CT A New Hope Alternate Events

I am not sure what got me thinking about this, but I wanted to get other peoples thoughts on it....

How would the story of the A New Hope played out if Vader had not found and captured Leia and the Tontine IV? She would have found Obi-Wan but would he have gone to Luke and tried to convince him to come with them? Without the motivation of the loss of his Aunt and Uncle would he have been convinced? If the Empire hadn't caught Leia would they still go after Aldreraan assuming Leia would go there with the plans?

 

Well the Empire knew that the Alderaan was the home planet of Leia, I believe that if she had escaped of the empire

She would be looking for Obi-Wan and The Empire would seek out Leia on every planet. I do not think that the Empire would destroy Alderaan without proof that Leia was part of the Rebel Alliance

I think Leia would go to Tatooine in search of Obi-Wan and the latter would be accompanied by Luke Skywalker
Remember that the Empire does not know if Obi-Wan would be alive or not so they would not suspect that he lived in Tatooine

So Leia would take advantage of this to find Obi-Wan The only one knew of Obi-Wan's exile is Bail Organa Leia's adoptive father so she knows where Obi-Wan is

I believe that the same story would be repeated only that Luke and Leia would never know who Han Solo is

 

Assuming Obi-Wan agreed to come with Leia (he might say no because of Luke), then I would think he'd want Luke to come as well. He might even bring up they are siblings right away.

 

The siblings things is an interesting thought. That would be a good way to convince Luke to leave.

 

I'm curious if Leia would have taken Obi-Wan to Alderaan or directly to Yavin. Obi-Wan might have even lead the Starfighter attack on the Death Star, which would have been much more like the battle at Starkiller Base with rebels fighters finding the Death Star and attacking it. The battle of Yavin is really the rebels on defense.

Would Obi-Wan have become directly involved as a leader in the Rebellion? After the events of RotS he seems to be solely a servant of the Force and watching over Luke. I wonder if he would have left for Alderaan if Leia asked him in person. Ultimately it's Luke who brings the message for help to Obi-Wan. Almost like the will of the force.

After Rogue One the Death Star's attack on Alderaan seems little more motivated, so that could still happen. Tarkin needed to make an example out of a major planet.

 

Well the Empire used the capture of Leia as a pretext for abolishing the Senate. Without her being found out they would never be able to confirm the complicity of the Senate. Without that happening Tarkin never would have issued the order to destroy the Rebel stronghold.

 

Thought provoking topic....


Leia would've arrived to find Obi-Wan and bring him to Alderaan. I doubt Luke would've come with Obi-Wan, and Han wouldn't even factor into the story, since Leia would've taken Kenobi on her ship. (That means Ben would not have been born, and whatever that would've meant for the post ROTJ period.) I agree that the destruction of Alderaan could've still happened, but Leia would've been killed along with Bail AND Obi-Wan Kenobi, unless they managed to reach Yavin IV before Tarkin ordered it. If they stayed, that would deal a SERIOUS blow to the progression of events for the Rebel Alliance, and perhaps even affect the redemption of Anakin Skywalker and even the Skywalker line in general. The plans would be lost, and Galen and Jyn Erso's efforts would've been wasted. Not to mention the Jedi would end there, as Obi-Wan and Bail were presumably the only ones who knew Yoda was on Dagobah, unless Yoda would've journeyed out to try and convince Luke to become a Jedi himself, and re-emerge to help fight with the Rebel Alliance. That's a lot to put on Yoda's solitary, tired and aging shoulders. Otherwise, it would pretty much be over right there.

If they made it to the Yavin base, I imagine the Rebellion may have persevered still eventually but it would've taken much more time and cost many more lives to achieve victory. Even the DS could've still been destroyed perhaps, in one way or another-but would likely have done much more damage before that. I'd also imagine the Empire may not have found the Rebels base on Yavin IV-or at least not for a long time-which could've been good for their ability to build up their forces.

Lando would not have factored in at all, Hoth may not have ever been used as a base, Yoda might have contributed more directly in some way, and the war would've likely lasted much longer-and the Empire could've won. I do believe the Emperor would still have been killed (though maybe not Vader at the same time), as the DS was still destroyed-even though Lando technically did it, IMO any other skilled Rebel pilot could've done that-as well as deactivating the shield generator. If Darth Vader was not on the DS when it was destroyed (he was only there when it was cos of Luke), he either might have perished when the Executor was destroyed, OR if he survived the battle of Endor, perhaps he might have even tried-and possibly succeeded-to take over ruling the galaxy just as he always wanted to since ROTS. And then imagine where the galaxy would be!!

I can't even imagine at this point the impact that it would've had on the events of the ST...It's amazing how just one plot point can shape the entire saga as a whole...

 

So, I'm pretty confident that Luke would have been persuaded to go with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Leia. As an aside, I expect Luke would have been persuaded to go with Kenobi if everything happened in the movie but Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru weren't killed by stormtroopers. I don't think Kenobi would have left without him.

I don't expect Leia, Obi-Wan, and Luke would have gone to Alderaan. I could be wrong, but I expect the only reason Leia asked Kenobi to go to Alderaan in the first place was so Bail could take the plans to Yavin. I would imagine that would only be necessary so the Rebel base's location wouldn't be betrayed if R2D2 fell into the wrong hands. I expect they would have all gone straight to Yavin. Since the Empire don't track the Falcon to Yavin, they don't know where the base is and the Rebel Alliance now has time to analyze the plans create an attack plan on their own initiative. They don't have to scramble to defend their base. I expect Obi-Wan would have survived and begun to train both Luke and Leia.

Outside of these things, I think anything else is too hard to speculate.

 

Maybe, Han could have factored in if they wanted to hire a new ship, so the empire wouldn't track that one.

 

Looking for droids is what led Luke to find Obi-Wan. Had Leia found Obi-Wan first he would have had to somehow persuade Luke to come with him. I could see Luke providing safe haven to Leia & Obi-Wan while the Stromtroopers pass by before leaving to rejoin the Rebellion.

 

First off, I'm not a fan of "what would have happened if...." topics. Because I feel we are not discussing SW but any one of the unlimited scenarios that may or may not have happened if even little things were changed. In a FICTIONAL setting, I would say speculations could be literally endless and still be no more than that.... speculation. Remember the "butterfly effect", or Back to the Future? Even tiny unnoticeable changes could lead to HUGE consequences later on!
First of all, had Leia successfully escaped the Empire and landed on Tatooine to find Ben, there simply wouldn't be a SW that would be in any way recognizable to us plot-wise.
Just one possible outcome among many others: Ben would likely agree to go to Alderaan with Leia and R2 on the Tantive IV. Luke would certainly not enter the picture. How should he? The droids were never sold to his uncle so he had no reason to find R2 the next day, thus never meeting Ben. And why would Ben go find Luke at the Lars home? He knew that as Anakin's son he might someday be a potential Padawan. But I don't think he would have taken him on this mission, against Owen's will. No way! So Ben and Leia make it to Alderaan on the Tantive IV (no need for Han Solo there at all). The planet is not destroyed because Leia is not on the Death Star and Tarkin may not even know where she is from. They might still want to demonstrate the DS's power, but there are countless other planets to destroy as well. So probably Ben, Leia and R2 wouldn't have stayed long on Alderaan anyway. Maybe get some cash to recruit more Rebels, buy more ships, then regroup with the rest of the Rebellion and ultimately launch an attack on the DS, but not necessarily from Yavin. They either succeed (Ben could still have been a great pilot at that age as well as being strong with the Force) and we have a celebration at the end, of course without Luke, Han and Chewbacca. Instead Ben would have gotten a medal. Or Ben's instincts have become weak and the Rebels fail, meaning the DS still exists and the Empire will continue to hunt down remaining Rebels. In any case the story would have been VERY different, not SW but some other space opera. Too much speculation for my taste. That's why I prefer to focus on the things that DO happen rather than what COULD happen.

 

In this alternate timeline, there would be no significant Imperial presence on or around Tatooine, so Leia would not have had any problem getting to Kenobi. I expect that Ben, made aware of the threat of the Empire's new weapon by Leia, would have tried to bring Luke with him to start his training. I agree with the above suggestion that the revelation of his true heritage and what was at stake would have tipped the scales for Luke to seek his higher calling. He was already leaning that way, and was only being held back by a sense of obligation to the people who raised him. Beru might even help convince Owen, and Leia would certainly offer compensation for their loss.

They would need to ditch their old ship and find a more secretive way to reach Alderaan, so perhaps this is where Han Solo can come into the picture. But without the great adventure they had together on the Death Star that created the bond between them, Solo would not have any reason to stick around. The rebels certainly would not have launched an attack until they were ready - or the Empire forced their hand.

The big question is what would the Empire be doing in this period - certainly not sitting on its haunches. I think that once the Death Star was "fully operational" and after the brazen attack on Scarif, the Emperor would have disbanded the Senate anyway. A demonstration of the station's power would be necessary, but which planet to choose? I would say the most recalcitrant or troublesome one - Mon Cala, perhaps? This would have forced the Rebel hand and they would have launched an attack with just the few squadrons they had remaining. Without a force user among them, the assault would have ended in a dismal failure. Even if they had somehow managed to persuade Ben to fly as Red 5 ("I'm getting a little old for this sort of thing"), he would have been shot down by Vader.

 

I have an alternate event for you. Why did Luke not get to face Vader in the Death Star towards the end? He lands or crashes and has to enter the station and confronts Lord Vader right there and then. That would be a compelling battle.

 

Bob the X-Winger wrote

Well the Empire used the capture of Leia as a pretext for abolishing the Senate. Without her being found out they would never be able to confirm the complicity of the Senate.

???

COMMANDER Holding her is dangerous. If word of
this gets out, it could generate
sympathy for the Rebellion in the
senate.

VADER Leave that to me. Send a distress
signal and then inform the senate
that all aboard were killed!

How can you possibly use the capture of somebody as a pretext, when you claim that you didn't capture that particular person? Vader's lieutenant (and General Taggi) were concerned about the Imperial Senate and the political power it still had - and Vader couldn't even present solid evidence that Leia was part of the Rebel Alliance, thus he resorted to claims and accusations, but he did not catch her with her hands in the cookie jar. Therefore, in order to cover his illegal seizure of a diplomatic ship, he pretended Leia and her guards had died in an accident.

The pretext was the theft of the Death Star plans and the first victory of the Alliance. According to the original ANH novelization the Emperor used this pretext to declare martial law and suspend the functions of the Imperial Senate, but the movie and Tarkin made it clear that actually the senate had been dissolved permanently.

 

T

The Imperial Senate has no power and my reading of that line was her arrest would drum up support among the public who await news that the Rebellion has been brought to a end. Makes it a lot more difficult to pacify your opponents when they can claim with much justification that Princess Leia is being kept as a political prisoner. You could imagine the reaction if she decided to have a hunger protest.

 

Because he would get absolutely owned. Luke was barely keeping up with Vader on Cloud City, and he already had some training from Obi-Wan and Yoda and three years of self-training

The most I would like to see is Luke rushing towards Vader after Obi-Wan dies and getting pushed back before he even gets to Vader.

 

Why not? Alderaan was destroyed as a demonstration. What planet would dare complain about a planet-destroying weapon?