The Empire Strikes Back and the Official Chronology

I question the placement of The Empire Strikes Back in the official Star Wars chronology, where it says those events take place 3 years after the Battle of Yavin.

There are strong indications at the beginning of Empire that it has only really been months since the Death Star was blown to bits. For one, Han is now dealing with the price put on his head by Jabba The Hutt--because he never repaid Jabba as he promised in Episode IV. If it is, indeed, three years later, then why is this just now paramount in Han's thoughts? He hasn't done anything about it in three years...why now?

"Because of that bounty hunter we ran into on Ord Mantel."

Well, OK. Maybe. But, it took Jabba's bounty hunters THREE YEARS to find Solo?

Doesn't something around 8 months sound more likely?




Second, the Rebel Alliance is just now opening the new base on Hoth. It took them THREE YEARS to find a new base! Heck, the entire war will be over in less time. Don't you think that the Rebel Command keeps a lot of possible base locations at hand? I mean, they didn't have to search for this one. They probably had several to choose from, and picked Hoth.

Now, maybe they had to do some tunneling. They had to get the prelimenary equipment and weapons there. They had to set the place up and get it ready to receive personnel and become the active Rebel Alliance HQ. As is evident at the beginning of Empire, the Rebels are in the final stage of opening the base.

Doesn't something around 8 months sounds more likely to move HQ's from Yavin to Hoth?





Third, Luke, in the beginning of Empire, is still learning The Force. He's really not much more along in his grasp of The Force than he was at the end of A New Hope. Remember, with the ice monster at the beginning of Empire, he struggles to pull his lightsaber to him, then remembers to be calm, and does it.

Does that sound like a man who's been practicing mastering The Force with every minute of his free time...for the last THREE YEARS?

Doesn't...say, 8 months sounds about right?



If anything, I would say that Skywalker spends A LOT OF TIME with Yoda, on Degobah, training to become a Jedi Knight. Remember, at the end of the film, Luke battles Vader. He's gone from barely being able to pull the lightsaber to him in the beginning of Empire to being a bit of a threat, though a little one (because Vader was playing with him in that last scene, trying to convince him to come over to the Dark Side), at the climax to the film.

I would say that The Empire Strikes Back actually picks up about 8 months after the Battle of Yavin, but the film ends 3 YEARS after A New Hope. Where the time is skipped is when Luke is on Degobah with Yoda. He spends a couple of years there, training, and is pulled away by his feeling of his sister and Han being captured and tortured on Bespin.

Am I totally off base with this?
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1, it is a big galaxy. Have you ever tried to find one person in a crowd? Did it take you a few minutes, even knowing roughly where they might be? Magnify that by a few quadrillion.

2, Yeah, they probably had a few locations picked out. Hoth was nice and remote. Of course, they had to find a big enough mountain, bore tunnels, install heaters and blast shielding enough to make it minimally habitable, dig all those trenches, set up the sensors and other defenses, and more. Might take a year or two. Never mind coordinating getting the information to other Rebel outposts and bases. All while not attracting the attention of the Empire with an unexplained mass transit to one region of space coincidentally happening within a couple weeks of Yavin's evacuation.

3, Luke's training is significantly advanced: telekinesis. that's a whole new power. Especially impressive when you consider he has had zero training except for a couple hours with Kenobi on the Falcon. that's it. No one else. How would he even know Force TK was possible? He didn't see it. (Using 1st/2nd ed SW RPG terms, that's 20 skill points just to buy 1D of Alter--major investment of skill points that say, Han Solo could use to up his piloting, blaster, dodge and one other skill. For a beginning SW character, that would be about 4 or 5 sessions of play, assuming the player didn't have to burn skill points just to save his/her life.)

4, I think only about a week or two on Degobah, while the Falcon was using the much slower backup hyper-drive to reach Bespin.

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The new Star Wars comic from Dark Horse based on the classic era seems to support this as they're currently looking for their next base and having problems with Imperial Intelligence...