Without Shadows Of The Empire and the EU there's a bit of a plot hole between V and VI

OK at the end of ESB, Lando and Chewie go off to Tatooine in the Falcon, leaving Luke, Leia and the droids aboard the Rebel frigate.

Fast forward to Return Of The Jedi as Han, Lando, Leia, Chewie and 3PO blast off to the Rebels in the Falcon, and Luke and R2 go off in his X-Wing to visit da green one.

Now, if Luke says in ESB that he'll meet Lando on Tatooine, and he does in his X-Wing, how the hell did Leia and 3PO get there?
Him meeting Lando on Tatooine implies that Lando and Chewie remain there, and if the group leaves in just the Falcon and the X-Wing in ROJ, that means that no other ship was taken with them.

The answer to my question is easy - Shadows Of The Empire, which tells the story of the gap between the two films, which used to be a year (but that damn Steve Sansweet now claims it is a very short time).

What my real point is, without SOTE (which is part of the EU) there would be a big inconsistency within the film saga.

Therefore I think EU, or at least SOTE, should be considered canon (c'mon, Dash Rendar's ship is in ANH Special Edition!)

 

"but that damn Steve Sansweet now claims it is a very short time"

huh ?


And you could imagine hundreds of different scenarios for what happens between the two movies... Not necessarily what happens in SOTE...

But I agree the EU should be officially declared canon...

 

The EU is officially canon. Everything that is not Infinities is canon.

 

that's nice then.

oh and i know it was mentioned by sansweet somewhere (probably on OS's Ask the Jedi Council) that instead of ESB being three years after ANH, it was 1, and ROJ was a few months after ESB.

Well I suppose you're right, a lot could have happened in the time between.

 

I think SOTE is the best EU book. It seems more muture and Vader is at his kick butt best.

I always thought that there was more time past between movies. One year between ANH and ESB ? And only a feww months to ROTJ ?

Luke sure greww but and aged quick. Oh well.

 

I believe that I read in the novelized RotJ or somewhere that Han was only in carbonite for 6 months

 

Between ESB and SOTE, there's Marvel. Luke and Leia get a bit distracted by some missions they have to perform for the Alliance and are delayed. That's all right because in Tales of the Bounty Hunters, Boba Fett gets attacked by two models of IG-88 above Tattooine. He manages to defeat them, but sustains heavy damage to his ship and wisely chooses not to land on Tattooine and diverts elsewhere. I believe Lando and Chewie begin spending their spare time by looking for Fett's trail, but are initially unsuccessful. They are beginning to make some progress (after some time) when they are recalled to the Alliance as Luke has being infected by a disease/weapon/artifact called the Crimson Forever during one of his missions. Han and Chewie had previously encountered the source for it, and the cure, and the group springs into action to cure Luke. (Obviously, they are successful).

I'm not too sure, but i think that Lando and Chewie stuck around whilst the Arbra base was being set up, and when Luke was framed for Shira Brie's murder whilst flying defence for the base, Lando smuggles him out so he can find out the truth.

After the Shira Brie incident, Luke and co. turn their energies to finding Boba Fett, who is still missing, by tracking his colleagues. They split up, Leia handling Dengar and Lando and Luke handling Bossk. (Zuckuss and 4-LOM had joined the Alliance earlier in Tales of the Bounty Hunters and the last IG-88 was preparing for transfer into the DS 2 computer). Leia has to confront a Mandalorian warrior called Fenn Shysa, whom i think she befriends and who turns up later after Endor, in order to get to Dengar, but he doesn't know anything. Luke and Lando run into a gang that Han and co. ran into before Hoth, (shown in a flashback issue) and have no success with Bossk. Having failed to locate Fett, they return to Tattooine to await his inevitable appearance. Luke sets up shop at Obi-wan's hut and finds the lightsaber instruction manual. It is believed that up until this point, Luke had been using a saber that he took from Baron Tagge in a fight well before ESB. Now the events of SOTE begin.

Now, i'm not sure if Zuckuss and 4-LOM are still with the alliance or not at this stage, if they are than they embark on their own effort to get Han. If they aren't, well then they're just in it for profit and revenge. Anyway, they organise a truce of sorts with Dengar and Bossk to hunt Boba Fett. This adventure is outlined in Battle of the Bounty Hunters, and all i know is that they don't prevent Fett making his delivery.


For those of you interested in action that doesn't necessarily include the main heroes, the tale of the war between ESB and RotJ is told in 3 computer games ; X-wing Alliance, TIE-Fighter and Rebel Assault 2. X-wing Alliance goes throughout the year, it even has two missions from SOTE (which clearly marks the half-way point of the year). TIE Fighter also goes throughout the year, and shows the second of the SOTE missions from the Imperial angle. Rebel Assault II : The Hidden Empire takes up a smaller amount of time, and occurs at roughly the same time, or more probably, after SOTE as it provides the backstory for one of the last campaigns in TIE-Fighter.

Hope that helps.

 

From a cetain point of view there is, but the same can be said for the gap between AHN and ESB. SOTE was one of the best EU novels to be released. It's a good filler...

 

I think its in the Radio drama as well, but I'm not sure.

 

Only one year between ANH and ESB?!? What a dumb idea!

Did they really abandon the Y-Wing, though? The Falcon is capable of carrying an attached Y-Wing.

TC

 

Maybe it was the same Y-wing from SotME and wasn't in too good shape, so they left it on the planet.

 

It's 3 years in the Essential Chronology and that came out after the sansweet quote. So it was definitly 3 years between anh and esb.

 

I never believed otherwise.

 

Now, someone tell the Arrandas.

TC

 

No wonder they act like kids, they think that they're 2 years younger than everyone else

 

in the NJO timeline at the start of the book it says 3 years between ANH and ESB, and 1 between ESB and ROJ. I think I'm more taken to believe that than Steve Sansweet.

And how come Sansweet has become one of Lucas's buddies just because he used to own a lot of toys?

 

At what part in ANH Special Edition is the Outrider...i didn't see it...

 

Ahhh...for that, look up in the sky as Luke and Obi-Wan are driving down the main street, in an overhead "master" shot coming, I believe, right after the one droid smacks down its smaller counterpart.

You can spot it in fairly large detail taking off, at that point. (Either that, or just keep lookingn skyward in every single shot prior to the Cantina scenes. You'll probably see it eventually.)

 

LOL, DaJames.

TC