Timescale of ROTS?

[Kurgan]

Okay, perhaps this is officially stated someplace I haven't read (ie: how long the events of the movie took place) but I was wondering something.

When Anakin first meets up with Padme, he seems surprised to learn that she's pregnant, despite the fact that he just pressed her body up against his (and he must have felt her pregnant body). Now I interpreted that apparent anomaly in that she had learned she was pregnant, but had not yet begun to show signs of it, in the early stages. Now later in the movie her belly becomes more and more prominent, so we could assume time has passed. I'm no expert on Obstetrics, but wouldn't this progression of her pregnancy put some necessary limits on the time frame of the movie events? Obviously I'm talking SOD here, because the makeup/costume department could have screwed up or Lucas could have just said "good enough" (all his kids are adopted, so he'd have had to do research on the whole thing anyway, and movie audiences are used to the fudging of realism in this regard).

Were the twins premature? Some have pointed out that the babies don't look like newborns. But it's also been admitted that the vast majority of movies don't show babies as they would look when first born. They're normally cleaned up and much older, since it would be much more difficult to film a real newborn for a movie and put makeup on the baby, etc. Women giving birth in the movies typically just sweat and scream a little bit and the babies are born in what seems like a few minutes at most, when in reality they can go into labor for many hours and go through all kinds of emotions and such. Of course we don't really know the extent of the futuristic technology of Star Wars affecting human childbirth, but still.

And of course with digital technology Lucas could have done a lot more for the sake of realism had he wanted to. After all, he digitally doubled one real baby and apparently CGed the babies into Ewan McGregor's arms too (from a previous take or another person holding the baby) supposedly.

Is the official timescale of ROTS (if it exists) create a problem with the progress of Padme's pregnancy?

I'd like to hear some thoughts, and if this is all spelled out in some book I haven't read, please be so kind as to enlighten me with the info so I can go read it and feel like an idiot again.

Thanks!

[Quadlok]

I had an idea that, perhaps, since there must be sort of time dilation device at work to make hyperdrive feasable, they might have a time accelerator to allow for very prematurely delivered babies to instantly become six month olds. But I think mainly Lucas just fucked up.

[Elheru Aran]

The wearing of clothes to disguise pregnancy is nothing new even here... I can easily see Padme's outfits being carefully chosen for that purpose.

[Vympel]

The novelization makes it clear it takes place over several days. Padme wore outfits to hide her pregnancy, there's no need to assume Anakin must've been able to tell when he embraced her, look at what she's wearing. Months did not pass. I have no idea why people continue to assume Padme was barely pregnant at the start.

[Darth Quorthon]

Anakin had been away for several months participating in the Outer Rim sieges. The dialogue on page 163 of the novelization states that it had been five months, so Padme was at the very least five months pregnant at the beginning. Give the state of SW technology, that doesn't seem too unreasonable a term to deliver a baby at.

[Doctor Doom]

On a related note, how long was Anakin on Mustafar? Having just watched the movie again, the film depicts Anakin slaughtering the Separatist leadership. Then he seems to simply lounge around Mustafar and brood until all the events transpire on Coruscant that bring Padme and Obi Wan to Mustafar. Does the novelization shed any light on this?

[Vympel]

On a related note, how long was Anakin on Mustafar? Having just watched the movie again, the film depicts Anakin slaughtering the Separatist leadership. Then he seems to simply lounge around Mustafar and brood until all the events transpire on Coruscant that bring Padme and Obi Wan to Mustafar. Does the novelization shed any light on this?

Not to my recollection, but the film implies a couple of hours or so.

[Kurgan]

The novelization makes it clear it takes place over several days. Padme wore outfits to hide her pregnancy, there's no need to assume Anakin must've been able to tell when he embraced her, look at what she's wearing. Months did not pass. I have no idea why people continue to assume Padme was barely pregnant at the start.

Visually it's no problem. But how would her clothing be able to hide the way her belly felt when he hugged her... was she wearing a "fat suit"? No need to immediately dismiss such observations, since I already gave a reason why one might think that. Anakin might just be a little thick.

[Elheru Aran]

The novelization makes it clear it takes place over several days. Padme wore outfits to hide her pregnancy, there's no need to assume Anakin must've been able to tell when he embraced her, look at what she's wearing. Months did not pass. I have no idea why people continue to assume Padme was barely pregnant at the start.

Visually it's no problem. But how would her clothing be able to hide the way her belly felt when he hugged her... was she wearing a "fat suit"? No need to immediately dismiss such observations, since I already gave a reason why one might think that. Anakin might just be a little thick.

He's never had a kid before... and if he notices his wife's gained a little weight, no fucking way he's gonna point that out first time he sees her after five months...

[Kurgan]

That reminds me of a Dilbert comic where Dilbert says "so when's the baby due" and the pregnant woman responds with "What! Can't I go off my diet for one day without somebody making insensitive comments!" and making him feel like a jerk, greatly to her secret satisfaction.

Maybe Anakin has been "domesticated" in their three years together, but I can see the old Anakin (the one prone to socially inappropriate outbursts) getting himself into such an situation. Oh well...

[LadyTevar]

Just to throw a wrench in here... I know several women who didn't show their pregnancies until the last two months.

[Kurgan]

Not to be crass, but where they rather "large" before they got pregnant?

[Solauren]

It could also be Anakin's robes and outfit really make it hard to feel anything.
Plus, like people have said, cloths to hide the pregnancy.

Remember, the scence where they are first alone in her apartment, she looks very, very pregnant

[Kenoshi]

I was perplexed why Anakin, with all his power in the Force, couldn't detect the presence of Padme's children inside her. But then he seemed like the kind of husband who'd forget their anniversary as well.

[Lord Revan]

I was perplexed why Anakin, with all his power in the Force, couldn't detect the presence of Padme's children inside her. But then he seemed like the kind of husband who'd forget their anniversary as well.

be fair to the kid, he just saw his wife for first time for 5 month and had just come for rather stressfull battle, so it's hardly not he didn't detect them there (and IIRC in novelization he did detect them, but couldn't ID the source of the feeling) and after that it highly possible that Anakin didn't even care to probe the matter any deeper then needed.

[PainRack]

Just to throw a wrench in here... I know several women who didn't show their pregnancies until the last two months.

How do they do that? Don't women start gaining a kg a week once they're past the fifth month?

[Isolder74]

Just to throw a wrench in here... I know several women who didn't show their pregnancies until the last two months.

How do they do that? Don't women start gaining a kg a week once they're past the fifth month?

Not always. Some women just carry farth back in their hips. Usually a woman gains 25 - 30 pounds during pregnancy. Sometimes the amount of fluid in the amnionic sack is less than usual. Diet makes a difference too. Eating less may result in the baby being smaller, less healthy.

the point is every woman carries a baby differently. Did you know that the actor playing Marion in the Movie THE MUSIC MAN is pregnant? She is in at least her 6th month by the scenes on the bridge. By the end of the filming she is at least 7 months along.

So it is possible to use dress and clothes to hide a pregnancy.

[FTeik]

Without knowing the novelisation i would have said, that some weeks or months pass between the battle of Coruscant and then the meeting of the Jedi-Council, where they talk about having searched all systems within Republic-Space without finding a trace of General Grievious.

[Jedi Guardian]

It shouldn't have taken Grivious that long to go from Coracaunt to Utapau with hyperspace and that was a little after the Jedi council talked about finding Grivious so all things take different "time warps" in between scenes but mainly I think it took a little less than 2 months

[Cykeisme]

It shouldn't have taken Grivious that long to go from Coracaunt to Utapau with hyperspace and that was a little after the Jedi council talked about finding Grivious so all things take different "time warps" in between scenes but mainly I think it took a little less than 2 months

Is it possible that the route through the star-dense Deep Core meant that it took the CIS fleet longer to both enter and egress from the Coruscant system?

That is assuming that they took the same coreward route during their escape, possibly to avoid being easily tracked and pursued through hyperspace.

[Count Dooku]

It shouldn't have taken Grivious that long to go from Coracaunt to Utapau with hyperspace and that was a little after the Jedi council talked about finding Grivious so all things take different "time warps" in between scenes but mainly I think it took a little less than 2 months

Is it possible that the route through the star-dense Deep Core meant that it took the CIS fleet longer to both enter and egress from the Coruscant system?

That is assuming that they took the same coreward route during their escape, possibly to avoid being easily tracked and pursued through hyperspace.

That's a hell of an idea! I'd imagine that if your traveling a long distance through the core, you'd have to drop out of hyper-space several times during the journey.

[Crazedwraith]

The novelisation made it seem like it took place over only a few days, a couple of weeks at best.

Its possible the twins were premature when they were born possibly as a result of the severe stress Padme was under.

[Elheru Aran]

The novelisation made it seem like it took place over only a few days, a couple of weeks at best.

Its possible the twins were premature when they were born possibly as a result of the severe stress Padme was under.

Either that or they induced labour. They most probably have much better success at keeping premature babies alive than we do now; I'd imagine they could adapt Kaminoan clone-growth techniques to support premature babies, a sort of artifical womb, so to speak.

[Jedi Guardian]

I'm not so sure that the babies were that premature if I remember correctly it says that anikan hasn't seen Padme in 5-6 months

Edit: yes becaause in my guide it says he hasn't seen Padme in months so by the time they see each other again Pabdme must be 4-6 months pregnant.

[Sonnenburg]

If you've ever seen premature babies up-close and personal, you know that they are very, very small, and that there was no way that Luke and Leia were premies. The only explanation is that she was full term, or there was some medical device capable of performing growth acceleration under the circumstances.