A tie-in book for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has fixed a plot hole in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Disney’s sequel trilogy has come to a close, and it’s transformed the galaxy that Lucas built. The three films have introduced new characters, Force abilities, and even new technologies.
One of the most interesting was seen in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, with the Rebels shocked at the First Order’s ability to track them through hyperspace. This technology had been in development since the heyday of the Empire, but had generally been thought impossible – until the First Order proved able to pull it off. Attentive viewers, however, noticed that this raised a problem with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. That film ended with the Tantive IV fleeing the Battle of Scarif with the Death Star plans – and, as anyone familiar with Star Wars would know, Darth Vader successfully tracked the ship to Tatooine. How did the Sith Lord trace the Tantive IV?
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Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Visual Dictionary finally answers this question. There’s a section dedicated to the Tantive IV, which has been recently discovered by the Resistance impounded in an old Imperial facility, and has been reclaimed by General Leia Organa. It confirms that “a faulty hyperdrive subsystem allowed the Empire to track and intercept [the Tantive IV] over Tatooine,” but that this has now been repaired.
It makes sense that the Empire, and later the First Order, would be investing resources in working out how to track individual vessels. This would allow them to monitor the movement of potential Rebels, to identify smuggling routes and channels for black market goods, and to uncover secret Rebel bases. Given the Emperor already suspected the Alderaanian Royal Family of being rebel sympathizers, the fault in the Tantive IV may just be a fortunate coincidence; alternatively, it’s entirely possible an Imperial saboteur deliberately caused this malfunction in order to allow the Empire to track Leia’s consular vessel. There would be a certain degree of irony to this; no doubt the Rebellion hoped the Death Star plans would be relatively safe given Leia Organa was supposed to have diplomatic immunity, but in reality they were now on the one vessel the Empire could reliably trace.
The Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Visual Dictionary was written by Pablo Hidalgo, a high-profile member of the Lucasfilm Story Group, and part of his job is ensuring the strands of continuity are woven tightly together. In this case, few viewers had noticed the odd contradiction between Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but Hidalgo evidently had, and he couldn’t resist tossing in a single sentence to fix the plot hole.
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Tom Bacon is one of Screen Rant’s staff writers, and he’s frankly amused that his childhood is back – and this time it’s cool. Tom’s focus tends to be on the various superhero franchises, as well as Star Wars, Doctor Who, and Star Trek; he’s also an avid comic book reader. Over the years, Tom has built a strong relationship with aspects of the various fan communities, and is a Moderator on some of Facebook’s largest MCU and X-Men groups. Previously, he’s written entertainment news and articles for Movie Pilot.
A graduate of Edge Hill University in the United Kingdom, Tom is still strongly connected with his alma mater; in fact, in his spare time he’s a voluntary chaplain there. He’s heavily involved with his local church, and anyone who checks him out on Twitter will quickly learn that he’s interested in British politics as well.
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