As soon as Mando and Grogu said goodbye to each other in “The Mandalorian”, they were back together – right? Years may seem to have passed during Luke’s Jedi training, but time is a difficult subject in Star Wars.
- Not even the Millennium Falcon flies as fast as time in the “Star Wars” universe.
- What feels like days is actually several years, but who knows for sure?
- Again and again it shows that logic is not at the center of the “Star Wars” films and series.
“The Mandalorian” is back on Disney+ and of course Mando and Grogu experience exciting new adventures in the new episodes of Season 3. But wait – why is Grogu on board Mando’s ship when it wasn’t until the season 2 finale that their tearful goodbyes happened? And why does Mando even have a new ship?
It’s actually quite unusual that highly relevant events in the Mandalorian story took place in The Book of Boba Fett. Of course, Marvel has been doing something similar for years, if you miss a movie here, it’s your own fault! But The Book of Boba Fett initially felt like a standalone spin-off before the series suddenly morphed into The Mandalorian season 2.5 towards the end.
Criticism of this approach is understandable to a certain point, but “Star Wars” fans should have learned several times already in early 2022 that Mando became an important part of Boba Fett’s story. And isn’t the news that there are three more “The Mandalorian” episodes on Disney+ actually very positive, even if they’re in another series?
At this point, however, it’s not actually supposed to be about how Disney publishes the story of Mando and Grogu, but about the story itself, more specifically about Grogu’s time with Luke Skywalker.
Time flies when you’re having fun!
At the end of Season 2, Grogu bids farewell to Mando and joins Luke to be tutored by him. If you skipped Boba Fett, this major breakup felt like a blink of an eye — or three years, given the amount of time that elapsed between the two seasons.
But even if you know Mando’s full story and have followed Grogu’s training in The Book of Boba Fett, the time Mando had to spend without Grogu might seem very brief. The snappy storytelling of the “Star Wars” series made it seem like Grogu was Luke’s Padawan for a few weeks before returning to Mando.
In a new interview “The Mandalorian” creator Jon Favreau was asked about the length of time Grogu spent with Luke and revealed that Mando had to be without his little friend for a full two years!
Little science, a lot of fiction
This news surprised many fans, which in turn seemed to surprise Favreau. Time is extremely relative, especially in the “Star Wars” universe, times are almost always very vague.
Just think of “Star Wars Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back”. Luke goes to Dagobah to learn from Yoda, but how long does his training take? weeks? Months? Years? Although he breaks off his training prematurely, he has definitely made some progress in the meantime.
Meanwhile, Han, Leia and Chewbacca escape imprisonment by the Empire, but must now travel to Bespin to repair the Millennium Falcon’s malfunctioning hyperdrive.
Since Luke rejoins Leia and Chewie at the end of the film, with whom he leaves Bespin, we have to assume that Luke was with Yoda for about as long as it took the Millennium Falcon to get from Hoth to Bespin. Sounds like a pretty short time, doesn’t it? Mistake!
Han himself describes the route as long, but without hyperdrive that’s an understatement. The exact distance between Hoth and Bespin is not known, however a Reddit user was at least able to find out that the two planets are at least 1150 light years apart.
How long would it take a spaceship without hyperdrive to travel that distance? About 1,183,561,644 years! Has the Millennium Falcon really been on the road for so long? Of course not! And even the assumption that the journey lasted several years is surprising in the context of the film, because such a long time would undoubtedly have had a strong influence on the relationships between the characters on board without us having seen much of this time.
In summary, one can say: The authors of “Star Wars”, be it George Lucas or Jon Favreau, simply want to tell the most exciting story possible. If realism gets in the way, it can be safely ignored, giving us a minimum of science and a maximum of fiction.
Unrealistically fast travel was also criticized in the last few seasons of “Game of Thrones”, but these inaccuracies were only so serious there, because there was previously a great deal of importance attached to realism. Apart from that, you’re only making your life unnecessarily difficult if you look for mistakes like this in science fiction or fantasy stories. If we can believe in power, why not have extremely variable itineraries?
Rate The Mandalorian | |
Genre | Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
first airing |
12.11.2019 |
First broadcast in Germany |
01.01.2020 |
Homepage | disneyplusoriginals.disney.com |
More sources | |
Production |
Lucasfilm, Walt Disney Studios |
squadrons |
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