Rogue One questions

[EnderAKH]

To be fair he covered most of his bases; the station had an energy field so exhaust ports and reactor assemblies are moot concerns. The shield generator was parked on some essentially uninhabited moon in the arse end of nowhere, guarded by and entire Legion, with a whole fleet in orbit for good measure.

OK, this brought up a question I had never considered. We know from A New Hope the Death Star has both sub-light and hyperdrive engines. Was the shield generator just for the construction phase? Because at some point that thing is going to have to travel to another system to blow something up. Was the Endor shield generator just temporary until an on-board system could be installed?

 

[fireproof78]

OK, this brought up a question I had never considered. We know from A New Hope the Death Star has both sub-light and hyperdrive engines. Was the shield generator just for the construction phase? Because at some point that thing is going to have to travel to another system to blow something up. Was the Endor shield generator just temporary until an on-board system could be installed?

Basically. Similar to the shield that protected Echo Base, it was a planetary based shield projected to the station.

 

[Reverend]

OK, this brought up a question I had never considered. We know from A New Hope the Death Star has both sub-light and hyperdrive engines. Was the shield generator just for the construction phase? Because at some point that thing is going to have to travel to another system to blow something up. Was the Endor shield generator just temporary until an on-board system could be installed?

Most likely. While still under construction the superstructure was exposed and thus vulnerable' to accidents and asteroid impacts as well as deliberate attacks.
We have no idea if the intent was to install such a strong field in the final phase, but it makes sense. The original only had a magnetic field since the thought was only large scale capital ship mounted energy weapons were the only thing worth defending against, but a "solid" particle field (like the one that encapsulated Scarif) would have made the thing all but invulnerable.

Shield technology in Star Wars is a little weird in that it's either mostly useless, or damn near impenetrable by any means, with very little middle ground. Best I can figure the only limiting factor is energy generation...which is also weird in Star Wars since it's either effectively infinite (I mean seriously, how much power does Coruscant consume in just *one* day!?) or limited and requiring exotic materials to maintain.

Of course both of these just indicate that it's best to to apply too much science to a space fantasy fairy tale. There's always some fudging, because it ain't that kinda story.

 

[Tuskin38]

Yeah there's different types of deflector shields in canon (and legends)

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Deflector_shield

Some can stop all objects from going through, some only stop lasers.

 

[fireproof78]

Yeah. I remember reading about those in Star Wars Insider about how Anakin could get inside the Trade Federation battleship during the Battle of Naboo.

 

[publiusr]

Plus the original concept had the dish at the equator; they even got so far as to create the final matte painting for it before it was decided to move it up to the top half to give the thing a (iirc?) clearer sense of orientation and a more interesting look.

Indeed, that's why the computer model of it in the briefing retains that design: redoing it was simply out of the question since it'd require reshoots with the cast and extras.

So yeah, Mimas turning out to look how it did was purely coincidental.

My thinking was that something like Mimas might have inspired the design being off center. Hide in plain sight using that moon as a target...then take its place. Multiple fusion reactors are mentioned. Now, old radials could have cylinders shot off and still work.

 

[Reverend]

My thinking was that something like Mimas might have inspired the design being off center. Hide in plain sight using that moon as a target...then take its place. Multiple fusion reactors are mentioned. Now, old radials could have cylinders shot off and still work.

That'd be a neat trick in 1976 considering Voyager 1 wouldn't image Mimas and it's crater until 1980...

 

[publiusr]

I know that.. but in universe...there may be long known Mimas like bodies

 

[Reverend]

There's probably a billion moons that look vaguely like Mimas. But so what? Why make massive engineering decisions based on some random, ordinary looking moon? Who cares about how a dead rock looks anyway?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

That just refers to the mere handful of TIEs that went after them.
It's fairly evident that the decision to let them go likely wasn't made until *after* Vader's duel with Kenobi. We saw Tarkin and Vader's initial reaction to the breakout; the former ordered every station on alert and the latter was determined to confront Kenobi. Hell, Tarkin literally says "they must not be allowed to escape" and later he was clearly not happy with Vader's "homing beacon" plan and would rather blow them out of the sky at that point, once the tractor beam failed to engage.

I don't agree.

In the scene when Leia first sees the Millennium Falcon, you can see stormtrooper guards being pulled away from the ship in the docking bay. After half the guards walk away, it's down to just five guards. I've always thought that the decision to allow the ship to escape but without Kenobi had already been made by that point, because there is no other reason why a reduction in the guard would be necessary. If more troopers were needed to locate the Rebels, the Death Star is huge, and more troopers could have been brought in from other areas of the station. They wouldn't have to come from the docking bay.

Heck, in the revised scene when Han rounds the corner, we see a huge number of troops just standing around, not actively engaged in hunting down the Rebels. That's further evidence that Tarkin has already agreed by that point to underutilize the station's resources to hunt down the Rebels.

Also, let's not forget that the "They let us go" angle plays like classic serial film post-cliffhanger twist: first, the heroes appear to be in a danger they can't get away from, then it turns out that the heroes were able to escape because things were not as they seemed. Ergo, the reality of them being let go was already in play earlier than we found out about it and earlier than it seemed.

 

[Reverend]

Nah. Not buying it.
Too much theatrics. Too needlessly complicated. The simplest explanation is to just take events in the context they're presented. This isn't the kind of movie to have hidden plot twists.

 

[BK613]

That'd be a neat trick in 1976 considering Voyager 1 wouldn't image Mimas and it's crater until 1980...

Pioneer 11 was the first, in 1979. But the central point remains. Mimas did not inspire the Death Star.

 

[Reverend]

Pioneer 11 was the first, in 1979. But the central point remains. Mimas did not inspire the Death Star.

IIRC it did a flyby and imaged Titan, but I'm not so sure if it took any good shots of Mimas. Either way the "death star" image everyone remembers is the one from Voyager.

 

[Shawnster]

Heck, in the revised scene when Han rounds the corner, we see a huge number of troops just standing around, not actively engaged in hunting down the Rebels. That's further evidence that Tarkin has already agreed by that point to underutilize the station's resources to hunt down the Rebels.

This is the stupidest "revision" in ANH. Well, maybe it's tied with Greedo shooting.

 

[Ithekro]

'Voyager shot first'?

 

[fireproof78]

This is the stupidest "revision" in ANH. Well, maybe it's tied with Greedo shooting.

Nah, Han stepping on Jabba's tale. Stupid, insolent and ridiculous.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

This is the stupidest "revision" in ANH. Well, maybe it's tied with Greedo shooting.

I agree, it was dumb and unnecessary.

 

[Ithekro]

Its was mostly down to wanting to have that establishing between Han and Jabba that they did film....but realized that Han walked around Jabba..who's, at the time, tail didn't exist. So they had Han step on the tail to keep the footage since Han was mid-sentence at that time. That Jabba doesn't just off him right there shows that Han Solo has been very valuable to Jabba's crime syndicate, and Jabba would hate to lose something that valuable....until the price for not having it working for him, and the fuming of a Hutt gets to the point where the bounty and the later wall decoration are more than enough to be "worth it" to Jabba. But it will take a year or two to get to that point with Jabba.

 

[publiusr]

Who cares about how a dead rock looks anyway?

That’s the point—though JPL might disagree

 

[Timo]

This is the stupidest "revision" in ANH. Well, maybe it's tied with Greedo shooting.

On the other hand, in the original an overwhelming number of Stormtroopers first runs away, then turns and attacks Han. What made them change their minds and do the literal 180? Why, more overwhelming numbers, of course!

We can read the scene two ways. If the troopers are under orders not to kill any of the intruders, their only recourse is to turn and run - they could not convincingly miss Han and Chewie in that corridor. But that takes courage and dedication, and indeed one of the troopers pays for his brave turning of back with his life. Where to run? They can't just endlessly keep on running, and going to the hangar full of troops is the smart move.

If the troopers are simply being cowardly and trying to make this somebody else's problem, then running directly to these somebodies is a smart move, too... As opposed, say, to radioing them for help and risking hearing "You deal with it!".

Timo Saloniemi