Star Wars: 12 Stupid Decisions From The Prequels That Actively Ruin The Originals

2. The Republic Stood For Thousand... Somethings

"For over a thousand generations the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times. Before the Empire." - Obi-Wan Kenobi

It's one of the most tantalising hints at the times even longer ago in the galaxy from the original movies, hinting at a universe with a scope bigger than even the ground-breaking visuals of Star Wars could show. As a piece of mythology, it proved so all-encompassing that it was replayed in the first trailer for Revenge Of Sith, hammering home how the prequels were realising these long-teased events.

Oddly enough, however, the films themselves don't seem to be following that blueprint. Oh, the events it hints at happen, but the time period is off. Throughout the prequels, characters refer to the Republic having stood for a "thousand years", not generations, with just enough repetition to make it clear this isn't a few people mis-speaking.

Maybe Lucas realised generations weren't a sound measure of time, but given that he's thrown parsecs around willy nilly before it's unlikely. Instead, he probably knew it was a thousand somethings and guessed at what he'd chosen a few decades before instead of checking.

The Expanded Universe attempted to retcon the discrepancy, placing a major Sith uprising about 1,000 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin) that reshaped the already existing Republic, but such efforts really shouldn't have been necessary.