You’d be hard pressed to find someone who’s gone through the Star Wars movies in order and doesn’t think highly of The Empire Strikes Back. Although the 1980 movie was initially met with mixed critical reception, its reputation improved significantly in the years to follow, and it also expanded the mythology in a galaxy far, far away in some major ways, including by introducing Yoda, performed by Frank Oz. Luke Skywalker trained under the Jedi Master on Dagobah, and it turns out that Mark Hamill’s character might have spent more time with Yoda on that planet than we thought.
While the time frame is never made explicitly clear in The Empire Strikes Back for Luke’s stay on Dagobah, it seems on the surface to not be that long considering that his training is happening at the same time that Han Solo, Leia Organa, Chewbacca and C-3PO are fleeing the Empire and travel to Bespin. And yet, Luke seems to lean a remarkable amount while there, though not enough to make him a match for Darth Vader and prevent his hand from being sliced off by his less-than-stellar dad. Well, apparently this could be because Dagobah is one of several planets in the Star Wars galaxy where time passes differently.
In The Star Wars Visual Dictionary (via ScreenRant), there’s a section about Ahch-To, the world where Luke Skywalker exiled himself before the events of The Force Awakens, as a planet enriched with the Force. The book states that such worlds have a “mysterious quality” that affects the flow of time. While Dagobah isn’t mentioned in this portion of the Visual Dictionary, it’s long been established that it’s another planet that has a special connection to the Force, so this manipulation of time could also apply here.
So if you’ve ever thought it didn’t make sense that Luke was able to learn so much in such a short amount of time, it’s possible that from his perspective, he was hanging out on Dagobah much longer than his friends were on the run in the Millennium Falcon. In other words, think weeks or months rather than days. Luke was still a ways off from becoming a Jedi, but at least he was on much better footing with using the Force compared to what he’d learned by himself in the three years between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.
On the other hand, there’s the possibility that this time distortion is not one of the ways the Force is reflected on Dagobah, and that Luke really did spend legitimate months on that planet. Remember, as his training is happening, Han, Leia, Chewbacca and C-3PO are having to deal with the Millennium Falcon’s hyperdrive not working. So it could have taken them months to get to Bespin to meet up with Lando Calrissian too. Ideally the good folks at Lucasfilm will clear up where things stand with time on Dagobah someday, but whatever the case, none of this detracts from the great scenes Luke Skywalker shared with Yoda in Empire.
Revisit The Empire Strikes Back and all the other Star Wars movies with a Disney+ subscription. You’ll need that to also follow along with all the TV shows set in this franchise. If you’d rather look ahead to the future, our guide of upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows has you covered.
