Star Words: Episode V, Part 15

[matril]

The timeline of Episode V has always been a matter of some speculation. A few days, maybe a week? If we're going by the Empire's pursuit of the Falcon, that seems like a reasonable assumption. But if we're looking at Luke's time on Dagobah, surely it would have to be longer than that. He progresses much too far in his training for his time with Yoda to be anything less than months, right?

Well, whatever. Repeat to yourself: it's just a show. You should really just relax.

However long Han, Leia and company are hiding in the asteroid, they wouldn't have much spare time to take it easy. Lots of repairs need to be made, and tensions are running higher every minute. That's certainly true for the couple who keeps dancing around their unacknowledged attraction to each other, but before we go there, let's look at another pairing of opposites. As the ship heaves to and fro, Threepio innocently observes that their hiding place might not be stable. Han's response is less than gracious.

"Not entirely stable? I'm glad you're here to tell us these things. Chewie, take the professor in the back and plug him into the hyperdrive."

These are the sort of sardonic lines that Harrison Ford excels at delivering (and, I suspect, Carrie Fisher excels at writing). Just overflowing with weary contempt. And poor Threepio. His programming seems to have a giant gap in the spot marked Comprehending sarcasm. It does make me wonder if his cluelessness is typical for droids of his type -- aren't they supposed to be designed for human-cyborg relations? Hasn't Han worked with literal-minded droids before? And am I once again overthinking it? Maybe, probably, and yes.

Anyway, I heartily recommend quoting this line anytime someone points out something profoundly obvious. It's quite satisfying. (Hopefully your listeners will have more of a sense of humor than Threepio.)

Next, our first encounter with a little green friend....

Comments

[krpalmer]

While I was inspired by the theories of others, my own way to explain this movie's "timeline" is to imagine the Millennium Falcon made it to Bespin after escaping the Imperial fleet using some kind of "emergency space drive" that results in something like (but not quite as extreme as) the "time dilation" of our known physics. "Days" may pass for the characters on board, but "months" pass for Luke. This would seem to mean the cutting between the Falcon and Dagobah is a "cinematic construct," where the "real" ordering might have the Falcon flying away with Boba Fett following before Luke starts running around with Yoda on his back. (Or, as you so wisely quoted, I "should really just relax...")