Should Star Wars publications include "this takes place in xxxBBY"?

[tib2d2]

I think we've once again reached a point in Star Wars publications where it would be nice to have a reference as to where in the Star Wars timeline it falls. I think a simple line of where in the BBY-ness this novel/comic book takes place would be awesome.

[BeastieRunner]

I thought I just saw a timeline in the new media that used the movies as the reference point.

[ChrisIII]

I'm pretty sure at least some of the novels have that.

[K. Jones]

They'll need to eventually. There's definitely a balance to be had between storytellers being able to freely tell some stories, editors making sure nothing contradicts, and world-builders or detail-keepers knowing where things fall on a timeline.

There's good reasons to not let us know exact timeline dates. Here's a for instance; somebody is telling a story set during the Clone Wars and because it's set on "this day" or whatever, we know that Pong Krell can't SURPRISE pop into the storyline. For context ... we can look at the venue and probably based on a variety of contextual clues know that we're not only in the thick of the Clone Wars time frame, but based on Clone Armor and "who's on hand" know we're right in the middle of it. But even so ... if these things had Exact Dates; which is to say, Space-Day and Space-Month, you could lose the element of surprise in using a character. Now, that said; only the sweatiest, most OCD or savant-brained SW fan is going to be able to day-and-date predict something like that.

I think ... nothing should be overtly or universe-shatteringly contradictory so long as it gets an EDITOR'S NOTE, if there's an important reference taking place. Like, somebody is constructing a crazy Ion Pulse weapon and we get an editor's note saying "This issue takes place in the months prior to the Malevolence Trilogy" or stuff like that. It also depends on if a writer can more naturally or organically just include some dialogue or behind-the-scenes information that clues us in on the time frame (we can glean, for instance, from LEIA: PRINCESS OF ALDERAAN "exactly" what Day and Date it falls on, at least relative to the demarcations of Empire Day and Revenge of the Sith and "two days later on some asteroid base" and based on that we can also determine exactly where it lands compared to, well, if not the entirety of Rebels season 2, at least "Empire Day" and "Gathering Forces" in Season 1. A great example of an organic or natural Timeline drop.

But it also depends on the Medium and the Story-Being-Told. While the core Marvel Star Wars comic tends to feel pretty ... Lucas' Cinematic in its presentation (which might make the Editor's Note the best bet), and the Vader books are usually driven and focused but also full of mystique and don't feel the need to spell out minutia, something like Doctor Aphra - a book about a Rogue Archaeologist ... might very, very naturally incorporate Day-and-Date Dates diagetically into the story. This is a woman whose entire field of study is Antiquity and Relics from Time Immemorial, and whose schemes, whether tight-as-a-wire or hair-brained always come down to supernatural timing.

Of course "TAKES PLACE" notifiers of any variety do beg the question of ... "based on which Calendar?" Old school EU fans are very familiar with BBY and ABY, and that extended into the Visual Dictionaries and such for years until recently they went bat-**** crazy and changed it to "Before Starkiller Base", trying to force the implication that was as relevant as A New Hope? Maybe, maybe not - but definitely trying to update the Calendar to "keep up with modern events".

I've been on this kick lately however, which is actually why I came to CBR just now specifically looking for a thread involving SW Timelines ... where I just don't understand for what reason the Star Wars Calendar (at least, the one WE USE FOR RECORDING here in fan-world - they didn't really use "BBY" in-universe anyway) doesn't place ZERO at 41BBY - the year of the Vergence of the Force, when both Anakin Skywalker and Grogu were born. A strong, strong argument can be made for doing the book-keeping that way. Besides the Messianic argument ... looking at the Recorded History of Star Wars, accepting the High Republic and other previous stories that have "delved all the way back", even in the EU days, the FILMS and whatever else didn't cover anything further back - everything essentially prior to the Phantom Menace is a "PAST IS PROLOGUE" situation.

Currently, the only things we have prior to this event are definitely prelude, and they're all depicted in the form of flashbacks - specifically flashbacks from journals found by others. Dooku: Jedi Lost, essentially bridges the time period between The Acolyte/High Republic Decline and Prequel Era but is found in the form of Ventress reading the journals during The Clone Wars. Yoda's Secret War is read in Ben's Journal by Luke. And that's all. A smidgen about Dooku and Yoda read by students. Relevant if you love those characters but not particularly relevant to the "Saga", so to speak - the tri-generational conflict.

This is a very nerdy thing for me to write several ranty paragraphs about.

But yeah, the Year Zero in Star Wars should be the year Anakin was born, and maybe keep track of it as "Before the Vergence" and "After the Vergence".

[SuperiorIronman]

Currently the way it works is that there are eras for which stories take place and BBY/ABY for when it happens specifically. They didn't change the ABY/BBY calendar they just broke up when stories occur in eras so even if you're reading The High Republic you know it's not occurring while Luke is on Dagobah or something if you don't know the specific year.

Basically they currently use something like this.
StarWarsTimeline_2021.jpg