What follows is the first in a series of essays meant to make this blog a bit more interesting. It is adapted from comments made on the forums. Enjoy.

Throughout the Star Wars universe, all sorts of unlikely occurrences occur. Luke just happens to come across a one-armed Jedi-fearing Wampa in Darksaber, the citizens of the galaxy just can't stay away from Tatooine (or Yavin 4, for that matter), and so on. Episode III introduced another such unlikely coincidence: Chewbacca just happens to be a Clone Wars veteran and a friend and savior of Jedi Master Yoda.

Some loved the cameo. Others said it was pointless. And, in the What's the Story thread, after I, ironically, brought up the annoyance of the "small galaxy" syndrome, some said it was just too unlikely.

The more I thought about it, though, the more sense it made.

First of all, it's important to think of things in the right order. In the GFFA, the prequels came first. Chewie met Kenobi and Skywalker (haha) long after he teamed up with Yoda in repelling the traitorous clone troopers. So the Yoda/Chewie friendship needs to be thought of as a cause of the Luke/Chewie friendship, rather than as an unlikely follow-up.

Now, the reason Chewie was at Kachirho was because he was a friend of Tarfful (that's me!), the chief of the village. That's not unlikely, right? Wookiees surely have lots of friends, and it's perfectly likely that they would come to each other's aid in times of war. So good so far.

We know that Yoda has good relations with the Wookiees - he said so himself in Episode III. So it's likely that he would be sent to help out, right? And he would surely contact the leader of the village once he got there, right? So everything so far is quite reasonable.

The Wookiees help Yoda escape. Yoda's helped them in the past. They're good friends, and very loyal to each other - we know both Wookiees and Jedi can both be very loyal to a cause. So that all makes sense.

Years later, Chewbacca comes across a Jedi by the name of Obi-Wan Kenobi in a bar. Kenobi needs help. Chewbacca, as co-pilot of one of the fastest ships around, fits the bill. And one might say he owes a kind of a life-debt to the Jedi for all their help, all those years ago. So it's no surprise that he would help them escape, right? That's reasonable, right? Chewie could probably have profited quite a bit by turning in two important Jedi, but he didn't - and the reason he didn't is because he hung out with Yoda back during the Clone Wars.

It's not that Chewie, unlikely though it may be, happened to be friends with Tarfful and Yoda. It's because he's friends with Tarfful and Yoda that we care about him at all, and it's because he was there at the Battle of Kachirho that he was happy to help a couple Jedi-in-(partial)-hiding years later. We need to think about cause and effect, and what's really the cause and what's really the effect. Episode III is the cause, and Episode IV is the effect, regardless of arbitrary release order. So everything makes sense, and seems perfectly likely... well, almost.

So what's unlikely? Mainly, that Chewie would be at the same bar as Kenobi at the same time. However, the Force has always been said to have a kind of a "will." It's been described as a sort of current - some may struggle upstream, like a salmon (although I otherwise wouldn't compare Palpatine to a fish), but most of the time things just kind of flow along with the current. If the will of the Force is for the prophecy of the Chosen One to be fulfilled, then Luke must progress in his hero's journey so that he can confront his father and redeem him. If the will of the Force is for Luke to take steps into a larger world, he'll need a sort of guide - someone to provide the means for getting off Tatooine.

Most spacers would turn in two Jedi for a bit of quick cash, and maybe dismissal of previous crimes. But there are two smugglers who wouldn't: Han Solo and the Wookiee Chewbacca. They - or, at least, Chewbacca - are sympathetic to the Jedi cause. So maybe the will of the Force was responsible for that little bit of luck.

But otherwise, it all makes sense. Had Chewie never had any contact with the Old Jedi Order, he probably would have hated them. He would have believed the Imperial propaganda about the Jedi Rebellion, and believed it responsible for the subsequent crackdown that landed him in slavery. But he knew the Jedi, and he had befriended them. And because of that, two decades later he would help the Jedi return to prominence. It's just one of the many ways in which the prequel trilogy has forced us to reconsider everything we thought we knew about the originals.

UPDATE

Wait, there's more!

I've been thinking, and maybe it's not so unlikely that Kenobi and Chewie met up (meaning we don't have to resort to the "Will of the Force" cheap shot). Tatooine is a fairly prominent center of underworld dealings, correct? Jabba & the Hutts have a strong presence there, and the Hutts are probably among the top employers for young smugglers like Han and Chewie. Therefore, it makes sense that they would have stopped in more than once. Of course, any good smuggler needs a drink now and then, so it also makes sense that they visited the Cantina when in town.

Kenobi, meanwhile, wasn't totally out of it when he left Tatooine in Episode IV. The best place to learn all the latest gossip would be the local cantina. Doesn't it make sense that he would have run into Chewie once or twice? He knows the tale of the Wookiees' enslavement by the Empire, and might have taken the chance to figure out this one's story. Depending on how much they talked, they may have even learned of their stout mutual buddy Yoda.

This possibility doesn't assure anything, but it's something.