YouGov Profiles data reveals the nation's Star Wars ranking – plus which character British people think each party leader would most like to be
It's one of the hottest questions in Sci Fi punditry, and with the release of Star Wars: the Force Awakens – to rave reviews – we've conducted an analysis to settle the matter. After digging into YouGov Profiles data of 4568 Star Wars fans, a clear ranking emerges.
Wisdom has it that Episode V is the best in the two trilogies, and our data supports that. With a net positivity score of +66 The Empire Strikes Back is in the 98th percentile of all movies. Where public views differ with the experts', however, is on the other two originals. According to Star Wars expert Simon Pegg, Episode IV is better than Episode V; others say A New Hope is even the best overall. But according to the public there is hardly anything in it – Episode IV has a positivity of +61, while Episode VI scores +59.
Episode I is widely accepted to be the worst movie, and Jar Jar Binks became one of the most hated characters in cinema. With a positivity score of only +9 YouGov's ranking verifies this, and the rest of the first trilogy proceed chronologically in terms of positivity. Episode I is, however, one of the most notorious Star Wars, with a total number of 5278 ratings, compared to Episode IV's 5410 and Episode VI's 5835.
Politics of the Empire
If Star Wars was real life, who would want to rule the Empire? YouGov asked British people which Star Wars character they think each main UK party leader would most like to be. People are most likely to think David Cameron would want to be Darth Vadar (22% excluding can't choose/don't know), however Nigel Farage is a challenger for that mantle (20% say he'd like to be Vadar).
Conservative voters think Cameron would want to be Luke Skywalker (21%). UKIP voters are most likely to say Nigel Farage would want to be Han Solo (22%).
Since we last asked the question, Labour has a new, older, leader. In April the public were most likely to think Ed Miliband would want to be Luke Skywalker (17%), while they now say Jeremy Corbyn would most want to be Yoda (16%) or Obi-Wan (15%) (26% and 25% for Labour voters respectively).
