CT Bespin and Hoth must be REALLY - and I mean REALLY - close

The nearest star to Earth is Proxima Centauri. Of all the billions of stars, it's the nearest.

And it's about 4 light years away. Meaning if you travel at 300,000 km per second it will still take 4 years for us to reach the nearest solar system.

Yet, upon leaving Hoth, the hyperdrive-less Falcon flies to Bespin (which is in a different solar system to Hoth) over a period of only a few days,

I could understand if Bespin and Hoth were in the same system (i.e like Mars and Earth) but this is clearly not the case, as we see Han pondering were to go and noting they were in the Anoat system, to which Leia repies "there's not much there"

It's always little things like this that bug me. They could have made Hoth and Bespin in the same solar system, and it wouldn't have made any difference to the story or the plot.

 

The EU resolved this by giving the Falcon a backup hyperdrive (one that was not fully functional, and that could only be activated by taking parts from the main hyperdrive in order to make the backup work).

 

I think it took them a couple of months to get there, actually.

 

I can understand wanting logic to be applied but it usually doesn't hold up in SW.

 

I'll agree with Cushy here. I rarely try to apply Terran logic to Star Wars universe stuff, because that usually entails 1) math, 2) math and 3) not math but the side of my brain that refuses to switch on when talking about Star Wars. I readily believe in the hyperdrive and the tech, etc.

Now I wouldn't complain if someone actually invented a hyperdrive...

 

The Falcon made the Kessel run in twelve Parsecs. It is that fast.

/end of discussion

No seriously, SW was never scientifically accurate and never will be.

 

Lucas has stated in took the Falcon 3 months to reach Bespin, and that Luke trained with Yoda for 3 months. However if the Falcon was able to reach near lightspeed, time dilation would still have taken place onboard the Falcon. So it would only seemed like a few days for Han and the rest of the MF's crew.


Spaceships in Star Wars appear to have 3 main speeds, sub-light speed, lightspeed, and hyperspace. I don't think it was ever made clear if the Falcon could still reach lightspeed without a hyperdrive. They seem to imply hyperspace is faster than normal space lightspeed.

 

Where did Lucas say this?

 

I can't find the quote, I head it years agos. In the novelization of ESB, Luke trains with Yoda for 2-3 months which implies it took the Falcon that long to reach Bespin. Otherwise Han and the crew hung around Bespin for 3 months which does not make sense.

 

Yeah I also believe that it was a few month trek to get there. I think it would have to for Luke to get sufficient training from Yoda. That is how I feel anyway. But that would have been one hell of a trip in the MF for a few months though!

 

If the MF was still able to reach near lightspeed, time onboard the Falcon would have slowed down so only a few days may have passed for the MF crew while months would have go by for the rest of the galaxy. Is is a shame Sci Fi movies don't make more use of time dilation since it is cool.

 

I often forget that the Millennium Falcon is like the size of a house. I could see it lasting a few months

 

I believe Kershner has said the trip took 3 weeks, not months. I think it's in the "Making of ESB" book.

But in any event, SW is not intended as "hardcore sci fi--it's more fantasy. Therefore it's kinda pointless to apply real-world physics etc. to it. I mean, walking into a space slug with only a breath mask? Explosions in space? You'll make yourself crazy. Better off just accepting it as it is.

 

This is some real nitpicking.

 

Some people like applying RL stuff to SW nothing wrong with it.

 

People seem to overlook the fact that Han and Chewbacca are mechanics. They were probably able to partially fix the ship along the way. They could have jury-rigged the hyperdrive so that it was working well enough to get them to Bespin but not much further.

 

Well the film itself is very unclear about the passage of time, then again all 6 films are that way.

At least my hypothosis is supported by Luke having more time to train with Yoda and seemingly reaching an advanced stage really quickly - ie controlled levitation and seeing the future.
When looking at how the film is edited, the Falcon flies off towards Bespin with Slave 1 in tow and then it dissolves to Dagobah and Luke's training. As a result it doesn't take much to imagine that between these two shots is a long expanse of time.


There is also the possibility that Hoth and Bespin are in the same solar system.

 

I tend to discount that possibility, because if they were you'd think it would be reflected in the way the systems are spoken of by characters.

"The Hoth system... nothing much there... oh, except for this bustling Tibanna gas mining operation!"

 

A third system is mentioned in TESB - "Anoat system"

"Where are we?"
"Anoat System."
"Anoat System? Not much there."
"Nah...wait, this is interesting...Lando!"
"'Lando' System?"
" Lando's not a system, he's a man. Lando Calrissian. He's a card player, Scoundrel, Gambler. You'd like him."
"Thanks."
"Bespin. It's pretty far, but I think we can make it."
"A mining colony?"
"Yeah, a Tibanna gas mine. Lando conned somebody out of it. We go back a long way, Lando and me."

- I think the idea is that the asteroid field is on the edge of the Hoth system, by passing through it they have crossed into the Anoat system - and Bespin is the nearest system to Anoat.

One could reduce the distance by having Bespin be in the Anoat system, I suppose - but, as you say, it doesn't fit with "not much there" - or with them backtracking back into the Hoth system.

 

You'd think but on the other hand Luke is the son of Anakin who was the Chosen One and conceived by the midi-chlorians directed by the Force itself so it doesn't take much for Luke to start to gain insights and power.

As far as we know he had no inkling of the Force at all but a simple introduction from Obi-Wan and within a day he was tapping into it. The 3 years of training from the voice of Obi-Wan before going to Yoda and then even if it was a week or two with Yoda he would learn so much about how to tap into the Force.

Leia only needed a nudge from Luke and suddenly she was feeling the power as well.

 

The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. It's about 90 million miles away.

 

Except Lando calls it a small mining operation that the Empire didn't care about.

 

"And to your left, you can see the Rebel fleet returning to their secret base...a base so secret that the Empire has been unsuccessfully trying to find it for years despite it being located in plain sight next to us!"

 

I like the idea of the Falcon piggybacking on the Avenger from the Hoth system to its closest neighbor: Anoat. The Imperial fleet was likely conducting a system-by-system search of the stars nearest to Hoth, and the Falcon just went along for the ride. Since the Star Destroyers were evidently going their separate ways after rendezvousing at Anoat, Han decided that piggybacking was no longer an option and chose to limp to Bespin instead.

Why the Empire didn't think to search Bespin before Boba Fett signaled them I have no idea.

 

Um, because Lando was also trying to stay under the Empire's radar, and that distances in solar systems are still huge and why anyone from Bespin would be keeping tabs on Hoth if it was another planet in the same system. We don't keep perfect tabs on planets in our own system for Petes sake.

I don't think the film makes it clear that the Star Destroyers rendezvous was by the Anoat system or still in or near the Hoth system before jumping. I think the Falcon detached from the Avenger on the edge of the Hoth system before it jumbed to wherever it was going to as Han didn't want to go that way. I don't think the Imperial fleet had jumped systems between scenes and that they were still in the Hoth system when we are shown them jumping into hyperspace, but then again TESB is unclear about the passage of time and other details? I think it just took the Falcon 3 months to reach Bespin which also gives Luke alot more training time. It's a win win.