The Star Wars franchise morphed into such a smash hit and such a pop culture phenomenon that the lore has expanded into an absolute beast with almost unlimited amounts of content for any fan to digest. With Disney turning the Expanded Universe into Legends and so removing it from canon, it has cleaned up the franchise, but also left a lot more unexplained.
The timeline has always been a bit of a monster for new fans, but even now in the new, more concise canon, there are still some things throughout the history of the Star Wars Galaxy that still have fans scratching their heads. We’ve updated this list to include a few more examples of how the timeline simply doesn’t make a lot of sense. Make of it what you will.
Updated on June 12th, 2020 by Derek Draven: As mentioned in the updated intro, we’ve added a few more examples of moments in the Star Wars timeline that simply don’t add up. Perhaps it’s the result of such a rich universe and a breadth of content, but there’s no denying that the writers have painted themselves into a corner on more than occasion. Read on to find out how.
The In-Universe Length Of Events
One thing you do not notice when watching the Star Wars movies is how long the movies are. Not by their runtime, but rather how long they are in the universe.
Look at The Empire Strikes Back and The Last Jedi, both Luke and Rey’s training seem to be happening at different speeds, for far different lengths of time than what is happening with their respective friend groups across the Galaxy. There is also the training itself and for how long it goes on. It seems impossible to determine the in-universe length of the movie and can be extremely confusing when you think about it.
Han’s Forgive-And-Forget*
Remember when Han Solo was seriously honked off at Lando Calrissian for his betrayal on Bespin? It seems a prolonged stint in carbonite is enough to frazzle one’s short-term memory, because by Return Of The Jedi, they’re best buddies again.
Naturally, this can be explained by referencing Lando’s participation in Han’s rescue from Jabba the Hutt, but it’s weird that Han would have let the whole matter go so easily, without confronting his former smuggling pal.
The Memories Of Various Characters
One of the longest commented on plot discrepancies of Star Wars has been the memories of the characters. With the prequel trilogy coming sixteen years after the originals, there was bound to be something that did not add up, and many character memories fit that bill.
There is the obvious example of Obi-Wan not remembering the droids in A New Hope, then there is also Yoda not remembering R2-D2 in The Empire Strikes Back, or at least choosing not to disclose he knows them and Leia’s memory of her mother.
Jedi Outfits & Lightsabers
The art released for Project Luminous and the High Republic era of Star Wars was fantastic. It revealed a plethora of Jedi who donned unique, colorful, and different outfits, as well as a range of different lightsaber designs and colors.
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Yet, only two hundred years later, the Jedi of the Jedi High Council all wore plain robes, with most of them having the basic lightsaber single-blade design with blue or green colors. There are exceptions like Windu’s purple, and Pong Krell’s double blades, but it begs the question as to what happened to all the more lively, different clothing and sabers.
The Construction Of The Death Stars
Another part of the timeline that has been brought up a lot by many fans is the construction of the second Death Star. How the Empire managed to create a bigger, stronger, functioning Death Star in such a quick time has confused fans for years.
Not only that, but the first Death Star itself took a long, long time to produce. It is a colossal piece of technology, but with the Empire’s unlimited resources, it is surprising it took between nineteen to twenty-two years for the station to become operational.
How Yoda Knew About The Rule Of Two
In The Phantom Menace, the Sith finally reared their head out in the Galaxy by way of Darth Maul’s attacks on Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan. At the funeral of Qui-Gon, Yoda tells Mace about the Rule of Two, that there can only be two Sith, a master, and an apprentice.
But, this raises the question about how he knew about the Rule of Two? When did he find out? How could he possibly know about it, considering it was created by Darth Bane, who lived in secrecy after the Jedi believed they killed every single Sith.
The Technology
With the prequel trilogy coming at a time where film technology was at a whole new level from the time of the original trilogy. This results in effects in the prequels that make it look futuristic compared to the originals.
Even ignoring that, through the entire timeline, technology does not appear to develop very much at all. It seems to lessen in quality between the prequel and originals, but overall there have been no advancements in tech since Hyperspace came to be. The sequels introduced Hyperspace tracking and jumping, but that is the furthest growth we see.
Hyperspace Tracking
Speaking of Hyperspace tracking, the technology itself brings in its own confusion. We hear about Hyperspace tracking in Rogue One as a kind of easter egg. However, the concept never got used by the Empire; the First Order perfected it.
This means the plans was sitting there for at least four years, with the Empire not capitalizing on what could have been immensely useful technology for them to use against the Rebels. It is immensely complicated and said to be impossible many, yet it got perfected by the First Order quickly enough.
Han’s Attitude Towards The Force
When fans first meet Han Solo in A New Hope, he is quite the pessimist and is very critical of the Force. However, it does not make sense for him to be so due to the timeline.
There are two reasons for this; for one, Han Solo’s exact birthdate is not known, but going off of Wookiepedia’s 32 BBY and other accounts, Han was alive at the time of the Jedi. On top of that, Chewbacca was involved in the Clone Wars, he was friends with Yoda and witnessed his power, and that of other Jedi, so he could have easily told Han about it all.
The Tragedy Of Dark Plagueis The Wise
Darth Plagueis is one of the foremost characters that exist in canon, of which fans are desperate for more exploration. He is a part of the canon but there’s little information about him, other than that told by Palpatine to Anakin.
Because of this, his exact time of death is unknown. It is only confusing because there is such a clear cut answer in Legends thanks to the fantastic James Luceno novel. When and where Plagueis died in the canon is key to the story of the prequels and Palpatine, and is information that we do not have.
The Sith
Few parts of Star Wars lore are as confusing as the legacy of the Sith. Their origins have been explored in the Knights Of The Old Republic series, and even before Darth Revan’s time. What began as an actual race dominated by off-world dark side wielders soon blossomed into the Jedi’s most recognizable foe.
The trouble is, the Sith make no sense from a timeline perspective. At their peak, they were a force powerful enough to dominate the Old Republic and nearly wipe the Jedi clean from existence. When Darth Bane instituted the Rule of Two, it seemed incomprehensible for them to languish in the galaxy’s dark crevices for more than a thousand years, before finally revealing themselves.
Palpatine’s Clones
The Rise Of Skywalker left a whole lot of questions for fans, and just about all of them were to do with Emperor Sheev Palpatine and his return. Initially, confusion in the timeline arose from Palpatine’s son and potential romance, that is no longer the case.
Thanks to the novelization of the movie by Rae Carson, we now know that Palpatine and his son were clones. This creates a few confusing timeline aspects. For one, when did Palpatine create these clones? And did he become a clone immediately after his ‘death’? Overall, the entire Palpatine return leaves a lot of things needing to get explained to clean up the timeline.
The Senate
The abolishing of the Republic in favor of the First Galactic Empire should have been a signal that Darth Sidious’ final plan had been executed. With no one to stand in his way, his iron-fisted grip was practically ensured.
Yet, according to Star Wars lore, it would take decades before Palpatine finally did away with the Senate, for good. With the strength of the Clone army readily apparent following the decimation of the Separatist forces, did Palpatine really need a Death Star to dominate the entire galaxy?
Jedi Training
The prequel films established the certainty of how long Jedi training takes, and age is a hard-line requirement. Even young Anakin Skywalker was technically “too old” to begin training under Qui-Gon Jinn, which begs the question of how Luke Skywalker and Rey managed to do it in the blink of an eye.
The most obvious explanation, of course, is that the Force was acting through both characters in times of desperation, but that’s a bit too convenient. By all accounts, Luke learns from Yoda within a matter of a few days before facing Vader, whereas Rey receives absolutely no training, yet is still able to best a fully-trained Kylo Ren. Neither of them would have the skill necessary to pass basic Padawan trials.
The Sith Dagger
No other plot device is as universally befuddling (or downright silly) as The Rise Of Skywalker‘s Sith dagger. Rey discovers this ancient Sith artifact while picking up the trail of Ochi Bestoon, a Sith cultist. It contains a hidden part that was used to find the Wayfinder in the wreckage of the second Death Star.
It’s a preposterous notion that makes little sense, given that the Sith spent over a thousand years in near-total isolation, passing down knowledge to one another. For Bestoon to use the dagger to hide a Wayfinder is silly when Sidious could have easily taken it for himself and reached out to a potential new apprentice on his own.
