An Empire Strikes Back question?

[Warhammer]

Ok, this is yet another one of those question threads. Here we go.

During The Empire Strikes Back, how long would you assume it has been during Han Solo and co. being chased by the empire, and Luke Skywalker's training with Yoda?

I always wondered about that amount of time. It didn't seem too long considering Vader going out of his way to catch the Millennium Falcon. I always assumed that it was 1-2 days. I doubt that Vader was going to go out of his way for more than that to try and find the Falcon. It also didn't seem that Han Solo was hiding/evading from the empire for that long. They'd also have to be on edge every time, so they'd know where the empire was, and I didn't think that Vader would be searching all that time, non-stop, for them.

When Luke sensed Han Solo, Leia, and co. in danger, he wanted to leave. When Yoda tells him to remember about his failure in the cave, Luke says "But I've learned so much since then." I was always under the impression that Luke definitely did not go to Dagobah, become acquainted with Yoda, do all of the training that was showed in the movie, and "learn so much since" failing at the cave all in 1-2 days. Obviously, Luke didn't do all that training, and grew stronger with the Force in that short period of time.

What do y'all think?

 

[Movies205]

I always thought it was a period of a couple of weeks, there's nothing indictative either way... At least from what I remember... But then again I'm too lazy to take teh dvds off my shelf and watch it

 

[ゴジラ]

Seems like a couple of weeks

 

[Swordmaster]

Since the Falcon's hyperdrive was all screwed up, I assumed it took the crew a few weeks to get to Cloud City. Just my thoughts.

 

[Warhammer]

Ohhhhhhhhhhh...
I guess Vader sure was determined.

 

[HR-PUFF&STUFF]

the time don't add up much. for luke its a few months and for han and leia its a few weeks if that, but didn't luke get to dagouba before han and leia got to cloud city?

 

[Halcohol]

I had always assumed that Luke had made it to Dagobah at the same time the Falcon touched down inside the asteroid cave for repairs. I always figured Luke was there for about a month or so.

 

[The Kid]

luke was injected with more midichlorians

 

[amazingfantasy15]

That is kinda weird since it took Jedi's in the old days like 15-20 years at least to learn what Luke learned in a few days/weeks.

 

[Halcohol]

luke was injected with more midichlorians

That just meant he had a stronger connection to the Force, not that he knew how to connect with it properly.

Also, reading the novels, it shows how Luke realizes that his training with Yoda was a last-ditch effort to fight the Emperor and as such, required unconventional training.

From what I can tell, the old Padawan-style of training focused more on the spiritual aspects of the Force, while Luke's was more about flooding himself with the power of the Force and resisting the dark side.

 

[Victarion]

From what I can tell, the old Padawan-style of training focused more on the spiritual aspects of the Force, while Luke's was more about flooding himself with the power of the Force and resisting the dark side.

I hypothesize this would be on account of the old midichlorian bio-Force stuff turned Jedi into whiny brats that would sit and roll over when told. t:

 

[The Kid]

That just meant he had a stronger connection to the Force, not that he knew how to connect with it properly.

Also, reading the novels, it shows how Luke realizes that his training with Yoda was a last-ditch effort to fight the Emperor and as such, required unconventional training.

From what I can tell, the old Padawan-style of training focused more on the spiritual aspects of the Force, while Luke's was more about flooding himself with the power of the Force and resisting the dark side.

Yes I agree there, that luke's training probably focused more on widening his connection to the power of the force. He took his first step on the falcon, learned to do it willingly in the trench, struggled to open himself to it more in between anh and esb, then opened the flood gates when he recieved expert training from yoda. That's why his confidence was boosted, I gathered. He thought he'd gained enough of a grasp of it. It's like a kid riding a bike. just because you've mastered keeping your balance doesn't mean you're like dave mirra yet.

 

[strikezone89]

ta i would say a few months.

 

[Golgo-13]

Lets face it guys...it's a plot hole.

 

[HR-PUFF&STUFF]

Lets face it guys...it's a plot hole.

star wars has no plot holes!!!!

 

[Golgo-13]

star wars has no plot holes!!!!

 

[HR-PUFF&STUFF]

 

[cryptic name]

maybe time worked differently because they were in different parts of the galaxy?

 

[shapeshifter]

I always thought it was a few months. that is a good question though. probably one thing we were not suposed to notice.

 

[HR-PUFF&STUFF]

it not a ****ing plot hole and anyone that says otherwise hates america!!!!

 

[Thundarr]

I just rewatched the entire trilogy last night, and this same question popped in my head.

First thing we have to remember is that the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon was damaged, and they couldn’t make the jump to light speed. That means that they had to fly to Bespin at sublight speeds. We also don’t know how far away Bespin is from the asteroid field that they were hiding in. Han said that it was pretty far, but that’s only because they couldn’t make the jump to light speed. So how long DOES it take to fly through space at sublight speeds?

The nearest planet to Earth that we might try to visit is Mars, which is approximately 55 million kilometres away from Earth. Traveling at Mach 20 (20 times the speed of sound) for the entire journey, it would take a spacecraft about 92 days to make that trip.

So, assuming that the Falcon has a maximum sublight speed of Mach 20, and that Han is able to maintain that speed for the entire trip, and that the distance between the asteroid field and Cloud City is roughly the same as the distance between Earth and Mars, then I would have to assume that it took the Falcon at least 90 days to get to the mining colony.

Of course this is also assuming that time works the same way in the Star Wars Universe as it does in our reality. Our perception of time is based on our position to our sun and the rotation of the Earth. Some planets in the Star Wars Universe might take 30 hours to make a full rotation and only takes 180 days to orbit their sun, or maybe another planet might take 700 days to orbit their sun, and revolves around its axis in only 16 hours. I’m guessing that they probably have some form of metric based clock/calendar for keeping time in space which is used universally in place of local planets rotation/orbit based clocks/calendars.

Regardless, without a hyperdrive it would have to have taken Han and Leia weeks, if not months to reach Cloud City. Which means that Luke had to have spent about 90 days or so training with Yoda.

 

[Herofan]

It's pretty ambiguous but I would say it was probably (after the initial pretty-brief chase and staying in the asteroid) 2-4 weeks for the Falcon to get to Bespin. Long enough for Luke to be training a serious amount of time (and long enough for there to be more sexual tension between Han and Leia but not for Han to become too insistent or want a definite yes or no or Leia demand a yes or no).

It could be fun to see a fan edit where someone put all the Han & Leia scenes, until they leave for or arrive on Bespin, before all the Luke on Dagobah training scenes.

 

[Pennywise]

Hmm, good question!

 

[Aximili86]

Getting into science in Star Wars is sort of a non-starter, given it's fantasy rather than sci-fi, but yeah, I always just assumed the actual systems are much closer together than in the real universe. Like even without hyperspace you could travel to the next system over in a day or two.

 

[Thundarr]

Getting into science in Star Wars is sort of a non-starter, given it's fantasy rather than sci-fi, but yeah, I always just assumed the actual systems are much closer together than in the real universe. Like even without hyperspace you could travel to the next system over in a day or two.

You are confusing the term "system" with the word "planet". "System" is short for "star system", with the name of the system being that of the star at it's center. For example, the name of Earth's sun is Sol, thus the name of the system is "The Solar System".

So let's assume that there is a star system right next to our own star system, and the third planet from that systems central star happens to be habitable. It would take considerably longer to travel from the third planet of our system to the third planet of the neighboring system than it would to travel from the third planet to the fourth planet of the same system. If it takes roughly three months to travel from Earth to Mars at mock 20 then I highly doubt that it would take only a few days to travel from Earth to Pluto and then back again at that same speed (roughly how far one would have to travel to the third planet of the neighboring system, assuming both systems are relatively the same size).

I mean sure, if you happen to be located right at the outer edge of a star system, and the neighboring system is practically touching, then I suppose that you can travel from one system to the next in only a day or two at sublight speeds. But that doesn't mean that there's a habitable planet right at the edge of the system. So I maintain my assessment that Luke was training on Dagobah for about 90 days.