100
votes
Accepted
Suggested order for Amazon Prime Doctor Who series
Unfortunately, Amazon has made a dog's breakfast of Doctor Who, splitting up random Tennant episodes and the Christmas Specials into separate "shows" that should not be separate, splitting out various ...
- 9,433
59
votes
Reading order for Cosmere series by Brandon Sanderson
This is a chart I created to give people a way to decide on what order to read Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere books. It is current as of January 2016.
- 591
56
votes
Accepted
Which MCU movies are essential background for Civil War?
The Bare Minimum
Captain America: The First Avenger - introduces Steve Rogers and other important characters specifically relevant to his storyline.
The Avengers - introduces the team dynamic, the ...
- 134k
54
votes
Accepted
Which Marvel TV episodes are related to the MCU movies?
Agents of SHIELD
Phil Coulson is introduced in Iron Man; he also appears in Iron Man 2, Thor, and:
The Avengers, where we learn why Grant Ward is so surprised to learn he's alive
Iron Man 3 ...
- 163k
47
votes
Accepted
What do I need to watch before watching Star Trek: Picard?
You can enjoy the show without having to watch anything in advance - as you mentioned yourself. That having said, Star Trek: Picard is dealing with a few themes that can be better understood by ...
39
votes
Accepted
What is the recommended order for the books and the games of the Witcher?
The books
It's not really too complicated. You can basically stick to the release order (of the original books, the English translations seem to lag behind quite a bit and might be out of order), as ...
- 3,161
38
votes
Which X-Men movies should I watch before Deadpool?
To understand the film, none.
To understand the jokes, you need to watch or know X-Men Origins: Wolverine and X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Those jokes and all the other references (almost) are listed ...
- 10.4k
35
votes
Accepted
Can The Malloreon be read without first reading The Belgariad?
In theory yes, but it's not recommended.
You should at least know the basic shape of events in the Belgariad before you start the Malloreon. Fortunately, many (all?) editions of the Malloreon start ...
- 134k
34
votes
Accepted
What is the viewing order for CW's DC shared universe?
You only have to have a viewing order when there is a multi-part episode that spans a show.
There are multi-part crossovers that span multiple shows that won't make complete sense if you watch one ...
- 51.5k
32
votes
Do you really need to read “The Silmarillion” before reading “The Children of Húrin”, “Beren and Lúthien” or “The Fall of Gondolin”?
It is not strictly necessary, but it is recommended
The Silmarillion gives you an overview of the First Age. The Great Tales are stories that happen in the First Age, and they correspond to chapters ...
- 88.6k
28
votes
In what order should the Star Wars movies be watched?
George Lucas says you should watch them in the numbered order: I, II, III, IV, V, VI
The creator of Star Wars has stated that the correct viewing order for the original trilogy and prequel trilogy is ...
- 677k
28
votes
Accepted
What do I need to watch to understand this character's history in an upcoming episode of "The Mandalorian"?
Spoilers ahead
The problem here is Ahsoka Tano is a central character to both the Clone Wars TV series, as well as Star Wars: Rebels. It's like asking which Harry Potter books explain Hermione Granger ...
- 51.4k
25
votes
Accepted
Required reading before taking on Gaiman's Sandman series?
No.
If you start with "Volume 1: Preludes and Nocturnes" and read in order to "Volume 10: The Wake", The Sandman is a complete and self-contained story.
A few additional notes:
The Sandman was ...
- 36.7k
24
votes
What's the recommended reading order of the Ender Wiggin books?
UPDATED WITH NEW CHART, SHOULD BE ACCURATE AS OF 2020
In general, the books assume that you've read everything previously released. The nomenclature also evolved throughout the series, and going out ...
- 88.6k
23
votes
Accepted
What should I watch before playing Alien: Isolation?
Isolation has no continuity with the prequels as far as I can remember. My advice to you is this:
Watch Alien, the theatrical cut.
Play Alien: Isolation.
Read Alien: Out of the Shadows, set after ...
- 8,358
22
votes
Accepted
Which films are required viewing before "Avengers: Endgame"?
As Joss Whedon said when Age of Ultron was released, Marvel works hard to try to make these very expensive crossover movies work for as large an audience as possible:
Kevin Feige and I are fanboys, ...
- 32.2k
19
votes
Accepted
Can I watch The Force Awakens without having previously watched the earlier films?
The earlier films are not strictly necessary, but recommended.
You'd get more enjoyment out of watching Star Wars if you watch TFA after watching the other films, although you could watch it on its ...
- 134k
19
votes
Accepted
Reading order for Animorphs
Animorphs
Well, that's easy: they're numbered 1 to 54, after all.
Megamorphs
The Megamorphs books tie into the main series, so they're also easy to place:
The Andalite's Gift takes place between ...
- 134k
19
votes
What is the release date order for all of Star Trek?
Here is a complete timeline of every Star Trek show and movie released to date:
1964-1967: [TOS] Season 1
1967-1968: [TOS] Season 2
1968-1969: [TOS] Season 3
1973-1974: [TAS] Season 1
1974: [TAS] ...
- 15k
18
votes
Accepted
Is there a suggested order for the works of Philip K. Dick?
I do not believe there has ever been an official suggested order. The most common advice I have seen, which I agree with, is that chronologically may be your best bet (with some suggesting to avoid ...
- 216k
18
votes
Accepted
Can one watch Defenders without watching the previous individual shows?
According to Defenders showrunner Marco Ramirez, one of the goals of the project was to ensure that you could, indeed, watch the show without needing to watch all of the others (which amounts to some ...
- 163k
17
votes
Accepted
What is necessary to know before seeing Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales?
The first three films form the trilogy of Jack, Elizabeth, and Will, which culminates in Will being turned into the captain of the Flying Dutchman. Also, at the end of the third film, Barbossa steals ...
- 20.4k
16
votes
Accepted
Do any editions of Chronicles of Narnia use the publication order numbering?
The first several "boxed set" editions all used publication order. I grew up, for example, with the Collier editions. Wikipedia strongly implies that the first publisher to use the in-universe ...
- 20.2k
15
votes
Which MCU movies are essential background for Civil War?
You should see at least the following:
Iron Man 2008
Captain America: The First Avenger 2011
Marvel's The Avengers aka Assemble 2012 (you may wish to precede this by Thor 2011)
Captain America: The ...
- 111k
15
votes
Accepted
How are Robin Hobb novels related to each other?
From what I have gathered, this cycle is composed by the following series
Yes, your list of series in the cycle is exhaustive. Here's a full list of all stories. In addition to what you listed, there ...
- 16.3k
14
votes
Accepted
In what order should I watch The Thing movies?
Personal Opinion:
There is obviously no canonical reason to watch the movies in any particular order, but for a number of reasons, I would suggest watching them in the order in which they were ...
- 69.4k
14
votes
Accepted
What is the release date order for all of Star Trek?
There is a list of all Star Trek episodes ordered by first broadcast date, but in general there isn't that much overlap between the series. There are a few exceptions, for instance
characters from ...
- 10.4k
14
votes
Can one watch Defenders without watching the previous individual shows?
You could, but you would very clearly feel like you were missing some key information.
The first few episodes set up all the characters and have enough exposition for you to figure out what's going ...
- 103k
13
votes
Which Marvel TV episodes are related to the MCU movies?
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - episodes that directly relate to the MCU (characters, people mentioned, events referenced). On the assumption you've watched The Avengers:
Pilot - Avengers
The Well - Asgard /...
- 115k
13
votes
Accepted
Reading order for books in A Series of Unfortunate Events universe
There are two main series, A Series of Unfortunate Events, and All the Wrong Questions. There are also several tie in books and pamphlets.
A Series of Unfortunate Events - Original series, 13 books, ...
- 88.6k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible