Why Science in Star Wars is so busted

We need to talk about the science in Star Wars and why things honestly just do not work. We'll talk all that and more on today's Star Wars lore video!
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[@TheMrMacAttac]

Its a space opera. If we try to dive too deep into the science, it falls apart.

[@ReachStudioPro]

Exactly. I can forgive the general audience's misconception of what Star Wars is but not from this guy. How many years has this guy been making Star Wars videos as his job again?

[@caylya7869]

@@ReachStudioProHe does understand. He’s just explaining to people who don’t. If you watched the full video you would understand.

[@zogar8526]

@ReachStudiopro maybe try watching the video. Ecks literally says exactly this. It is space fantasy, and actively makes the choice to be, thus ignoring much of our real world science. He even says he likes that. Maybe pay attention before saying stuff like this.

[@billieeisenhower406]

define space opera

[@graybonesau]

@@ReachStudioPro Get a grip dude

[@priyonjoni]

“Increase to attack speed” because the velocity it took to escape the gravity of the Yavin moon, fly past the Yavin gas giant, reaching the Death Star wasn’t fast enough.

[@whitemouse2460]

Well, if a professional pilot says they are not fast enough, it means they are not fast enough. What is the problem?

[@kirknay]

Tbf, escape velocity when you're going into combat against foes already in orbit isn't that fast.

[@DKNguyen3.1415]

Escape velocity is only for ballistic objects. If you have continuous thrust like in Star Wars you can go as slow as you want. Our rockets burn only for a short time at launch and are basically just a really long push that flings the rocket away from Earth just like what a baseball does after it leaves your hand when you throw it.

[@johannesbowers7467]

Microjumps bro. 😏👍 Also, "escape velocity" is irrelevant in a universe with Repulsorlift Tech.

[@taragnor]

@@DKNguyen3.1415 Yeah so long as you're getting enough acceleration to beat gravity, you'll eventually break orbit if you keep it up constantly.

[@bluedotdinosaur]

FYI, while it hasn't been really stated on screen in a movie or TV show, it is canon for Star Wars that space is a normal vacuum. Lucas did understand this when making the artistic choice to allow the viewer to hear sounds. In one of the original scripts for Star Wars, there is a note about space battle sounds - and the original novelization for A New Hope took advantage of that note to make it a point in the narrative. There's no sound in space, but the navicomputer in ships pipes a limited selection of sound cues over speakers and into headsets to create situational awareness for pilots. This is the narrative excuse Lucas imagined, in case anyone cared to explain the sounds away. So the audience is hearing what the characters hear from inside ships. To be fair the latest Star Wars movies and all the TV shows respect what a modern audience is expected to know about space, and portray it as definitely a hard vacuum. In fact, The Last Jedi ran with the "simulated sounds while inside a vessel" notion by pointedly illustrating space is indeed silent when Leia is blown into space and the bridge of her ship decompresses. And it's much more common today, to see people in SW getting into full pressure suits when leaving ships. And sometimes to muffle noises for the viewer, whenever the POV character in a scene is in a space suit.

[@naemek9675]

That "ship computer creates sound" excuse is such bullshit, pretty much every other scifi creators acts like they came up with it as well. There is nothing wrong with just having sound in space. No need to make your fantasy world realistic.

[@darkdragonfiendtamer]

The aether theory fits better with how the original films and novels are portrayed so im going to continue to use this headcanon. Space as a vacuum is just boring.

[@DarthSpock1]

Kudos man. The whole "no need to make your fantasy world realistic" "that's beyond dumb" belittling actual effort being put into the quality of a work is just an excuse to be lazy and sloppy. The FX crews of ANH went out of their way to film explosions to look weightless in space. They didn't need to, but that level of care and effort as a whole made a difference. Of COURSE Star Wars isn't "hard" sci-fi, but that doesn't mean you can't *try* a little. The "it doesn't matter, its only fantasy" excuse is how you get Disney Star Wars. Those people need to do better.

[@naemek9675]

@@DarthSpock1 you talking to me? Well the ship computer excuse is actually lazy. He should be proud of what he created even though it's not realistic instead of catering to other "oh umm actually the computer makes sounds". Like another guy here said aether instead of vacuum is much more interesting. I think things should be plausible not realistic. It should make sense in its own universe.

[@naemek9675]

@@darkdragonfiendtamer yeah 2 birds with 1 stone. Drag and sound get explained by the Aether.

[@beskamir5977]

I'm in a Star Wars worldbuilding chat with a couple Star Wars fanfic writers and when the relativity discussion came up, one of them pointed out that a universe _without_ relativity would make the universe even _more_ confusing, not less confusing. Edit: Isaac Arthur's recent video about gravity propulsion gave me a few really cool and scientifically plausible explanations for how Star Wars ships work. Inertial drives allow for tractor beams, the crazy high g maneuvers of Star Wars ships. matching a solar system's or planet's velocity after exiting hyperspace, entering hyperspace itself, artificial gravity, gravsleds and other hover craft, etc. A large amount of techs in Star Wars stem from an advance manipulation of Inertial Mass, Active Gravitational Mass, and Passive Gravitational Mass.

[@sterlingdennett]

You can avoid time dilation due to acceleration simply by keeping your ships' sublight speeds to 50% the speed of light or less (25% or less would be better) You can avoid time dilation due to gravity by inventing some technobabble that compensates for it, like say it's a side effect of the inertial dampeners or something...

[@beskamir5977]

​@@sterlingdennett Except that'd only apply to people within ships. Which now that I think about it is actually exactly how Star Wars lore treats relativistic effects. There's always something that could reasonably counter it or it's just an insignificantly small amount. Another commentator already mentioned how Crosscurrent and Riptide have a failed hyperdrive send Sith into the future due to relativity. So clearly there exists relativity in the universe. It's just that everyone figured out ways to bypass it thanks to hyperspace travel and gravity manipulation. Yeah okay, I think Eck is definitely wrong here. #AskEck thoughts on this? I hope the hashtag still works in a comment thread cause I'd love to hear Eck's thoughts on this.

[@ValosiTiamata]

@@beskamir5977 I'm pretty sure the ability to cross dimensions (ex: enter and exit hyperspace) means that Star Wars tech has evolved to factor in at least five dimensions (the fifth dimension ins science fiction is often dubbed as "coexisting realities"). In 1999, Lisa Randall and Raman Sundrum proposed the idea that the fifth dimension is the source of dark matter. And according to both string theory and its more likely sibling brane theory, the universe is on a 4-dimensional "brane" (or membrane) floating in ten-dimensional space. So let's look at the Star Wars universe (Phase II canon, NOT Disney Canon, since the X-Wing series and other novels give us far more insight into SW tech) with brane theory in mind. By the fall of the Rakata, gravity-based propulsion made it possible to warp space-time, shielding a ship's crew from the effects of relativity. Hyperspace is a parallel pocket dimension in which everything is compressed, so gravity fields would help protect a ship from potentially dangerous G-forces within hyperspace itself. Unlike a warp drive, hyperspace doesn't dilate time because that dimension doesn't function the same as in realspace, and gravitational eddies and shadows are at play where they reflect real world objects (ex: black holes, stars, and planets). We already know that hyperspace technology is designed with failsafes to help prevent colliding with these gravitational anomalies, and interdictors take advantage of that fact. Plus, hyperspace routes occasionally need recalibrated/remapped due to the natural movement of spatial objects. All of this is well and good, but now let's bring in that dark matter theory. Realspace in SW is still a vacuum, but because of the gravitational propulsion technology, dark matter interaction turns space into something of a "soup". Ion drives are as powerful as they are because they have some relation to dark matter and not just ions (picture how in Star Trek the warp drive doesn't just run on dilithium and antimatter, but is also augmented by gasses harvested by the bussard collectors or at refueling stations). We simply don't call them "dark matter drives", although I wouldn't be surprised if such a thing existed during the Rakata Downfall or by the time of the birth of the Jedi and Sith. Even though dark matter is intangible, if it DOES come from the fifth dimenssion, then any technoology designed to tap into five dimensions would invariably have to deal with dark matter. As for black holes, Han's infamous Kessel Run record suggests that gravity wells DO still play a role in space travel. In Han's case, he broke the record not in time, but in distance. In other words, he found a shorter route, but never mentions if it took a longer TIME to make the run. Additionally, the Maw proved that black holes were a major navigation hazard. So we can safely conclude that gravity-based propulsion reduces the effects of time dilation when passing by a black hole by accessing fifth dimensional space. It doesn't fully protect, as a ship can still be caught by a black hole, but it does greatly reduce the effects so a ship must be much closer to the centre of the hole to be affected. Of course, this is bringing in real world theoretical physics, and wrapping them around technology that is hinted at but not actually confirmed in the novels. But if it were true, it could also explain why propulsion technology in Star Wars has stalled for thousands (if not longer) of years. Accessing other dimensions is more powerful than space-warp drives, and about as close as you can get to folded space while still keeping tech recognisable. I'm pretty sure the hashtag does work, and I'd also love to #AskEck to weigh in. After all, good science-fiction (tech-focused) AND fantasy (character-focused) should have some grounding in real-world science to maintain believability. And no, this isn't covering the even more complicated stuff like how Tattooine's gravity and day/night cycle should function in a binary star system. But one thing at a time!

[@beskamir5977]

​@@ValosiTiamataExcellent breakdown! I completely didn't think about them having access to dark matter tech but that makes so much more sense. Having access to other dimensions through hyperspace is an excellent point I somehow blanked on when I considered their tech level but yeah that would allow them to easily bypass most of the consequences of relativity. Let's hope we get another video about this topic at some point cause honestly the more closely Star Wars is examined on a scientific basis, the more it makes sense. At least the pre Disney era Star Wars since Disney clearly has no idea about proper Star Wars lore. The amount of trivially obvious mistakes they've made show a fundamental misunderstanding of Star Wars tech.

[@ValosiTiamata]

@@beskamir5977 I totally agree. While a few Disney Star Wars projects are compatible with other canons, such as the first two seasons of The Mandalorian, Rogue One, and Rebels, most seem to go out of their way to contradict or outright retcon even the Lucas canon. We have five different canons right now: 1. Lucas Caqnon (JUST the six Star Wars Saga movies - with Special Editions replacing the original canon movies, plus what little we know of the SWS sequel trilogy) 2. Phase 1 Canon (where the Clone Wars took place immediately before the Original Trilogy and the non-SE OT is the core canon) 3. Phase II Canon (the same as Phase 1, but retconning events before the OT that contradict the Prequels; and generally the non-SE oan SE OT can be interchangeabe 4. Disney Canon (retcons pretty much everything and tries to skirt arount the Star Wars Saga as much as possible; core canon is the Skywalker Saga Trilogy) 5. Fanon (fanfics, fanfilms, etc.) Of these, Phase II is pretty much the canon that most of us prefer, since it has the most material and also has the most cohesion. Meanwhile, Disney Canon has the least cohesion out of the five. Writers like Stackpole and Zahn put a LOT of effort into explaining the tech of Star Wars, from how an X-wing functions to how lightsabers work (and how they're descended from plasma swords, which we actually now have in real life). Compare that to Disney having people fighting without space suits on top of star destroyers IN SPACE and "somehow, Palpatine returned". Looking at how those Phase I and II authors dumped a lot of real-world science into the novels to tie in spectacle with science like Lucas himself intended, I'm pretty sure just about any question regarding how tech or physics works in the Star Wars universe is actually answered by real world technology and theorietical physics, and that we're actually closer to achieving Star Wars tech than most people think (for example, there's an ion thruster that's been running nonstop in a lab for well over a decade now, and we have actual plasma swords powered via backpack, which is precisely how the earliest lightsabers are described). I really do love when Eck covers the more technological aspects of SW. Granted, he's a lawyer, not a scientist, so there's a lot of room for error, but I feel we spend so much time talking about the characters or plotlines that we let the Trekkies pick on us because their tech is also becoming reality and is actually covered extensively even in public media. And here we are, with NASA making plans to start using ion engines for long voyages, people running around with real lightsabers, robots that are almost to the level of sophistication of some Star Wars droids... This stuff definitely deserves more discussion than it gets.

[@macwelch8599]

Well, Star Wars is primarily science fantasy rather than science fiction. A more hardcore science fiction version would take actual science into the equation

[@itsgonnabeanaurfromme]

Isn't the point of science FICTION, fiction? This is just trying to nake hard lines in definitions at this point. What is the limit of actual science being used in fiction?

[@ultimaetsolder]

Yes we all know this I read that on Facebook today lol.

[@xyreniaofcthrayn1195]

@@itsgonnabeanaurfromme It's the difference between scope and whether or not the characters still understand their tech and just don't go magic or power of friendship/family.

[@harrmick6218]

Isn't that star trek?

[@blob1820]

He also mentions that fact in the video

[@commandZee]

The irony to Star Wars is that neither its science of stars or tactics of war make any sense.

[@wolight]

The advice I give to any scifi writer trying to figure out space wars: Don't try to figure out how warfare will work in 200 years, pick a war that you personally find visually interesting and invent technobabble that justifies it. Star Wars is WW2 (Or more specifically popular American conceptions of WW2), while Star Trek is Age of Sail and there's a dozen or so lore reasons why their universes work that way, advanced physics or common sense be damned

[@lucamarsiglia7284]

no lol in that unvierse ys lol here other physics idiot

[@lucagerulat307]

​@@wolight this is actually my main reason why I think the new dune movies are overrated the way the battles are fought doesn't look like any war that would fit the setting. Rule one in dessert warfare is that you can not hide yet we see the freemen set up elaborate ambushes out in the open even a blind guy would see them set up. And the big battles just turns into big unorganised mess of people fighting individually.

[@themightybob]

Dog fights in space make no sense Ever played a space game with dog fights, such as no mans sky (without auto aiming) , you cant hit anything!

[@DKNguyen3.1415]

@@lucagerulat307 Isn't that how it is in guerilla warfare?

[@lightspeedvictory]

There’s a high possibility that the Empire/Dark Empire didn’t even know the Lusankya was still around. According to Wookipedia: “The Lusankya then left the Thyferra system and was taken to a secret location, where repairs and upgrades were made. Rumors were spread that the ship was destroyed-that either the damage was such that the ship couldn't be repaired, or that the Lusankya was salvaged for parts. The ship's sharp lines were eventually restored, and two large Rebel crests were painted on its sides. The original prison complex was also removed, with a medical quarantine complex installed in its place. The secrecy over the repairs was such that even some members of the council were unaware of the Lusankya's continued existence until the military made them aware of it.”

[@bluedotdinosaur]

Due to the existence of hyperspace in Star Wars, and FTL travel, there is nothing odd about people being in the same frame of reference. Time dilation occurs due to relative frames of motion for different objects on different trajectories - that is true. But traveling faster than the speed of light, rather than merely getting very close to it, changes the whole thing conceptually. In point of fact, in real life the mathematics of what would happen are not well explored and are very debatable. (Special relatively does not ban something going faster than light - the issue is just transitioning states between slower and faster than light.) Here's an example. One hypothetical form of FTL travel would intuitively have zero time dilation - the wormhole, "space fold" or "point to point" method. By directly connecting two points in space together with no distance between them, the traveling obviously doesn't suffer time dilation. They are moving through the wormhole at a comfortable speed similar to what they departed home with. The interesting part for Star Wars, is that it seems to visualize "hyperspace" as something similar to wormholes. Particularly since there are specific hyperspace "lanes" naturally occurring through the galaxy. When a ship is in hyperspace, rather than being shown traveling through another dimension with a geometric layout different from reality (think hyperspace in say, Babylon 5), Star Wars ships travel through something that looks VERY SUSPICIOUSLY like a wormhole throat. It's as if in Star Wars, "hyperspace" is actually a term for creating a wormhole and stretching it between two points.

[@beskamir5977]

The issue is that gravity wells create time dilation too. Special relativity might not matter thanks to ftl travel, but being near a black hole would still matter and time would flow slower for people in the core than out on the rim due to there being more mass around in the core than out in the rim.

[@ValosiTiamata]

Hyperspace in Star Wars has been described as a pocket dimension where space is more compressed. However, unlike other dimensions in Star Wars canon, hyperspace is connected to realspace as a sort of "echo". This is why lanes have to be remapped occasionally - because bodies in realspace move and therefore their shadows in hyperspace move as well. Hitting a shadow is the same as slamming into the realspace body but at massive speeds. Wormholes fold space, hyperspace compresses it. space-warp creates a slipstream bubble that moves space around the ship instead of moving the ship through space. The way hyperspace functions in Star Wars (as well as the vacuum of space itself) suggests that star wars propulsion technology actually taps into at LEAST the fifth dimension, which is where one theory suggests dark matter originates from. Whether Star Wars tech can access/manipulate all 10/11 theoretical dimensions given by string theory is unknown, but if hyperspace is fifth-dimensional and ion propulsion also taps into fifth dimensional physics, it would explain why ships act like they're in an atmosphere while in space despite it being specified by Lucas himself that space in Star Wars IS a vacuum.

[@wyrmofvt]

I've never seen a SW spacecraft be in a situation where SR or GR time dilation to be an issue at all. The sublight speeds I've seen are clearly non-relativistic, and their engines aren't grunty enough to allow them to loiter in a region close enough to a black hole for significant gravitational time dilation. SW tech is powerful, but it ain't that powerful.

[@noppornwongrassamee8941]

@@beskamir5977 True. But the vast majority of Star Wars stories don't take place near black holes. And the difference in velocity and gravitational effects between a system near the galactic core and one on the rim isn't great enough to cause significant relativistic effects. Yes, time is passing slower on worlds nearer the galactic core, but the difference would be so miniscule that you'd need specialize instruments to measure the difference. You'll only get noticeable relativistic effects if you're grazing the event horizon of a black hole. At that proximity, your world/ship/whatever should be getting torn apart by the gravitational tidal effects.

[@tortenschachtel9498]

You don't need to get close to a black hole to see the effects of time dilation, the GPS satellites already need to compensate for it.

[@m1tthrawnuru0d06]

Me waiting the whole video for Eck to mention Crosscurrent and Riptide. Those books feature Jaden Korr (from Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy) dealing with a ship of Sith from the Great Hyperspace War (5000BBY) that ended up in 41 ABY thanks to relativistic issues from a malfinctioning Hyperdrive.

[@FiliusFidelis]

2:09 The Maw installation with the prototype Death Star, love images like this, when you instantly know what you are looking at even if you've never actually 'seen it'.

[@Ashguy733]

Tbh a lot of science fiction doesn't make sense when up to scrutiny, I know Star Wars is science fantasy, but it doesn't really surprise me having read or watched other sci fi series. My main problem with Star Wars is how is revolves around the Force and the limitations and criteria around it changing at times.

[@AshanBhatoa]

Yes, the Force mythology is core element of what is a mythos?

[@Ashguy733]

@AshanBhatoa I mean that the criteria and limitations of the Force clearly need to be established because it causes plot problems.

[@borginburkes1819]

@@Ashguy733the limitations changing and causing plot problems only happened in the sequel trilogy. Which is… not canon

[@Ashguy733]

@@borginburkes1819 Yeah I disagree the Kenobi show also poses plot problems with the OT as well.

[@Loreweavver]

My main complaint about Star Wars is that, when it first was done, reskinning a medieval fantasy story in space was really cool. However, the longer it goes on the more space just becomes a trope setting. Everything star wars could be done on a single planet because they don't treat space like space.

[@eustatic3832]

Skeleton Crew has a tram system In The Suburbs. That kind of economic support for public transit defies political science

[@Luxfirion]

Eck- you should know this: Hyperspace is not FTL travel! It is an extradimensional funnel connecting multiple points across the galaxy that pre-dates recorded galactic history, and as such entering hyperspace shortens the distance between the two points rather than physically flying quickly. This is also why hyperspace rams shouldn't work, and why you never see a blur of a ship passing by you out in space- they aren't on the same plane of existence.

[@anochron1]

I thought everybody knew this: The science in Star Wars is busted because it's a space opera. It's literally theater.

[@michaelcarney6280]

Sounds like Eck has run out of ideas with this one.

[@AdmiralBison]

Apparently not, because popular culture and some fanboys continually mis categorize Star Wars as Sci-Fi. Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter are clearly fantasy and people are happy with it, so why can't some just accept Star Wars as fantasy set in space and be happy with it? Once that is accepted, one doesn't have to strain to squeeze Star War's round shape into Sci-Fi's square hole.

[@michaelcarney6280]

@@AdmiralBison Star Wars is a Space Opera

[@AdmiralBison]

@@michaelcarney6280 Also Fantasy. Space opera is not mutually exclusive. E.g. Mass Effect is of the Sci-Fi genre and its operandi is also Space opera.

[@michaelcarney6280]

@AdmiralBison George Lucas called Star Wars a space opera but I guess he must be wrong and your right.

[@Crow_Rising]

It's both a fantasy and a sci-fi, but sci-fi is very much a secondary genre while fantasy is the primary genre. The best way to think about it in my opinion is to imagine a world filled with traditional fantasy creatures and tropes such as orcs and wizards and magic, and then accelerate time forward to the far future when technology in this fantasy universe has grown much more advanced. The universal properties that allowed for the medieval fantasy setting are still inherently there far into the future; the laws of physics don't just suddenly change. This allows things to be very different in their universe from ours in a way that allows for the narrative being told. From there all you have to do is imagine this futuristic sci-fi fantasy story to take place a long time ago in a galaxy far far away and there you have it; the basic premise for Star Wars.

[@lancelambert1644]

In soft Sci-Fi, the magic looks like science. In hard Sci-Fi, the science looks like magic.

[@LAV-III]

Trust me trying to apply science or even just the numbers given in source books to other Star Wars media is bad for anyone’s mental health. It HURTS so much. For example, Turbo lasers SOMEHOW having explosive yields within the “hundreds of gigatons” despite plasma not being a fissile material and us never seeing star destroyers EVER put out that kinda damage and if they did those ships would accidentally destroy themselves and their own allies with their Gun’s blast radius. Something tells me they were just throwing numbers that sounded really big and scary. To me a turbolaser blast will always be as strong as a MOAB. Now imagine tens if not hundreds of thousands of MOABs falling onto a city within a few minutes.

[@saberwing7930]

Measuring the output of something in gigatons actually makes perfect sense. It doesn't apply exclusively to nuclear weapons. All that measure is is a measure of the explosive power output of anything in terms of tons of TNT. Gigaton might be taking it a bit far, as that would imply 1000 megatons, which is a lot. However, depending on the turbolaser, having a power output that high actually makes sense. For instance, the Separatist Munificent class ships have a tremendously large spinal turbolaser, which is stated to be able to flash melt a small ice moon. That level of destruction would need tremendous power output. Other turbolasers, on the other hand, not so much. I can imagine them being more like really big battleship guns, but not like a nuke barring large examples. Also, you are absolutely right about using RPG sourcebook numbers being a dumb idea. As far as I'm concerned, the numbers are made up to make the game work, and may differ significantly from how things would or should be in universe.

[@ThunderClawShocktrix]

@@saberwing7930 3 star destorys can glass planet in 24 hours they did that in an EU book

[@myeka1273]

Turbolasers are stated to be equivalent to concentrated nuclear bombs. It makes sense since nuclear reactors in star wars are capable of nearly infinite energy production without any need for constant energy consumption or anything that traditional energy sources are capable of sustaining at relativistic natural processes. Considering this factor they’re probably allowing the reactor’s pure energy production to filter through a gas and just funneling that energy through a barrel. Is it possible yes, probable no but if a tiny StarCraft the size of a minivan is capable of jumping across the galaxy then thinking about Star Wars tech in our terms of scientific understanding is well crazy in itself. If you were to say that lightsabers shoot portals into stars to create blades it’d make sense based on their function, I don’t think we should look that deeply into it.

[@Noone-of-your-Business]

I am glad to see most commenters know their SF from their space opera. George Lucas said it himself: Star Wars is not science fiction, it is _fantasy._

[@GoranXII]

It always puzzled my how they managed to bury the _Lusankya_ in Coruscant to begin with. I'm assuming they built it down there, piece by piece, because imagine digging a 19 km deep hole in Coruscant, parking the Big L in it, and rebuilding around it would have been spotted at some point. But that would have been a mammoth undertaking, far harder and more expensive than building the thing normally.

[@MarkoDash]

IIRC Palpatine did some force shenanigans to obfuscate people's perception of it. it's also possible that it was brought down in prefabricated chunks, like current modular shipbuilding. my headcanon is that Lusankya was also very barebones for an Executor class given it was intended as a giant escape pod for palpatine and was later retrofitted to be a secret prison. I think much of the star dreadnought's combat capabilities were either not installed or not crewed.

[@Luthiart]

Even as kids back in the '70s we knew not to hold Star Wars' feet to the flames of scientific accuracy. We knew there was no sound or aerodynamics in space, or that the Millennium Falcon sans FTL had no hope of reaching another star system, or that a light saber would be implausible in the real world, but we gave Star Wars a pass and suspended our disbelief in order to enjoy the story.

[@Arashmickey]

The part in Forever War about the possibility of doing a mission against a known enemy, where you end up facing that same enemy suddenly showing up with - from your perspective - technology level from the future.

[@christopherduthu2452]

#askEck when the empire decided to remove the symbols of the republic, why did they keep the same general all white design for stormtrooper armor like the clones did? Obviously out of universe stormtrooper armor came first and clone armor was supposed to be a precursor to it, but in taking the universe we see as canon it seems like it would make more sense for the empire to make a more drastic departure from the clone armor when designing stormtrooper armor

[@xyreniaofcthrayn1195]

The clone armor is pearlescent for the kaminoans but stormtrooper armour is not it's just a dull white with black accents also the empire adopted it because the average citizen wouldn't know who's under the armour at any given time.

[@cmasjoan7333]

To the average citizen of the Republic, they might have been aware of how clones customized their armor (501st having blue accents, etc.) and the blank stormtroopers may have been different enough. But to the average citizen of the CIS, they might have looked sufficiently similar and that would be good for the Empire to keep control through fear. That's just my theory though, don't know the actual answer.

[@clone3_7]

Because the Galactic Empire is coming from the Republic and while it did change a great deal, it also kept systems.

[@gotmike]

The thing you have to know about Star Wars is: It’s all an aesthetic, it’s a Vibe. Basically take everything you know past 4th grade understanding of space and throw it out.

[@prophetisaiah08]

Concerning the revived Palpatine and not going after the Lusankya, the real reason is that the entire Dark Empire storyline was written and completed long before the Lusankya was created for the X-Wing series of novels. Legends stores were written wildly out of order and usually with less than a single f*ck given about what other writers had written or were writing, and that often led to plot holes and retcons. For supposedly being in a single, unified storyline, the first 2/3 of Legends books/comics/games/whatever did a really crap job of making sure new works didn't actively contradict things that were already written, and when greater control over everything became a priority in the late '90s, there was a lot of retcons and handwaves to try and jam it all together. That's one thing that a lot of people either don't know or forget about Legends: a HUGE chunk of it was absolutely redefined by retroactive continuity partway through the whole process of creating the "Legends Universe." It was a lot of things, but a "tight continuity" was never one of them. Even the very idea of a single continuity for all Star Wars media wasn't really a thing that was enforced in any real way until the original Thrawn Trilogy blew up. After that, there was about a decade of scrambling to get everyone on the same page (to mixed results, lets be honest), ending in some wild retcons and handwaves that rivaled some of the crap the Sequel Trilogy pulled. Legends only really became a unified story once we got to the New Jedi Order series, and by then, they had over 20 years of content to try and retcon into something resembling a single timeline of events. (I personally hated that unified story and still do, but I get why people like it. It's definitely more consistent than the free-for-all mishmash of characterization and quality that came before.) Don't get me wrong, some of the stuff in Legends is genuinely great, but to try and present it as having been a coherent and consistent continuity is to look back on it with a view warped by some seriously rose tinted glasses. I don't really like the kind of in-universe justifications for these kind of plot holes, because it cna take away from the stories as they were written. Why didn't Palpatine try to target the Lusankya with the Galaxy Gun? Because in the Dark Empire story, the New Republic didn't have SSDs or other massive ships like that. Giving the NR dreadnoughts before that time was a retcon, and that's ok, because the Dark Empire was silly and rediculous as it was.

[@jeffl.9633]

I remember a magazine article (in _Starlog_ if memory serves) from back in the day which tried to explain 'stormtrooper aim' by building on Ben Kenobi's "not as clumsy or random as a blaster" line. The idea was that a blaster bolt was high-energy plasma in a 'magnetic bottle', and that the technology was imperfect, allowing a bolt to leave the muzzle at an angle of up to 90° off of 'straight ahead'.

[@raincoast_bear]

Um, the Deathstar Stormtroopers "poor aim" in the middle act of ANH is because they are LETTING HEROES "ESCAPE".

[@jeffl.9633]

@@raincoast_bear Aboard DS-1, sure, but not before.

[@Grim2]

1:30 - Well the very concept of hyperspace is literally conceived to bypass time dilation...

[@glenny5081]

#AskEck How frequent are starship thefts in Star Wars? Seem like a pretty lawless galaxy and people seem to leave their ships unguarded quite a bit.

[@BrokenCurtain]

Star Wars is about families getting split up and traveling across the galaxy before eventually reuniting. Can you imagine how messy that would get if people aged at different speeds?

[@mikepatton8691]

Time dilation is a thing in Star Wars in one novel, the last one from the EU, Star Wars: Crucible. In that a monolith, like the Mortis Monolith that housed the Father, Son and Daughter, creates an expanding bubble of space-time where time moves much faster inside the bubble than outside it.

[@herodaresfire4512]

Crosscurrent was an example of time dilation, bringing an ancient Sith ship to the "present." And they at least bring up how fast light travels in The Courtship of Princess Leia when Han says they can view an extinct species through a telescope because of how long it took the light to get to where they were. But these instances of real world astrophysics affecting SW are few and far between.

[@tamsinp7711]

For a sci-fi novel with time dilation at its very core, look no further than Poul Anderson's "Tau Zero".

[@5BBassist4Christ]

Somewhere in the Star Wars Galaxy, a science fiction writer created a story about our universe, which doesn't have the Force, but it has other mystical properties, such as time dilation and frictionless space. Earth Wars fans probably nerd out about this too. I wonder if these films start out with, "Far, far in the future."

[@Cifer77]

I love when ships get damaged, out in space, and everyone inside starts sliding along the "downhill" direction on the floor, as if the artificial gravity in the ship just started pushing them in a different direction lol

[@zogar8526]

The artifical gravity pulls you in the direction of the floor. Some media mentions that it can be changed, but that needs to be done manually. So if the gravity is pulling you in one specific direction, and the ship changes orientation quickly enough the gravity can't be adjusted, yeah, it's act just like that.

[@tatepalmer1997]

Factions compared idea sci fi insect swarm. Such as Tyranids, Arachnids, Zerg, Rachni, Terminids.

[@Thaumh]

There was a now Legends novel (I forget which one) set between Phantom and Clones in which Anakin is stuck in a ship with a fairly slow and semi-malfunctioning hyperdrive. By the time he gets back to galactic civilization, *he* has aged but everyone else had not, closing the gap between him and Padme.

[@Robot_Eva]

The thing is though I really feel like it wouldn't be that hard to account for general and special relativity in the star wars setting. Lots of other sci fi franchises at least pay lip service to it, so I don't see why it couldn't make some throwaway line about the holonet being built to counteract the time dilation effects special relativity would have on a galaxy wide society

[@katieell4084]

I remember reading one of the short stories maybe fifteen years ago and there was a ship in that story that flew near the speed of light with a malfunctioning hyperdrive or something and when they stopped, they had travelled like two hundred years forward in time. Can't remember what the story was... maybe something about... nope. Can't remember.

[@Traptrickerplays]

What I’ve always found funny about star wars is just how dumb some of it is. (this happens a lot) where they will mix something super high tech and super low tech, for example they’ll have a hovercart, but an alien animal will be pulling it-it just doesn’t make sense

[@eduardovaladao1051]

At the rebels time, it was I who sent the question to Pablo, it was on the amazing episode of the "imploded stars cluster". It was a really sad response, since time dilaton can lead to amazing stories, as in Interstellar. So, guess it will never be explored in sw.

[@artofjordanbray]

The remixed Buck Bumble soundtrack at the end.... 🤘.

[@craig.a.glesner]

Props for the FOREVER WAR reference, hella dope book and yeah, that’s some serious time dilation.

[@spartantraveler7251]

So there might be something like temporal dark matter that unifies the time experience of every person. Maybe the Force did it.

[@pentegarn1]

I've always heard Light sabers are impossible because we could never contain plasma in the shape of a Light saber blade? You would hit the button and the plasma would come out in an uncontained way and burn your face off. The other option is the blade is an actual laser....but lasers reach out until they hit something. You'd turn it on and inadvertently burn the ceiling.

[@LodenVor]

In Star Wars Crosscurrent, a malfunctioning hyperdrive causes a time dilation effect, with the ship (and a pod trapped in its wake) flung forward in time until someone can drop it out of hyperdrive. An object travelling at immense speeds without being properly protected from relativistic effects would see this effect, e.g. a Star Wars vessel being propelled by a malfunctioning hyperdrive.

[@DTSephiroth]

Fan: "Why doesn't relativity work in the Star Wars Universe?" Harrison Ford: "Hey, kid... this isn't that kind of movie. If people are paying attention to physics, we're all in trouble."

[@beannathrach2417]

I noticed in Empire Shrieks Back. The Han party has to travel to the Cloud City. With relativity, that could take years; meanwhile Luke is training for almost? A few days? Using relativity the Falcon could have accelerated to near light speed and use the time delay to Cloud City to appear much shorter, giving Luke months or years of training time.

[@axiezimmah]

2:41 new creative way to call someome fat without calling them fat. Time moves slower when I'm with you.

[@OdaManjiro]

I cannot think of a single non-hard piece of sci-fi that doesn't claim its tech somehow bypasses relativity.

[@mr.talind.7473]

But they are in a warp bubble...

[@tailwindCreative]

there's plenty of bad science in Star Wars, but the one thing that always makes me laugh is receiving a transmission while a ship is travelling in hyperspace. The ship is supposedly travelling faster than or near the speed of light, so how does the transmission signal go even faster to get to the ship? That's some pretty powerful tech.

[@Aerinndis]

People overexaggerate the gravity of black holes something fierce and seem to think they're vacuum cleaners when they aren't. You'd have to fly pretty pointlessly close to the black hole before time dilation becomes an issue worth caring about it. At which point you'll have worse problems to care about. Like all the forces in the accretion disk.

[@ShawnHCorey]

Star Wars has science?

[@ZainKaneko]

was not expecting the buck bumble remix at the end there

[@enox3547]

They have space wizards… do we really care about the science?

[@matthewhendy5785]

That star destroyer does look pretty cool with the New Republic’s insignia.

[@AfterglowGlacier]

another thing that can effect the flow of time is relativistic acceleration. this gives rise to the famous Twin Paradox (which was dramatized in Heinleins "Time for the Stars"). so every time s ship accelerates to make the jump to hyperspace time dilation would occur (if the laws of physics applied, instead of the laws of Hollywood)

[@k.b.6331]

Only Star Trek's wrap drive (originally Time Wrap Drive) really attempted to explain or account for why no time dilation.

[@splatracer7726]

Star Wars really has no Science in it at all. SCIENCE FICTION = Science / Space / Robots / Guns / Future FANTASY = Magic / creatures / Swords / Past Star Wars really has more in common with fantasy than Sci-Fi. We just call it Sci-Fi because it’s a hard one to categorise and it’s got space in it. SPACE FANTASY is probably the most correct term.

[@mikewillis9537]

I think the starwars galaxy actually has an atmosphere of some sort throughout space, even if very thin, that would account for the way ships fly & stuff

[@AlexTekle]

star wars has always been “a long time ago in a galaxy far far away,” which already sets it firmly in a world totally divorced from our reality. while it’s not focused on real world laws of nature and science, it is focused on the real world problem and struggles we deal with in life. like you explained, it’s really all just a fable set in space.

[@jollygoodfellow3957]

The Rakata Infinite Empire could have reshaped the galaxy beyond natural occurrences.

[@jamesvanvoorhis5864]

I do read a lot about the voyager program. While Star Wars does fabricate a lot about what we don't know firsthand about space, examples of outer space show signs that even minor shifts may get extrapolated in a complete vacuum outside the heliosphere. Sound may be louder? Large drifting hulks and all the junk they carry may create wind turbulence? Perhaps story writing not done so wrong. Just in the wrong location. No one will know. But what happens in the gaps between solar systems in the star wars system?

[@arthasmenethil9957]

My head canon is that The Force has a hand in such things. For example, I like to imagine that the force somehow allows photons to travel to whatever their destination is instantly. I think we've seen enough in all of Star Wars to know that people can see things long distances in space as they are happening, instead of happening however long it took the light to get there ago. Another example being in Disney Wars TFA how they could see Starkiller's laser from so far away as it was traveling, instead of the light having to travel what would likely be multiple lightyears.

[@TrevorJohansen]

Star Trek has the same lack of care for time dilation and physics. They try with technobabble of subspace. Not only for faster then light warp but also protect the crew from time dilation inside a subspace bubble. A ship can't move if there is no subspace field to lower the mass and change the physics.

[@TokyoXtreme]

4:19 at what point in any of the films do the characters observe sound that has traveled through space?

[@johndoe-hr6vp]

Both special and general relativity affects most people everyday because of the widespread use of GPS. Because GPS Satalites are basically very precise clocks special relativity affects them because they are moving so fast making their clocks tick slower, and they are farther from the earth's gravity, making their clocks tick faster. Without compensating for these effects, by now the GPS would be off by hundreds of meters making turn by turn directions impossible. It's pretty much the only time relativity equations will affect your everyday life but it is kind of neat that it does.

[@asdfjoe123]

Busted? No, it doesn't even exist. Starwars in fantasy in space.

[@JoheTehn]

but we do have some kind of relativity like the with the Mortis Arc for example. They spent at least 24h to 48h there maybe, but when back, just lost contact for "a moment" with Rex. Also when recuing Tup, i distingly remember " You were experiencing drag, in the vaccum of space." Yeah, Star Wars Science is a little wanky, just look how the Razor Crest was repaired after crashlanding on Mon Cala. But we can't deny it still manage to apply real science and physics when needed. Even if a haul is repaired with scenarium plating

[@WillyKillya]

Star wars was never Sci-Fi.

[@SpartanAnimations.]

Yea Even George Said it is an fantasy not even science-fantasy

[@jonahfalcon1970]

Without watching, it's because it's a FANTASY movie. It doesn't have science, it has MAGIC.

[@SeventhSwell]

If you want to be destroyed by a time dilation story, Interstellar is fine, but my go to would be Gunbuster.

[@Adamskitheshirtless1]

The forever war is an extremely great book, much more interesting when you read it through the lens that the author was a Vietnam draftee who had a really hard time reintegrating into America after he returns from the war. The Forever War delves into that but due to relativity, when the space troops go to another planet to fight, to them its a short tour, to earth its decades or centuries, society has completely changes and really helps a reader understand what its like to leave on tour. If you're reading this comment check it out its great.

[@ChatarraCrow]

Speaking of Forever War, look, Star Wars isn't the only show that hand waves time dilation. Literally, every single science fiction with interstellar travel ignores time dilation if that's not a primary mechanic in the story. Star Trek uses time dilation whenever they need it for the story, but every other time it's ignored. The only technical exception is science fiction like Battle Angel Alita and The Expanse, where everything (or most) happens within a single solar system. Time dilation is irrelevant unless used as a mechanic for a single storyline.

[@AdmiralBonetoPick]

Everyone keeps describing Star Wars as "science fantasy" - presumably after Mr Plinkett. But I think he misspoke and meant to say "space fantasy". That is the proper name for the genre; and Star Wars is a fantasy set in space. It's not a fantasy about science.

[@tarfeef101]

2:50 missed the opportunity to say "if one person is in space and one person is beside your mom..."

[@danielbroome5690]

Relativity is not a factor in starwars because no ship actually travels at anything near the speed of light. The fastest fighters ever seem to go is a few km/second. Hyperspace is taking the entire mass of the ship out of real-space and into the hyperspace dimensional space in which distance between gravity masses is massively reduced, allowing a ship to traverse interstellar distances in days or hours rather than years or centuries (even at true light-speed it would take centuries). No relativity takes place, because the hyperspace velocity isn't travelling over remotely the same distances.

[@arturpulkkinen9181]

#AskEck What would be the rules and regulations on civilian starships. Blasters and shields, safety requirements, limits on speed etc

[@evgeniytsarkov5679]

Because this is no science fiction!

[@Kyle_Spivis]

What’s a movie or story in star wars you really want to see covered that hasn’t been, like a specific movie genre, story style, that sort of thing? I’d really like to see a genuine horror movie made about either specific character or creatures. I think it could really work set in Starwars. I wanted a gritty sort of underworld show and I got that and more with andor. And I wanted a pirate adventure story and we are currently getting it right now with skeleton crew. A show about explorers would be cool like hyper lane pioneers and a crew of scientists and corporate researchers. Maybe those two groups have conflict among themselves or they are racing to protect systems from being sucked dry for all its resources but idk that’s not a very well put together idea. Anyways that’s my question up top. Love the channel and loving ask eck

[@robertsutton1295]

I've made this point for YEARS, and I typically get the response: "Well, it's in another galaxy, so maybe the laws of physics are different there!"

[@reaIixx]

Maybe physics are somehow different in another universe but definitely not in other galaxies

[@cherrytonshawty9120]

I like how Mon Cala has a longer orbital year than Earth. Mon Cala years are about 398 days, but the days only last about 21 hours in duration. Not my info. Just what Google and some KZbin videos covering the planet have said.

[@raincoast_bear]

For me, Star Wars was broken the moment in ESB when the Falcon got from Hoth to Bespin without a working Hyperdrive.

[@johnathanjarrett63]

About the only thing that never really made sense to me, was why the Tie Fighter didn't have any type of deflector screen. I mean, I can understand not having a powerful one because of the whole "cost effective, and very light for fast movement" thing, but to have nothing to me meant that if it flew into even small debris, it was going to take damage, up to fatal. Everything else, I could kind of accept except for that. Guess you could call me weird as that was the only real sticking point. I mean, I know about time dilation, I know about actual space fighting and how having small ships flying around shooting tiny lasers/plasma blasts at and even damaging and defeating a large capitol ship is not only unlikely but downright suicidal, I know that inertia in space is even more of an issue due to how external forces can't put things like speed decrease, or using "flight surfaces" as a means to provide avionics which can be done in an atmosphere, and I even know that in a vacuum sound would be unable to be heard and light would take a much longer time to eventually "diffuse," as there isn't any medium (except micrometeors and other solid bodies like dust) that would cause it to expand other than the focusing lens used in its creation not being perfectly formed. I know all those things. But still. Not using even deflector screens...

[@k29king1]

Well technically if the Star Wars is in a Galaxy far far away, it could also stand to reason that maybe the Star Wars universe actually exists in a completely different universe in the Multiverse that has very different laws of physics than ours. Seriously, anyone that knows anything about the Multiversal theory understands that it’s posited that other universes most likely do not operate on the same laws of physics that ours does. Also in an infinite Multiverse every possibility exists meaning that there’s potentially a very real universe where the Star Wars Universes canon is actual reality.

[@Charles-7]

i agree with this, if we make cinematic universe too real, it would not only fall apart on itself, yet it'll just be no different then our own universe, and as i side note, i truly believe in the multiverse theory, which can make universes like star wars probable.

[@liaml.e.5964]

A wizard did it.

[@christophernemeth421]

I would like to think that Tibanna gas that powers weapons has a high oxygen content to hit, which is the reason why you see explosions in space

[@nikolaszuraff1234]

You should do a video on what if the United States Military joined the Galactic Republic in the Clone Wars.

[@AFNacapella]

"long, long time ago" ... "galaxy far, far away"... couldn't it be that SW is so far removed in time and space that space itself looked different and we're only presented an interpretation that's tailored to our later-stage-universe ape-brain needs. "those weren't humans, silly, we just made it look this way to tell you the story." and while I'm pulling stuff out my nose: physical scale is also adjusted. all these toy miniatures are actually maxiatures: a super stardestroyer is about the size of an eyelash.

[@luispenick7448]

4:30 not to mention when destroy it results in fiery explosion. There's no oxygen in space so those explosions are hecka unrealistic. But... Bad a$$

[@Kyanzes]

They have the Force. It binds the galaxy together, right? So, it seems to have both spiritual and scientific importance. And it seems to permiate everything, or almost everything, well, the Yuuzhan Vong are not present in the Force but that's unique. And some creatures can cancel the Force, i.e. Ysalamiri (well, they "push" it out).

[@Kyle_Spivis]

I have another question but maybe you’ve made a video on it. Can you explain where to start with the pre Disney books? what’s narratively connected and just the general eras? LI’d love to read from post episode 6 on to the new republic and Yuuzhan Vong invasion.

[@tonyjackson4078]

I appreciate attempts at tech-tech(credit SFDebris) explanations every now and then, but I usually point to the fact Star Wars originally pulled from many sources, Flash Gordon serials being one. Those paid little to no attention to consistent rules, the story being more important than scientific accuracy.

[@Kindasortamaybe]

#AskEck I just finished the Thrawn Trilogy last night, and I have a thought. Supreme Leader Snoke is basically a canon version of Joruus Cabioth. He was a clone/ strandcast made by the Emporer that inserted himself into the Imperial Remnant and asserted control over it. Snoke simply succeeded in that task while Joruus ultimately failed. I see similarities in the way they act towards subordinates as well. Snoke is simply less insane and lacks Cabioth's vision. All is to say I think that Joruus somehow inspired Snoke or at least parallels him unintentionally. Not to say they are the same character, though that makes more sense then most of the theories we had almost 10 years ago now. Anyway what do you think of that?

[@triptych5998]

The Buck Bumble lyrics fading in at the end 😂

[@ToxicDemise99]

Isnt hyperspace its own separate dimension tho? Therefore enabling faster than light travel? Because theyre popping in and out of dimensions and not actually physically traveling thru space. Its more like teleportation than actual space travel.

[@wheelwrightpl9429]

If all existence is a simulation (which is a valid scientific theory), then maybe our universe is a complex one, which in our terms can be compared to being generated by a modern PC. If so, maybe Star Wars universe, relatively speaking, has been created by a much simpler computer, like an old Commodore C64, or even ZX Spectrum ? The point is: there are no consistent physical rules spanning disparate simulations, which implies that some simulations may be "simplified" due to lesser "universe computer" governing them.

[@gmarshall1942]

Ask Eck, what are your thoughts on? Star wars, alien designs based solely on earthly animals. For example, the owl lady from episode, two of skeleton crew. It feels lazy to me, i understand being inspired by real world animals and ecosystems but that's all it should be.

[@richardbell7678]

Sound does not propagate through space, but hearing is a fully spherical sense. Sensors detect and track nearby objects and weapon fire and communicate that information to the pilot as auditory information, so it does not distract the pilot from all of the things that must be monitored visually. Of course explosions are a problem, but that is for the benefit of the movie audience. Relativistic effects are ignored, because they add nothing interesting to the story that is being told.

[@CommanderCodyChipless]

The only reason Star Wars exists was because it wasn't restricted to being scientifically accurate. If it was, it would be an entirely different story. I mean, everyone knows blasters are entirely unrealistic. Shooting actual pieces of lead is way more realistic in every case. As soon as a gun that shoots metal is introduced to Star Wars, lightsabers will become obsolete. Of COURSE it makes no sense, but that's why we love it :)