Star Wars Fan Explains Why Starting With The Phantom Menace Is A Bad Idea

Highlights

Starting with The Phantom Menace may not be ideal for new fans due to confusing plot points and the lack of entertainment value.
Anakin falling to the dark side is not meant to be a surprise in the prequels, and watching the prequels first ruins the twist that Vader is Luke’s father.
The sanctity of Darth Vader’s identity and eventual reveal is a strong argument for watching in release order, preserving the magic.

While some Star Wars fans see The Phantom Menace as the perfect starting point for first-time viewers of the iconic franchise, one fan has a major issue with this order and has laid out his argument against the divisive prequel film.

Since the Star Wars prequel trilogy was released in the early 2000s, the fandom has been split about which watch order was correct, an argument re-ignited by Disney’s Star Wars sequels and streaming projects bringing in even more new viewers. The main point of contention revolves around The Phantom Menace, the first prequel film that many fans consider the most ambitious Star Wars movie.

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While Star Wars fans defended the Prequels-first watch order on Reddit’s r/StarWars board, the discussion is far from settled, and one dissenter has come back with an argument against starting new fans off with The Phantom Menace. While user PalestPistachi0 specifies that they are by no means a prequel hater, they assert that the prequels-first (that is, chronological) watch order is not the ideal one for the simple reason that The Phantom Menace is not the introduction to the franchise that new fans deserve. “I have been to multiple watch parties in the past few years to ‘start’ the Star Wars saga only to see the host cue up The Phantom Menace. This plays out the same every time. Those who have watched episode one will make jokes, and the first-timers will be bored. First-time watchers get more entertainment value out of the jokes being told about the movie than the movie itself.” The user doubled down on their assessment, highlighting why starting with A New Hope is better.

…Phantom Menace is not the introduction to Star Wars that the people of this galaxy deserve. A New Hope is a perfect hero’s journey story with one of the most magical climaxes in film history. The Phantom Menace is infamous for not meeting expectations. It is brain-melting spectacle with a poorly communicated story.

While the user acknowledged the additions the Star Wars franchise’s animated shows made to the canon surrounding the prequel era, they insist that the shows only work with proper context, and the equivalent context needed for the prequels is the original trilogy. Additionally, PalestPistachi0 also opposes the chronological order because it takes away some of the enjoyment fans would otherwise get from watching the release order that starts with A New Hope, the first of the original trilogy and a Star Wars story that execs were excited about a year before release. “Anakin falling prey to the dark side is not a surprise in the prequels, it’s what they’re all about. It is not worth ruining the twist that Vader is Luke’s father because the prequels are clearly written for an audience fully aware of who Darth Vader is.”

While there are points to be made both ways (and most have been argued to death), the part of this argument that highlights the sanctity of Darth Vader’s identity and the eventual reveal is strong. Darth Vader is an integral part of the Star Wars franchise, being amongst the favorite parts of the movies for many fans and serving as the biggest draw to the prequels. Additionally, Darth Vader’s aura is a franchise masterpiece that Disney is missing due to the sheer difficulty of replicating it, so it can’t be understated when deciding on a watch order. Counter to this point is that the sheer popularity of the Star Wars franchise has made it almost impossible not to know who Vader is, assuming his infamously on-the-nose Sith name wasn’t enough of a dead giveaway. While the magic of experiencing the reveal is worth preserving, the cat might be irreparably out of the bag.

In the end, the more compelling point is that The Phantom Menace has the most confusing plot points in Star Wars and benefits from some pre-existing love of the franchise to see viewers through some of the rougher patches of the prequel trilogy overall. However fans choose to introduce the franchise, it seems set to continue enthralling new viewers for decades.

The Star Wars franchise is available for streaming on Disney Plus.

Star Wars

Star Wars is a multimedia franchise created by George Lucas and Lucasfilm Ltd with the 1977 motion picture. The science fiction franchise follows the adventures of characters (both humanoid and alien) in outer space, including those who can wield a mystical power known as the Force. Since the release of the original trilogy movies, the franchise has expanded to include multiple films and branched out to other mediums like comics, video games, TV shows, theme park attractions, and more. The IP and Lucasfilm were sold to Disney in 2012.