The shift from ANH to ESB y not as clear from ESB to ROTJ

At the end of ESB, we see Luke speaking with Lando about their plans with rescuing Han. It gives you an idea on how ROTJ will start.

In ANH, you see the fanfare and celebration, but you see no evidence of their going to Hoth. This sorta bugs me how there isnt a bridge connecting the two besides darth vader escaping in the tie fighter. Can anyone shed light on how they came to Hoth and didn't stay wherever the celebration took place?

(quick edit in title cause of my dyslexia)

 

Real-world answer:
Because there was no concrete plan to do an ESB whilst shooting ANH, so they just wrapped the whole thing right then in case the movie bombed.
It didn't, and for ESB, Lucas wanted to begin in a new and exciting location, so he chose Hoth and explained why in the opening crawl.

Story answer:
The Empire knew where the Rebel base was.
This, needless to say, made Yavin a rather unsafe location.
The Rebels had to move and chose Hoth 'cause it was all remote 'n' stuff, I guess.


Rick McCallum loves you!

 

i must read the rolling credits more often than gathering snacks for some star wars fun. CURSE MY INFEEBLE MIND. I HAVE FAILED!!!!!!!!!!!

im sorry. i just hate it when the answer is so damn simple.

 

Adam nailed it. Taking ESB's scroll at face value, it seems that the Rebels fled from the fourth moon of Yavin without making any interim bases between that one and the one on Hoth. Of course, on the way they had some adventures, such as the bounty hunter Han mentions running into. But still it seems that less than a year separates SW and ESB (while no more than a month or two separates ESB and ROTJ). I know the EU posits a year or more between the films, but it doesn't seem that way to me.

 

Well the time between ANH and TESB was 3 years and the time between TESB and ROTJ was 11 months. So it would have taken longer to explain the transition from ANH to TESB.

 

The shift from ANH to ESBY is really bad and non existent

 

does anyone know what happens between ANH and TESB?

 

This would tell you what EU came up with, if the respective sections weren't "Closed for Reconstruction"

 

Well possibly, GL could add a scene to ANH similar to the add on in ESB where Vader arrives onto a Star Destroyer just after the Death Star exploded.

And Vader says something to his suboordinates like "Bring Me Skywalker!"

That would sorta be a cool bridge to ESB.

 

That would be pretty cool,but did Vader know it was Luke at that point?

 

According to EU (!) the comic "Vader's quest" claims that he learned later that the pilot who blew up the Death Star was named "Skywalker".


(god help me that I never forget to put these warnings in front of EU-explanations)

 

Doesn't the holiday special take place between ANH and ESB?

I actually like the cartoon part with Boba Fett.


[braces for a massive flaming]

 

I also liked the cartoon segment, which was actually suppose to serve as a pilot for a potential STAR WARS animated series. Too bad it didn't take off. It would've been cool to have had a weekly SW cartoon, and probably with all the same actors doing the voices since they were all there for this little cartoon, even Harrison Ford and James Earl Jones. (To date, I believe it's Ford's one and only cartoon voice acting gig.)

 

I also think the cartoon part is the best part of the holiday special,it makes more sence

 

Examining all the various sources at face value, I think that it's rather impossible to have the transitory period between the Death Star destruction and the evacuation of Yavin take place over a mere six months...unless one drops a number of sources from consideration, due to their sheer quantity.

The post-ANH/pre-ESB time period is quite likely the most heavily-chronicled in Star Wars history, and having the Marvel Comics issues (up to #38), the Goodwin/Williamson newspaper strips, Splinter of the Mind's Eye, Vader's Quest, the nearly innumerable other children's books...hell, even the Kashyyyk "Life Day" brouhaha...ALL fitting into this six-month gap is utterly ludicrous. At that point, facing so many Imperial threats during such a short span of weeks, were I Luke or Han or Leia, I'd probably be sticking a blaster muzzle into my mouth.

I don't quite know yet whom first fabricated this little "postulation," but I'm going to shove rabid, foaming Mynocks up his backside, and staple the hole shut behind them when I find out.

Two choices exist:

1. As mentioned above, one must *drop* sources, if one subscribes to the "Six-Month Evacuation Theory," and cherry-pick whichever ones you prefer; or



2. The time span goes on for at least two years on Yavin, before the flight to Hoth, but which also allows for nearly all of the previously published tales to be considered.

I've been a fan since I was three years old, and when I first heard the "six-month" theory a couple of years or so back, I nearly laughed myself sick. Additionally, as further evidence that the stay on Hoth was much shorter than most people believe, one must consider that the total number of stories dealing with the Rebel forces' occupation of the base there are infinitesimally smaller in number than the stories preceding them.

I would posit roughly a year or so on Hoth, enough time to get the ion cannon into operation, and adequate time to carve out the ice hangars and bascially make the place somewhat remotely liveable, as we see in the film. That didn't happen overnight, but having a year's occupation by the Rebels is well within a comfortable "breathing range," by the time the first Imperial probe droids are launched onto the planet's surface.

 

I always went by THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THE STAR WARS UNIVERSE (and THE STAR WARS ENCYCLOPEDIA), which shows three years between ANH and ESB, and one year between ESB and ROTJ.

 

That's what I always assumed too. The rebels must've fleed from Yavin because the Empire knew they were there, so they chose a remote ice planet to have their base, a place where the Empire wouldn't suspect it'd be.

The reason is simple for the end of ANH. Adam said it best. George wasn't sure if he was going to make ESB or ROTJ yet, so he just finished off his movie with sort of an ending, then the movie was successful, so they decided to make ESB and ROTJ in a row.

 

i disagree with george not thinking he wasnt going to make the others. vader gets away........its called episode 4 for crying out loud. if george didnt think he was gonna make the rest, he woulndt have called it episode 4 and vader would be dead and this theforce.net wouldn't exist and life as we know it would revolve around sponge bob square pants

 

well in the defense of the did not know catgory the episode 4 was added just before the release of empire strikes back. I actualy have a pirited video that does not say episode 4

 

That's true. The "Episode IV" was added to the film during it's rerelease before ESB. Lucas had no idea whether or not ANH would be a success, so he didn't want to close the film with an open-ended finale that left things unresolved in the event the film bombed and ESB never got made. He wanted the film to be able to stand on its own. Sure, Vader gets away at the end, but the heroes survive and the main threat (the Death Star) is destroyed. There have been other movies where the main objective is completed but the villain still gets away at the end.

 

Here's the other explanation.
When Master Lucas first wrote Star Wars (hand-written in pencil!TRUE!) he had written a story several years. One could assume that's the PT & the OT. Which, in theory, TPM does not follow directly to AoTC.
Because nobody would fund a film that large, especially from a relatively unproven director, and a film called "STAR WARS" it was cut down to size.
The Episode markings are actually reference points for Lucas whilst he was trimming down the script.
Everything was planned as to the release. George knew that making the first three first would not be possible as to money and technology available, so he made part IV first. A film full of questions.
The gap between the IV and V you can think of as deleted scenes.

Some info as been taken from various Biogs of Lucas and unauthorised "makings Of..."

 

I heard Lucas say that he had actually never intended to film what would become the prequels. He said that when he sat down to write the first film (ANH), he had to create a backstory in order to know where everyone and everything was coming from. Then after ANH was a success (ensuring ESB and ROTJ), he thought to himself, "Hmmm. Maybe one day I can actually tell all this background information."

 

What's fascinating is if you read all of these old starkiler scripts, you can see where Lucas get's all of this 'it was originall supposed to be' stuff from. He wasn't kidding when he uses the term originally.
Like when the Ewoks were originally supposed to be wookies.
In the SK scripts, the 'reel six' is very much so like RotJ. The heros land on a forest world, meet the wookies (and Owen and Beru consequently). The recruit the wookies to help them fight the death star, and then it goes into the ANH death star battle only with wookies flying.
But, that wasn't to be, so he put the idea aside to maybe resurrect it later, and thus, we got RotJ. A Death Star was already seen though, so Lucas had to work around that.

Also in that early draft was a mix of Luke's Tusken encounter and Qi-Gon's Tatooine maul encounter. Instead of a Tusken, a Sith Knight assaults the starkiller family and kills the father and the youngest boy.

Also of note, a variaion of the TF's invasion of Naboo is there. A scene when floating tanks, troops, and flying vehicles marching onward to find our heros is described. Years later, he was able to show it in TPM

More interesting notes:

The dianoga was originally a Rancor/Acklay type creature.

A hero was contained in a forcefeild much like Obi-Wan's in AotC.

Cloud City was originally the floating Imperial Prison World of Alderaan (think Death Star).

A cyborg character named Luke Skywalker (I believe) was mostly cyborg (like Vader).

In one draft, the idea of cloning first appears.

Tons of names are seen in their first incarnation (but used with very different characters usually).

Biggs, Deak, Mace, Cliegg, Ben, Obi-Wan, Luke Skywalker, Anakin, Owen, Beru, Jawa, Wookie, Chewie (a human pilot later to be Wedge), Han Solo (think a slimmer Dex, and green), Jabba, Rodians (not mentioned by name though), Valorum, and more

They're a great read if you ever get the chance