User:Imperators II/Earth references

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This is a copy of a list originally created by Silly Dan on November 23, 2005

The list was located at "List of references to Earth in Star Wars".

Despite being explicitly set in a galaxy far, far away, various sources have established what appear to be connections between the Star Wars universe and the real world (i.e. Earth). This page attempts to make a list of references to Earth in Star Wars.

The Blue Marble, photograph of Earth taken by Apollo 17 crewmen on 7 December 1972.

The Blue Marble, photograph of Earth taken by Apollo 17 crewmen on 7 December 1972.

Alien Exodus

In the outline and sample chapters for Robert J. Sawyer's cancelled and therefore non-canon novel Alien Exodus, Earth is revealed in a flashback story to be the original home of the Human species. A group of refugees and dissidents from Earth commandeer a spacecraft and flee a computer-controlled society (a society which, apparently, will later become the setting of George Lucas's first film, THX 1138). They accidentally travel backwards through time and through intergalactic space to arrive in the Star Wars galaxy.

In addition to exploring the prehistory of the Star Wars galaxy, and featuring the ancestors of the Skywalker and Solo families, Alien Exodus would have linked THX-1138, American Graffiti, and possibly Willow with the Star Wars universe.

Star Tours: The Adventures Continue

Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, a simulation ride found at Disneyland, Walt Disney World, and Tokyo Disneyland, refers to a planet Earth and an Earth system. The Earth system is described in the opening crawl to the attraction as the location of Spaceport THX1138, the first intergalactic space terminal for the Star Tours tour company and the starting location for the ride. The planet Earth is also given on the official website for the attraction as one of Star Tours' featured destinations.

R2-D2's tales from the Data Banks

R2-D2's tales from the Data Banks, a feature included in two issues of Star Wars comics published by Marvel UK, reprinted two stories originally published in 1963 as back-up features in the Marvel Comics series Tales to Astonish. The first story, "Bronson's Brain", was reprinted in Return of the Jedi Weekly 83. It concerned Bruno (or Boris) Bronson, the "smartest man on Earth", and his search for an extraterrestrial civilization on his intellectual level. The second, "I Am Not Human", was included in Star Wars Summer Special 1985. It told the story of a robot attempting to live life as a human. While "I Am Not Human" never specifically states that it is set on Earth, no details other than the advanced robot featured can differentiate its setting from 1960s Earth.

Christmas in the Stars

Christmas in the Stars, a 1980 record album, has R2-D2, C-3PO, and Chewbacca, among others, singing Christmas songs and celebrating the Earth holiday.

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron series

First appearing in the 1998 game and throughout the series, with the addition of Battle for Naboo, a 1969 Buick Electra can be obtained if the player introduces a cheat code. The car handles like a common starfighter (or a landspeeder in Battle for Naboo). General Carlist Rieekan describes the vehicle as being "a relic from a galaxy far, far away."

Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast

In the 2002 computer game Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, the Doomgiver appears to pass Earth in hyperspace. At the start of the level Doomgiver, if you activate the "noclip" cheat code which allows you to fly through walls, you can go through the "hyperspace cone" and see Earth. The planet also appears on several multiplayer maps, namely "Death Star" and "Star Destroyer" as part of the skybox.

Monsters and Aliens from George Lucas

Monsters and Aliens from George Lucas, a book combining photos and concept art from the original trilogy and other Lucasfilm productions with a variety of short fiction pieces, contains two significant references to Earth. In the first, a supermarket tabloid parody attributed to Trebor Uarrac of The Galactic Gossip, two Duros newlyweds named Etro and Droza Edthatt are "abducted by human beings" from the planet "Urthha". After over four solar periods of bizarre experiences, they somehow use a "matter catalyst", which the humans call a "blender", to get back home. A picture of the Edthatts, originally a production photo from Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, is included with the story. The Duros in the picture are, however, canonically identified as Baniss Keeg and Ellorrs Madak.

The next reference occurs in "Sightings by Twang", a gossip column attributed to Dyslogia Twang. This column describes the celebrities seen at a Vector Day party thrown by Mrp-Mrp Poo. Most of these are clearly aliens, except for Madonna.

Monsters and Aliens from George Lucas is not considered part of the Star Wars canon, making these two stories non-canonical. It was, however, used as a source for Alien Exodus.

"Into the Great Unknown"

In "Into the Great Unknown", a short comic story in Star Wars Tales 19, Han Solo and Chewbacca are caught in a hyperspace misjump, and are forced to land the damaged Millennium Falcon on a primitive planet. They land in a forest reminiscent of Endor, where Han is killed by the native Human inhabitants. Chewbacca survives to roam the woods.

126 years later, an archaeologist and his sidekick investigate rumors of a large beast in the forest, known to the locals as "Sasquatch". When he comes across the Falcon and Han Solo's remains, he finds them eerily familiar, as if he were there or a reincarnation of Solo. He decides to leave the remains, the spaceship, and the Sasquatch as part of the "great unknown."

Though the planet Earth is not specifically named, the story obviously takes place somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, and the two archaeologists are clearly Indiana Jones and his sidekick Short Round. This explains why Dr. Jones finds Solo's remains familiar, since both characters were played by Harrison Ford on film.

E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial

E.T. sees a familiar figure on Earth.

E.T. sees a familiar figure on Earth.

The Steven Spielberg film E.T.: the Extra -Terrestrial, though not released under the Star Wars banner, is a strong link between Star Wars and Earth. In the film, a small alien (dubbed "E.T.") visits Earth, and is accidentally stranded there during a mission to collect botanical samples from various planets across the galaxies. His friend, a Human boy named Elliot, shows E.T. some action figures which he names on screen as Boba Fett, "Hammerhead", Greedo, and Lando Calrissian, among others. Elliot owns a toy model of a TIE/LN starfighter. Later, E.T. mixes in with a crowd of Halloween trick-or-treaters on a suburban street, and encounters a Human child in a Yoda costume; E.T. excitedly greets the child, saying "Home, home.", accompanied by Yoda's Theme.

The novel E.T.: The Book of the Green Planet, a sequel to E.T., establishes that E.T.'s species possesses highly advanced technology, capable of traveling not only between planets, but galaxies as well. In The Book of the Green Planet, E.T. mentions a "Former World" that his people left eons ago.

In Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, three individuals modeled after members of E.T.'s species are shown occupying one of the senatorial pods during the Senate room scene. Later Expanded Universe materials mention the planet Brodo Asogi, represented by a senator named Grebleips ("Spielberg" in reverse) who funds an extra-galactic survey. Brodo Asogi is one of the names given for E.T.'s homeworld in E.T.: The Book of the Green Planet.

Ewoks: The Battle for Endor

An Australian box cover for the television film Ewoks: The Battle for Endor states on the back that Noa is trying to get his starship up and running to return to Earth.

Soulcalibur IV

Soulcalibur IV, the fourth installment in the popular Namco fighting game series set primarily on sixteenth-century Earth, features guest appearances by Darth Vader, Yoda, and Galen Marek (a.k.a. Starkiller). The premise of the storylines is that the war between two swords, Soul Edge and Soul Calibur, on a planet wracked by constant wars, is causing a disturbance in the Force in the Star Wars universe, so all three set out with different goals to subdue the two swords.

Star Wars: Visions of the Blade, an online comic released on StarWars.com, provides further backstory, featuring Astaroth, Taki and Mitsurugi from the game.

StarWars.com

In response to the official rejection of a petition for the United States government to "secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016,"[1] StarWars.com's official blog issued a playful in-universe reply as if breaking the news from a Galactic Empire Public Relations department standpoint, shrugging off any criticism towards the Death Star design and denouncing the Earth for grossly overestimating the cost of construction of this space station, while noting their limited manufacturing capabilities in comparison with the Empire.[2]

Animal species

Many animal species found on Earth appear or are referred to in the films and the Expanded Universe. For more information on this topic, see:

Appear on their own

These species appear on screen "as themselves," or are mentioned in text without qualifiers (e.g. as "Turtles" rather than "Space Turtles").

Have namesakes appear

These animal species have something named after them in the Star Wars galaxy (like a starship, or another animal), but may not exist themselves. They may also have been specifically named, but depicted in a way which shows that they are probably not identical to any Earth species.

Mythical creatures

These creatures exist on Earth only in legend, but their names, at least, appear in the Star Wars galaxy.

Plants

Diseases and medical conditions

Food, drink, etc.

Character names

These characters have first or last names which wouldn't be out of place in an Earth phone book (or in some cases, first and last names).

Geographical locations

The following are characters whose names refer to a location on Earth.

  • Wedge Antilles—the "Antilles" are islands in the West Indies, also "Antilles" refers to the Caribbean Sea in French and (occasionally) Italian.
  • Tyber Zann—the "Tiber" is an Italian river.
  • Tigris—the "Tigris" is a Middle-Eastern river.

Places

These planets or other locations have names which bear a close resemblance or are identical to places on Earth. Locations that are italicized are starships.

In The Clone Wars episodes Rookies and Downfall of a Droid, Aurebesh text on Republic displays says "SENTOSA" - the name of a popular island resort in Singapore.

Real astronomical objects

Despite being real astronomical objects in Earth's neighborhood, these names appear in Star Wars sources.

Contrary to some fanonical ideas, Coruscant cannot be a future Earth. While Earth is far from our galaxy's core (in the "Mid to Outer Rim" of the Milky Way), is the third planet from the Sun, and has only one moon, Coruscant is close to the galactic core, is the sixth planet in the Coruscant system, and has multiple moons. Also, Star Wars is set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away."

People

icon Main article: Tuckerization

Some real-world historical figures, politicians and celebrities are referenced in the Star Wars galaxy.

Celebrities or historical persons

Star Wars personnel

Other fiction

The settings of other works of fiction are referenced in Star Wars sources.

See also Book of Imperial Shuttle Plans: Cygnus Spaceworks, a non-canonical work sometimes mistaken for canon. This piece of fan art makes extensive references to other science-fiction franchises.

Language and culture

Technology

Certain classes of inventions are likely to be reinvented in a galaxy far, far away. When technology gets overly specific, however, suspension of disbelief is strained.

Units of measurement

icon Main article: List of measurement units
  • Many in-universe sources use the metric system. The meter was originally based on the size of the Earth.
  • The use of light-year; However the concept of a year differs from planet to planet and the adoption of a standard measured time and Calendar.
  • Parsecs are likewise based on the year and orbital diameter of the Earth, respectively (though in the Star Wars galaxy, the orbit of another planet such as Coruscant may be used to define these units instead, like in the case of standard days, years, etc.).
  • Saturday is referred to in The Lando Calrissian Adventures.
  • The Cestus Deception measures temperature in Celsius. This is also (perhaps unintentionally) a reference to the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius.
  • Measures gauss and joule are mentioned in Death Star which is a reference to the real-world scientists Carl Friedrich Gauss and James Prescott Joule.

Sources

Notes and references

  1. ↑ Premium-Era-real This Isn't the Petition Response You're Looking For on White House (backup link archived on January 12, 2013)
  2. ↑ StarWars.com Planet Earth Abandons Death Star Project In Face Of Superior Galactic Imperial Power on StarWars.com (backup link)
  3. ↑ Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon
  4. ↑ Dark Force Rising
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 StarWars.com The Cinema Behind Star Wars: 2001: A Space Odyssey on StarWars.com (backup link)
  6. ↑ TwitterLogo Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) on Twitter (post): "Incidentally my favorite TLJ easter egg is a super cheeky 2001 reference @kev_jenkins and I convinced ourselves to do. It got cut out of the movie (probably for the best) but you can glimpse it in the gag reel." (backup link)
  7. ↑ SWYT-Logo Star Wars: The Last Jedi | Blooper Reel on the official Star Wars YouTube channel (backup link)
  8. ↑ The Art of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker