Western Reaches

For other uses, see Western Reaches.

"Oh, you know the Western Reaches. It's a big place. Lots and lots of planets."

The Western Reaches, also known as the Western Regions, comprised an area of the galaxy.^[10] The Western Reaches overlapped with several other regions of the galaxy, including the Outer Rim Territories,^[11] the Mid Rim Territories.^[2]

History

After the end of the Clone Wars, the Galactic Empire initiated a campaign against Separatist holdouts in the region, which would continue until the fourth year of its reign. Moff Wilhuff Tarkin took part in these campaigns, removed from the media controversy over his role in the Antar Atrocity. After being reassigned to the remote Imperial facility known as Sentinel Base, one false rumor spread that he had been given such an apparently insignificant posting because of a failure while commanding an important operation in the Western Reaches.^[10]

After Captain Han Solo lost ownership of the freighter Millennium Falcon to^[12] his hired hand^[13] Gannis Ducain, who would in turn lose possession of the starship to Vanver and Toursant Irving, who themselves then lost it to the junk boss Unkar Plutt,^[12] Solo enlisted the help of^[14] his close friend and long time First Mate^[15] Chewbacca in finding the vessel. Embarking on a hunt for the Falcon^[14] while also continuing their careers as smugglers out of the starship Eravana, Solo and Chewbacca's search saw them look through the Western Reaches, but they ultimately moved on after failing to locate the Falcon. All the same, Solo thought the two needed to double check the region and even told Chewbacca of his suspicion. Indeed, the Falcon sat in Plutt's possession on the Western Reaches world of Jakku until it was stolen by his former scavenger Rey, the defected stormtrooper Finn, and Resistance astromech droid BB-8. Upon finally rediscovering the vessel in their hands and learning from Rey it had sat on Jakku, Solo reminded Chewbacca that he had wanted to look through the Western Reaches again.^[12]

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Behind the scenes

"Told you we should have double-checked the Western Reaches."

―Han Solo, to Chewbacca^[12]

The map as presented in The Galactic Explorer's Guide — The map as presented in *The Galactic Explorer's Guide*

The Western Reaches was originally established to be a region of the galaxy in the Star Wars Legends sourcebook The Essential Atlas released in 2008 and written by Jason Fry and Daniel Wallace.^[16] It was brought into canon by the 2014 novel Tarkin, by author James Luceno.^[10]

A line of dialogue by Han Solo in Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens implies that Jakku is located in the Western Reaches; however, later sources, such as the Star Wars: The Galactic Explorer's Guide and the Star Wars Galaxy Map instead place the Jakku system directly west of the Core Worlds, far north of the Western Reaches as defined by The Galactic Explorer's Guide. According to author Jason Fry, The Galactic Explorer's Guide is mistaken and Jakku is, indeed, within the Western Reaches.^[17]