Of all the surprising things we’ve learned about Star Wars Outlaws in the days since its reveal—its focus on the galaxy far, far away’s underworld elements; its open-world gameplay; its intriguing protagonist Kay Vess—one of the most pleasant is a simple chronological shift that presents so much potential.That simple shift is bringing Outlaws’ story of crime in the age of the Empire not into the era of Imperial ascendance, but at one of its most fascinatingly fragile periods instead. Outlaws is set between the events of Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, rather than before or after the original Star Wars trilogy. This is great for many reasons, even if the first is primarily a somewhat petty one: the 20 years between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope are largely very well-covered ground, especially in contemporary Star Wars fiction. Between the bevy of Marvel comics and tie-in books; shows like Rebels, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Bad Batch; games like Jedi Fallen Order and this year’s sequel Jedi Survivor; and movies like Solo and Rogue One, the broad spectrum of this transitory period has been explored on multiple fronts, fleshed out its events and given us detailed insight into the early years of the Empire’s rise as well as the nascent resistance factions that flowed into the foundation of the Rebel Alliance. And there will be more stories set there. There’s a reason it’s popular; it lends a sort of “have your cake and eat it” aesthetic approach where you can still play with the iconography of the Clone Wars and the prequels while building towards the beloved visual language of the original films (the fact that Outlaws still does this outside of this time frame is just as good—things don’t just stop existing on arbitrary delineations of time!). But just as its potential allure is undeniable, so is the fact that we’ve gotten a lot of stories lately that play in this particular part of the Star Wars sandbox.So why then does it matter to push Outlaws what is, chronologically, an almost insignificant period of time, since there’s less than a decade between where, say, Star Wars Rebels starts and the year-long period between ESB and ROTJ? Because as a certain other Lucasfilm franchise once said, it’s not the years, honey, it’s the mileage—and a whole lot of mileage has happened by the that murky 3-4ABY window.Think about it: the Rebellion isn’t just formed, it is an active participant in the Galactic Civil War, which itself isn’t just in open conflict but in the wake of a major victory like the destruction of the first Death Star. And yet at the same time, after being routed from Yavin IV and now Hoth, the Empire, while bloody-nosed in the face of concerted resistance, now believes the considerable threat the Rebel Alliance presented is back on the decline. Rebel leadership has scattered into hiding, its fleets splintered across interstellar rally points, its famous commanders either incapacitated like Han, or following an introspective path like Luke. The Empire is firmly established in control of the galaxy, but at the same time is now constantly exposed to emboldened resistance efforts as it both seeks to quash the Alliance once and for all and maintain order in the wake of its exposure to the galaxy as being fallible. Before A New Hope, the Empire’s oppression is almost total, and the cracks of hope that break through and spark rebellion are intentionally fleetingly abstract in the wake of Imperial dystopia. After A New Hope? Chaos.And chaos is exactly the kind of environment a would-be scoundrel can thrive in. Already in what little we’ve seen of Outlaws’ world, there’s the same kind of syndicate-backed activity pushed to the forefront glimpsed as an element in other chaotic, transitory periods of Star Wars’ timeline—hell, it’s even the same groups, like the Pykes who’ve operated across Clone Wars, who are glimpsed briefly in Outlaws footage so far, and then in The Book of Boba Fett. We also have already had small, telling moments like when Kay casually chooses to bite her thumb over her broker’s table if it means aggravating an Imperial officer, a kind of defiance that you’d see much less of when the Empire was at its most powerful in its ascendance. Even in just tiny moments like watching Kay’s ship weave itself through a battle between Rebel and Imperial forces, you’re constantly reminded of just how weird and messy this time in Star Wars’ story really is meant to be.And Star Wars can afford a little messiness right now, a murky story of opportunity and selfhood that’s not necessarily about Good and Bad and who’s on which side in neat, defined parameters, but the story of a galaxy on fire, and the people trying to survive it torn between the efforts of these much bigger factions. That’s just as much Star Wars as the traditional heroes vs. villains stories—and it’s one I can’t wait to see Outlaws tell on its own terms. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who