If Han had stayed with Luke 100%

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

.....and not left early to later surprise/thrill us with his dramatic reappearance and last-minute save, how many of Luke's X-Wing fighter allies might still be alive? Wedge made it out. Nine others, including Luke's former best friend, were killed.

STAR WARS finishes with a super-happy Luke. I can see his being glad to be alive. But Biggs is never mentioned again.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Who can say? There are odds of the Falcon getting blown out of space, so....

 

[Locutus of Bored]

.....and not left early to later surprise/thrill us with his dramatic reappearance and last-minute save, how many of Luke's X-Wing fighter allies might still be alive? Wedge made it out. Nine others, including Luke's former best friend, were killed.

STAR WARS finishes with a super-happy Luke. I can see his being glad to be alive. But Biggs is never mentioned again.

The Death Star would have just scrambled another wing of TIE fighters to deal with the increased threat if he was providing overhead fire support for a long time. His attack only worked as a one time sneak attack from a possible sensor blindspot coming from out of the sun (and maybe from around the other side of the gas giant Yavin too).

 

[J.T.B.]

^ Yep, it was a right-place-right-time thing. The Falcon was too big to maneuver inside the trench; a big ship by itself above the surface would seem to provide the Imperials a nice, convenient target.

 

[EnriqueH]

Back in the day, I felt mildly bad for Biggs, but he was essentially Tie-Fighter fodder.

However, they added that scene in 1997 back into the movie, and it was a good scene, but it made me feel more for Biggs than I originally did pre-1997.

 

[kitik]

.....and not left early to later surprise/thrill us with his dramatic reappearance and last-minute save, how many of Luke's X-Wing fighter allies might still be alive?

None. Luke, Wedge, and Han would be dead too, and the Death Star would have blown up the Rebel base, dealing a huge loss to the Rebellion.

The "last minute save" only worked because it was a "dramatic reappearance". The Falcon would have gotten smoked if it had taken part in the assault from start to finish, in fact since it would have been the largest target, Vader may have taken it down himself.

With the two Skywalker kids dead, and many resources and personnel lost at Yavin, the Rebellion would have been set back decades, and Palpatine would likely remain in control for a lot longer time than he did.

 

[Guy Gardener]

The Falcon can hover?

Actually, the X-Wings can probably hover too?

It's just if any one hovers, they get riddled by the tower cannons.

I'm assuming that the Deathstar was rotating on it's axis?

But if they could math out the rotational speed, couldn't they just charge the port from above?

Oh. The ships can do that, but the proton torpedoes can't.

 

[kitik]

It's safe to assume that the US military has precision guided missiles and bombs that could hit that exhaust port today, so lets not dwell too much on those specific details of the Death Star assault.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Guidance programs can be jammed.

Considering that Missiles can be droids, the guidance program can be mistaken for a person.

Although if that was true, R2D2 would have been a distracted moron on the verge of exploding.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I was always under the impression that Luke was trying to get Han to join up as a fighter pilot like he was doing, not to participate in the attack with the Falcon.

 

[Guy Gardener]

The X-Wings did such a good job of taking out the gun towers, that a light bomber (frieghter) like the Falcon could suddenly make it through the previously impenetrable defensive fire zone that the...

Hey?

How much would it have ####ed up the Dethstar if it rotated on it's axis a little faster or a little slower for no reason? Trying down doing a trench run if the tench is have a seizure.

 

[Tosk]

It's safe to assume that the US military has precision guided missiles and bombs that could hit that exhaust port today

Sure, but did they have them a long time ago?

 

[Ithekro]

The assumption would then be that the Empire could probably shoot down the torpedoes if they came from above. The trench run is to avoid as much of the surface guns as possible to deliver the torpedoes as close to the target as possible. This reduces to chances of the Imperial gunners hitting the torpedo like it was a guilded missile today. Of course we know Imperial gunners can't hit much of anything, but that is besides the point.

Also the Death Star's magenetc field (or even shielding) could have prevented such a attempt over the two meter wide exhaust port (that happened to be under the main port, which might have covered it from other angles). The run seemed to need to be very specific in order to hit this thing with enough precision to cause a chain reaction to destroy the station. Luke might have done one better by dropping two torpedoes into the shaft. Red Leader's torpedoes impacted on the surface. Gold Group never even got to fire their torpedoes.

Han in a fighter would have been useful as he is rather skilled. More so than all the Rebel pilots there save maybe Red Leader and Luke (and Luke's is via the Force). Though Wedge proved to be a rather interesting pilot given his head on with a TIE. The Falcon, as seen later in the films, can weave and fly like any of these little fighters. Even with Lando flying it. It would need a crew of gunners to make it work though. And even then, the Death Stars defenses were designed to take out larger threats than snubfighter.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Han is given an X-Wing.

Han dies.

Luke shags his sister.

 

[Mr Light]

Y'know, come to think of it... do we know for a FACT that Luke and Leia never hooked up between ANH and ESB?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Y'know, come to think of it... do we know for a FACT that Luke and Leia never hooked up between ANH and ESB?

I think that Luke's reaction to getting Frenched by Leia indicates that they did not.

 

[Mr Light]

Kissing costs extra.

 

[Marsden]

... so lets not dwell too much on those specific details of the Death Star assault.

Yes, like a battlestation with over a thousand fighters can't stop 32 attacking fighters.

I know, the other tie fighters were coming on Tuesday.

Plus, guns can't track small fighters, that Falcon is about 8 times as wide, I think I wouldn't have had a chance to get that close.

Why did the X-wings just sit there and wait to be shot from behind?

Why didn't the Y-wings use their turrets to fire back at the Ties?


Well, like Harrison Ford said to Mark Hamill, "it's not that kind of movie." So if something doesn't make sense, it's just Star Wars.

 

[J.T.B.]

Well, like Harrison Ford said to Mark Hamill, "it's not that kind of movie." So if something doesn't make sense, it's just Star Wars.

Well, exactly. The rebel pilots have to fly down the trench to hit the exhaust port because the Mosquitoes in 633 Squadron had to fly up the fjord to hit the rocket fuel plant. Han came back in the end because it's cool for the mercenary gunslinger to find his heart and help the little guy like in A Fistful of Dollars.