A few weeks back, we asked the io9 readership
Note: There are no spoilers for The Force Awakens here.
Below, here are the geekiest Star Wars questions io9 readers could come up with, along with the answers from Brandon Rhea, Senior Community Manager at Wikia, which runs Wookieepedia.
Then, there are also questions we submitted that they wouldn’t answer, which are kind of funny.
Is Smhi Skywalker lying about Anakin’s conception in order to conceal some great secret, has she been deceived herself? And is the implication of Sidious/Palpy’s opera house tale vetted as an admission that he ‘used the Force’ to have Anakin conceived (and imbue him with super-mega-chosen-one powers)? - Rancorr
In the official Star Wars canon, all we know at this point is what Shmi told Qui-Gon Jinn: there was no father. As Qui-Gon surmised, this means that Anakin was conceived by the midi-chlorians through the will of the Force.
In the Star Wars Legends (the non-canon former Expanded Universe) novel Star Wars: Darth Plagueis, it was revealed that Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious experimented with the midi-chlorians for the benefit of the Sith. The midi-chlorians retaliated by creating the Chosen One to destroy the Sith and restore balance to the Force, a balance that meant the elimination of the Sith once and for all.
What is Yoda’s race/species? - deadp00l
No one knows! It was very important to George Lucas to never reveal Yoda’s origins, even in the old Expanded Universe. Whether that’s revealed in this new era of storytelling remains to be seen.
What made Han Solo go pirate? What’s his story...is it true he was a Stormtrooper? - gmoat
In the non-canon Star Wars Legends stories, Han Solo was an Imperial who defected after he assaulted a fellow Imperial to save Chewbacca. The two formed a friendship and became partners in crime.
In canon, Han’s backstory has yet to be revealed - but we’ll soon learn more in a young Han Solo movie, which will be released in 2018.
Where was Admiral Ackbar during the Battle of Yavin? - Ben Grimm
The Rebel Alliance is a collection of cells and fleets that rarely came together. The Battle of Endor, for example, was a big deal, because it was an assembling of the full Rebel Alliance. So during the Battle of Yavin, the Rebels present in the Great Temple on Yavin 4 were only part of the larger Rebellion. After the destruction of the Death Star, General Dodonna ordered the evacuation of Yavin 4 because the Empire knew their location. Admiral Ackbar arrived with the Rebel fleet to assist with the evacuation.
Is the Jedi Order’s policy of celibacy really an ascetic practice, or is it a way to minimize the number and power of Force users by taking them out of the gene pool? Are there Jedi spies watching the people that flunk out of the Jedi order, and their kids? - sajanas1
The Jedi Order believed that relationships like that could lead to attachment, and that attachment could lead to the dark side of the Force. As a result, they generally refrained from any sort of romantic relationships.
Where did the names “Luke” and “Leia” come from? After all the commotion, and while she’s giving birth, the names just come out of her mouth so matter-of-factly, like she’d always knew those names, held them dear to her (or Anakin?), much less, they’re already waiting on the tip of her tongue - shafdude
I don’t think that’s ever been established, but expecting parents generally think of names for their children before they’re born. If Padmé didn’t know if she was having a boy or a girl, she might have had a boy name and a girl name picked out, which she was then able to give the twins when they were born.
Where do humans come from in the Star Wars galaxy? - Bagpiper
It’s never been established where humans come from in canon. In Star Wars Legends, the origins of humanity were lost to ancient history but it was commonly accepted by historians that humans originated somewhere in the Core Worlds.
What was the reason Chewbacca did not get a medal after the Battle of Yavin? - miskatonic
It’s not entirely clear why Chewbacca didn’t get a medal after the Battle of Yavin. However, the novel Smuggler’s Run: A Han Solo & Chewbacca Adventure recently revealed that Chewbacca did receive a medal after the ceremony.
Given that Hyperspace is a place and not a speed what determines how fast a craft arrives at its destination? Let’s just assume that an Imperial Star Destroyer and the Millennium Falcon both depart the same part of vast empty space with no stray gravity wells. They are both going to the same place. Will they arrive at the same time? - Q Tzal
In canon, there is no clear answer to this. Star Wars Legends stories have made some attempt to explain it, though, so I turned to Wookieepedia administrator Toprawa and Ralltiir for more information. He told me that the Millennium Falcon has a faster hyperdrive than an Imperial Star Destroyer. Using what we saw in the films, the Millennium Falcon can go “point five (0.5) past lightspeed” while traveling through hyperspace. Presumably, a Star Destroyer can only travel through hyperspace at lightspeed.
Prior to its being wholly enveloped by cityscape, was Coruscant a planet replete with lush, thriving ecosystems? If so, was there outcry in the march to sheer enshouding of the planet in infrastructure and the resultant utter destruction of said ecosystems? - America’s Wang
Star Wars Legends gave some details about what Coruscant once looked like. Before it became a sprawling metropolis, it had landscape features like mountains and oceans over much of its surface.
How old is Chewie? - GELLA LLAP
Chewbacca is at least 200 years old by the time of the films.
I’ve noticed a lot of Star Wars books and comic books have been re-released under the ‘Legends’ label. How come Genndy Tartakovsy’s Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) miniseries hasn’t been given the ‘Legends’ label and re-released in either DVD or Bluray also? - AstroPCR
That series is indeed Legends. Book re-releases and DVD re-releases tend to work differently, though, so the distributors of that show probably have their own reasons for not releasing it again.
“If you strike me down I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine”.... Turns into weird ghost-stalker. This can’t possibly be it, can it? - RuthlessBurger
That is indeed it! As Yoda said in The Clone Wars, the power to be able to influence events and interact with the living even after death is a power like none other. It may not manifest itself in any sort of combat-oriented way, but without the ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker never would have become a Jedi.
What do Jawas look like under their hoods? - aja32
Jawas have never been depicted without hoods, so it is an enduring mystery!
What ever happened to the Ebon Hawk from the original KOTR? Did it survive into the Force Awakens era? - lostengineer
For this question, I turned to David Statman (“Ifindyourlackoffaithdisturbing”), an administrator on Wookieepedia. He told me that, after Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, the Jedi Exile - Meetra Surik - flew into unknown space aboard the Ebon Hawk to find Revan. The novel The Old Republic: Revan reveals that the Exile found Revan on Dromund Kaas, the capital of the Sith Empire, where she was killed. That was the last we saw of the Ebon Hawk.
And here are the questions we submitted to Wookieepedia that they, probably rightfully, didn’t answer.
Is there a problem with Chewbacca getting feces all over the Millenium
Falcon’s co-pilot seat? I imagine all of that hair would make it
difficult to wipe cleanly. There has to be poo-stragglers everytime he
does the deuce. Is this an ongoing conflict between Chewie and Han
when the cameras are not rolling? Or does Han just roll with it
because he’s so roguish? - temu17
If Luke and Leia were to have relations prior to finding out they were
siblings, multi-part question:
What are the odds the child would have some type of inbreeding-related
birth defect, and would Force sensitivity increase or decrease chances
of birth defects in this scenario?
Does the presence of Midichlorians somehow negate any chance of
defect, i.e. would the Force correct any error in the DNA of the child
upon conception due to ‘destiny’?
If Anakin had the highest Midichlorian count ever seen, and he has had
twin children with Padme, do his children’s Midichlorians increase or
decrease in count - is mating with a non-Force sensitive person going
to dilute the count, or is the presence and population density of
Midichlorians within an individual not dependent on parental factors? - Archaeyopterix Majorus
Why the hell is Chewbacca’s name “Chewbacca?” How does he let people
know his name is Chewbacca? He can’t pronounce it himself! He only
talks in a series of throaty growls and roars. It’s not like he can
walk up to someone and say, “My name is Chewbacca.” At best his name
would sound something like Scooby-Doo speak: Rooragha or something. So
why don’t they call him that? How did they get from whatever his name
really is in Wookiee to “Chewbacca?” - diasdiem
Contact the author at germain@io9.com.