When you really think about it, Star Wars has been lying to you from the very beginning. In 1977’s A New Hope, some significant reveals are made about the galaxy’s history. However, they’ve actually become less true over time (but in a good way).

In A New Hope, Luke Skywalker learns about his father, the Jedi Order, and the Republic from Obi-Wan Kenobi. While he obviously warps the truth about Anakin Skywalker and doesn’t reveal the full picture to Luke, it’s also become quite apparent 48 years later that Obi-Wan wasn’t being truthful about Star Wars‘ galactic history either.

Star Wars Has Been Totally Lying About The Galaxy’s History

In A New Hope, Obi-Wan Kenobi claims that the Jedi Knights were “the guardians of peace and justice in the days of the Republic”. He also says that they served the Republic for over a thousand generations before the Clone Wars and the “Dark Times” of the Galactic Empire.

As a result, the implication here, before any other Star Wars media, is that there were generations of great peace before Palpatine’s Empire, something we now know is intrinsically untrue.

48 years later, we’ve seen multiple examples of strife and conflict preceding the events that led up to the Empire. For example, we know from Attack of the Clones that the Republic was reformed after a crisis only a thousand years before the prequels, alluded to by Chancellor Palpatine amid fears of imminent war with the Separatists (The Clone Wars).

Likewise, recent years have shown us the High Republic Era sets only hundreds of years before the prequels, featuring major conflicts that saw entire sectors of the galaxy being cut off from the Republic. In essence, we now know that Kenobi’s recollections of Star Wars‘ past were far more idyllic than the harsher, darker reality.

Star Wars’ Biggest Lie Is The Entire Point

Having said that, this is actually an ongoing lie that makes sense given the context of the entire Star Wars franchise and its ongoing struggle with what is effectively nostalgia for days long past, regardless of what the reality truly was.

After all, how many times have we seen conflict arise in the Star Wars galaxy that stems from a desire to recapture something that was lost or destroyed?

Luke Skywalker tried and failed to bring back the Jedi Order, having ignored the flaws that brought about its undoing. The First Order was an attempt to restore “order” through fascism and the authoritarian rule of the Empire, ignoring all the corruption and flawed systems that similarly contributed to its demise.

Even the Jedi Order itself clung to their ideologies and dogmas of the past in the face of a changing galaxy. Ironically, one could even argue that Lucasfilm itself has a problem and an overreliance on nostalgia, though at least in-universe it’s a good problem to have in a narrative sense.

Nostalgia lies, as the truth is always less pleasant than the nostalgic memories, and it’s absolutely fascinating to think about how that idea has constantly been playing a role since 1977.