When does Star Wars take place in terms of Earth's BCE/CE

[Ravengrim]

Its a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away....from the point of view of the narrator. Honestly, its a friggin' opening line. You dont honestly believe Cinderella happened once upon a time, do you? GL needed an opening line that wasnt cheesy, so he made one up. Its better than, 'OK, so this one time..."

The fact that there are humans in the SW galaxy means that earth is in there somewhere. Unless there is a planet that has an identical gravity, density and atmosphere. That evolved an identical species. And whose climates were similar enough that identical races emerged.

[Solauren]

According to Time Tales, it's roughly 15,000 years ago

[Diamedes]

i believe everyones missing somthing, 100,000 years ago might not be a long time ago, but i believe it is said long long ago in a glaxy far far away,

i believe long long ago would be the same thing as long squared.

and somone said sommthing about humans origimating form earth, nothing in the starwars universe ever says anything about earth so its an invalid statement, some how 2 humans and an a really advanced droid flew to our galaxy. 1 human was a man named adum and the other a female named Eev. the droid's model was G6-0D. they crashed on a planet, the all hit their heads, the humans had amensia and only remebered their names the droid's system malfunctioned and memory was corrupted, the 6 in its name was lost and cloaking device permantly activated. you know the story on from there.

but anyways...

Just because earth is never mentioned doesn't mean it doesn't exist. After somewhere between 25 000 and 100 000 years of history, earth may not be important, may have a different name (like Coruscant or Corellia), or may not exist. It's not like people would walk around dropping their origin on earth into the conversation, just like I don't greet people with, "Hello, my African savanah evolved buddy!"

Ultimately, if you want to connect something like Star Wars to the real world, the fossil record and genetic similiarities work to make the whole Adam and Eve analogues thing invalid.

And if one really wishes to be pedantic, the use of terms like parsecs, which is based on the earth's orbit around the sun, require an earth-centric perspective.

[Lord Revan]

First the SW galaxy is not our galaxy, Second nobody knows where Humans orignated in the SW galaxy (so it's possible that there's no human homeworld because human aren't orginally from that galaxy).

[Drooling Iguana]

And if one really wishes to be pedantic, the use of terms like parsecs, which is based on the earth's orbit around the sun, require an earth-centric perspective.

Well, somehow I doubt they speak English in a galaxy far, far away either, so it was obviously translated by the filmmakers, who almost certainly translated the units of measurement along with it (although they did make a slip up or two, most notably concerning a line of Han Solo's dialogue.)

In fact, the fact that the films were translated into English means that its intended audience would have to have been English-speaking Earthlings, so it would have to have taken place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away from the perspective of those English-speaking Earthlings.

[Diamedes]

And if one really wishes to be pedantic, the use of terms like parsecs, which is based on the earth's orbit around the sun, require an earth-centric perspective.

Well, somehow I doubt they speak English in a galaxy far, far away either, so it was obviously translated by the filmmakers, who almost certainly translated the units of measurement along with it (although they did make a slip up or two, most notably concerning a line of Han Solo's dialogue.)

Like I said, if one wants to be pedantic.

In fact, the fact that the films were translated into English means that its intended audience would have to have been English-speaking Earthlings, so it would have to have taken place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away from the perspective of those English-speaking Earthlings.

In the linguistic community, many hold the opinion that English will freeze in structure do to the presence of recorded media across generations. From this perspective it wouldn't be surprising that a technological society that could cross galaxies and exist for tens of millenia had frozen its language, due to exposure to recorded media across time.

Really, we can't say much about Star Wars in our timeline, except for what an EU writer says. And we probably shouldn't take it too seriously, it is just space fantasy. However, if you want to integrate it into our world, you have to account for certain facts of our knowledge base, and I prefer to do that by making into a fairy tale of the future.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

While other people prefer to actually be intelligent about the situation.

Seriously, it's not our fucking future. It's someone else's past. That's what it fucking says at the start of the movie.

[Kane Starkiller]

My guess would be that 25,000 years ago a group of human colonists/explorers went on deep space mission and ended up in this SW galaxy much like people that first settled in america few thousand years ago.
All we need now is intergalactic version of Europeans from Earth coming to "discover" the "New Galaxy" and share it with the natives.

Seriously though, names like Luke, Owen, Ben plus the use of arabic numbers clearly put SW events in our future.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

My guess would be that 25,000 years ago a group of human colonists/explorers went on deep space mission and ended up in this SW galaxy much like people that first settled in america few thousand years ago.
All we need now is intergalactic version of Europeans from Earth coming to "discover" the "New Galaxy" and share it with the natives.

That completely ignores literally reams of material from the EU.

Seriously though, names like Luke, Owen, Ben plus the use of arabic numbers clearly put SW events in our future.

Those fall under automatic translation.

Why are some people so obsessed with putting Star Wars in the future? Or in OUR future, no less? It's stupid. It just strikes me as totally absurd: wishful thinking rather than actual theory or hypothesis.

[Kane Starkiller]

Those fall under automatic translation.

Why is Luke translated into normal name but Obi-Wan isn't?
How do they even know what is SW equvivalent of Luke?
Secondly we've seen arabic numbers on display.

Why are some people so obsessed with putting Star Wars in the future? Or in OUR future, no less?

Why would I be obsessed? Because I have an opinion?

It's stupid. It just strikes me as totally absurd: wishful thinking rather than actual theory or hypothesis.

Stupid?!
I see a bunch of humans running around the galaxy in their big starships. What am I supposed to think? That the SW takes place during fucking stone age?

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Those fall under automatic translation.

Why is Luke translated into normal name but Obi-Wan isn't?
How do they even know what is SW equvivalent of Luke?
Secondly we've seen arabic numbers on display.

That still falls under automatic translation. Like how basic has been automatically translated into English. It's the same idea for Tolkien's LotR: everything's in Westron (even character names) which has been translated into English.

Stupid?!
I see a bunch of humans running around the galaxy in their big starships. What am I supposed to think? That the SW takes place during fucking stone age?

It says right at the start "a long time ago in a galaxy far far away." We are therefore to deduce that it takes place in the distant past, in a very distant galaxy, with transpositioned humans. It's just as simple and rational as that.

[Diamedes]

Why are you so obsessed with keeping it in the past? What does it really matter either way?

[Noble Ire]

Why are you so obsessed with keeping it in the past? What does it really matter either way?

"A LONG TIME AGO..."

I really think thats all we need to know, weird time travel theories and relativity aside. Deal with it.

[Junghalli]

It says right at the start "a long time ago in a galaxy far far away." We are therefore to deduce that it takes place in the distant past, in a very distant galaxy, with transpositioned humans. It's just as simple and rational as that.

So how the fuck did they get there?
I think we can use Occam's Razor for this. Here are the competing theories.

(1) SW is in the future and SW humans are descended from people who left Earth and maybe the MW altogether.
(2)SW is in the past and the humans aren't actually humans at all, their human appearance is pure coincidence.
(3)SW takes place in the past and SW humans were transported to that galaxy by advanced aliens for some reason.
(4)SW takes place in the past and the humans got there through time travel.

Number two is close to impossible. Numbers three and four have unneccessary terms (advanced aliens and time travel). Number one is the simplest and most logical explanation, and is contradicted by one line in the film which we can find ways of reinterpreting or can just discard as the storyteller talking out of his ass. I'll go with number one.

[Illuminatus Primus]

How many times do I have to emphasize it - Occam's Razor says the simplest explanation that DOES account for ALL the evidence is preferable. Discounting "a long time ago" is not accounting for all the evidence and is not parsimonically desirable.

Not to mention, you fucking imbecile, that if its in the future and we're watching it today, than you're still invoking time travel.

Transplanted primitive humans is the easiest and simplest explanation which invokes the fewest terms and avoids shitty crap like time travel.

[Dooey Jo]

Transplanted primitive humans is the easiest and simplest explanation which invokes the fewest terms and avoids shitty crap like time travel.

No, it has shitty crap like body snatchers instead


Seriously though, is there any mention of SW humans actually originating from Earth, anywhere in the EU? Why can't they just have evolved on their own? Or why can't they also be "auto-translations", like the English language, to make a human audience understand the story and setting better?

Though I do agree that it's stupid to say that SW takes place in our future. It's so obvious; "a long time ago in a galaxy far far away". How can one possibly interpret that to "in this galaxy's future"?? It's the precise opposite of what it says!

[Noble Ire]

Seriously though, is there any mention of SW humans actually originating from Earth, anywhere in the EU?

Never, not even in the hysterically inaccurate old "Tales" comics. The home planet of the human race is unknown, although Coruscant is often sited as a possiblity.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Often stated, yes, but in truth incredibly unlikely. Coruscant is slightly too far away from its star to properly support a fully comfortable climate for humans to have adapted from there. Coruscant is also already the homeworld of two IIRC now extinct species, who were destroyed in cateclysmic volcanic erruptions. Basically, humans would have had a hell of a time evolving on there.

I think a more likely origin point for humans is Corellia.

[nightmare]

Nope, its still listed, but when you click on it, it says something along the lines of "this file no longer exists."

I wonder why they would delete it. Perhaps its just tech. difficulties, who knows.

It's down for major rework when they get around to it.

[Illuminatus Primus]

No, it has shitty crap like body snatchers instead

Does it violate any extra physical laws like fucking causality, about the most basic rule of existance imaginable? Thought not.

"Clunky" or "weird" items are not equivalent with taking a steamy dump on Special Relativity and basic logic. I wish there was a "scientific literacy test" one had to pass before posting on SDN.

Seriously though, is there any mention of SW humans actually originating from Earth, anywhere in the EU? Why can't they just have evolved on their own?

Again, I wish there was a "scientific literacy test" one had to pass before posting on SDN.

The probability of that lies somewhere with you randomly quantum tunneling through the Earth into the Indian Ocean right now. We prefer to call this probability in every day terms, "its never fucking going to happen" or "its fucking impossible."

Or why can't they also be "auto-translations", like the English language, to make a human audience understand the story and setting better?

Have you seen dubbed-over interviews in real-world documentaries?

We know they are humans. This is stated. Your idea is not only contradicting canon, but it also invokes unnecessary terms which are not needed. We know Basic is autotranslated because we can observe that it is nothing like modern English, yet they speak in contemporary English.

Though I do agree that it's stupid to say that SW takes place in our future. It's so obvious; "a long time ago in a galaxy far far away". How can one possibly interpret that to "in this galaxy's future"?? It's the precise opposite of what it says!

Look, I'm sorry, but no one, count it, no one has come up with an explanation which does not violate canon, parsimony, or extra physical laws that is superior to the alien abduction hypothesis. One thing is clear, the preferable theory is that humans in their more primitive states somehow made it from Earth to the GFFA before the rise of civilization. Humans have to evolve on Earth. The fossil record demands it.

The fact that the theory doesn't sit with you aesthetically does not mean this shit you people have been proposing is superior. And try a little harder. I could eat alphabet soup and shit out better hypotheses than these.

I'd say the second best theory and the one which subjectively and qualitatively feels more soothing is that the GFFA is an alternate universe from our own. However, space and time does not have some external reference frame in any concept of a multiverse, so this would render the opening text as meaningless as the shitty "future" theory.

[Dooey Jo]

Does it violate any extra physical laws like fucking causality, about the most basic rule of existance imaginable? Thought not.

"Clunky" or "weird" items are not equivalent with taking a steamy dump on Special Relativity and basic logic. I wish there was a "scientific literacy test" one had to pass before posting on SDN.

Right... Noticed the little smiley up there? It means that the comment was not serious...

Again, I wish there was a "scientific literacy test" one had to pass before posting on SDN.

The probability of that lies somewhere with you randomly quantum tunneling through the Earth into the Indian Ocean right now. We prefer to call this probability in every day terms, "its never fucking going to happen" or "its fucking impossible."

That's not entirely true. If the universe is infinite in size, and since there are only a finite number of different ways to combine all the different particles in it, then there will be an infinite number of worlds on which beings, identical to humans, live. Granted, statisically, they will be really far away from each other, but then again, that is what the opening says. If by "far far away" they actually mean "way further than the bounds of the visible universe"...

Have you seen dubbed-over interviews in real-world documentaries?

Yes.

We know they are humans. This is stated. Your idea is not only contradicting canon, but it also invokes unnecessary terms which are not needed. We know Basic is autotranslated because we can observe that it is nothing like modern English, yet they speak in contemporary English.

Okay, then.