this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2023
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Risa
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Come on'n get your jamaharon on! There are no real rules—just don't break the weather control network.
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From the perspective of someone just wanting an awesome time, I agree completely. Or from the perspective of a Star Wars fan who wants all the lore and extended material. And personally, I would never want to skip it, myself.
But the goal of the Machete cut is to take a look at the Original Trilogy and ask: how can we get the best narrative experience out of this? It's ultimately about telling Luke Skywalker's story, and providing context to enhance the experience of his narrative. You put 2 and 3 after 4 and 5 to avoid spoiling the reveal at the end of Empire. You use the extended 2-movie flashback as a way to explain who that ghost that appears at the end of 6 is, as well as to enhance the parallels between Luke's and Anakin's characters; namely Luke's use of force choke on Jabba's guards, and him telling Jabba "you underestimate my power"—the same line Anakin uses on Obi Wan in Revenge.
Essentially, we see Anakin's story as a way to provide further context to Luke's. Phantom doesn't aid this at all. Neither Qui-Gon nor Maul appear in any later core film. Phantom only provides further context to Anakin's story, without aiding in Luke's. In the words of the Machete order's original creator:
The original creation came along with a lengthy essay explaining why, pointing to some possible disadvantages, and addressing those. It then briefly went over their experience trying it with someone new to the franchise. Even if, like me, you actually ultimately disagree with the idea of Machete order, it is well worth the read, because the logic behind it is very well put together. Here's a link.
(Incidentally, I always thought the name machete order came from how you're chopping up the timeline. In fact, it's because the former name of the author's blog was "Absolutely No Machete Juggling".)