Acknowledgement must go to bbarton72 for inspiring me with his great blog.

Many people have wondered in which order they should show the Star Wars saga to their children: the prequels first or the originals first? The answer is different for everyone and there's no wrong way. As of now, I plan on showing my future children The Phantom Menace first when they're around five or six years old. If they enjoy the film, I would soon proceed with the others. Here are my reasons why I'm starting with The Phantom Menace:

First, because it's the most kid-friendly and a great introduction to the saga. But, as some have pointed out, there are less explanations in this movie concerning Jedi, the Force, etc. compared to A New Hope. Well, I could just explain that stuff to my children before they watch it or as the movie goes along. Because they are just kids, I imagine they would ask me a lot of questions about how things work even if I did show them A New Hope first.

An objection to showing kids The Phantom Menace first is that it contains "boring stuff" about embargoes and galactic politics. I don't see how that's much different from the scenes in A New Hope when they talk about the Imperial Senate. I never understood those scenes as a child and they simply rolled over me. They never affected my enjoyment of the film. Heck, when I was very young and watched Return of the Jedi about every day, I was so bored by the talky Dagobah scenes that I often asked my mom to fast-forward through them. Did that hinder my opinion that Star Wars was the greatest thing on God's green earth? Not in the slightest.

Of course, the problem arises with showing a young child Revenge of the Sith, the most intense film of the saga. My niece was six years old when she saw that movie in theaters and it didn't traumatize her. As her mother told me, the only scene in which she closed her eyes was Anakin's immolation (which is the probably the main reason why the film was rated PG-13). Of course, all kids are different and should be treated accordingly. What I'll do with my children is warn them that there is some disturbing content (without giving anything specific away) and I'll always be close them with a blanket or something in case it gets too scary for them. Also, when you think about it, The Empire Strikes Back is pretty intense too: men get choked to death, Han gets tortured and frozen, and Luke gets his hand sliced off as he wails in pain.

My second reason for showing The Phantom Menace first is to preserve the surprise of Darth Sidious' identity (yes, it's easy to figure out, but probably not for a child) and the surprise of Anakin's conversion to the Dark Side of the Force. I know that the big surprise in The Empire Strikes Back will be ruined, but I have always known that Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker's father so I have no nostalgic attachment to it. Plus, I think it would be interesting to see how someone would react to Revenge of the Sith without knowing what will happen afterwards. In case my kids get too distressed by the events of the film, I will assure them that there is still hope in Luke and Leia and that all is not lost. I'll be showing them A New Hope soon afterwards so I think they would be fine.

My final reason for showing The Phantom Menace first is because, basically, it's Episode I, right? It portrays what happened first. It's a little confusing for a young kid to show the events of the saga in a non-linear order. No, it's not the way I first experienced the saga, but so what? In 2005, I watched the saga in this order (one movie a day for six days) and it was the greatest viewing of the saga I have ever experienced. I truly felt the drama, the suspense, the emotions, and the excitement of all the events unfolding before me as George Lucas intended (he has said that this is the order he prefers). I want my future children to experience that too.