Popular Mechanics - USA (2019-12)

While Star Wars
films haven’t strayed
far from having a
Skywalker-centric
plot, peripheral sto-
ries have been more
brave about boldly
going where no one
has gone before.
(Sorry, wrong fran-
chise.) The greatest
example? A video

Proof

That Star

Wars

Works

Without

Skywalker

game from 2003

called “Knights of the

Old Republic.”

Developer Bio-

ware, an industry

behemoth, had a

bold idea: an epic,

galaxy-spanning Star

Wars story set 4,000

years before A New

Hope. Not only did

Bioware pull it off,

KOTOR remains one

of the greatest Star

Wars stories ever told.

Animated series like

Rebels and Resistance

have since ventured

off the Skywalker

path, but KOTOR was

a creative master-

piece, showing that

Star Wars could be so

much more.

The Best

Way to

Watch

All the

Star Wars

Movies

11

Watching (or rewatching) Star

Wars seems straightforward.

After all, the movies are all

labeled numerically, right there

in the title crawl. But with the

introduction of the prequels,

sequels, and one-offs, fans have

gotten creative when searching

for the ultimate way to watch.

We’re partial to the Rinster

Order, named after a partic-

ularly dedicated fan. It helps

preserve The Empire Strikes

Back’s big plot twist while also

giving Vader’s revelation more

narrative weight. Once we learn

of the relationship between

Luke and Vader, we’re treated

to a three-film flashback

exploring how such a dark lord

of the Sith came to be.

trio of new films set in a galaxy
far, far away. “We’re doing some-
thing that steps beyond the legacy
characters,” Johnson said in an
interview. “What does that look
like?...It really makes you think
and figure out what the essence of
Star Wars is for me and what that
will look like moving forward.”
Star Wars needs to become
more than just an annual nos-
talgia fix. Old adventure serials,
WWII dogfighting films, and
Japanese samurai films helped
form the original trilogy, but the
series is a lasting testament to the
power of creativity. It’s a tragedy
that, 40 years later, these films
have become a regurgitation of
recycled ideas.
“You gotta remember that Star
Wars came from nowhere...there

OPTIONAL: So what about the stand-

alone films? You could slot in Rogue One

before A New Hope and treat the two films

as one four-hour-long space epic. But it

feels wrong to not start your rewatch with

the original. As for Solo, it makes the most

sense to give it a watch after the startling

conclusion of The Force Awakens, in

order to give our favorite space smuggler

a proper send-off. Oh...spoilers.

was nothing like it,” George Lucas

said in a 2015 interview. “Now,

if you do anything that’s not a

sequel, they won’t do it.... It shows

an enormous lack of imagination

and fear of creativity.”

Like Lucas, Johnson isn’t con-

tent with making a Star Wars

film you’ve already seen before,

and this search for a new direc-

tion is all over his films. In The

Last Jedi, Kylo Ren pleads with

Rey during the film’s most dra-

matic moment. “It’s time to let

old things die,” he says. “Snoke,

Skywalker, the Sith, the Jedi—let

it all die.”

You could say those words

only relate to the film’s ongoing

galactic strife. But its underlying

commentary is pretty clear: It’s

time for Star Wars to move on.

CO

UR

TE

SY

EL

EC

TR

ON

IC^

AR

TS

42 December 2019

THE RINSTER ORDER

A

NEW

HOPE

THE EMPIRE

STRIKES

BACK

THE

PHANTOM

MENACE

123

ATTACK

OF THE

CLONES

REVENGE OF

THE SITH

RETURN

OF THE

JEDI

4 56

THE

FORCE

AWAKENS

THE

LAST

JEDI

THE RISE

OF

SKYWALKER

789