Welcome to Star Wars Saturdays! Our Star Wars Fan Panel – a group of big time Star Wars fans – has gathered to talk all things from a Galaxy Far Far Away!
On Saturdays we share our thoughts on ranking anything and everything in the Star Wars galaxy! What makes us different? We vote with our hearts. Our lists are our top FAVORITE things about each Star Wars category. We believe there are already too many critical lists, artistry lists, film making lists… yadda yadda… we are simply talking about our FAVORITES – as all fans do.
Our merry band of rebel fans are:
Brer Brooke (@brer.burke)
Chris B (@thedisneynationtm)
Chris R
Evan (@homeawayfromdisney)
Gina
Jason (@fency53)
Jay
Jeremy (@disneyfamilytime)
Joe N (@joseph.nicholas35)
Jon Gus (thejonnygus)
Kevin (@thekevinawakens)
Meaghan (@homeawayfromdisney)
Steph (@saylikeyay)
And yours truly, Keith – founder of @mindofmodernman and @dadventuredisney
You can follow the Star Wars Panel on Instagram for all our updates!
This week – 12 of us take on the task of ranking our favorite moments in the Star Wars universe.
How do you choose your favorite moments? Then… how do you RANK them!? Getting it down to only 10 for each voter was a real chore. Lots of crying, swearing, sweating and furious scribbling on lists. But, we did it. We came up with our consensus 10!
We’ve got something from the original trilogy, prequels, Disney era and the Star Wars stories involved.
Over all, we submitted 60 different moments across Star Wars film and tv!! Lot of different characters involved and all kinds of emotions shared.
I’ll break down the movie by movie submissions and highlight which characters showed up more often, and a lot more in my thoughts below the list. Hopefully, you’ll hit the comments and share YOUR favorites too.
On to the list… Punch it!
Tatooine Double Sunset
A New Hope
Top 10 Score: 1.85. Nominated on 2 ballots. 2 first place votes.
Young farm boy Luke Skywalker is disappointed to learn from Uncle Owen that his dreams will never be. He leaves their home and stands on the dunes of Tatooine looks out towards the binary setting suns. John Williams‘ sorrowful take on the main theme soars and SW fans are left with a lump in our throats.
It’s one of the franchise’s most iconic moments. One so endearing to Star Wars fans, that they recreated it in the final chapter of the Skywalker Saga, too. (ignore the fan boy video edits at the end…)
Snoke’s Throne Room Battle
The Last Jedi
Top 10 Score: 1.92. Nominated on 3 ballots.
This is the first lightsaber battle moment to make our list and it’s a good one! Kylo Ren kills Supreme Leader Snoke and then he and Rey team up to take on all of Snoke’s Elite Praetorian Guards.
John Williams again knocks it out of the park with the score here and the fight choreography is some of the best in all of the saga.
Vader Saves Luke
Return of the Jedi
Top 10 Score: 1.92. Nominated on 4 ballots.
We spent all of A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, and most of Return of the Jedi scared to death of the powerful Darth Vader. For good reason – he was the embodiment of evil.
But in this final moment of the end of the original trilogy, Luke senses more within his father. When all seemed lost, he was right. Tell his sister… he was right!
Dad was back and saved his son, killing Emperor Palpatine!
Ok, well, we thought he did. Apparently the Emperor became a zombie kind of parasite Voldemort thing that moved to a lava planet, and had a big bunch of Snokes in his fish tank… but that’s a discussion for another list….
Vader’s Rampage
Rogue One
Top 10 Score: 2.50. Nominated on 5 ballots.
In arguably the best moment in all of Rogue One – we see the true evil and power of Darth Vader. The rebel troopers are sprinting to get the stolen Death Star plans to their commrades aboard the Tantive IV, but a door malfunctions and the lights go out. All is silent until a familiar breathing pattering breaks the quiet. Then the snap/hum of a red lightsaber.
It’s pure, unadulterated Vader bad-assedness!
Mos Eisley Cantina
A New Hope
Top 10 Score: 2.69. Nominated on 5 ballots. 1 first place vote.
SO much is sandwiched into this scene. Let’s try to break it apart. It’s Mos Eisley – hive of villainy. It’s a cantina filled with so many different kinds of aliens we’ve never seen. They don’t serve droids. We meet “Walrus Man” who we all had as an action figure. We see the first fight with a lightsaber. We meet Han Solo and Chewbacca. And, of course, that catchy tune by Tatooine’s own Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes. That’s a LOT of favorite packed into one moment!
By the way – just to be clear… Han shot first. We all know he did.
Duel of the Fates
The Phantom Menace
Top 10 Score: 2.77. Nominated on 6 ballots.
Darth Maul looked amazingly bad. He barely spoke. He just oozed evil.
Standing in his way is Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi. Maul drops his cloak. The others do the same. Then Maul ignites his saber… but wait… then the OTHER SIDE!! WHAT!? The gasp in the theaters is still etched in my memory.
John Williams (is he the MVP of the Star Wars Universe or what?) gives us a theme that just perfectly captures this amazingly choreographed battle.
Training on Dagobah
Empire Strikes Back
Top 10 Score: 3.54. Nominated on 6 ballots.
Every scene between Luke and Jedi Master Yoda on Dagobah could be their own listing here. We put them together because they belong as one master class in Star Wars awesome.
Judge me by my size? Do or do not. Luminous beings are we. Hitting R2-D2 with the walking stick. R2 peeking in the window of Yoda’s hut. The backpack. The dark cave. Raising Luke’s X-Wing Fighter out of the swamp. There is SO much here.
Dagobah scenes are the Lays potato chips of Star Wars – you can’t have just one.
Death Star Trench
A New Hope
Top 10 Score: 4.23. Nominated on 7 ballots.
The climax of A New Hope was the quintessential ‘little guy’ taking out the big dude. Wedge Antilles, Jek Porkins, and so many of our favorite pilots help clear the way for Luke to find his moment. Obi-Wan whispers in his ear, Vader locks on target, and WOOOOHOOOOOO Han and Chewie are back on the Millennium Falcon to save the day.
My adrenaline is pumping just from typing all that…..
I Love You | I Know
Empire Strikes Back
Top 10 Score: 4.77. Nominated on 9 ballots. 2 first place votes.
The good guys are losing. Han’s “friend” Lando Calrissian sells them out to Vader and Boba Fett. Han is taken prisoner and dropped into the carbon freezing chamber as a test run as Vader awaits to use it for Luke.
As Han accepts his fate, he says his goodbye to Chewbacca and then turns to the Princess that he’s grown to adore. Princess Leia admits “I love you” and Harrison Ford flashes his trademark smirk and says “I know.”
If you’re reading this, I have to assume you’re a Star Wars fan and most likely know that Han’s line was improvised by Ford – how does it get more genius than that?
No, I Am Your Father
Empire Strikes Back
Top 10 Score: 5.38. Nominated on 10 ballots. 5 first place votes.
It’s one of the biggest cinematic reveals in all of film. Do I really need to explain WHY this is our #1?
Ok, maybe 2 of our voters have to explain how this isn’t on their list at all – but that’s what the discussion in the comments is for…
There is a LOT to dissect here. Isn’t there? Yeah, there is. I’ll do some now, but I’m excited to share that Jon Gus and I are teaming up for what we’re calling the Star Wars Fan Panel Post Script Podcast which is going to be here on Mind of Modern Man. Jon and I will look at each Star Wars Saturday list this panel creates and break it all down in detail. We’ll let you know when the first episode goes live!
There were a few moments that received first place votes that didn’t crack our group Top 10. Let’s take a look!
Chewie gets his medal!
The Opening Titles, Theme and Crawls (here are all 9!)
The Star Wars Television shows did get some votes, but didn’t crack the Top 10. Clone Wars had 4 moments nominated. 1 for Rebels and 4 for The Mandalorian.
Here are how the individual movies broke down: The Empire Strikes Back had 11 moments nominated. A New Hope had 8 moments. Rise of Skywalker did too! 6 each for Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. Rogue One scored 3 votes while The Phantom Menace had 2. Attack of the Clones and Solo each pulled in one nomination.
The characters were a bit all over the map. If you read last week’s list of our Favorite Star Wars Characters, you’ll see our trend carry over into our favorite moments.
Darth Vader/Anakin leads the way, being a part of at least 11 of the moments. Han Solo and Luke Skywalker are tied at 10 a piece. Rey is very close with 9 mentions. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Kylo Ren/Ben Solo each had 6 moments. Yoda and Princess Leia scored 4 mentions each. Darth Maul had 3 mentions and Chewbacca is kind of in the background of many of these moments too!
The Original Trilogy did win overall, again, but that’s par for the course in the hearts of Star Wars fans.
I bet you’re dying to know which scene for Solo actually got a vote?
So… what are your favorite moments from Star Wars? Any above that you’re surprised made our list or others that you’re shocked didn’t make it at all?
Hit the comments and let us know. Or head over to our Instagram Page and hit us up there, too!
On behalf of the Star Wars Fan Panel, thank you for reading and we’ll see you next time for another Star Wars Saturday.
Cheers!
Keith
Mind of Modern Man 
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