Understanding Dates and the Zero Year

Although the year after The Battle of Yavin, the start of the calendar year, might be considered Year 1, it is in fact appropriately designated Year Zero.  Year 1, or 1 ABY is the first year anniversary of the Battle of Yavin and begins on that anniversary date, the first day of the first month, and goes through to the last day of the last month in that 12 month year (Coruscant standard).  Thus 5 ABY represents the entire year beginning at the five year anniversary of the Battle of Yavin and concluding at the end of the 12th month, the day before 6 ABY begins. 

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Continuity in the Star Wars Expanded Universe

What is the Expanded Universe and why is continuity such a major issue?  The Expanded Universe, or EU, is the moniker for the entire body of work that comprises the stories set in the Star Wars universe ranging from novels, comics, cartoons, short stories, young adult books, television shows, animated features and more...  Continuity has been and remains important to Lucas and Lucasfilm as it is the glue that holds together the various and often disparate sources which strive to tell multiple, but cohesive stories of the heroes, villains and fringe characters under the one unified umbrella that is the Star Wars Saga.  This history of the universe ranges from thousands of years before Episode IV: A New Hope to 140 years afterwards and beyond.

As stated in the Guide to the Star Wars Timeline above, this timeline strives whenever reasonably possible to be inclusive.  As can be seen from the Infinities portion of this site (Infinities refers to stories outside continuity), there are very few major contradictions that have found their way into the Star Wars Universe since its inception in 1977.  For a fictional universe in which hundreds of writers have contributed, this is impressive.  Minor continuity gaffes, of course, do exist, and in every strata of Lucasfilm's publication history of which I've noted three:

The Classic Trilogy (led by Ballantine/Del Rey and Marvel), which featured Episodes IV to VI and the majority of stories that occur prior to and during that period.

The Revival (heralded by Bantam and Dark Horse), begun with the publication of Timothy Zahn's "Thrawn Trilogy" series of novels and Tom Veitch's Dark Empire comic series, and covers all periods, but especially the years after the events of Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

The Prequel Trilogy (Del Rey and Dark Horse again) covers the period of Episodes I to III, the years prior to and during, and the twenty year gap before Episode IV.

Contrary to a popularly-held belief begun in the early '90's, incongruities were not solely restricted to the early period of expansion ('77-'85), but in fact were more widespread throughout the Revival phase ('92-'99), and certainly the prequel era has had no few incidents itself (often due to the revelations of the Prequel trilogy).  Irregardless, in the overall scheme, such issues are rather far and few between and many have been and are in the process of being cleared up.  For a great essay on continuity, this process and the role Lucasfilm plays in keeping it all together, check out author Karen Traviss' (Republic Commando: Hard Contact) excellent blog entry here.

Various Star Wars resources, sourcebooks, magazine articles and even later novels and comics, have fixed a great deal of what were once considered contradictions, and no doubt this will continue to be the case as new stories unfold and reveal a clearer picture of Star Wars history.  Those who reject the Expanded Universe on the grounds of their personal inability to allow for continuity errors (as well as subsequent clarifications) fail in their reasoning to see that the films themselves are subject to rather interesting incongruities, particularly between the original versions of the Classic Trilogy and the later Special Editions.  Change happens.  Now, Greedo shoots first (although just barely) and the Max Rebo band has new members.  The Ewoks no longer sing Yub Nub (Thank the Maker!) and the Sarlacc has a mouth reminiscent of Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors...   In time, more changes and additions may be forthcoming.   The point: use your imagination, fill in the blanks and enjoy these fantastic adventures for what they are.  Those who are missing out on the Expanded Universe stories are missing out on not only some of the best Star Wars has to offer, but on some of the best that Science-Fiction/Fantasy has to offer...

Lastly, for those not yet convinced, a few years back George Lucas wrote a short introduction to the reissue of Splinter of the Mind's Eye (the very first book that told a story outside of the film) giving it and the entire Expanded Universe his stamp of approval.  It's what he wants, why he had it commissioned and why a large group of Lucasfilm employees, editors and publishers are paid to monitor and maintain consistency with the films and each other.  In a recent interview with the associated press, Lucas again confirmed that the spin-off novels, comics, and soon to be television series meet with his approval.  Here is an excerpt from that article:

To read the rest of the article, click here.

For my recommended reading list of Star Wars stories, click here.

Regarding Infinities and Star Wars Tales

A recent issue that has developed is that of the "Infinities" label that Lucasbooks and Dark Horse Comics created in 2001 to designate and allow for stories that fall outside of continuity.  It encompasses both serious stories, humor and parodies.  Some confusion has arisen in regards to the first twenty issues of Dark Horse Comics' anthology Star Wars Tales.  Due to the Infinities label being placed inside the front cover, many have wondered whether every story in the Tales series is "Infinities" and outside of continuity.  Compounding the issue is the fact that novel and comic book authors have utilized details from some of these stories as historical events in their works.  The answer was finally settled satisfactorily by Chris Cerasi of LFL via Steve Sansweet's column on the official site, which indicates that Tales allows for stories inside and outside of continuity to be told (a fact which harmonizes with the original concept of the series and the thoughts of many of the writers who contributed to it). 

"In order to allow unlimited freedom of storytelling, the Infinities label has been placed on the anthology series, Star Wars Tales. This means that not only can the stories occur anywhere in the Star Wars timeline, but stories can happen outside continuity. Basically, if an event happens in Tales, it may not have necessarily happened in the rest of the expanded universe. For some stories, the distinction is largely inconsequential. For others, it's the only way they could exist."   

The Star Wars Expanded Universe Timeline endeavors to present those Tales stories which did and did not happen in the Star Wars Universe and have designated the page, Infinities, for the latter stories which exist outside of continuity.  This includes earlier stories which existed before the Infinities label even came about, but which cannot be made to harmonize within the framework of The Star Wars Expanded Universe.  Tales stories which are part of continuity are mixed in throughout the various eras of the timeline itself.  As of issue #21, the Tales anthology has changed focus to tell in-continuity stories, and each issue indicates the specific era in which the story takes place (including Infinites stories which will continue to be presented albeit on a less frequent basis).

So enjoy the richness of the entire Star Wars Saga and use this timeline as your guide through the eras, the five thousand years of adventure and strife, from the reign of the ancient Dark Lords of the Sith and the terror of the Imperial war machine to the scourge of the Yuuzhan Vong and beyond ...

For a recommended reading list of Star Wars stories, click here.

For the origins of The Star Wars Expanded Universe Timeline as well as essays on Fantasy, Aliteracy and other miscellanea, click here.

Fiction Within Fiction: Viewing the Star Wars Saga as "History"

Right from the opening page of the very first Star Wars novel ever released – the then titled Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker – we read of a back-story of the rise of the Emperor culled from a document referred to as "The Journal of the Whills."  And in thus setting the stage for the story to come, George Lucas (via Alan Dean Foster who ghost-wrote the novel) followed the paths of numerous fantasy-literature authors before him who to sought to enhance the feeling of verisimilitude by inventing the fiction that the story you're about to read comes in fact from a lost historical source.  L. Frank Baum, H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Arthur Conan Doyle, J.R.R. Tolkien and others used the fictional ploy that they "discovered" actual documents that they're translating and/or transmitting to the readers.  In recent times, the makers of the horror film The Blair Witch Project utilized a similar device, going so far as to film a "documentary" of the events that occurred prior to the start of their film.  It's a fun illusion and one that allows the readers and viewers to suspend even more than the usual disbelief in order to enjoy and be affected by the story as something that feels like it could have happened. 

With the Star Wars Expanded Universe having grown so large and encompassing, it's also a great way to explain many of the discrepancies and continuity-errors that occur from time to time within the body of lore comprised by the books, comics, films, cartoons, video games and more.  There are various factors that can shatter the willing suspension of disbelief, but none greater than the dreaded continuity error.  As has been stated in the article "Continuity in the Expanded Universe", Lucasfilm and the many freelance authors that work for them have oftentimes used continuity errors as a means of creating far more interesting scenarios and new stories for the readers.  For authors like Karen Traviss and Abel Peña, creating imaginative and believable "retcons" (retroactive continuity) is an enjoyable and rewarding exercise.  And the fans certainly love and appreciate it!  But not every continuity error and contradiction has been addressed.  Star Wars is a BIG galaxy, and well over a thousand stories have been written in it.  How does the Star Wars fan deal with irreconcilable issues of continuity that haven't yet been addressed?  And how does an appreciation of Star Wars-as-History aid in this regard?

The answer may come right from the films themselves.  The start of every opening crawl of each of the six films begins with the words, "A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away."  Lucas used this to set the stage for his saga, indicating rather openly that this is a fairy tale, a "once upon a time" space opera, and neither a "realistic" drama nor a hardcore tale of science-fiction.  And while that might seem to destroy the feeling of verisimilitude, it also conversely paves the way for it, utilizing the same kind of literary power the "Journal of the Whills" imparts.  This indicates on an almost subconscious level that not only are the rules of this universe different, but that this is ancient history, something that has already occurred, albeit elsewhere, a long time ago.

In other words, George Lucas is spinning the yarn of Star Wars as History, telling us a story based on past events, which the novel indicates derives from an ancient tome, or perhaps a cache of ancient tomes, the mystic Journal of the Whills.  Like the Red Book of Westmarch which Tolkien "discovered" which told us of an ancient world of Hobbits, Dwarves, Elves and Men, the Journal of the Whills has somehow come into the privileged hands of George Lucas.  A quote from him in the reissue of the novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye indicates his awareness that there are "thousands (of stories) that could be told about the characters who inhabit its galaxy" and that "these were not stories I was destined to tell."  Thus, Lucas hired a team to oversee the telling of these stories.  That team of course is Lucasfilm.  Utilizing the theory of Star Wars-as-History, it's clear that they are in possession of the Journal of the Whills.  But what of the various writers who go on to create all the novels and comics and games, etc.?  It's common knowledge that everything, from the proposal to the plot outline to the finished product goes through Lucasfilm.  We know from real life, which could be called the Star Wars-as-Literature perspective, that this is done so that everything accords with Lucas' vision and Lucasfilm can maintain a high quality standard.  All well and good.  But from the much more enjoyable Star Wars as History perspective, the most important reason this is done is so that Lucasfilm can coordinate each author's stories with the history that is presented in the Journal of the Whills and other historical texts. 

The role playing game company West End Games which held the Star Wars license for some years introduced in-universe historian Voren Na'al as the "author" of several of their sourcebooks.  This was done so to allow for a degree of error in case continuity conflicts arose or so if gamers wished to ignore a point for their personal campaigns it could be deemed historical error.  But it built upon the notion that Star Wars stories are based off of "historical" documents.  Thus, it appears that many of Na'al's journals have survived intact, and in fact he rose to the prominent position of Archivist Emeritus on the Historical Council of the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances (as recorded in his body of work that makes up The New Essential Chronology.)  Other surviving documents are those of Na'al's teacher Arhul Hextrophon.  And more recently Lucasfilm has revealed that journalist Janu Godalhi and his son Palob's highly regarded historical texts are also extant.  What this gives Lucasfilm is a body of work from which freelance authors can expand upon, perhaps turning only the briefest of annotations within such historical documents into full flesh-and-blood prose stories.

Of the Journal of the Whills itself, we've only seen a few paragraphs presented to us, and only once in the very first Star Wars book published, and in it we find what is but a brief overview of events.  We also find a quote from a character we've come to know well, Princess Leia.  But from this small bit of evidence, it's safe to deduce that the Journal is a compilation of historical events written possibly years after the fact (and likely utilizing even older historical sources), and I may be correct in asserting that these are presented not in prose form (which would be both unwieldy and unlikely), but annalistic form (a style that is akin to The Silmarillion, portions of the Bible, and countless history books) which means that the Journal does not feature fully detailed narratives.  So too with the surviving documents of Na'al, Hextrophon, and the Godalhis.  The New Essential Chronology and other modern sourcebooks may represent wholly intact recordings of these men which substantiates my theory that these works are presented in almost exclusively annalistic style.  And that's where the modern authors come in.  It's also where continuity errors arise. 

Let's take the example of the recent publication of Darth Bane: Path of Destruction by Drew Karpyshyn.  This book expands upon material previously published in the comic mini-series Jedi vs. Sith written by Darko Macan.  But it not only expands upon it, it changes certain elements, creating you guessed it ... continuity errors.  Again, we know from reality that the author chose to exercise his creative rights to alter certain elements because he felt it made for a better story, a choice that angered a number of fans who preferred he kept things fully harmonious with the events of the comics which predate his novel and upon which he based much of what he wrote.  The reality is acknowledged, and let's face it, it's not a terribly satisfying one.  Here's one that's more fun: Both Macan and Karpyshyn were working off of the same brief entry featured in the Journal of the Whills and/or other historians' documents.  The discrepancy arises because the the details are scant, leaving the authors to have to surmise and deduce, utilizing reasoning, context and other hints left in the Journal exactly what may have happened in certain instances.  Perhaps Lucasfilm uncovered another document, or reached a clearer understanding of the events, and Karpyshyn's "changes" represent this new understanding.  Or perhaps they simply allowed him to reflect his conclusions and conjectures on the matter, much as a publisher might allow two competing historians to present their individual, interpretive suppositions in their own books.  Either way, the choice is left to the reader to discern which of the two conflicting events, if either, he or she feels is accurate.  Sorting through a debacle like the one surrounding the second season of Clone Wars cartoons (which feature events that run contrary to those established in the lead-in novel, adaptation and webstrip) with this method leads to a much less frustrating end result.

The films themselves present an interesting and unusual example.  Taking a look at the Classic Trilogy (Episodes IV to VI), not only do we have two variant versions of each of the films, but we have a variant novel adaptation, a variant comic book adaptation and a variant radio drama of each.  Opinions are very divided as to which of these six different versions is the true and accurate one, with most fans siding with either the original versions of the films or the Special Edition versions. 

But the novel, comic book and radio drama adaptations hold equal value as well, and should likewise be considered.  Why?  Well, looking at the Star Wars-as-History model, they're all adaptations of the original source.  Even the films.  We're not actually seeing what occurred, as if a cameraman had followed these people around thousands of years ago.  We're seeing a dramatic recreation of the events as interpreted by the actors and through the eyes of George Lucas who holds the original story and wrote the screenplay based off it.  Thus the films are but an adaptation, and every adaptation of the original story is valid to some degree.  Which one you choose to believe is up to you, but it's interesting to note that they were all approved at some point or another by the very person who knows and holds the original story.  Now the discrepancies between sources are not tremendous, but where they exist likely indicates that there are gaps in the original source material (in the film's case likely the Whills Journal) or that a different interpretation of events was arrived at by Lucas and his team at Lucasfilm. 

Somewhere along the way, Lucas came to believe that Sy Snootles actually had a much larger band.  Or perhaps he knew it all along but simply didn't have the budget or technology to include the other band members in the first version of Return of the Jedi.  Many question whether or not Han shot first.  And in fact there are now three film versions of that incident.  If Lucas' integrity is intact (which I believe it is) and he's not changing the story to suit his own sensibilities, in all likelihood, the Journal of the Whills merely indicates that a scuffle ensued between Han and Greedo, and Lucas was left to fill in the details. 

Viewing Star Wars in this kind of fictional historical context allows continuity errors to exist and not disrupt one's necessary suspension of disbelief.  It also allows the audience to determine which event is the real one.  More importantly, it's a much more enjoyable way to look at the Star Wars Universe which is the primary reason it was provided by Lucas to be part and parcel of the fiction that surrounds the story.  And it's a heck of a lot more fun than the blasé real story which often involves economics, politics and sheer human error. 

Regarding the Various Eras in Star Wars

Click Here for a full description of each era.

Regarding the Clone Wars

For an interesting background history on the advent of the Clone Wars, as written by George Lucas himself, click here.

What is the Jedi Code?

Click here for an essay.

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