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Long-awaited Force Ghosts, epic returns, and more times Star Wars delivered fans the goods.
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00:00From jaw-dropping rematches that more than lived up to the hype,
00:03to the long-awaited return of some of the galaxy's most cherished figures.
00:08Star Wars fans may not be able to agree on most things when it pertains to this corner of space,
00:12but next to no one will argue with the following moments all being instances of force-infused fan service done right.
00:19Gareth here from WhatCultureStarWars, and here are 10 times Star Wars gave fans exactly what they wanted.
00:2610. The Rematch of the Century
00:28Most of the attention was quite rightly focused on a certain rematch of the century coming into Disney Plus' Obi-Wan Kenobi.
00:35Yet instead of simply carting out the two former brothers-in-arms to duke it out just at once,
00:40after spending nearly two decades away from the Star Wars spotlight,
00:44Deborah Chow and Kathleen Kennedy gifted fans with the sight of Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen's Ben Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker slash Darth Vader,
00:53crossing lightsabers on three separate and wholly satisfying occasions.
00:57An Obi-Wan absolute mauling at the hands of the rage-fueled Dark Lord in part three was eventually followed by a digitally de-aged bout of training between Master and Padawan from before the Clone Wars in part five.
01:09And if that was not enough, the iconic figures were given one last chance to truly let loose against one another in the series finale.
01:16With Kenobi reverting back to a classic stance, Vader finally getting the high ground,
01:21and a merging of Christensen and James Earl Jones' unmistakable voices post-mask smashing or leaving fans needing a serious lie down.
01:309. Han Solo completes the Kessel Run
01:32Let's face it, Solo, a Star Wars story, will not go down in history as one of the most universally beloved tales ever told in this galaxy far, far away.
01:41But that's not to say that every aspect of this prequel feature can be deemed as a complete and utter failure upon a rewatch.
01:47In fact, arguably one of the most mythical stories ever to tumble out of a much-loved character's mouth
01:52was finally and brilliantly realized on the big screen in Ron Howard's space adventure.
01:57After years of banging on about his trusty Millennium Falcon being the mighty ship that was able to make the perilous multiple black hole boasting Kessel Run in under 12 parsecs,
02:07Disney finally rewarded fans with the concrete evidence of the legendary Solo genuinely pulling off this mesmerizing feat within their 2018 outing.
02:15Thanks to an inspired shortcut, of course.
02:17Sure, the origins of the titular icon's last name, among many other frustrating elements within this dud of the flick, may not have excited the masses.
02:25But you'd be lying if you said you weren't even a little bit thrilled by this sequence of Solo finally living up to his legend.
02:31Number 8. Ahsoka Comes Face to Face with Vader
02:34Throughout the massively embraced Clone Wars animated series, one character alone stood as the undoubted MVP of these prequel tales, Ahsoka Tano.
02:44But with the fierce figure acting as Anakin Skywalker's padawan in her time before leaving the Jedi Order behind,
02:49fans were always somewhat curious as to what would have gone down if the former Master and Apprentice crossed paths once again in the wake of the former's tragic fall to the dark side.
02:58Well, March 2016's Twilight of the Apprentice Rebels hour-long special finale to Season 2 finally provided Sky Guy supporters with that exact scenario.
03:07And boy did it deliver on the emotional gut punch front, matching each other blow for blow during their instantly immortalized showdown on Malachor.
03:15Tano slashing of Vader's helmet stunningly mirrors the moment Obi-Wan Kenobi does something similar to his one-time ally in the recent live-action series.
03:24And just like that emotionally charged beat, a flicker of the Skywalker within is enough to fool Ahsoka into thinking there's still hope for her former Master,
03:32as she confesses that she won't leave him, not this time.
03:35It may have been something fans were fantasizing about for an age, but that still doesn't mean they were ready for Vader's attempts to murder another piece of his past.
03:43Number 7. Maul vs. Kenobi One Last Time
03:46What appeared to be a rather fatal conclusion for Darth Maul during his Duel of the Fates skirmish with Obi-Wan Kenobi,
03:52merely provided the foundations for one of the most iconic rivalries in the galaxy.
03:56Spending much of the Clone Wars obsessed with exacting revenge on the Jedi Knight,
04:00after being revealed to have miraculously survived his chopping in half, the pair's destinies appear to be forever intertwined.
04:07That was until Maul finally tracked down his long-time adversary on Tatooine many years after the fall of the Jedi Order and the Republic.
04:14Maul and Kenobi collide on the desert sands as the former becomes wise to the reasons behind the latter's stay on the planet.
04:21Short, sweet, and deeply impactful,
04:23Kenobi aptly cuts down his old enemy using Qui-Gon's old stance, brings a tear to your eye,
04:29but in another rather poetic turn of events, the tortured Dathomirian then peacefully passes on in Kenobi's arms,
04:35with the knowledge of Luke very much being the chosen one tasked with avenging them both.
04:39An appropriate ending fit for a horned icon.
04:42Number 6. The Return of Boba Fett
04:44From the second a certain Beskar-sporting badass was accidentally sent flying into a Sarlacc pit,
04:50fans were already banging the drum to see the return of the coolest bounty hunter in the galaxy.
04:55And while few were expecting it to take a whopping near four decades to see him dust off that aforementioned dance with death,
05:01the reality of Tamura Morrison stepping back into the Fett saddle in Disney Plus' The Mandalorian,
05:06after his turns as Django and many a clone,
05:09was enough to produce a smile from just about every Star Wars fan in the galaxy.
05:12Now sure, his long-awaited spin-off may not have quite lived up to the hype in the end,
05:17with the book of Boba Fett's finest moments arguably taking place without a Boba in sight,
05:21but the presence of this now multi-layered and battle-hardened daimyo
05:25will always be welcome on the big and small screen in future space-aged entries.
05:29So here's hoping Morrison gets his wish of bringing the legend back to his badass ways,
05:33should he blast his way back into the Mandalorian or other corners of this galaxy far, far away in the coming years.
05:39Number 5. Luke Skywalker in his Prime
05:42Few Star Wars moments will ever be able to match the sheer level of surprise conjured up by Dave Filoni and the gang
05:48in the closing stages of the second season of their Disney Plus live-action Bibby,
05:52going to frankly absurd lengths to keep this undoubtedly moving return a secret,
05:57even digitally rendering a graphic of Plo Koon's head to lace on top of the performance
06:01to keep those behind the scenes from uncovering the shocking truth.
06:04None other than Luke Bloody Skywalker was unleashed on a troop of Dark Troopers late in the day,
06:09combining balmy digital de-aging effects when utilising Mark Hamill himself,
06:14with the performance of a very much present actor in the form of stand-in Max Lloyd-Jones.
06:18Fans not only witnessed the surreal visual of the mythical figure recruiting Grogu to his new Jedi Academy,
06:24but they were also treated to a sequence depicting Luke in full flight with a lightsaber,
06:28as he expertly dispatches the seemingly unstoppable Superbot horde.
06:32Whether you're a fan of the technology used to realise this stunning moment or not,
06:36it's still no doubt brought a tear to your eye seeing Luke Skywalker once again here to rescue you.
06:414. Darth Vader Finally Rages
06:44Where Luke Skywalker's eventual brandishing of his green blade in the Mandalorian brought with it a sense of safe and secure familiarity,
06:51the same most definitely could not be said for the moment which Caesar's Pops unleashes iconic Red Blade aboard a rebel command ship in Rogue One.
06:58After years of clamouring to see a version of the uncompromising and freakishly powerful Vader,
07:03they'd seen butcher many a rogue Jedi and innocent civilian in everything from comic books to video game properties,
07:09Gareth Edwards provided fans with the sort of display that leaves your jaw ricocheting off your knees in an instant.
07:15Slicing and force choking his way through rebel scum like frustrating gnats at a barbecue,
07:20the entire sequence plays out like something out of a horror flick,
07:23as the freedom fighters desperately sacrificed their lives in order to keep the vital Death Star schematics out of his reach.
07:29It worked, but my god at a cost.
07:313. Han and Chewie arrive on the Falcon
07:34From the second it became clear that Disney were very much ready to reignite the Skywalker saga engines,
07:39and set a brand new sequel trilogy in motion,
07:42a mixture of anxiousness and gleeful anticipation made its presence felt across the globe.
07:46But with each passing new trailer for J.J. Abrams' The Force Awakens, fears were gradually replaced with near-unmatched hype.
07:54Yet one moment in particular was enough to send the entire internet into meltdown,
07:58upon its dropping in the film's second official teaser.
08:01The closing shot of Han Solo and bloody Chewbacca boarding their trusty Millennium Falcon
08:06all but confirmed the incoming feature's record-smashing future box office figures.
08:11And the moment the sequence actually go-downs within the film itself only builds on this wholly moving tease,
08:16as Solo is spotted taking in his old cockpit and reminding Rey his baby made the castle run in 12 parsecs.
08:22It was like they'd never been gone at all.
08:242. The Yoda Puppet Returns
08:26The use of CGI to completely reimagine a certain wise old space wizard
08:30did not go down too well with every Star Wars fan around the time of Attack of the Clones.
08:35But that still didn't stop George Lucas from doubling down on his digitally rendered Yoda
08:39for his Revenge of the Sith follow-up,
08:41and even entirely lacing his CGI creation into The Phantom Menace back in 2011,
08:45with Lucas wanting to depict the all-powerful Jedi very much strutting his flipping stuff with a lightsaber
08:51over the course of the prequels,
08:52it's not hard to see why he relied on his new favorite toy for the most part,
08:56instead of the once game-changing puppetry work used to bring Yoda to life previously.
09:01However, sensing that audiences would likely connect more with that Frank Oz-voiced and controlled entity
09:06than the rather soulless digital variant,
09:08Rian Johnson made the inspired call to bring the legendary puppeteer back on board
09:13when the time came for Yoda's Force Ghost to appear before Luke in The Last Jedi.
09:17The results clicked and then some,
09:19giving The Last Jedi one of its finest exchanges in the process.
09:231. Qui-Gon Jinn's Force Ghost
09:25Despite quite happily lending his vocal talents to the animated version of Master Qui-Gon Jinn
09:30over the course of the Clone Wars series,
09:32fans had still been praying to one day see the live-action return of Liam Neeson's mysterious Jedi Master.
09:38So after spending the majority of his titular series trying and failing to commune with his fallen master,
09:43seeing Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan finally reunite with his Phantom Menace co-star on the small screen
09:48was about as surreal as it was undeniably effective,
09:51in luring folks into wanting to see more of the iconic duo in a second season.
09:56And while it's still not clear as to how Jinn was able to ultimately complete his training in the Force,
10:01to the point of being able to manifest himself physically after death,
10:04Neeson's recent comments of not wanting anyone else to play the part,
10:08and only being too happy to join back up with McGregor on screen,
10:11seemed to suggest he could be open to sticking around to show us
10:14should that potential second season be given the green lightsaber.
10:18That's the end of our list, know of any other times Star Wars gave fans exactly what they wanted?
10:22Let us know all about them in the comments section right down below,
10:25and do not forget to like, share, and click on that subscribe button while you're at it.
10:28I have been Gareth from WhatCultureStarWars,
10:30thank you very much for clicking on this video today,
10:33may the Force be with you, and hopefully I will see you very, very soon.
10:36Bye-bye!
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