'Star Wars' Has Retconned One Of The Most Iconic Ships In 'Star Wars'
The characters in Star Wars are amazing. Each Jedi, Sith, bounty hunter, smuggler, diplomat, and alien background character has more thought put into it than most movies would give to main characters. There is one character I don’t feel gets adequate love as a character (or rather characters): the ships. Each ship in Star Wars is visually interesting and just cool to watch. They have their own details that make them unique, and a lot of them have their own histories and conflicts which are shown in just their designs. Also, like other characters, they are not immune to the retcon. In fact, one famous ship in Star Wars has gotten a fairly large retcon treatment in the past.
The first ship we see in Star Wars, the Tantive IV, is Leia’s Corellian Corvette, which she used to attempt to escape the pursuit of Darth Vader and the rest of the Galactic Empire. Then we see the pristine white interiors, which add an entirely new layer of detail to this world. The ship, and others like it, have made appearances in Star Wars since that original scene. One of its appearances in Revenge of the Sith seemed to be an interesting connective tissue between Episodes III and IV. In Revenge of the Sith, we get to see the ship at the end of the movie. There, Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Bail Organa are discussing what is to be done to ensure the safety of Luke and Leia. It is kind of poetic that the first ship seen in Star Wars is also the setting for the last movie (at that time and in order of release for the movies) in the series. We even get to see Senator Organ talk to Captain Antilles (no relation to Wedge) about C-3PO and R2-D2, revealing why they would be aboard the ship in Episode IV.
However, it has since been retconned. The ship that is seen in Episode III was renamed the Sundered Heart and later the Tantive III. The former came about when the ship appeared in 2006's Empire at War video game, and it was confirmed by Leland Chee in 2010 that this is the ship seen in Revenge of the Sith. In canon, the Tantive III name first appeared in the 2016 reissue of the 2005 book Star Wars: Complete Locations, and the ship was featured with that name in the novels Ahsoka and Leia: Princess of Alderaan (released in 2016 and 2017, respectively).
This ship does have some similarities with its successor. For one, both ships are captained by Raymus Antilles, and they are both used as diplomatic vessels by Bail Organa. While it is unfortunate that this poetic detail has been changed, the retcon doesn’t cause serious problems for the continuity of Star Wars. This may even help to build the world a little bit more. It shows that Alderaan has multiple ships used for diplomacy, which they always side with over war. Even if this implies that Bail has to part with it for some reason before Episode IV, it still adds a sense of legacy to Bail’s work as a senator and diplomat. Also, access to multiple ships are a luxury that a lot of people, especially someone like Bail Organa, are bound to have.
Any franchise that has run for an extended period of time will encounter retcons at some point in time but rarely do retcons add something deep to the lore. Some retcons just exist to fix a continuity issue that occurs at some point in the story. Star Wars is certainly no exception since they have had their fair share of retcons which have entirely altered the lore as we know it. This retcon is not widely known, and I think that is because it doesn’t make drastic, crazy, or reductive changes to the lore. Instead, it makes a subtle change that doesn’t alter the story we know, but it adds an additional level of depth that Star Wars is known for. I don’t want to see more retcons in Star Wars, and I largely feel like retcons should be avoided unless absolutely necessary. However, these small changes to little things can help to add depth to the continuity and make the world feel more rich and lively.
Source(s): CBR