Star Wars is set "a long time ago", but I know there have been an expanded universe. Has that universe's time caught up to our time line yet?
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1Related: http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/3006/has-the-light-from-the-star-wars-galaxy-reached-us-yet – DampeS8N Oct 20 '11 at 14:57
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1Related chat discussion: http://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/2215000#2215000 – OghmaOsiris Oct 20 '11 at 16:17
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Duplicate of When did Star Wars take place?? – Reinstate Monica - Goodbye SE Oct 21 '11 at 18:24
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Slightly different. I'm asking if the expanded universe has, well... expanded. – OghmaOsiris Oct 21 '11 at 18:28
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3Do we have any way to anchor any date in the SW universe to a date in ours? I suspect not, so we have no way of knowing if they have 'caught up' ("A long time ago" isn't quantitative) – HorusKol Oct 22 '11 at 11:11
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The only answer I can find is what I call a Lucasism. In other words, it's a situation that was developed to fit, as one person called it, The Rule of Cool, without regard for fact or science. Once it's been created and fit into official canon, then there's a lot of rationalization to explain it, so, in the long run you end up with more explanation than cool. In the end, I feel like there's a lot of contradictory facts, but then again, this is the Lucasverse.
(I'm not going to focus on what has already been stated or proven in other questions on SE:SF&F, but I will summarize.)
Star Wars takes place (everybody say it with me), "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away." The problem with "long time ago" and "far, far away" is that these are loose terms. Any other galaxy is far, far away to us and even 500 years ago, to humans, is a long time ago.
E.T. and Star Wars are in the same universe. Either there is parallel evolution for two species (humans and Brodo Asogi) or E.T. comes from the Star Wars universe. Since this has been established in several ways we'll take it as fact.
Elliot meeting E.T. was a result of Senator Grebleips (spell it backwards!) of Brodo Asogi obtaining funding for an expedition to another galaxy. This was in 22 BBY, which is pretty close to Luke Skywalker's birth.
We don't know how fast the Brodo Asogi expedition could cross the interstellar void, but the ship isn't big enough to be a generation ship, which leads to the assumption that it could reach its destination and return within the lifespan of the Brodo Asogi.
There's no indication the Brodo Asogi are exceptionally long-lived and even in the long timeline of the Star Wars universe, 100,000 years is so a long time that it makes no sense planning on anything that far out. So there's no reason to assume a long life for the species or factoring in time-dilation or anything else that would indicate the expedition would take more than a time measured in decades.
We also see an excellent argument that the light from the Star Wars universe has not reached us yet.
By putting the Brodo Asogi onscreen in The Phantom Menace, Lucas linked the two worlds. When the expedition was included, that not only establishes the two as being in the same universe, but since that expedition was intended the one that reached Earth, it joins Earth in the 1980s with Star Wars, no matter how long ago or far away it supposedly took place.
So allowing for a lifespan of, say, somewhere under 200 years for the Brodo Asogi, by putting them on screen, Lucas has essentially given us a connection to say that 22 BBY was less than a few hundred years ago.
While this may not seem to be "a long time ago," if we accept the Star Wars references to the Brodo Asogi, then, while the light from the Star Wars galaxy may not reach us for millions of years, a ship on an expedition planned before the birth of Luke Skywalker already has reached us about 30 years ago.
Which would lead to the conclusion that Luke Skywalker was born less then a few hundred years ago. That would put the time line, which currently ends approximately 140 BBY recent enough to be concurrent with recorded human history.
It's also possible that, since the expedition left and might take a couple hundred years, that the Star Wars timeline has not quite caught up to the time when that expedition reaches Earth, but it's certainly a lot closer than it feels when we think of "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away."
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Personally, I would love to see Lucas rationalize his way out of this one! But, even more, I dread to think of what will happen if the Brodo Asogi return home and any Sith see old recordings of The Gong Show. – Tango Dec 17 '11 at 08:03
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2A problem with this is accepting that ET's species appear in in the SW universe. We see a species that resemble them only from the waist up. All other evidence for it being an ET species comes from non canon expanded universe sources. Since star wars is fiction in the ET universe, it seems unlikely the universes are related, which invalidates your answer (although it is a good answer following an assumption). – Kirsty McNair Mar 08 '12 at 05:58
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@KirstyMcNair: Actually, those sources are canon. Not G-level canon, but they are canon at some level. (There are also a number of other examples of one TV show or movie referencing another at one point, but then later indicating that show is real in that universe -- the shows Dragnet, Adam 12, and Emergency! did that, for example.) – Tango Mar 08 '12 at 06:32
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My point is that it isn't stated anywhere in canon of any type that ET is a member of a species in the SWU. The visual evidence is not enough. Then we are only left with the name Brodo Asogi occurring in ET fiction and SW Fiction. There is no visual info associated with the term Brodo Asogi occurring in the SWU. Sometimes as you say shows can be fiction in another show that they share a universe in, but generally that requires a much stronger link than we have here. ET and SW being in the same universe is based on a whole lot of assumption, which isn't enough to make the link. – Kirsty McNair Mar 08 '12 at 08:59
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2@KirstyMcNair: I also provide a direct link to support what I said. That's been accepted, so on this site, it's proof enough. Since you're intent on making this a crusade, if you have issues with that point, take it up on that answer, where it's proven. As for canon, there are many levels of Star Wars canon, and nothing here was specified that the answer had to be G level canon. If this is an issue for you, then post your own question and ask if it can be proven in G level canon. – Tango Mar 08 '12 at 15:48
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It isn't a crusade, I just didn't realize you considered an accepted answer as proof. There is nothing that that states ET exists in the SWU, only the term "brodo asogi" appearing in both universes. Anyway, I'll ask a separate question. – Kirsty McNair Mar 08 '12 at 18:14
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@KirstyMcNair: Again, read the answer in the question I link to. There's basically every piece but a direct statement. They intentionally use the same name (even knowing on the Lucas end that it was from Spielberg's "E.T. canon"), and use a species where every part we see is identical. Also, if we can't accept an accepted answer from this site as given, then we're saying our answers don't count. As for the rest, the more you write on this, the more it seems you don't understand the issue of canon in Star Wars. – Tango Mar 08 '12 at 18:54
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I understand the different levels of canon. I've read the answer you link to. The point remains that many assumptions are required to make the link, based on our out of universe knowledge. – Kirsty McNair Mar 08 '12 at 19:42
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You forget that a species with many of its needs supplied to it would change little over thousands of years. Actually, the Battle of Yavin took place approximately 698,000,000 years ago. It is known that the galaxy in Star Wars was created 13,002,000,000 BBY. Our Big Bang happened 13,700,000,000 years ago. Assuming there was only one Big Bang, all the events in Star Wars took place a little before the Cambrian Explosion. – Oct 31 '12 at 15:31
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@Blaha: And your source for the date of the battle of Yavin? And the background on how the Brodo Asogi would survive close to 700 million years? – Tango Oct 31 '12 at 23:10
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1The ship we see in ET may just be a landing ship, for all we know they had a 200-mile generation ship resting out around Neptune. – evilsoup May 15 '13 at 15:13
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1You are missing one important point: time dilation at relativistic speeds. See http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/9022 - If ET was flying with his conventional drive at very high speeds, like 0.999c to our galaxy, his ship could take 10million years, while he only aged 50years! This could set Star Wars 10million light years away and 10million years into the past, while ET only aged 50 years in his personal timeline on his way to us!!! – Falco Jun 05 '15 at 12:50
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Yes, I’m afraid I can’t accept this either. This hinges on the idea that the SW universe cannot be different from the E.T. one, since they have two species in common. However, this is not true. Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere, for example, has humans, dogs, and horse (and many others) in common with E.T., but is clear not meant to be the same. The Cosmere has humans and dragons (at least; also dogs and horses) in common with Brandon Mull’s Fablehaven, but is not meant to be the same. Why should we take E.T.s to be different from any other species? It’s just a fun Easter egg, in my opinion. – Adamant May 22 '17 at 03:38
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No. Based on the answer in the related question (thanks, DampeS8N!) the SW galaxy is roughly 3 million light years away.
The Expanded Universe has a latest date of 138 ABY (138 years after the battle of Yavin).
The Vong traveled for generations in extragalactic space without finding another galaxy, so it seems unlikely that the Battle of Yavin happened less than 140 years ago, there's simply no time from word of the events to have traveled 3 million light years.
If the species seen in The Phantom Menace which resembles E.T. DID create engines capable of extragalactic travel, such engines would have (by necessity) given ships much higher speed within a galaxy - empty space is pretty much the same, whether it's between two fairly close stars or two fairly close galaxies.
We see no such advances in engine technology anywhere in the Expanded Universe. Therefore, I doubt the EU happens within the past 140 years. It's far more likely that another thousand or so generations have gone bye.
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Well, by that logic, how do you account for the ET species being 3 million light years out? I expect that the answer is No, but because the ET species must have created faster travel than in all of SW at some point later. Meaning that 'today' has to be some point in the future of the SW series. Unless you count ET as part of the expanded universe... Actually, then it is still No because ET would then be the last thing in the expanded universe. And therefore not 'today' but some time in the 80's. – DampeS8N Oct 20 '11 at 15:17
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1It says ET is 3million light years from home. E.T. 'phones home', but given his limited grasp of English, it's entirely possible he just sent a message to his ship, which wasn't that far away (relatively speaking). – Jeff Oct 20 '11 at 15:24
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2The E.T./SW link is tenuous at best, honestly. It's possible the species are only similar (like SW humans compared to Earth humans). Besides, E.T. was in a Yoda costume at one point, so their visit CAN'T have been the first one from the SW galaxy to ours, if any have happened. – Jeff Oct 20 '11 at 15:29
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I was referring to them being that far out in the first place. This point about the ET/SW link is true. But that is the ONLY metric we have to date the events of SW to anything more than "a long time ago." – DampeS8N Oct 20 '11 at 15:29
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It wasn't a question of whether they traveled to our galaxy, but whether the timeline of their universe matched up with the timeline of us today. – OghmaOsiris Oct 20 '11 at 15:31
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"The Vong traveled for generations in extragalactic space without finding another galaxy" -- huh? You don't have to travel to find other galaxies; we can see billions of them without leaving Earth. Do you mean they traveled for generations without reaching another galaxy, or does the source material really say that? – Keith Thompson Mar 07 '12 at 20:11
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@DampeS8N If they used ultra-highly-relativistic sub-light drives, it might have taken them millions of years to get here, but without making them age subjectively. Obviously, they would have made an outpost in our galaxy for observation, and that's where ET's friends came from to rescue him (and a bunch of years earlier, they implanted the StarWars idea into George Lucas' head). This might also imply that the SW universe didn't develop intergalactic hyperdrives in the meantime either, because they would probably use them to estabilish contact with the expedition. Maybe. – Luaan Sep 26 '14 at 13:55
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I just found a interesting article : A Chart That Explains How Long Ago Star Wars Actually Took Place on io9. It places Cade Skywalker leaving the Jedi Order in 1941. So no, it would not have caught up to our time line yet.
It bases its math on Into the Great Unknown from Dark Horse's Star Wars Tales #19. From the Star Wars Tales Wookieepedia article:
Issue #1 to Issue #20 were edited by Peet Janes (Issues 1 and 2) and Dave Land (Issues 3-20) and were labeled Infinities, placing them outside the canon (though this is not to say that the events depicted are permanently outside of the official continuity, just that they should not be considered canon unless or until they are endorsed by a canon source)
So, it's not really canon, but it's the best I could find.
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1HA! I came here to see if anyone mentioned "Into the Great Unknown"... you do not disappoint. – Omegacron Feb 17 '15 at 17:52
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There was a proposed SW novel, never finished and now held non-cannon, that intended to link Lucas' first film THX-1138 with the Star Wars universe as an explanation for how humans got to the SW galaxy. In it THX and about 500 other humans from the 25th century escape Earth in a rocket ship. The ship falls through a wormhole in BOTH TIME AND SPACE that drops them in the distant SW galaxy many thousands of years ago, either before or at the beginning of the Infinite Empire. It establishes a genealogy of sorts for the origin of some family names like Skywalker and why some historians believe Coruscant may be the UNKNOWN original homeworld of humanity. You can research it all up on Wookieepedia.
What we do get from this is that there is no official SW explanation of where humans came from and that the distances between major galaxies is too far for even hyperdrive engines to traverse. If the E.T. Easter-egg appearance is taken seriously as the same race as in the film E.T., then we'd have to assume that this exploration craft of theirs fell through the same wormhole which is bridging 1980s on our end to whenever they launched (20 ABY?) on the SW end.
This still would allow for millions of years difference between Star Wars time and our time since all that is defined in canon is that the Star Wars saga occurs "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away." This is why every date in Star Wars is measured from either before or after the Battle of Yavin because its the only touchstone we have for the saga.
Even if SW occurred in the Andromeda galaxy, our nearest neighbor, it would be 2,538,000 light years away. So a hyperdrive ship used to refueling after a few weeks of flight at less than 130,000 LY (diameter of the galaxy) wouldn't make it to there and back without a lot of tweaking. Nobody is going to be willing to take a near lightspeed journey for 2.5 million years. Even if ship time was dilated to near zero there would be no point in returning. Either E.T. has escaped the SW galaxy in a multi-million year colony ship, is an unrelated species and just happens to look the same, or found a lost wormhole between the SW and our galaxies that possibly could explain how humans got from one to the other in the past. If E.T. gets back to Coruscant and tells the Senate how he met some humans on a lost world in another galaxy, he could become rich as the discoverer of humanity's lost homeworld. E.T. could be his species' version of Indiana Jones.
