So how much of the Pre-Empire days is common knowledge, anyway?

I was going over the Databank earlier today, and found something interesting in Paxi Sylo's entry:

History has lost track of whatever became of Paxi Sylo. By the time of the Empire, the Sylo farm had been completely abandoned. However, at the height of Palpatine's New Order, a bootleg animated holographic video file began propagating in the shadier parts of the HoloNet. It depicted the heroic exploits of Mace Windu on Dantooine.

The Imperial Security Bureau did what it could to stop proliferation of such a treasonous piece of media, but it gained a cult status among would-be Rebels. Though the holovid is unattributed, the style does match up with the early illustrations of a young Paxi Sylo.

This struck me as interesting, as it is (as far as I know) the first mention of events occuring in the prequel era being referenced in the classic era. The upcoming story arc of Empire where Luke learns of Anakin's actions on Jabiim means that such situations are more likely to happen now that the gap between prequel and classic eras is shrinking.

Obviously, characters referencing the Clone Wars (and pre-Empire events in general) is nothing new, as it's been going on since the beginning of the EU. The only real difference between now and then is that all the writers had to go on with those days is the fact that:

A). It was a brutal period that tore the entire galaxy apart.

B). Bail Organa, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker were major players.

C). It ended with the extermination of the Jedi, the rise of the Empire and the birth of Darth Vader.

As you can plainly see, while these events are vital to the story of the Clone Wars, they've been explained in far greater detail than could be imagined back in 1991. (The convenient excuse that records from that era no longer available allowing people to not go into great detail about it notwithstanding. It doesn?t really work, but hey?)

Anyways, like I said, the gap is closing, and come May 19th 2005, such an excuse won't really be acceptable anymore. So the question now becomes what information about the Republic is common knowledge to the Rebel Alliance and others during the Classic Trilogy and afterward.

Obviously, Leia could know about some stuff, since Bail was a major player during those times. And Survivor's Quest (from what I've read) indicates that Luke gained some knowledge of the old Jedi Order during his training on Dagobah. Obi-Wan could have told him some things. (Not "THE BIG THING", obviously...) Mara is knowledgable enough to know about the Trade Federation and destroyer droids. And obviously Chewie knows some stuff...

So what do you guys think?

 

I think its fairly easy to explain what happened.

1. Everything Jedi was banned from being discussed in school and that meant quite frankly a large portion of the Clone Wars became completely outlawed.

2. The Holonet prevented any sort of interplanetary knowledge from being exchanged save by courier.

3. COMPNOR did its best to destroy as much history of the galaxy as possible.

 

I know that, but just because the Empire did its best to quash out the information doesn't mean that some people still don't know about it. It's easy to wipe away public records, not so the human brain.

I already mentioned that several characters still living through till the CT (Bail, Yoda, Mara, etc.) know about this stuff, and could (and as the EU has proven, have) passed this knowledge on to others.

That's why I'm curious. Because as the leader of the Rebels, Leia could tell the troops and inspire them with tales of the old glory days. And (although contradictory to early EU) Luke has learned some basic knowledge of the old Jedi order. (At least enough to know of the "no attachments" rule.)

 

1) Were too far out of things or stayed out of the war and galactic affairs and thus wouldn't have much knowledge from the era.

That probably makes the most sense, although it kinda is contradicted by the fact that the Clone Wars were a galaxy wide conflict, so I don't really think that there is a way for anyone to be unaffected by it.

2) Were aware of events via holonet or shadowfeed or word of mouth, proximity, etc, but forgot the details over the decades as time passed (the general populace would only remember moments from the war in broad strokes, in other words) and would mainly remember that it was bad (due to the birth of the Empire, etc)

Also true, but I would have to assume that with the information being in a hard copy format like HNN or Shadowfeed that it could easily be kept around for reviewing. But, of course, since it led to the birth of the Empire, it might all be recalled as bad anyways. Kinda makes me wonder how ROTS will end it all.

3) Were directly affected or involved- these people were probably silenced, killed or frightened into not speaking out.

Although this is just as true as the others, it doesn't really work in most cases, especially for those characters I stated in my original post. (Bail could have told Leia some stuff, Yoda definitlytold Luke some stuff, and we all know that Chewie plays a vital role at the end of the Clone Wars, so hasn't ever told anyone?)

Which is my entire point, to be honest. Like I said, there's no real reason that these characters couldn't tell others about the Clone Wars and the Jedi and such. The real difference is that back then they couldn't be as detailed about it as they can now.

Depending on how effective the Empire was in destroying/modifying records and how tight the Empire's grip over planetary governments (where information flow could be controlled on a local level), you wouldn't really hear about things much, I don't think.

Well, that would be certainly true on the whole galaxy wide scale of things. That's not what I'm really talking about, though. The Empire certainly made an effort to rewrite history, but like what I quoted from the Databank, it doesn't always work.

After the Empire, I could see some details start to leak out, but at a very slow rate as NR historians attempt to reconstruct historical documenst for efforts such as The Essential Chronology.

If you ask me, that kind of answer really shows how slap happy the folks at LFL are at retconning things to make it all fit together. The Essential Chronology was one of the first materials to take advantage of the info from the prequels, and did a fair job at covering up what was yet to be revealed. By the time that the inevitable revised version comes along, such an excuse won't really be tolerated. And from a "in-universe" standpoint, they'll have to get that info from somewhere.

 

One key to realize is the Clone Wars were largely not a galaxy wide conflict. They were a series of local skirmishes between feuding factions that just happened to have support from two superpowers.

The "Veterans" on both sides were largely Clones that wouldn't talk and droids that were all shut down.

Also, the Holonet was not working for the majority of it...all that was, was courier delivered and mostly propaganda.

 

One key to realize is the Clone Wars were largely not a galaxy wide conflict. They were a series of local skirmishes between feuding factions that just happened to have support from two superpowers.

I'm a bit confused about this. I don't see how the Clone Wars can be considered "local skimishes between feuding factions" when it has been compared to and described by many of the characters as the Star Wars equivalent of World War II.

The "Veterans" on both sides were largely Clones that wouldn't talk and droids that were all shut down.

There's also the fact that there are Senators who were still alive if not politically active, not to mention the children of those said Senators that grew up during this time.

Also, the Holonet was not working for the majority of it...all that was, was courier delivered and mostly propaganda.

It was working, although restricted to military related information only. If it was shut down, how could Holonet News run for at least two years during the war?

 

It was a newspaper with the same type vs. a internet resource.

Also, frankly the Senators involved aren't likely going to give much in the way of valuable information about what happened.

Palpatine purged most of the loyalists and the rest were his toadies.

Chewie was a Wookie general on Kashkyyk.

As for being equivalent to WW2, no, that would be the Galctic Civil War. It's also been compared to vietnam and WW1, so I'd just judge it on its own meris

 

It was a newspaper with the same type vs. a internet resource.

And, like most newspaper and internet resources, is easily copiable and saveable. Is it too hard to assume that hardcopies of this info exist somehwere?

Also, frankly the Senators involved aren't likely going to give much in the way of valuable information about what happened.

What do you base this on? I can understand why they themselves wouldn't openly mention this, but I don't think that it would take a lot of effort for their relatives to find out.

Chewie was a Wookie general on Kashkyyk.

And apparently involved in one of the final major battles of the war.

It's also been compared to vietnam and WW1, so I'd just judge it on its own meris

To each his own, I guess.

 

but going by the Radio Drama, he didn't want to get Leia too involved, which might explain him telling her too much anti-Imperial info.

Which really had the opposite effect, as also demonstrated in the Radio Drama.

I'd have to second the notion that the Clone Wars, with it's focus on ground battles, is closer to WWI, with the GCW being closer to WWII (by comparison) with more aerial dogfights and such (though not to say WWII lacked ground battles). The Vietnam comparison is also likely apt, given Lucas's influences at the time. Comes down to a combination of a couple different wars I suppose- but the CW=WWI comparison seems best, since both were more of a "classical" war and where the fight was less clear cut between good and evil than what followed them.


When you say it like that, it does a bit more sense. I knew it was considered to be the SW equivalent of one of the World Wars, at least.