Lit In a Mirror, Mousely - The Disney Universe Timeline

Of course it had to be aliens. It's always aliens with you, Mulder.

 

Another reason to assume it could be a sign of the two canons being divergent, yet fitting in certain places. The Force guiding things and all. I see the two canons potentially mirroring each other, as with a lot of alternate universes portrayed in fiction. So you still get a Jedi splinter led by a guy called Rur but instead of being involved with Republic theocrats, he pursues immortality with a similarly-named cult.

On the One Canon, could work, but I don't see why the Rur AI would blow up twice. First by Aphra and then by Luke.

 

One of the very first "Germans win World War II" alternate histories, which was actually written pre-WWII, has this as a plot point. In the distant future, the German protagonist finds an actual historical photo of Hitler and doesn't recognize the short, brown-haired man as the tall, Thor-like Hitler in all the contemporary depictions of his time.

 

Regarding the split in the timelines, my theory can point to the existence/continuation/early elimination of certain individuals:

From my own limited understanding, and I can easily be wrong, the only Legends characters that have been confirmed not to exist are the Solo twins and Anakin. With that in mind, here are the few things that could account for the different timelines:

1. Han and Leia marry earlier and start a family vs Legends. Maybe early premonitions that Leia senses causes them to not strive for any more children after Ben, whereas Legends Leia was adamant about not having any children until "Tatooine Ghost."

2. Thrawn and Gallius Rax. As we know Thrawn exists in both timelines, and for my theory to work, so does Gallius Rax. However, their fates are different. We still don't know if Thrawn is around post-Endor in Canon. In Legends, he returns to the Empire to attempt to rebuild it ala Gallius Rax, although later and using different methods. Maybe in Legends, Gallius Rax doesn't survive past Endor, and the Emperor's spirit makes it to Byss, therefore making Operation: Cinder and the rest of the Contingency moot. Without that, the Empire isn't as quick to fall in Legends.

3. The Yuuzhan Vong decide not to invade. Maybe Shimrra's faction doesn't succeed in their coup after the encounter with Sekot, and they move on to the next galaxy.

Two decisions and the fate of one or two characters can have a vast impact on the destiny of the galaxy.

 

And his efforts could have caused the specific changes I mentioned. In fact, the "inspiration" to cause his parents to start the family earlier could be part of his desire to protect the galaxy. An older Solo offspring would have more experience, and potentially more power to help protect it better.