Rightrightright… I knew that. I love Episode I Racer, a racing game on the Ninetendo 64 system. One of the tracks is through one of the spice mines on Kessel. Lex’s explainations sounds pretty… sound to me.
Okay, speaking of when Obi Won (Yes, it is spelled “Won”, but it is pronounced “wän”) “dies…” Is it just me, or does his cloak look like it’s “empty” before Darth Vader even hits it with his light saber? Last time I saw the movie, I happened to notice that, I may be wrong, and I should probably go look at that again…anyway, it looked as if he, like, teleported himself away to some weird place somewhere just before Vader struck him with his light saber. Or maybe I’m just seeing things. I should read the books, so I know more about what I’m talking about. X.x
Yes, it does look like that, KJ, because of how they did the shot. It’s just a special effect thing. The actor who played Vader in the suit struck at a cloak hanging in the air, and cut it down. That’s just how they did the shot. You’ll notice it was just after the camera point of view switched from Luke. It’s a common scinematic effect. Chage the scene real quick, and you don’t really catch the first split second of the next frame.
I really don’t think Kenobi actually teleported anywhere. He is dead, afterall. He appears to Luke as a spirit. I think that’s pretty good evidence.
Kessel is the planet where they mine a psychoactive drug called ‘spice’. It was baned in the New Republic, but legal under the Empire, though regulated. There are also penal colonies on Kessel. Prisoners sentenced to hard labor are sent there. Since there were were prisoners, there were also guards. A huge Imperial garrison occupied Kessel. For a smuggler, such as our friend Han Solo, to steal and get away with a large shipment of spice, he would have to out run a fleet of TIE-fighters and interceptors.
The Kessel Run is also a right of passage. For a pirate to evade capture and make dough on the spice he steals from under the Empire’s nose, proves he has a huge set of solid steel balls. So, you can see now why it’s a big deal for Han to boast about making it in “under twelve parsecs”.
Oh, thanks to Rob for the dope on Kessel
Just to cobble the above posts together:
Parsecs are a real astronomical distance, not a time measurement. I believe the 12 parsec quote was originally intended to show that Han was blowing smoke up farmboy’s ass. But, if one reads the original Han Solo books (Star’s End, et. al.) they go into detail about how hairy it is to fly out of Kessel when they are hauling spice (or freeing Chewie from an Imperial penal colony). It’s implied that the shortest route from Kessel to open space is the most dangerous, due to the black holes.
IIRC, Sella, Han’s first serious girlfriend (who pops back in during Dark Empire), lost her ship trying to beat Han out of Kessel.
Hehe. My knowledge is big. g
-sb
They say the Lord loves drunks, fools and little children.
Two out of three ain’t bad.
Okay, cool. You guys figured out the Kessel questions accurately, excellent.
The answer to my own question (yes folks, I already knew the answer) is that Threepio is a Protocol Droid. It is his job to associate himself with high society, and handle protocol. Part of protocol (if not all of it) is to know when to tell the facts, and when to play dumb.
However, the whole Anakin Skywalker/Vader and Tatooine questions are more down to memory wipes than anything else.
Also, the reason it appears Obi Wan vanishes, is because he does. Just like Yoda does, and indeed so does Anakin when he dies. It is not death - it is being one with the force. This is a choice that any Jedi has if they know how to do it, and if they are prepared for it. Qui Gon was not prepared for it, and probably didn’t have the knowledge anyway, so that’s why he doesn’t go.
Such is the speculation of the Star Wars fans out there, and I think it accurate. However, Georgie boy can make up any stuff he likes, and he probably will.
-PIGEONMAN-
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Shadow of the Pigeon -
Weirdo of the Night
Ohhhh, he will alright. Probably in Episode II. There is definately an explaination about that Qui-Gon’s death.
More more more! Any other questions for your residant Starwarsologists? Bring 'em on!
Um, now I know that at the end of Jedi the spirits of Yoda, Anakin, and Obi Won are looking on, but when Vader/Anakin perishes before Luke drags him onto the Shuttle he doesn’t “become one with the force”. He just dies, and Luke drags his carcas onto the ship and proceeds to burn him on a pyre. So where does the transportation occur? Obi Won appears to do it shortly before he’s run through, this may be a condition of the limited sFX, but many seem to believe that he disassociates before Vader kills him (ergo Vader doesn’t actually kill him). Yoda disassociates on his death bed, and there are no indications if he does so before death, after death or if the vanishing is death itself. So, how does this supposedly work, and can we expect to see Qui Gon as a spirit in the future?
A good half of Vader is machine, so what Luke burns on the pyre is the Vader suit, not Anakin’s body.
And from a filmmaker’s point of view, the reason we don’t witness Anakin’s fade from sight is because the decision to include him in the end vision shot was a last minute one.
-PIGEONMAN-
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Shadow of the Pigeon -
Weirdo of the Night
according to starwars.com, only Vader’s mechanical suit was burned in the pyre. True, we do see Anakin die in Luke’s arms, but remember, not all Jedi are exactly the same. Their crafts and powers are very individualized, including what happens durring or after death.
OK.
R2D2 was able to access the computer system on the Death Star really easily. Why didn’t the Rebels have some droids infect the Star with some nasty viruses that would shut down the weapons systems or make the toilets overflow?
Why didn’t the Rebels simply strap some big ass honkin’ engines on some asteroids and launch those at the Death Star?
< running like hell >
You say “cheesy” like that’s a BAD thing.
I dunno about Threepio, but I figure R2 must have evaded the memory wipes. Remember how in SW4-ANH as soon as they hit dirt, Artoo knew which direction civilization was? I figure it had to be from when he was there in SW1-TPM.
Inasfar as the whole Annakin/Vader thing goes, we have to guesstimate how the transformation takes place. Does Anakin disappear, and Vader emerge, with a cover story that Vader killed Annakin? Or, is it some big bar mitzvah thing where Annakin tells everyone ‘hey, I’m going to the dark side, in case anyone asks’. The Jedi would know he was Vader either way, but perhaps no one would believe them.
Or, (I hope) Annakin snaps and kills Jar Jar with some sort of large blunt object, and gets exiled from the Jedi, and then Palpatine takes him in and warps him?
-sb
They say the Lord loves drunks, fools and little children.
Two out of three ain’t bad.
For that matter, just who was the Grand Moff Tarkin, that the Emperor entrusted him with the most powerful weapon in the galaxy, and had Vader be his errand boy?
Soon afterwards, Deimos simply vanished from the sky.
Tarkin was a trained Imperial Naval Officer deemed capable of handling the Death Star in battle (obviously, the Dark Side of the Force doesn’t grant one skills in Personnel Aptitude screening). Vader was put on board to “advise” Tarkin----regarding how very much like suicide it would be to get ideas about replacing the Emperor.
With magic, you can turn a frog into a prince. With science, you can turn a frog into a Ph.D, and you still have the frog you started with.
Sealemon88,
I’m sure the Death Star had some big virus-protection programs. They’re not that stupid. (OK, maybe they are. They did basically leave an exhaust pipe to drop a torp in. Stupid Bevel Lemelisk…)
About the asteroids…I dunno. No big asteroids in the Yavin system?
“War doesn’t determine who’s right. War determines who’s left.”
Actually, I suspect that’s not far from the truth! What Episode 1 did, with the introduction of Jar Jar, was establish friends for Anakin. Friends that he can now betray, disappoint, and generally make a mess of things as he slowly lets his anger take him over. And then he’ll be vulnerable to Palpatine’s wiley Sith ways…
Perhaps it will include the death of Jar Jar.
-PIGEONMAN-
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Shadow of the Pigeon -
Weirdo of the Night
OK, a slight hijack here (and with apologies to Jeff Foxworthy)here are some
SIGNS YOU MIGHT BE A REDNECK JEDI:
When Luke found out that Princess Leia was his sister, you didn't see that as such a big obstacle to their budding romance.
As a break from your Jedi training, you and Yoda went frog gigging.
When your Millenium Falcon makes the jump to light speed, you can never resist the urge to yell "YEEEEEEEE HAAAAAAAAAAAW!!!!!!!"
Your comment upon being taken to the Ewok tree house was, "How do y'all even see the deer from up this high?"
You don't give a damn who the emperor is...Elvis is still the King!
At the Cantina one night, Chewbacca beats the crap out of you after you drunkenly ask him, "Hey, boy....What are you, a pointer or a setter?"
For you, it is a point of pride that Darth Vader refers to your group as the "Rebel" forces.
You are Luke's brother, Bo Skywalker.
The first time you heard somebody say "Chewbacca", you misunderstood, and passed them your pouch of Red Man.
Your ass is hairier than a Wookie's.
You have such a big beer belly that your friends refer to you as "Jabba the Gut".
Darth Maul has better teeth than you do.
Every time you bank your X-Wing fighter, all the beer cans on the floor roll to one side.
While Luke Skywalker's family farm was wiped out by imperial storm troopers, yours got flattened by a tornado.
Every time you belch or fart loudly in public, you grin broadly and say, "Boy, the Force is strong in me today!"
[/hijack]
This is what I want to know-- why the hell did Obi give up the ghost while the other guys were just standing there with their mouths hanging open, watching the lightsaber duel? I mean, come on, Obi, yell “RUN!” or something, and fight Vader a bit more instead of disappearing the second he sees Han, Luke and Leia. As it was, they almost got zapped by those crappy-shooting tupperware-wearing dudes. To anybody who’s seen the movie more than me (which would be 3 times or more!), did those guys EVER hit anything?