What are your favorite (and least favorite) Star Wars sequences or scenes?

[Gladius Legis]

Some of my favorite things actually exist outside of the movies, strangely enough. Obi-Wan vs Maul sequence in Star Wars Rebels "Twin Suns" is incredibly good. Also Rebels, "Jedi Night," incredibly good. Vader's flight sequence in "Siege of Lothal" as well. Everything to do with Onderon and Mandalore in both TCW and Rebels.

TCW and Rebels really did redeem the prequel era in my eyes.

 

[Zardnaar]

TCW and Rebels really did redeem the prequel era in my eyes.

Yeah they were both better than the movies.

 

[Celebrim]

And your best scenes?

Good question. I've been asking myself the same thing for a while.

I have some candidates but I'm not even sure what criteria I should be using just to get down to five.

In no particular order:

"Lock X-Foils in attack position...This is Red 5 I'm going in..." - The battle over the Death Star Trench, A New Hope. One of the most iconic scenes in cinema, and it's really hard to overstate just how big of an impact this scene and the opening Star Destroyer sequence in Star Wars had on film.

"I know a few maneuvers..." - The Millennium Falcon escape sequence, Empire Strikes Back. In particular, the shot where the Millennium Falcon turns and falls into the frame of the screen followed by the pursuing tie fighters sets a very high bar on space combat sequences that has really never been surpassed. We've had this sequence replayed on screen at least 3 times in the films since then trying to recapture the magic.

"Luke, Obi Wan never told you..." - The Temptation of the Hero, Empire Strikes Back. The Gold Standard in movie twists, and probably the most famous mind blowing twist in movie history.

"Battle of Hoth" - Empire Strikes Back. The heroes lose to a terrifying unstoppable enemy. John Williams score is at its most powerful in the first half of Empire, and the refrains as the Rebellion quits the field are so evocative of defeat and grief.

"I am a Jedi, like my father before me...", Return of the Jedi. "Return" gets a lot of criticism from the fans for having at moments a much less dark tone than the prior film, but the entire third act of this third act film is a masterpiece of movie making with the interwoven battles occurring simultaneously in the Throne Room, the Forest of Endor, and in the space around the Death Star are just spectacular in every way a movie can be spectacular. Everything brings everything together in a natural satisfying conclusion that suggests the promise of better things to come. It's the perfect ending to a perfectly told fairy tale.

"Rogue One, There is no Rogue One", Battle of Scariff, Rogue One - If any battle has ever been staged with the clarity of the battle of Endor, it's the masterful battle of Scariff that is the third act of 'Rogue One'. While the middle third of the movie has its moments of fridge logic and hoop jumping, the way it wraps up is just pure genius.

Darth Vader Arrives, Rogue One - A lot of people have already voted for this scene, and while I don't think it will make my top five, it's is well done and so well sets up 'A New Hope' in a way that you never really knew was needed until it did it.

 

[Zardnaar]

Battle Of Scariff is very good.

When I first saw it I thought damn it's almost better than the OT.

I thought RotS had a decent space battle at the start. Scariff beat it.

 

[Tonguez]

Obviously theBattle of Endor

 

[Legatus Legionis]

.

 

[Sacrosanct]

They handwave travel times and it's assumed Luke probably spent longer on Both than shown onscreen.

Star Wars also has very quick ftl relative to most other franchises. Hoth and Bespin are fairly close as well. Falcon is very quick as well.

Idk if they have covered travel times in the new canon in the old ones you can get from Alderaan to Tatooinevin 8 hours, falcon can do it in 4 something slow like an ISD is 16 hours.

In the movies they handwave even that away.

Either way the falcon can get from one side of the Galaxy to the other in less than a day on the right hyperspace route.

even if you completely discount travel times, Luke could only have been with yoda for an afternoon. Han and co were not in cloud city more than a day or so. Longer and they would have noticed C3PO was missing since he was dismantled right off the bat (also revealing Vader and storm troopers were there before Han). And Luke arrived just as the falcon was leaving. So even if an x wing can travel instantly, all the events from the escape of Hoth to Luke facing Vader in cloud city were within a day or two at most.

anyway, it’s just one of those things that always bugged me more than others.

funny enough, the battle of Hoth is one of my favorite sequences ever.

 

[Imaculata]

Favorites:

My favorite scene is in The Empire Strikes Back, the first time we see the Executer. That iconic music while we see a shadow slowly pass over a normal Star Destroyer. It is one of those moments where the movie is able to say so much with just music and visuals.

I also really love the Death Star attack in Return of the Jedi.

Least favorites:

My least favorite scene is Palpatine's "Unliiiimitteeeed Powaaah" scene. It was the moment where I remember me and my gf looking at each other in disbelief regarding what was happening on the screen.

I also strongly dislike the ending of Rogue One, with CGI Leia and fan service Vader. The movie should have ended before that whole scene. Give me passive menacing Vader over fan service Vader. Also, that lava castle was stupid.

 

[Mercurius]

^Lots of bad Palpatine scenes in RotS. I have kind of blocked it out, but doesn't he say "yes, yes, yes, yes!!!!"

I also agree whole-heartedly about preferring Vader: The Passive Menace over Vader: Conspicuously Evil for Generations Raised on Films Relying on Special Effects over Nuance.

 

[ccs]

even if you completely discount travel times, Luke could only have been with yoda for an afternoon. Han and co were not in cloud city more than a day or so. Longer and they would have noticed C3PO was missing since he was dismantled right off the bat (also revealing Vader and storm troopers were there before Han). And Luke arrived just as the falcon was leaving. So even if an x wing can travel instantly, all the events from the escape of Hoth to Luke facing Vader in cloud city were within a day or two at most.

anyway, it’s just one of those things that always bugged me more than others.

It's never occurred to you that Luke was on Dagobah for however long it took the Falcon to get from the asteroid belt to Bespin at sub-light speeds (Remember, they didn't have a working hyperdrive.) has it?

I mean, I was 10 at the time & I figured out that there should've been a caption that read: "And time passed...." That I wasn't seeing these two events play out in real time, but rather snippets.