Happy May the Fourth! May your day be full of milk with food dye in it and CGI pears! While I hope you're enjoying this very sacred day (and the premiere of The Bad Batch!). To celebrate today, I'd first like to pick out some of my favorite moments from every Star Wars movie- and I mean every. Single. One. This was a hard list to make, as many of these movies have so many amazing moments to choose from, but I was able to settle on just one favorite from each one.
Let's get started!
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
My favorite scene (among very many) from this movie is when Padmé reveals herself to be queen to the Gungans. It's just such a poignant scene that speaks so much about her character, and how she values creating an honest bond between her people and the other part of the population of Naboo. Especially after reading E.K. Johnston's Queen's Hope, this scene just really stands out every time. Not to mention that baby Anakin's confused look and the amused smiles from Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are just so fun.
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
The Battle of Geonosis is very easily one of my favorite Star Wars battles ever. But my favorite part by far is when all of the Jedi arrive at the scene. Seeing so many Jedi all charge in together, slicing apart droids (and some meeting unfortunate ends themselves) is just so cool. I love seeing all of the interesting alien designs, the different color lightsabers swinging in the battle. It's so much fun, and always a scene that excites me.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
I've always loved the battle of Christophsis, mostly because of just how pretty the background is, but one of my favorite parts of it is definitely Ahsoka and Anakin's first little outing as master and padawan. It's a fun little mission where they hide under a box, and then fight the large droids. We get to see their early banter and attempts at teamwork, and Anakin struggle with his first time teaching. It's such a fun scene that I'll always adore.
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
I don't know if this will be a controversial one or not, but I think that Revenge of the Sith has the best opening scene of any Star Wars movie. The crazy ship battle over Coruscant and Obi-Wan and Anakin breaking into the enemy ship is just so amazing to watch. Between the fun banter and dynamic battle scenes, it's definitely the most hype opening in my opinion.
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Solo has a looooot of great moments to choose from (admittedly, many of my favorites being Lando or Chewie-centered). But Qi'ra's fight scene with Voss is definitely my favorite. It's cool to watch, and is a defining moment that completely changes the way that we look at Qi'ra's character. It's so much fun to see regular-ish blades being used in a Star Wars fight scene, and the lavish setting of it does not disappoint.
Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion
Spark of Rebellion is a great way to start of Star Wars Rebels, and introduces us to each of our favorite characters in a great way, while kicking off Ezra's hero's journey. But the best part by far is Kanan revealing himself to be a Jedi on Kessel. It's of course a key moment for his character that we can still look back to know that the show has finished, and it's just always exciting to see him ignite his lightsaber and hear "Focus all fire... on the Jedi!"
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Do I have to explain this one? I really don't think I do.
Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope
Every single scene from A New Hope is iconic in its own way, but I have to give my personal favorite award to the Death Star escape scene. From Leia's smart mouth to the Vader and Kenobi duel, it's just perfect fun and classic Star Wars. What's not to love?
Star Wars Holiday Special
Oh, I bet you thought you'd be getting through this list with no Holiday Special, huh? Well you thought wrong! Now, while I could say that my favorite part is the cartoon like a normal person, that wouldn't be entirely honest. No, my actual favorite part of the Holiday Special is Bea Arthur's song in the cantina. It's just so wonderfully weird and hey, Bea Arthur!
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
The Battle of Hoth is just such an exciting scene of Star Wars, and one where we really see the "wars" part of Star Wars shine with the rebel soldiers in their trenches and the iconic AT-ATs marching across the snow- only to be tripped up by snowspeeders. It's great, fun and very Star Wars. What's not to love?
Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure
What I loved most about this movie (which I only very recently was able to watch) was how much it was a classic adventure story about a group banded together to complete a mission. For that reason, my favorite scenes in this movie were the ones where this group was just traveling along to meet their goal, on foot and on horseback. It just felt very satisfying to watch this type of story in Star Wars.
Ewoks: The Battle for Endor
The Battle for Endor is both a very cute and surprisingly dark movie. There's a lot of really cute scenes to pick from, but my favorite is when Wicket and Cindel meet Teek. Teek is just such a cute and surprising new creature, and watching him zip around the forest is extremely amusing.
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi
Jabba's sail barge scene might be one of my favorite Star Wars movie scenes of all time. Between Luke's best outfit (you can fight me on that) and green lightsaber, Leia strangling Jabba with a chain, and Han and Lando shenanigans, this scene just makes me happy and perfectly sets the tone for the rest of the movie.
Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens
There are countless amazing scenes in The Force Awakens, but not a single one that is as powerful to me as Rey pulling the lightsaber from the snow and igniting it to fight Kylo Ren. The whole fight scene is exciting, but that moment gets me every single time. I think what inspires me most here is that you can see that she's afraid and unsure, as this is all so new to her, but she's going to stand and fight anyway. That's real bravery, and exactly why I admire her character so much.
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi
If you've talked to me about The Last Jedi before, I've probably said something along the lines of "I love the movie, there's a few things I don't like about the first parts, but in the third act- once you hit Crait- it's completely flawless." A big part of that is the brief reunion scene between Luke and Leia. It's a scene that just makes me so emotional every time because of how sweet and touching it is.
Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker
Like the others, The Rise of Skywalker has a lot of amazing scenes, many notably featuring Finn, Poe, Chewie and C-3PO in my ever-so humble opinion. But I just can't get past my absolute favorite, which is when the Jedi of the past speak to Rey to inspire her to stand up and fight back against Palpatine. They all stand behind her, and she is all the Jedi. It's such a great scene, and the exact kind of thing that I wanted from Star Wars.
LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special
Did you really think I'd leave out the LEGO Holiday Special? This movie, like its namesake, is wonderfully weird (though much more comprehensible). It's very funny, and as much as I love the hijinks that Finn, Poe, Rose and friends get into while trying to plan a Life Day party, my favorite part absolutely has to be the disaster of a battle that Rey causes jumping through time portals. It's just too funny and weird to explain totally, but if you haven't watched it yet I'd recommend it, at least for this scene alone.
Those are all of my personal favorite scenes from each movie, and I'm curious to know if anyone else has different ones! Like I said, many of these were very hard to narrow down, and I even flip-flopped on quite a few. What are your favorites?