, hacking at a helpless Vader until he literally disarms him. What happens next determines the fate of the galaxy, and ominously, the Emperor is laughing...

2) I knew there was more to him than money, ANHBiggs is dead. Wedge, X wing damaged, has had to pull out. Luke is alone in the trench, streaking towards an impossible shot. He has Vader on his tail and there's no help left, even Artoo has been nailed by laser fire. The music is insistent - things are happening! Vader has been ruthless so far, his weird special TIE unerringly accurate. Luke is maneouvering as much as possible but there's hardly room to evade a shot, so surely all is lost. Then... "What?!" "Yahoo!" Cue the Falcon screaming out of the sun... and we know what happens next.

3) The Asteroid Field Theme, ESBSo this is more a combination of John Williams' epic score with a not-entirely-iconic part of the movies, but I always loved the asteroid field chase in Empire. Daaaaaaa-da-da-da-d-da-daaaaaaa... watching a ship as fat as the Falcon carry out these graceful, almost lazy manoevres whilst the nimble TIEs are getting tagged by huge rocks. Also, it made an appearance in Solo during the first part of the Kessel Run, pop-pickers.

4) No Gak, Grimlock, RotJThe Rebel plan is set. The heroes of Yavin are heading to Endor, to destroy a shield. Lando has volunteered to lead the fighter assault on the new Death Star (as destroying a Death Star gets you servo-deep in droid booty). Little do the Alliance know that Palpatine has Xanatos Gambit-hacked the Bothan spy network and is expecting an attack imminently. Emerging from hyperspace, the Rebels hope to read a lack of shielding over the as-yet-incomplete Death Star II: Death Starrer, but instead get nothing. What's going on? Lando doesn't know... except... he does. "How can they be jamming us if they don't know... if we're coming."

Billy Dee sells this completely, a sudden understanding crossing his features as he gazes at the Emperor's trap. Uh-oh. End game.

5) The obligatory top 5 pick - Why not just shoot him when he stands there? - RotJLuke's Byzantine plan to infiltrate Jabba's palace seems to have come unstuck. Not only does he no longer have a lightsaber since his father's was sent hurtling to Maz's castle in Empire, but he's been rumbled and although he defeated a puppet of a Rancor, Jabba didn't see fit to let him go and has decided on execution via Sarlacc.

But wait! This was apparently what Luke was banking on this whole time, and Artoo's emplacement on the sail barge was all part of it! Luckily being selected for death before Chewie or blind Han, Luke vaults back onto the skiff and stands there for about 20 seconds whilst all the guards mill about wondering what's happening. Artoo has fired some cylinder towards him and... there!

A new lightsaber! And it's green? What the hell, Luke has never been shown to have the Jedi power to create a lightsaber, and even if he did, Jedi lightsabers have never been shown to be green before, continuity much? Wait... let me pretend to be 5 again...

Awesome!

So... have at it. Positivity people.

I am your father!

Han Solo getting the drop on Greedo before Greedo can even FIRE A SHOT!

Binary sunset

First time seeing ANH, sitting in the theater, waiting for the movie to start. Screen crawl, okay, now we know what's going on. Pan down to a planet. The Tantive IV comes screaming across the screen fighting for it's life. And then the Imperial Star Destroyer rumbles into view... and just. keeps. on. going.

It really drives home just how much trouble the Rebellion is in.

Han shot first.

All the usual suspects from the movies, of course. But one that probably nobody else will mention comes from an EU novel where this masked villain is creating all sorts of chaos and carnage, and everyone's wondering who it could be. Finally he gets killed, he's unmasked and....it's just some guy who wasn't that important or noteworthy before he turned to the Dark Side to take the quick and easy route to power and respect. And one line that stuck with me was "No wonder he'd worn a mask. A face like that wouldn't have scared anybody."

The prequels actually have a lot of good moments scattered through them, and one I mentioned in the TLJ thread was where the energy fields come up in the fight against Darth Maul and separate the three combatants. The impatient apprentice Obi-Wan seethes, the Sith killer Maul stalks up and down, waiting for another shot at his prey, and the Jedi master Qui-Gon sits down and meditates.

I would say it's the very last scene of the Last Jedi where the slave stable boys are recreating Luke's last stand. I thought it was great since it reminded me that when I was their age, I was playing just like that after watching Star Wars movies. It was a great moment of nostalgia for me. the fact I liked the movie helped.

Luke kissing his sister, and the events you all know happened after the medal ceremony in ANH.

RE: Your own personal favourite Star Wars moments that nobody can take away from you

...and yet there's always someone willing to try.

The Rogue and Wraith squadron books as well as the Thrawn trilogy.

I'll have to go with my recent one with Darth Vader killing everyone in that corridor in Rogue One. Also the knowledge that Ewok Hunt in SW Battlefront 2 is apparently a great survival horror game... unless you're a storm trooper.

Sitting next to my nephew at the end of his first Star Wars movie. When the credits rolled he threw his hands into the air and let out a long WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Like he was riding the best roller coaster ever. I was so proud/happy.

Dang it....lotsa dust in my room tonight....sniff....

@Riquende - You mention the triumphant restatement of the Emperor's sinister theme when Luke is poised to kill his father but the immediately preceding beat in the score, playing during the very screenshot you used, is this momentous swirling of the strings and chorus. It comes out of nowhere and there's nothing like it anywhere else in Williams's scores for these movies. It's one of the most aching, destiny-laden phrases in all of movie music and never fails to give me chills.

When I was 12, I thought the podracing scene from The Phantom Menace was one of the coolest scenes in Star Wars. It did serve as the basis for one of my all-time video games!

I might echo the sentiment about when Luke starts fighting Vader in earnest in RotJ. When Vader basically spells out how he intends to turn Luke's sister if Luke himself won't turn, Luke just comes alive. Until then, his heart wasn't in the fight because he knew better than to give in to his anger (the Emperor wasn't helping his own cause by pointing this out to Luke every few seconds). When Vader said what he did, Luke suddenly had a noble cause to fight for and gave it all he had, which turned out to be too much for Vader to handle.

I also really love the whole battle on Scarif in Rogue One. The space combat scenes were amazing, and the ground combat was really awesome as well.

The Maul Obi-Wan showdown on Tattooine from Rebels ("you are beaten" being a close second)

Yoda disarming Ventress in Clone Wars

"Show me some ID" - from Jedi Knight 2 (?), having lightsabered the best part of a dozen Stormtroopers and officers the last goon standing comes out with stock phrase 4 apparently oblivious to recent events

Pretty much everything HK47 says

Most of what Kriea says (still think the prequels helped in me approving of the heavy handed mythos mocking she spews)

"This will begin to make things right", JJ knows, JJ knows

 Elemental wrote:
The prequels actually have a lot of good moments scattered through them, and one I mentioned in the TLJ thread was where the energy fields come up in the fight against Darth Maul and separate the three combatants. The impatient apprentice Obi-Wan seethes, the Sith killer Maul stalks up and down, waiting for another shot at his prey, and the Jedi master Qui-Gon sits down and meditates.

I agree that there are a number of good scenes scattered around the prequels, it’s just hard to watch them to get the good bits. I do particularly like that one. It’s one of the few times we see a jedi actually acting like a jedi is supposed to act. Calm, collected. Not letting his emotions get the better of him.

Too many to list, of course. But to pick out a few truly special ones...

The arrival of Poe's X-wing Squadron at Takodana in The Force Awakens. A combination of the stunning March of the Resistance theme and the almost gratuitously long take of the sleek new X-wings swooping in over the lake and proceeding to just tear apart the First Order defences. Hell of a way for the Resistance proper to make an entrance after having been talked about for the last half of the film, and also nice to see the good guys on the attack and totally dominating the battlefield rather than desperately fighting for their lives for a change.


Pretty much everything about Luke's appearance at the battle of Crait in TLJ. The final heartbreaking scene with Leia, the wink to C-3PO, making good on his earlier promise to 'walk out and face down the whole First Order with a laser sword' and then the final confrontation with Kylo Ren that just exudes confidence and serenity. The use of the wide shots of the two of them facing off across an otherwise-blank space is incredible as well.


Another one from TLJ, the surprise appearance of Yoda, reviving the 'crazy/wise old man' persona from his earlier appearances. His sarcastic admonishments hiding pearls of wisdom, his final words to Luke, and the last shot of the two of them, watching the tree burn, finally at peace with themselves... brilliant stuff, and even better as a total surprise I absolutely did not expect.


To throw in one from Rebels, Ashoka's showdown with Vader in Twilight of the Apprentice. There's just so much good stuff in those few minutes, from Ashoka finally being able to hold her own as a true Jedi to the superb framing and lighting of certain shots to the score to her almost managing to break through Vader and see Anakin one last time... Yeah, it's as good as it gets.

I could go on, and it'd be remiss of me not to mention the Trench Run of ANH, the Vader scenes in R1, a bunch of scenes from Clone Wars (mostly revolving around Maul) but I'll leave it with this for now, since a lot of those have already been mentioned.

I have a soft spot for TPM, as it was the first star wars movie I saw, and I still think Duel of the Fates is an awesome sequence, but I also quite like the "Always a bigger fish" thing. Not sure why, it just sticks in my grey matter.

The bit where Luke goes into the cave on Dagobah confused the hell out of me as a kid - I had no idea what was happening there, but I knew it was cool. Battle of Hoth was cool, with the AT-ATs.
Jabba's barge was cool, and the trench run...

Rogue 1 - the Scarif battle and Vader's corridor carnage, but seeing a bit more of a Star Wars ground battle that wasn't Jedi vs Robots was neat.
TLJ, I think had some good bits, I liked Luke trolling Rey with the piece of grass, and the not-Hoth bit with the giant AT-ATs.
I also thought the throne room and the final duel sequence was cool.
I'm sure there are loads of other moments that I've forgotten about too.

The cloaked Super Star Destroyer in Rebel Assault 2 and the space Battle for Endor.

I also remember when I was a little kid, I played the old X-Wing game (as did my Dad) and I manged to beat the campaign, my parents had gotten me a little dollar store medal for me that kind of looked like the one from the game. After i beat the mission, my Dad had been watching and when I came out of the computer room all excited, the two of them were waiting.

Yeah, that blew my little child mind at the time lol.

Secret Cargo, Rebels Season 3...

They came.

Just a glorious moment.

Probably my favorite scene in TLJ was actually the one between Luke and R2. You have R2 coming in and you know is yelling at Luke even though you can't understand and then goes for the low blow with the hologram.

Han Solo, walking down the hall at Bespin alongside a princess and his old friend off to have dinner. No reason to think anything is wrong or out of place. When entering the dining room where Vader awaits does he gasp in surprise? Does he consider for a moment the power of the man before him or even his high value as a target? No. Without hesitation, while the others are slack jawed, his gun is instantly out of the holster and let's off a couple shots that was on the mark. Anyone else that couldn't use the force to catch those shots with their hands would've been dead before the rest of the group registered what happened.

Online light saber battles in Jedi Knight. Outcast was better but Knight had a more memorable encounter. Back then games didn’t actually disable cheat commands in multiplayer so when I cleaved an opponent in two without a bit of damage I realized they had invincibility on. Luckily we were on the bespin style map so when they charged me I dodged to the side and Force pushed them off the walkway where they couldn’t resplendent without turning off the cheat. A disconnect later and I was pretty proud of myself.

Kylo punching his wound in the snow is a recent favorite. Seeing him pathetically try to drum up anger was the point where the character clicked for me.

RotJ was the first I saw where I was old enough to actually appreciate it. Luke catching the saber over the saarlac is probably the defining moment of my love of the world.

 LunarSol wrote:
Kylo punching his wound in the snow is a recent favorite. Seeing him pathetically try to drum up anger was the point where the character clicked for me.

For sure. That whole threeway duel sequence is amazing. There is so much emotional pay-off for all three characters.

 LordofHats wrote:
Han shot first.

Who fired second?

Playing the Snowspeeder level on Hoth in Shadows of the Empire. The Battle for Hoth in ESB was one of the best Star Wars battles in the movies and being able to actually fly a speeder taking down ATs was amazing.

 Vulcan wrote:

 LordofHats wrote:
Han shot first.

Who fired second?

That's the point

I didn't see the trilogy until I was already an adult, so it didn't have that emotional attachment for me the way it did for most of you guys. I tend to like stuff that happened later which I know is weird. That being said, there are some parts I really liked, in no special order other then as I remember them:

1.) The rolling cobra-looking battle droids from whichever prequel were legit awesome.

2.) The part in part 7 (?) where Rey is riding her bike thing across the landscape and that enormous crashed star destroyer is in the background. That was neat.

3.) That part in TLJ where the ship accelerates to lightspeed and the theater was completely silent for a sec.

4.) Cliche, but Carrie Fisher in the bikini.

5.) A lot of the scenes with the robot from Rogue One.

6.) That little thing where Kylo Ren shifted his foot in slow motion and charged Luke. Also, the dusting off gesture.

7.) The fight beween Obi-Wan and Anakin on the lava planet, and the aftermath thereof.

8.) JFC, the ending of Rogue One when Vader appears. This should have been #1 on the list.

9.) The Porg screaming with Chewbacca in TLJ.

10.) When that stormtrooper hits his head on the door.

11.) When Anakin kills the sand people, and then later the younglings.

12.) The Rancor.

13.) When Vader does the heel face turn, finally.

14.) the entire bomber sequence in TLJ.

15.) When Han annihilates that dude with a bowcaster.

16.) I liked Kylo Ren's lightsaber.

17.) That moment in TLJ where Domnhall Gleeson (sp?) thinks abotu shooting Kylo Ren for a sec before deciding ooh, better not.

Being terrified of the giant troll in the Ewok Adventure as a little kid.