"Well, if there's a bright center to the universe, you're on the planet that it's farthest from."

Luke says this about his home world of Tattooine in ANH. The question is, is this a corect statement. Not just thinking about literal distance from Coruscant (the center) but also how Tatooine is distanced so far from the Republic in PT and its harsh climate. For a while I think Kamino was like that, erased from the Jedi archives and creating an army in secret in the far reaches of the SW Galaxy. But overall what planet do you think is the farthest from the bright center? Is it Tatooine?

 

It obviously wasn't meant to mean literally being the farthest away, it was symbolic of Tatooine's relative status. It's the boonies, its BFE. Its like being from a tiny town in Oklahoma, and saying you are about as far away from New York City as you can get...

Now, as far as whether Tatooine is the symbolic farthest away, its a completely subjective question, with answers that cannot be proven in any case. How do you define the terms, you know? But, based on just the planets we see in the films, I would probably say either Hoth or Dagobah, based on criteria I would select. Hoth, environmentally is the exact opposite of the "bright center", whether it refers to the Core worlds in general, or Coruscant in particular, but, Dagobah somehow managed to have even less people on it than Hoth...Tatooine had some culture, it had cities, a legitimate population of Humans, Jawas, and Sand People. It was used as a base for the Hutts, and as a result, had an active spaceport, with transportation to and from. Hoth and Dagobah however, are for all intents and purposes, completely isolated. Hoth had a population of a few hundred rebels, and Dagobah had a population of one...until Luke arrived, and it doubled to a whopping two. That is about as opposite of Coruscant as you can really get. Coruscant was a planet of technology, the entire surface covered by city...Hoth and Dagobah had no civilization, where Coruscant was city, Dagobah was swamp and trees, and Hoth had snow. And more snow. And even more snow after that. No cities though.

 

To, Luke it was the planet that it was farthest from. He was just a simple farm boy who lived a boring life on Tatooine. To him, the rest of the galaxy was full of adventure, and Tatooine was just plain boring. It is not meant to be taken literally.

 

While Tatooine does have civilization, there is nothing there that is Republic at all. I mean there's still slavery.

 

It's officially part of the Republic/Empire. But the Republic/Empire doesn't care, so it's basically up for grabs for the crimelords and slavemasters like Jabba the Hutt and Watto.

 

tatooine is not nearly the farthest. first of all he said the universe, and star wars is based solely on 1 galaxy. so at that point you should just disregard the entire comment as him saying he lives in an unimportant place.

but for those who choose to take it further, the republic does not make up the galaxy. There is vast majority of the galaxy that is undiscovered, it is called the Unknown regions. and since the entire galaxy hasnt been explored it cant be said either way which planet is farthest or closest to the center.

and for those that are curious, yes there are other galaxies in the star wars universe, The far outsiders or yuuzhon vong are from another galaxy. And they at one point take over the majority of galaxy that Star wars is set in.

 

Tatooine is in the "far Outer Rim". According to one of the galaxy map screens visible in AOTC, it is in one of the spiral arms. This may be the part of the Outer Rim which is farthest from the Core. Of course, there would presumably be habitable places farther out in that region.

 

Symbolically, Coruscant is the "bright centrer to the universe". The comment by Luke is ironic, to say the least.

Scientifically, everywhere is the centre of the universe, if the universe began from a single point and is expanding uniformly in all directions.

 

The bright galactic center is the city-planet capital, while Luke is deserted on the backward country in the far Outer-Rim. This has been explained greatly before my comment. It is all just a reflection of Luke's feelings. The boy is frustrated with being trapped on the moisture farm and like his father longs for the day when he can escape. Unlike Anakin, Luke remains on Tatooine and does not break out. It isn't until his family is destroyed and his connection broken--that the boy decides to venture out. It is an interesting comparison.


-Seldon