Skip to main content

star wars - When was Luke Skywalker conceived?


So, some minor spoilers below to Star Wars episodes 3 and 5, though I really don't think anyone should not know about this.


Anyway, I got to reading this question about why Anakin thought he could save Padme when she was so close to giving birth, and the (currently) top-voted answer raised even more questions about how long Padme had actually been pregnant when she died. Either Lucas didn't give her enough of a belly or her newborns were much too old when they came out. From this, I began wondering why Padme hadn't been visibly pregnant at the start of Episode III, since as far as I could tell the movie took place over at most a few weeks.


So that got me wondering, is there anything in the EU (either still canon or canon until Disney took over) about when Anakin and Padme 'did the deed'? And, from this event, could it be estimated how far along Padme was in her pregnancy when she gave birth?



Answer




Luke was born almost immediately after the Palpatine declared that the Republic was being reformed into the Galactic Empire (in 19 BBY). As DVK notes, this is celebrated on the 23rd day of the 5th month. Assuming that humans in the Galaxy Far, Far Away have a gestation period of 9 months (and that Luke and Leia were not premature, as they don't appear to be), then they were conceived around month 7 or 8 of 20 BBY.


Star Wars: The Clone Wars Seasons 3-5 take place during 20 BBY, but it's not clear which episodes take place during these months, and there are no further clues as to when they were conceived.



In Chapter 22 of Star Wars: Clone Wars (the Tartakovsky's 2D cartoon, not to be confused with Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the 3D show), Padmé and Anakin spent a night together at Varykino, the Naberrie family's retreat house on Naboo.



The creators of this show, as well as Randy Stradley of Dark Horse comics, told fans that this was when Luke and Leia were conceived.


The scene that the creators said was when Luke and Leia were conceived


(Note that there is a bit of a timeline gap because the creators said this scene takes place five months before the Battle of Coruscant, but they were operating under the assumption that the events of the then-unreleased Revenge of the Sith took place over a longer period of time).


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

star trek - Warning regarding forward saucer section in Nemesis?

In Star Trek: Nemesis , just before the Enterprise rams into the Scimitar, Picard sends a text message from his captain's chair arm pad to Troi — who is manning the helm in lieu of the crewman who was just blown out through what was once the view screen — indicating that she should put full impulse on standby. (Literally, if you watch the scene closely, Troi's console prefaces the order with "TXT MSG" !) My question is: Did Picard also somehow warn crew members in the forward saucer section about what was about to happen? The ramming of the Scimitar was a heat of the moment decision. Considering that he also resorted to calling the auto-destruct sequence shortly after (which ended up being offline), he probably was of the mindset that any losses would be acceptable in order to hault Shinzon's march to Earth. Still, I'm curious. Answer The original script indicates that he called for the crew to " brace for impact ". Whether that call (or the comma...

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...