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"Barrier at the edge of the galaxy"?!

Discussion in 'Literature' started by Sikon, Feb 10, 2007.

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  1. Sikon

    Sikon Jedi Youngling star 3

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    Mar 29, 2006
    http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Two-DSpace

    Where? I couldn't find anything about it on Wookieepedia.
     
  2. BobaMatt

    BobaMatt TFN EU Staff star 7 VIP

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    Aug 19, 2002
    This has been a pretty major part of the EU since the beginning. It's to explain why the action is confined to one galaxy. It's a big deal in the NJO books, and the reason for the Outbound Flight project.

    I'm rather surprised at you, Sikon. ]-}
     
  3. TalonCard

    TalonCard •Author: Slave Pits of Lorrd •TFN EU Staff star 5 VIP

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    Jan 31, 2001
    Wasn't it introduced in the NJO books?

    TC
     
  4. BobaMatt

    BobaMatt TFN EU Staff star 7 VIP

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    Aug 19, 2002
    Wookieepedia: Hyperspace disturbance at the edge of the Galaxy.

    Seems it was introduced in Vector Prime. Notwithstanding, it's been rather important, since then.
     
  5. 000

    000 Jedi Master star 4

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    Oct 18, 2005
    It's a silly idea. Interestingly, Outbound Flight itself pretty much ignores it.
     
  6. BobaMatt

    BobaMatt TFN EU Staff star 7 VIP

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    Aug 19, 2002
    Wasn't the very reason there were Jedi aboard Outbound Flight to begin with so that they could try to use the Force to penetrate the disturbance?

    It's not a silly idea, as a plot device. Otherwise there's not really much of a reason that there aren't a ton of other galaxies in use.
     
  7. 000

    000 Jedi Master star 4

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    Oct 18, 2005
    I'm all for plot devices limiting galaxy-hopping, but a hyperspace barrier doesn't make much sense. Couldn't they just go up?
     
  8. BobaMatt

    BobaMatt TFN EU Staff star 7 VIP

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    Aug 19, 2002
    You're assuming it's a two dimensional barrier, and a very literal barrier at that.
     
  9. Sikon

    Sikon Jedi Youngling star 3

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    Mar 29, 2006
    It's a silly idea because it totally disregards the 3-D nature of space. (Unless it's some kind of shell that encompasses the entire galaxy, including "top" and "bottom"?) And it's a lame plot device as well. A more reasonable explanation would be the distances between galaxies, which far, far exceed the distances within a galaxy, making hyperspace trips extremely time-consuming, let alone dangerous.

    (And yes, the Vong are lame too.)
     
  10. BobaMatt

    BobaMatt TFN EU Staff star 7 VIP

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    Aug 19, 2002
    Only if you're unwilling to think about other ways it can work.
    Yeah, you're right. It might take a week to get to another galaxy instead of a few hours. Maybe a month.

    You're trying to tell me that in 25,000 years of having technology that already makes living in space for years at a time possible, in addition to technology that makes it possible to cover vast distances in no time at all, they just never thought it was worth the effort?

    o_O
     
  11. 000

    000 Jedi Master star 4

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    Oct 18, 2005
    That's how it's described.
     
  12. BobaMatt

    BobaMatt TFN EU Staff star 7 VIP

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    Aug 19, 2002
    It's described as a barrier at the edge of the galaxy, not necessarily a ring around it's circumference.

    We have to assume they're not completely stupid, and there's a reason they can't get past this barrier.
     
  13. RogueWompRat

    RogueWompRat Jedi Youngling star 4

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    Feb 15, 2003
    The "Hyperspace Disturbance" theory is major bunk, Obi-Wan left the galaxy proper to visit Kamino (which is in the Rishi Maze, a dwarf satellite galaxy like the Magellenic Clouds), as did the OT heroes a few times in Marvel (when Luke and Leia were thrown out because of an accident in Riders In the Void, and when they went to visit the Red Nebula [which is explicitly said to lie "out in the galactic void"]).

    Look, say you can cross the galaxy in a week or two on an average hyperdrive. Now if the next full sized galaxy is as far away as Andromeda, that's still going to take hundreds, maybe thousands of years get there. There is a loooooot of empty space between galaxies, and in the SW universe there's likely nowhere to dock, refuel, or repair.
     
  14. Sikon

    Sikon Jedi Youngling star 3

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    Mar 29, 2006
    So, the barrier can be declared N-canon because it contradicts G-canon? Yay. The only problem is, nobody will dare to do so. Instead we'll probably end up with a retcon even lamer than the idea itself.
    What other ways?
    What he said. It's a matter of scale.
     
  15. BobaMatt

    BobaMatt TFN EU Staff star 7 VIP

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    Aug 19, 2002
    It doesn't. The movies and George Lucas never really address the question of leaving the galaxy.
    That it's not flat, but rather surrounds the galaxy, like a sphere. Or maybe it's not a "physical" barrier so much as it is an inability of hyperdrives to function due to some other phenomena. Or maybe it's something that doesn't manifest until you try to leave. Or...
     
  16. RogueWompRat

    RogueWompRat Jedi Youngling star 4

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    Feb 15, 2003
    [image=http://www.theforce.net/swtc/Pix/dvd/aotc~/owkmap3.jpg]

    You can see Obi-Wan pointing at a point off the galaxy proper, which is said to be a minor star cluster (the Rishi Maze). So if there is a galactic barrier, it's gotta be pretty far out.
     
  17. Darth_Angle

    Darth_Angle Jedi Youngling star 3

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    Jan 13, 2006
    I think it was mentioned in one of the books but it was a way I liked to think of it. It was like a big storm surrounding the galaxy, there were weak points where someone might make it through but it would be difficult at best and impossible at worst.
    When I read OF I kind of liked the idea that the Jedi were there to maybe probe for a weak point and use that to escape.
    Or maybe the barrier never existed. Possibly in the distant past some had tried to leave the galaxy and never returned and the myth of a barrier was born.


     
  18. BobaMatt

    BobaMatt TFN EU Staff star 7 VIP

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    Aug 19, 2002
    Making GFFA scientists...retarded.
     
  19. Rogue_Follower

    Rogue_Follower Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Nov 12, 2003
    The Maze isn't that far out---what he's pointing to is still pretty close to the galaxy proper. Kamino is right on the edge of the galaxy, at the outskirts of the Outer Rim. Its even possible that those superimposed rings on the map show the boundary of the GFFA. [face_thinking]
     
  20. Sikon

    Sikon Jedi Youngling star 3

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    Mar 29, 2006
    It still doesn't make sense, even if it "surrounds the galaxy like a sphere" (which was, by the way, the idea I mentioned earlier in this thread).

    Why can't ships disable the hyperdrive when approaching the barrier, pass through it using sublight engines, and then activate the hyperdrive again?
     
  21. jSarek

    jSarek VIP star 4 VIP

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    Feb 18, 2005
    Dan Wallace has some interesting things to say about the galactic barrier here.

    As he points out in that thread, the distances aren't so great as you imagine - it'd only be 18 days to travel to Andromeda at the speeds implied by a trip from Tatooine to Alderaan in seven hours.
     
  22. jSarek

    jSarek VIP star 4 VIP

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    Feb 18, 2005
    If the disturbance is thick enough, it'd take lifetimes to travel through at sublight.
     
  23. Sabrajaguar

    Sabrajaguar Jedi Youngling star 4

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    Dec 22, 2001
    I was always under the impression that the hyperspace disturbance was a storm like fluxuation that surrounded the galaxy, but that if you really wanted too you can navagte through "weak" spots in the storm.

    The main obsticle in extra-galactic exploration is that the distance between galaxies were so vast there was no reason to bother with Ex-Gal travle.
     
  24. Sikon

    Sikon Jedi Youngling star 3

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    Mar 29, 2006
    Still, Dan Wallace points out that the barrier exists "at the midpoints between galaxies", not at the very edge of the galaxy.
     
  25. SuperWatto

    SuperWatto Chosen One star 7

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    Sep 19, 2000
    No Outbound Flight book that I ever read mentioned hyperdrives that stopped working outside of the GFFA.
     
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