The end of the Empire Strikes Back is one of the greatest moments in Star Wars history
The Rebels have just been beaten down by the Empire, Luke's lost his hand, Han Solo is frozen in carbonite,
but still, Luke and Leia are back together as our C-3PO and R2-D2
one of my favorite songs of the original trilogy the rebel fleet kicks in and we as if you were
realize that there's still hope for the Rebellion. As amazing as this scene is, many Star Wars fans have wondered what exactly
is the Rebel fleet looking at? What is that large bright spot that you can see through the viewport of the Nebulon B? I'll be
Giving you the definitive answer to this question in both legends and canon on today's star wars lore
Before we get started I'd like to
apologize to you guys for putting out in another short video today. I know you guys are used to this channel putting out 10
minute or longer videos full of
analysis and I haven't really done one of those for a couple of days. I've got some stuff going on in my personal life that
has prevented me putting the normal amount of time that youtube.
Don't worry though in the next few days my time should become more open and I've got
some galactic versus and some versus and episodes planned this video was inspired by one that i posted the other day which
generated some discussion about the topic and
this is actually something that hardcore star wars fans even get wrong. A lot of the problem here comes from the fact that this mass
Was actually intended to be the star wars galaxies. The script refers to it as the galaxy and i believe that that was George Lucas's
Original intention however there are some issues with that why is it spinning so fast,
why is the rebel alliance so far away from the galaxy, and why are they flying away fans have came up with several explanations
seeking to explain away these discrepancies.
The first is that perhaps this is another galaxy and to be fair the script for The Empire Strikes Back
doesn't actually say that they're looking at the Star Wars Galaxy just a
galaxy. People have also suggested that they're looking at some sort of stellar event; perhaps a star or a planet forming something around those lines
thankfully for us both star wars legends and canon have explicitly laid out what this mass is and
surprisingly they both given different answers. Interestingly both Pablo Hidalgo and Leland Chee have also held different
Opinions on what this mass is which is perhaps why the answer has changed with the new continuity. In star wars
legends the rebel heroes were very clearly looking at the Star Wars
Galaxy i noticed from a couple of sources the first is a quote from
Leland Chee he says since that image or one similar from attack of the clones has been used as the backdrop for
Published galaxy maps i think it is pretty clear that it is the galaxy that you are seeing.
The more concrete and official source for this comes from the very wonderful collection of short stories
Tales of the Bounty Hunter actually talked about the tale of boba fett a couple of days ago in a previous video but one
The other stories is of?
Possible future the tales of zuckuss and for long in that we get the following quote the rebels have left the galaxy they had gone
To a point above the galactic plane
far from any stars from all the places the Empire might track them down. The Empire had left them nowhere else to run as an
army He guessed how truly desperate the rebellion was then.
Ascending up out of the galaxy's gravity well was no easy task. For those wondering, in star wars legends this location was called the haven
rendezvous point.
When you've gotten past the energy shield, proceed directly to the rendezvous point.
In canon we have a different answer which comes from the book
Star Wars Made Easy. In that we have very simply, a picture of the scene and a caption which says "The Rebel Fleet
gathers near a protostar at the end of the Empire Strikes Back" and that's basically all we have so far, at least to my knowledge.
That one little line from the book has changed what was previously
the edge of the galaxy to a protostar. Be informed i think there was actually some
miscommunication between the author of this book or at least the illustrator and
the editor because they use this image
When talking about the star wars galaxy as a whole almost like this picture is supposed to represent the galaxy.
However underneath it says that they're looking at a protostar.
That's super confusing especially given that the history diverges between legends and canon.
Personally i'm not a big fan of this change for several reasons; first, it ignores what's clearly in the script.
Lucas clearly intended this bright spot to at least be a galaxy. Second, I think it's overly
complicated. I think it's pretty clear that this is intended to be a galaxy even without looking at the script, and, I feel like in
unnecessarily imposing science to the Star Wars universe, they've made something more
complicated. I don't like that, especially because as a kid i always thought that it was the Star Wars galaxy, and that's really the option
I prefer, but that's just my opinion. I'd love to hear what you guys think. Which option do you prefer; the Star Wars Galaxy, or
some sort of protostar(A protostar is a newly born star) whatever that is, or something else in between. How do you think the scene makes sense as a protostar?
Why is the Falcon flying towards it? Why did they choose it as their meetup spot, and why is the alliance leaving? Also I'm curious
whether you liked the
rationale from the Bounty Hunters book that the Rebel Alliance has temporarily left the galaxy just because the empire could basically find them
anywhere else?
Let me know all that and anything else down in the comments. Anyways, thank you so much for watching guys, as always this has been Eckharts
Ladder. May the force be with you.