Does The Phantom Menace contradict the Han Solo trilogy?

This has something that occured to me awhile ago, but I haven't got round to making a thread about, so if it's already been discussed, I apologise, but does The Phantom Menace contradict the Han Solo trilogy? Particularly The Hutt Gambit? Now, unfortunately it's been awhile since I read those books, but I can remember it said that at that point in the galaxy, Jabba was just a small time gangster, and one of the plot lines of the trilogy is Jabba's rise to power. However, in The Phantom Menace, he seems to be just as powerful as he was in Return of the Jedi, as the entire crowd at the Boonta Eve Pod-Race all cheer when he enters his balcony, and it's him who opens the event, which again shows his importance as I think Boonta Eve is quite an important date in the Tatooine calender. So, does anyone else think that all this contradicts the Han Solo trilogy? Also, I seem to remember that in Rebel Dawn, the explained in the consitency in Jabba size between Star Wars and Return of the Jedi, by saying that a Hutt can have certain growth spurts during the course of their life, and also the reason why he's so small was because Jabba was still quite young at the time. However, in The Phantom Menace, he's as big as he was in Return of the Jedi, so did he shrink in the thirty years set between the Episode I, and Star Wars? Sorry if all this has been discussed before, but it's been something that I've been thinking about quite a lot recently!

 

On Tatooine, he was as powerful as always, but in the vast galaxy, he answered to Jiliac. When (s)he died, he took her place and became the all powerful crimelord of RotJ... (But still a mere pawn of Xizor )

 

This is probably my memory playing tricks on me, but I seem to remember reading in the Han Solo trilogy that Jabba had only recently opened up operations on Tatooine. It has been awhile since I read the books, but if that's the case, then The Phantom Menace does contradict the Han Solo trilogy, which is as shame, as I think it's the best of the EU books that I've read.

 

Yeah, I agree....

 

I think that if you let it conflict in your head, it could...it is clear that they missed that (one of many Ep1 contradictions)

However, I justify it this way:

The Hutts had long controlled much of the outer rim...even before the old republic began getting involved out there, the Hutts dominated the local space lanes and resources.

Tatooeine was a long standing Hutt protectorate, even before Jabba...Perhaps Jabba was not the Master of Tatooeine in Ep1, but merely the Master of the Race...(As I recall, Anakin and his mother were slaves to a different Hutt) Jabba may have had interests on Tatooeine, but he may not have had the permanent base that he did in later years.

Another thought, is that the discussion of Jabba "recently" setting up on Tatooeine was in the context of Hutts. They live a LONG time, perhaps 30-40 years is a short time to them.

 

Well, it's been a while so I can't really tell... But this could probably be fixed quite easily...

EDIT : What Jedimarine said.

 

one of many Ep1 contradictions

Would you care to explain what these "many" EP1 contradictions are? I don't seem to see any.

 

I agree. Everything's cool as far as I can see.

 

"This is probably my memory playing tricks on me, but I seem to remember reading in the Han Solo trilogy that Jabba had only recently opened up operations on Tatooine. It has been awhile since I read the books, but if that's the case, then The Phantom Menace does contradict the Han Solo trilogy, which is as shame, as I think it's the best of the EU books that I've read"

I just read the books, and I didn't get that impression. I got the impression that he had been in controle of tatooine for awhile.

 

so maybe jabba just became very influential very fast... it's possible...

 

why do you have to justify it? i love the han solo trilogy, but i dont feel the need to make it make sense.

 

How can you like it if it doesn't make sense to you?

 

"why do you have to justify it? i love the han solo trilogy, but i dont feel the need to make it make sense."

Why don't you think it doesn't make sense? It made perfect sense to me. All throughout every book it said that jabba was in charge of tatooine. It said though that he had that chevin friend of his running tatooine affairs while he was staying with his aunt/uncle jiliac helping with the nar shadaa/nal hutta affairs. It continuelly upheld that tatooine was his planet and area of controle. There was no error, and TPM, agreed with han solo trilogy. So it all made complete sense, from what I read in my first time reading the trilogy a few weeks ago.

Infact the only thing that might be an error is that han solo is thinking back about his child hood and remembers how he grew up wanting to join the academy and the imperial navy. Of course when he told his friends about this dream it might have already been a year or two into the empire. So his dreams might have changed from joining one of the local planetary navy's to then joining the imperial navy as the goverment changed.

 

the story makes sense to me, but i dont sit there and fret over the exact time that jabba arrived on tatooine. i read it for what it is: a good story, not the end all-be all chronicle of SW. thats what the movies are for. the films: the one thing that cant be contradicted.

 

But it fit into the story just fine in the books it said that he was in charge of tatooine. Though during the story he was visiting his uncle on nal hutta, and left his chevin friend in charge of his home on tatooine and affairs there. There was no error at all.

 

Yeah, I remember seeing in the "What are you reading thread" that you had picked it up. So how do you like it Val? I know that Crispin patched her trilogy in and out of Daley's and so I'm wondering if she employed the technique of pastiache and took on Daley's style? I've never read HIS trilogy, but I think I'll pick it up since it gets such great reviews around here.

 

i now it fits, but i dont even bother tinkning it through.
and the whole trilogy is amazing, some of the best books yet.

 

I thought the books were very good, definetly one of the best trilogies written so far(Though there are other star wars books I enjoy just as equally).

She refrenced alot of stuff, and linked continuity into much of the EU that came before her, from Marvel to x-wing series, etc. She alluded to events that would come later. Her style is different than daley's but that doesn't make her any less a writer than him.

Daley's books were fit in by use of Interludes in the 3rd book. Interludes that expanded on events in daley's books explaining some of the stuff that happen between daley's books.

 

Too me Star Wars is to things. A saga- one giant story, and a group of totally indipendent stories- each books, movie, game, etc works on its own. I enjoy each example of a Star Wars story as both of those things.

 

Did she really refrence Marvel? Go Crispin! In which book(s)?

 

The second one, with her use of Rik Duel. She had his character down pat, very much like the marvel issues. There may have been a few more marvel refrences, I just don't recall them at the moment.

She also left alot of room open(space not expanded on) for events in his youngest childhood, enough room for events with his nagai friend bey to take place, or any number of new young han solo stories.

Even better she even refrenced GODV, . Zorba the hutt and his imprisonment on kip was take right out of godv history. Plus a few other things.

 

This comes as something of a shock to me Valiento. You haven't read THST, one of *the* most reference laced series in the entire EU, and a major one to boot? You've shattered my innocent illusions, I hope you're happy.

There's also a Marvel reference in the third book, Rebel Dawn, mentioning the Marvel story, "Way of the Wookiee."

TC

 

"This comes as something of a shock to me Valiento. You haven't read THST, one of *the* most reference laced series in the entire EU, and a major one to boot? You've shattered my innocent illusions, I hope you're happy."

Yes, it was one of the last bantam era books I had finally gotten around to reading since I got back into star wars novels in the last couple of years. There was a dark time during highschool several years ago when It was very hard to find free time to read anything.

 

Think on this. Hutts are a very long lived species. A scene in which one Hutt says to another Hutt that they just set up buisness somewhere could mean very little. When you live as long as a Hutt, "recently" could be as much as fifty years.

I've seen folks say recently about something and their actually talking about something a few years back. But for some reason, it's "recently". To me, that says it took place not too terribly long ago, maybe as much as a month back. So having that in mind, it's not hard for me to believe a fictional race could view a half century as "recently" for any event that takes place.

 

But that's the thing the hutt's didn't say recently, infact it didn't give an age at all. It just said that jabba was in charge of tatooine, and that he left his chevin friend in charge while he was gone from there. So there was no error in anycase. No need to compound an issue that doesn't even exist.