Carl’s Personal Favourite Moments from Star Wars

A great way to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the saga

On May 25th, we celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Star Wars! In celebration of this special occasion, I wanted to share some of my top 4 personal favourite moments from the Star Wars saga.

TOP 4 REBELS VS IMPERIAL BATTLES

The battle of Yavin (Death Star Trench run)
The battle of Endor (Death Star Attack)
The battle of Scarif (Attack on the shield gate)
The battle of Hoth (Snowspeeders against the AT-AT’S)

Of course I had to go with the battle of Yavin as my favourite, it was the first space battle in the Star Wars universe I ever saw and, to this day, still enthralls me.

TOP 4 MUSIC CUES

The Imperial March
Main Title/End Credits-A New Hope
The Clash Of Lightsabers/Escape from Bespin-The Empire Strikes Back
Dual of the fates-The Phantom Menace/Revenge Of The Sith

Ok, so I cheated a little bit with number 2 but hey, sue me! I love the Main Title from A New Hope as again, it was the first time I heard the fantastic Star Wars theme and the blast at the end of the film still makes me tingle to this day.

TOP 4 CHARACTERS

Darth Vader
Han Solo
Boba Fett
Luke Skywalker

Sorry, but I LOVE Vader! He is the ultimate bad ass in the galaxy and after his brief but memorable appearance in Rogue One, it just confirms that, to me, he is THE MAN!

TOP 4 LIGHTSABER BATTLES

Luke VS Vader (Bespin)
Luke VS Vader (2nd Death Star)
Obi Wan VS Darth Maul (The Phantom Menace)
Anakin VS Obi Wan (Revenge of the Sith)

With apologies to Yoda VS Dooku which came VERY close to cracking my top 4, these are my favourites. My number one is based on Luke trying to hold his own against Vader, who is superior and fully trained against Luke’s complete novice. The fact remains though that when it starts, Vader only uses his Lightsaber one handed, but by the climax has to go full on with both hands as he realises that Luke will not give up, is intent on killing him and is more powerful than he realised. The fact Luke is his son makes Vader hold back at the start. However, as the battle progresses, Vader has to fight for his life. During the battle, Luke starts to come into his own. He’s nowhere near as good as Vader, nowhere near fully trained, is completely undisciplined, but takes the fight to the Dark Lord until he makes the mistake in getting cornered on the platform.

TOP 4 VEHICLES

The Millennium Falcon
The AT-AT
T.I.E Fighter
The X-Wing

Of course, the Falcon takes top spot! How could it not? The fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy is the perfect vehicle to cheer for. From its first appearance in Mos Eisley through its heroic rescue of Luke during the original Death Star attack to its final attack on the second Death Star and its cheer inducing return in The Force Awakens, the Falcon remains the greatest ship in the Star Wars universe.

And finally….

THE TOP 4 STAR WARS FILMS

The Empire Strikes Back
Rogue One
A New Hope
The Force Awakens

It had to be didn’t it? The greatest sequel in history and a much darker film than its predecessor, Empire ticks all the boxes and more. With it’s cliffhanger ending leaving us all breathless and ready for more to it’s shocking twist that we, as viewers, didn’t see coming,its the quintessential Star Wars film and the favourite of not only myself but to millions of Star Wars fans worldwide. It’s the film that the rest of the saga and now the latest film installments want to be but cant seem to get near. Revenge of the Sith tried and did come close at one point with the destruction of the Jedi, but failed ultimately to scratch the surface of its much more dark and riveting sister film. Rogue One did come close again, but fell at the final hurdle which to be fair is not its fault. The fault, surprisingly lies with A New Hope. Rogue One fitted perfectly into the saga, but it’s ending left us at the point we started at back in 1977. We knew where the story was heading and the hope that would prevail at the film’s end. This, sadly relegated the film into a worthy second place ahead of it’s “Follow up”, A New Hope which, after Rogue One now fits perfectly behind it. Ok, so I’m a sucker for it, but The Force Awakens gets 4th spot. I was hoping that sometime in the future, we would get a chance to encounter our heroes again and thankfully we did. It’s nowhere near perfect and I wanted more of Luke to be in it, but it was a great re-introduction to our beloved characters from yesteryear. one can only hope that The Last Jedi can follow it and go down the Empire route and give us a darker, less hopeful journey to go on going into Episode 9.

There are many more favourite moments I could write about, but these are my main ones. Of course, some will disagree with me, but that’s what makes us a large family. Every family has their own choices, opinions and convictions for why they have them and we, as Star Wars fans, are no different. We have our ups and downs with each other, but ultimately we are one HUGE Star Wars family. It never ceases to amaze me that, in this day and age, with all the conflicts going on in the world that we fans, from our different nations, backgrounds, ethnicity and such can come together to celebrate our love of a family saga that started “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…”

May The Force Be With You!