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Inspired by this question:

Why did Luke name his son Ben and not Obi-wan?

Currently, the only answer there addresses the fact that the "names you first know someone by are hard to shake". However, when thinking on this, I realized that another factor would be the amount of time during which Luke actually knew his mentor as Obi-Wan, in comparison to the length of their relationship beforehand.

Luke came to know the true name of Obi-Wan Kenobi fairly early in Episode IV. At this time, he was about 19 years old and presumably had known (or known of) "Old Ben Kenobi" all his life. So, to get a rough comparison of this against how long he actually knew "Obi-Wan Kenobi", we just need to know how long (in in-universe time) Episode IV was.

Starting from there, I'd like to expand the question to more generally encompass all six of the movies which are the primary canon of the Star Wars universe. So, over what duration (and, ideally, dates) did the events represented in each movie occur?

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  • I wonder what effect their light travel (or... I guess it would have to be FTL) has in terms of special relativity. For that matter - how they age differently. While one twin has been doing her thing, the other has been aging less, for example. Totally not an answer, but it just made me think.
    – Mikey
    Commented Feb 6, 2016 at 1:56
  • @Mikey Well, the point of Special Relativity is that you can't go FTL. c is 1 is the only fixed value of any speed boost. So... who knows! It's fantasy!
    – David Tonhofer
    Commented Nov 27, 2020 at 21:04

3 Answers 3

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Wow, this is a tough question. Having a real hard time digging up any concrete answers. Here's what I have so far, movie-by-movie. Unless otherwise specified, dates are from Wookieepedia and shown in Years:Months:Days ArS (After ReSynchronization):

  • The Phantom Menace - The Invasion of Naboo took place completely during the year 32 BBY (before the Battle of Yavin). The only specific date I can find is the Siege, which began on 3:4:14. But definitely less than one year.
  • Attack of the Clones - The attempted assassination of Senator Amidala happened on 13:5:16. But it says the same date for the beginning of the First Battle of Geonosis. Seems very unlikely, especially given Anakin and Padme's vacation on Naboo and, later, wedding. This blog says 13:5:29. So either less than a day or more likely about 13 days.
  • Revenge of the Sith - The Battle of Coruscant ends on 16:5:20. Luke and Leia were born on 16:5:24. About 4 days. (As mentioned in the comments, this conflicts with the fact that Padme isn't yet obviously pregnant at the start of the movie, and yet has given birth by the end. That would suggest something closer to 3 or 4 months.)
  • A New Hope - Owen and Beru Lars were killed on 35:3:5 (the Tantive IV was captured a day or two previous). The Battle of Yavin also occurred sometime in 35:3. I've found a page that claims it happened on 35:3:9. So definitely less than a month, probably about 6 days.
  • The Empire Strikes Back - The Battle of Hoth occurred on 38:6:6 (Luke fought the Wampa probably a day or two previous). It's not clear when the duel in the Cloud City took place, but it's likely it was also sometime that month. Wookieepedia says this movie and the next are separated by 8 months, which would make it 38:7:3. So about 1 month.
  • Return of the Jedi - The Mission to Jabba's Palace began on 39:3:3. The Battle of Endor took place in 39:3. That neat blog cites 39:3:6. Which would make it about 3 days.

Sorry this is only sort of clear, and in at least one place there's some conflicting evidence. But this is the best I've been able to do so far. Lots of the Wookieepedia articles refer to The New Essential Chronology, so perhaps it has more detail about dates and durations.

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  • Looks like some good information here. Thanks for digging it up. Could you provide a quick link to help translate the meaning of the date format? I understand that years are generally stated in terms of BBY (Before Battle of Yavin) and ABY (After Battle of Yavin) but I don't understand the colon notation you've used here.
    – Iszi
    Commented May 4, 2012 at 18:00
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    Revenge of the Sith cannot have happened in four days. At the beginning, Padme has only recently found out she was pregnant and wasn't showing yet. That means the movie had to have spanned more than 6 months from start to finish, likely with several big jump cuts in the first act and most of the plot occurring beginning immediately prior to the battle of Utapau and continuing through the Great Jedi Purge to the Duel of Mustafar, which could conceivably have been four days or so.
    – KeithS
    Commented May 4, 2012 at 18:15
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    @Plutor Presuming Padme isn't as human as she looks, we could say they have uber-short gestation cycles?
    – Iszi
    Commented May 4, 2012 at 20:38
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    While I don't disagree with Keith, his observation is based on the assumption that the people in the Star Wars universe are exactly the same as humans here, on planet Earth. It is entirely possible that, despite their clear physical similarity to us, they have a sorter gestational period. I don't suggest it would be as short as a few days, but perhaps not as long as 9 months. Just something to consider.
    – user20418
    Commented Dec 14, 2013 at 3:28
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    13 days for attack of the clones??? Anakin and Padme got engaged after 2 weeks? No wonder their relationship is so messed up.
    – user60585
    Commented Feb 6, 2016 at 1:43
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In A New Hope the droids land in the daytime, go through a night, and are sold during the next day. Luke gazes at the setting suns. Luke and the droids meet Ben the next Tatooine day and seem to leave the planet during the day about 2 Tatooine days after the droids land.

Vader and Obi-Wan fight less than a day before the Battle of Yavin IV.

This is a day that will long be remembered. It has seen the end of Obi-Wan and it will see the end of the rebellion.

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So Plutor's answer is amazing, but I looked on Wookieepedia and the dates they use are under the legends tab of each event. This can be confusing because on a page for an event/character has two tabs for canon/legends and the site loads legends first. So, I checked out the canon dates for the events and they only list the years. That explains why padme's pregnancy is like 3 days long on their list. I don't have an answer for the dates of star wars, but I hope this helped clear up the dates.

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  • This seems like something that should be added as a comment and not an answer
    – Edlothiad
    Commented Sep 11, 2017 at 8:13

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