Time Travel in Star Wars

[ChrisIII]

There's been some rumors/speculation that this might show up in Ashoka, and we did get a slight bit of it in REBELS with The World Between Worlds (Which like Doctor Who's Time Vortex is sort of a sub-dimension connected to different points in space andt time I think), and the LEGO Holiday special-although mainly non-canon parody-also played with the concept. When you think about it, the idea's been with SW with the very beginning, but as sort of a frustrated joke by Luke when he's cleaning the droids.


The original EU also had a sort of time travel which was kind of force projection that Jacen mastered, and hinted strongly that that it could be used to alter time. There was also a Mace Windu anthology tale that dealt with the concept a bit too I think.


The force projection ability introduced in TLJ of course went to ridiculous lengths in ROS (although hinted in TLJ with the rain on Kylo's hand) so now matter teleportation through the force is possible in Star Wars. So stuff reserved for 'different' sci-fi isn't off the menu it seems.

[Ascended]

I'd rather it be off the menu, personally.

I love time travel stories and big impossible ideas, but I really don't feel the need for Star Wars to go high concept sci-fi. I like that it's a more kind of....grounded?....space opera, where the technology is a little janky and hard used. Leave time travel, alternate dimensions, and giant crystalline entity snowflakes to Star Trek, Dr. Who, and whatever other franchise wants to dive headfirst into metaphysical abstracts. Star Wars has the Force, and low tier space wizard monks who occasionally get confusing, short visions of the future is as whimsical as we need to get. They've already made Force users more powerful than I'm totally comfortable with, and I'm definitely not down for traditional time travel.

If they end up doing this time travel thing via Force visions or something, I'm fine with that. If the rumors are true then Ashoka can have very long, very vivid visions of potential futures, or pasts that might have been, or whatever, and that's all good. If Kylo can catch blaster bolts in the air and Luke can project across the galaxy, then Ashoka can be really good at Force future visions. That's all I ask, that nobody is stepping into a time machine and stepping out in the High Republic.

[ChrisIII]

Yeah the force prophecy angle is fine-it's pretty much been a feature of all three trilogies in some way, starting with Luke's vision in ESB of his friends suffering before it happened drawing him into Vader's trap.

[BeastieRunner]

Didn't one of the new Marvel comics have time travel with some space jellies or multiverse something with them?

[ChrisIII]

Not sure. Looked for it but couldn't find anyway.

You might be thinking of some of the old "Tales" anthologies from Dark Horse, which often featured off-the-wall stories.

[BeastieRunner]

I'll do some digging, too.

I want to say it had Han or Lando or somebody racing in an event with the Falcon.

[godisawesome]

I believe there was a weird haunted Sith helmet that had some actual time travel thing; personally, I think matter physically transporting across time is a bit too much.

I love the idea of “substitute time travel” better - where you can see possible visions of the future, maybe exact memories of the past, or get possessed by some ancient person. Knowledge traveling through the force works better in my POV.

[ChrisIII]

Yeah, there was an arc that wrapped up the second Vader volume where the original purpose of his Mustafar fortress-as a sort of portal to some kind of underworld-was guided by an undead Sith lord whose essence was contained in a helmet. Vader was hoping to use it to resurrect Padme.

Pretty much the whole thing was probably just a massive Sith force vision. It was a pretty good story though.

Here's a link to a review. The writer also compares it to the World Between Worlds and the Mortis arc.

https://mynockmanor.com/canon-comic-...-issues-19-25/

[j9ac9k]

I imagine if we see time travel as an important part of a SW story, it will remain nebulous and more of a spiritual experience than anything resembling the science fiction conventions we've seen a million times.