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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,
02:03multiple-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,
02:23may 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 serves Ahsoka Tano.
02:41But with the fierce figure acting as Anakin Skywalker's Padawan in her time before leaving the Jedi Order behind,
02:46fans were always somewhat curious as to what would have gone down if the former Master and Apprentice Crawley to Season 2
02:52finally provided Sky Guy supporters with that exact scenario.
02:56And boy, did it deliver on the emotional gut punch front.
02:58Matching each other blow for blow during their instantly immortalized showdown on Malachor,
03:03Tano's 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.
03:11And 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,
03:20as she confesses that she won't leave him, not this time.
03:23It may have been something fans were fantasizing about for an age,
03:26but that still doesn't mean they were ready for Vader's attempts to murder another piece of his past.
03:31Number 7. Maul vs. Kenobi One Last Time
03:34What appeared to be a rather fatal conclusion for Darth Maul during his Duel of the Fates skirmish with Obi-Wan Kenobi
03:40merely provided the foundations for one of the most iconic rivalries in the galaxy.
03:44Spending much of the Clone Wars obsessed with exacting revenge on the Jedi Knight,
03:49after being revealed to have miraculously survived his chopping in half,
03:52the pair's destinies appeared to be forever intertwined.
03:55That was until Maul finally tracked down his long-time adversary on Tatooine many years after the fall of the Jedi Order and the Republic.
04:02Maul and Kenobi collide on the desert sands as the former becomes wise to the reasons behind the latter's stay on the planet.
04:09Short, sweet, and deeply impactful,
04:11Kenobi aptly cuts down his old enemy using Qui-Gon's old stance,
04:15brings a tear to your eye,
04:17but in another rather poetic turn of events,
04:19the tortured Dathomirian then peacefully passes on in Kenobi's arms,
04:23with the knowledge of Luke very much being the chosen one tasked with avenging them both.
04:28An appropriate ending fit for a horned icon.
04:30Number 6. The Return of Boba Fett
04:32From the second a certain Beskar-sporting badass was accidentally sent flying into a Sarlacc pit,
04:38fans were already banging the drum to see the return of the coolest bounty hunter in the galaxy.
04:43And while few were expecting it to take a whopping near four decades to see him dust off that aforementioned dance with death,
04:49the reality of Tamura Morrison stepping back into the Fett saddle in Disney Plus' The Mandalorian,
04:54after his turns as Django and many a clone,
04:57was enough to produce a smile from just about every Star Wars fan in the galaxy.
05:00Now sure, his long-awaited spin-off may not have quite lived up to the hype in the end,
05:05with the book of Boba Fett's finest moments arguably taking place without a Boba in sight,
05:09but the presence of this now multi-layered and battle-hardened Daimyo
05:13will always be welcome on the big and small screen in future space-aged entries.
05:17So here's hoping Morrison gets his wish of bringing the legend back to his badass ways,
05:21should he blast his way back into The Mandalorian or other corners of this galaxy far, far away in the coming years.
05:27Number 5. Luke Skywalker in his prime
05:30Few Star Wars moments will ever be able to match the sheer level of surprise
05:34conjured up by Dave Filoni and the gang in 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 still no doubt brought a tear to your eye seeing Luke Skywalker once again here to rescue you.
06:41Number 4. Darth Vader Finally Rages
06:44Well, 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 paps unleashes iconic Red Blade aboard a rebel command ship in Rogue One.
06:59After 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 sacrifice their lives in order to keep the vital Death Star schematics out of his reach.
07:29It worked, but my god at a cost.
07:31Number 3. 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 and set a brand new sequel trilogy in motion,
07:42a mixture of anxiousness and gleeful anticipation made its presence felt across the globe.
07:47But 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,
08:14only builds on this wholly moving tease,
08:16as Solo is spotted taking in his old cockpit,
08:19and reminding Rey his baby made the castle run in 12 parsecs.
08:22It was like they'd never been gone at all.
08:24Number 2. 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.
08:46With 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, giving The Last Jedi one of its finest exchanges in the process.
09:23Number 1. 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, thank you very much for clicking on this video today,
10:32May the Force be with you, and hopefully I will see you very, very soon.
10:36Bye-bye!
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