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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).


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