One vital element of the opening crawl in movie in Star Wars' release order is the strongest in the franchise to this day.
Whether any Andor season 2's ending.
Andor Season 2 Shows How Important Yavin 4 Was To The Rebellion
Yavin Was The Headquarters Of The Rebel Alliance
In Andor's two seasons, the formation of Star Wars' Rebel Alliance was shown, beginning around five years before A New Hope. In the second season specifically, the show's timeline took audiences right up to the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which takes place mere days before A New Hope. Therefore, the Rebel Alliance's true origins were shown more intently in this season, as was the base of the organization's operations, Yavin 4.
Andor Season 2's Place In The Star Wars Timeline Explained
Now that Andor season 2 is set to premiere in April 2025, here's where it fits into the Star Wars timeline and what that means for the story.
Andor season 2 placed a great deal of importance on Yavin. The opening act showcased how the titular character found the moon, with subsequent arcs showing the growing band of rebels across the galaxy making their way to Yavin. Characters like Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, Luthen Rael, and Cassian Andor himself place so much importance on Yavin throughout Andor season 2, with the show doing so to set up A New Hope. This certainly makes a lot of sense, as Yavin 4 is a big deal to the Rebellion's early fight against the Empire.
The Opening Crawl Of The Empire Strikes Back Removes Yavin's Importance
Yavin Is No More
This leads me to my point about The Empire Strikes Back and its opening crawl. The first few lines of the iconic text indicate the Empire routed the Rebel Alliance from their hidden base after the destruction of the Death Star. While this has always been something I have naturally known about Star Wars, I only truly took in what this meant: Yavin 4 is of no importance after A New Hope. The planet is not seen in any of the subsequent movies of the original trilogy and is not even referred to by name in The Empire Strikes Back's opening crawl.
The Doctor Aphra Star Wars comics explain that Yavin 4 was evacuated after the Battle of Yavin.
Despite the Battle of Yavin being the focal point of the entire Star Wars timeline and the focus placed on it by ing stories like Andor, Rogue One, and Star Wars Rebels, Yavin fades into obscurity from The Empire Strikes Back onwards. I am not saying this does not make sense, as the Empire discovered the planet was a base for the Rebels in A New Hope. Nonetheless, the sheer importance placed on the planet by Star Wars material since 1980 makes The Empire Strikes Back's disregard of the planet feel unceremonious and strange.
The Rebels Planned Hoth To Be The Yavin Replacement - But It Didn't Work Out
Thanks To The Empire
Of course, the Rebel Alliance planned to move their full-time base to Hoth after Yavin 4, but this proved difficult to achieve. As explored in The Empire Strikes Back's opening, the Hoth base was not fully operational before it was found by the Empire. Vader's probe droids found Hoth and led to an assault against the Rebel Alliance once more, causing the group to flee the planet. This all makes perfect sense within the Star Wars timeline, but I cannot deny how shocked I was to that a core Rebellion planet was reduced to an offhanded mention in The Empire Strikes Back's opening crawl.
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
- Release Date
- May 20, 1980
- Runtime
- 124 minutes
- Director
- Irvin Kershner
Cast
Luke Skywalker
Han Solo
WHERE TO WATCH
- Writers
- Lawrence Kasdan, George Lucas
- Producers
- Gary Kurtz, George Lucas, Howard G. Kazanjian
- Prequel(s)
- Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope
- Franchise(s)
- Star Wars
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