Star Wars has quietly fixed one of George Lucas’ biggest Old Republic plot holes. When Lucas created the Star Wars franchise, he deliberately wanted to give the galaxy something of a “lived-in” feel. He wanted viewers to believe they were entering a galaxy with its own heritage and history, and that the heroes of the Skywalker saga stood on the shoulders of giants. “For over a thousand generations the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic,” Obi-Wan Kenobi taught Luke in A New Hope.
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Ironically, Lucas himself confused the issue when it came to the prequels. The Republic of the prequel trilogy was celebrating its thousand-year anniversary, and the point was even explicitly made by Palpatine in Attack of the Clones. “I will not let this Republic, that has stood for over a thousand years, be split in two,” the Chancellor insisted. There’s a sense, then, in which we had two different Old Republics; one that stood for a thousand years, and another for a thousand generations, with a strange sense of continuity between them in Obi-Wan’s words.
Star Wars Has Fixed the Old Republic Problem (Again)
The old Star Wars Expanded Universe (which is now non-canon, officially dubbed “Legends”) came up with an explanation for this. According to KotOR lore, the Old Republic was officially founded 25,000 years before the Skywalker saga, but came close to collapse during a period of fighting between the Sith Lords and the Jedi. It was reformed 1,000 years ago, with the Republic taking on the shape and form we’re familiar with from the prequels; Palpatine is thus speaking of this specific iteration of the Republic, while Obi-Wan was blurring the issue somewhat.
Star Wars canon has just taken a different approach, though, and in the most surprising way. Young Jedi Adventures Season 3, episode 1 features a droid named Beepers, who’s said to hail from the Old Republic. Because Young Jedi Adventures is itself set centuries before the Skywalker saga, this provides subtle definition to the Old Republic. It means the Old Republic is indeed an in-universe term that refers to the Republic established 25,000 years ago and ultimately reformed a millennium before Anakin Skywalker’s birth. Star Wars has subtly provided the clarification we need in canon, and in the most surprising place.
Star Wars is Heading to the Old Republic Again
This neatly corresponds with an official timeline released at Star Wars Celebration 2023, but it goes one step further in making it an in-universe detail too. Then, it was notable that the Old Republic section of the timeline was the one area not explored in any announced projects. Two years later, that has finally changed; Lucasfilm has officially announced Fate of the Old Republic, a game being worked on by Arcanaut Studios. It’s only in the early stages, meaning we’re a long way away from seeing actual game footage, but it seems things are finally progressing.
All that makes Young Jedi Adventures Season 3’s quiet fix rather well-timed. This is the beauty of Star Wars; it is a transmedia franchise, where everything connects to everything else. In this case, Star Wars has quietly fixed a timeline problem running all the way back from the George Lucas era, and it has done so ahead of a major game announcement. It will be exciting to see how the canon Old Republic evolves.
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Image courtesy of Universal Pictures.
