# Questions about Star Wars I can't get answers to
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-star-wars-i-cant-get-answers-to/172513
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 1, 2003, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-star-wars-i-cant-get-answers-to/172513 "2003-05-01T23:57:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Roadwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roadwalker)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2003, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-star-wars-i-cant-get-answers-to/172513/1 "2003-05-01T23:57:22Z")
**Eposode IV**
Why doesn’t Solo hurry off and pay the bounty hunter right after the battle of Yavin? He’s got a fast ship?
Why didn’t someone notice the tractor beam was off and turn it back on?
Why did they take The _Falcon_ to Yavin anyway? They knew they were being followed.
**Episode V**
Why doesn’t Luke just stay in the snow monster’s cave after he kills it. Or at least use the skin for a coat.
(this is a big one)
Just how much time does it take for _The Falcon_ to reach Bespin using sub-light?
On the same note, does Luke’s training take so little time?
And what would it be like to have brunch with Vader? “Darth pass the Castup…with your HANDS damnit! You freak the piss out of me when you do that!”
**Episode VI**
Why does Luke’s light Sabe act like a Louisville Slugger rather that slice up the folks?
Why didn’t the Emperor choose a planet with existing mines for resourses for construction of his new Death Star?
These are just a few questions I have, feel freee to answer or add your own.
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2003, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-star-wars-i-cant-get-answers-to/172513/2 "2003-05-02T00:02:18Z")
> [@](#):
>
> _Originally posted by Roadwalker \*
> \*\*
> Why didn’t someone notice the tractor beam was off and turn it back on?
> Why did they take The Falcon to Yavin anyway? They knew they were being followed.
> [_\*
The tractor beam stayed off because the Imperial plan was to let the Falcoln escape then follow it to find the rebel base. The Falcoln went to Yavin because they didn’t realize they were being followed.
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### Author:  [@ricksummon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricksummon)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2003, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-star-wars-i-cant-get-answers-to/172513/3 "2003-05-02T00:53:38Z")
“They” didn’t realize they were being followed? Han Solo didn’t realize it, but Princess Leia most certainly did. The question is, why did she allow the Falcon to go to Yavin despite this? My answer: She knew the Rebels would have to go up against the Death Star sooner or later; she chose sooner.
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### Author:  [@Auntie\_Social](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntie_Social)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2003, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-star-wars-i-cant-get-answers-to/172513/4 "2003-05-02T01:06:05Z")
… and if they go somewhere else, the Empire still knows where they went and blow up that planet, without the rebel fighters available to put up a fight.
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2003, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-star-wars-i-cant-get-answers-to/172513/5 "2003-05-02T01:07:14Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Roadwalker \*
> **Eposode IV**
> Why doesn’t Solo hurry off and pay the bounty hunter right after the battle of Yavin? He’s got a fast ship?
I suspect he was too busy helping the Rebels relocated to Hoth. He’s also gone from “realtively unknown smuggler” to “number one on Darth Vader’s shit list,” so running off on his own right away might have been to dangerous until the fallout from blowing up the Death Star had settled a little bit.
> [@](#):
>
> Why didn’t someone notice the tractor beam was off and turn it back on?
What **Captain Amazing** said. Also, if the plan had worked the way Obi-Wan intended, no one would know the tractor beam had been deactivated until they tried to use it, and then they’d have to figure out _why_ it wasn’t working, and by that time, the Falcon is long gone.
> [@](#):
>
> Why did they take The _Falcon_ to Yavin anyway? They knew they were being followed.
Leia _suspected_ they were being followed; Han disagreed, and it was his ship. Besides, they had to get those plans in R2 to the Rebel leaders ASAP.
> [@](#):
>
> **Episode V**
> Why doesn’t Luke just stay in the snow monster’s cave after he kills it. Or at least use the skin for a coat.
Well, he’d received a serious head-wound. Probably wasn’t thinking too clearly. Also, that thing might have had a mate.
> [@](#):
>
> Just how much time does it take for _The Falcon_ to reach Bespin using sub-light?
It’s not clear how long it took to get to Bespin. Probably a few weeks to a few months. They probably didn’t use sub-light: according to the RPG, all hyper-capable ships bigger than a fighter carry a smaller, slower back-up hyperdrive for emergencies such as this. So they still were travelling faster than light, but not quite .5 faster.
> [@](#):
>
> On the same note, does Luke’s training take so little time?
Well, he might have had several months of constant and undivided training from one of the most powerful Jedi in history. He himself had more raw potential than anyone since his own father. He’d already learned some basics from Ben. And he was getting the super-condensed combat-only version of Jedi training: most Jedi’s get years and years and years of theory and philosophy to prevent them from turning to the dark side. Luke just got the skinny on how to cut people into itty bitty pieces.
> [@](#):
>
> And what would it be like to have brunch with Vader? “Darth pass the Castup…with your HANDS damnit! You freak the piss out of me when you do that!”
Check out [this comic book](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1569716196/qid=1051837499/sr=1-8/ref=sr_1_8/103-8709869-5019830?v=glance&s=books) for an idea.
> [@](#):
>
> **Episode VI**
> Why does Luke’s light Sabe act like a Louisville Slugger rather that slice up the folks?
Because all the cool in the franchise had been used up in the first two movies, and they only had suck left for this one.
> [@](#):
>
> Why didn’t the Emperor choose a planet with existing mines for resourses for construction of his new Death Star?
I’m guessing that the new Death Star started out as a second moon around Endor, which was gradually consumed to provide materials for the battlestation. Endor wasn’t used at all except as a convenient place to put the forcefield generator and somewhere to ship troops for some R’n’R.
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### Author:  [@RawkStah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RawkStah)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2003, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-star-wars-i-cant-get-answers-to/172513/6 "2003-05-02T01:51:26Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Miller \*
> \*\*I’m guessing that the new Death Star started out as a second moon around Endor, which was gradually consumed to provide materials for the battlestation. Endor wasn’t used at all except as a convenient place to put the forcefield generator and somewhere to ship troops for some R’n’R. \*\*
Sounds good an all, but, Endor WAS a moon. Unless, of course, you mean that the Empire acquired one of the other moons around Endor (the planet).
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### Author:  [@RawkStah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RawkStah)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2003, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-star-wars-i-cant-get-answers-to/172513/7 "2003-05-02T01:58:37Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Roadwalker \*
> \*\*Why didn’t the Emperor choose a planet with existing mines for resourses for construction of his new Death Star?
> \*\*
Palpatine wasn’t one to concern himself with “good economic policies” or “feasability”. That’s why (in the expanded universe, anyway) we learn that he had at least two of everything.
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### Author:  [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2003, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-star-wars-i-cant-get-answers-to/172513/8 "2003-05-02T02:00:31Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Just how much time does it take for The Falcon to reach Bespin using sub-light?
The Star Wars novels (which have semi-cannonical status IIRC) generally agree that it took a month or two.
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### Author:  [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2003, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-star-wars-i-cant-get-answers-to/172513/9 "2003-05-02T02:13:31Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by RawkStah \*
> Sounds good an all, but, Endor WAS a moon.
Okay, here’s an easy one that I’m sure has come up a million times. The Ewoks’ home is not called Endor, is it? Or is it? It’s always referred to as the forest moon.
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### Author:  [@markdiscordia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markdiscordia)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2003, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-star-wars-i-cant-get-answers-to/172513/10 "2003-05-02T03:05:22Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Eposode IV
> Why doesn’t Solo hurry off and pay the bounty hunter right after the battle of Yavin? He’s got a fast ship?
He owed Jabba, not any particular bounty hunter. No answer is given in the movies as to why the bounty remained on his head three years later. The Marvel comics explain that he did indeed take off for Tatooine shortly after Yavin but was waylaid by the pirate Crimson Jack, who stole the money. Later, Han saved Jabba’s life and the bounty was lifted; it was restored yet later for reasons I haven’t gotten to yet in the Marvel reprints.
> [@](#):
>
> Why didn’t someone notice the tractor beam was off and turn it back on?
Either because they let them go or because no one ever planned for it to be turned off.
> [@](#):
>
> Why did they take The Falcon to Yavin anyway? They knew they were being followed.
Yavin IV had tacticians capable of analyzing the plans, squadrons capable of attacking the Death Star, and no civilian population to worry about in the event that the attack failed.
> [@](#):
>
> Episode V
> Why doesn’t Luke just stay in the snow monster’s cave after he kills it. Or at least use the skin for a coat.
No definite answer. One could easily posit that, because he was knocked out when the Wampa first attacked him, he left the cave to get his bearings and was unable to locate it again in the storm. Or, as a result of the blackout and the effort of combat, he was simply too weakened to move far or think straight.
> [@](#):
>
> (this is a big one)
> Just how much time does it take for The Falcon to reach Bespin using sub-light?
It’s never established whether they had some slower, undesirable method of hyperspace travel or indeed used sublight. The standard figure is six weeks but I can’t remember the source for that or the explanation (no two stars could possibly be as close as six light-weeks to each other, let alone close enough that one could travel between them in six weeks at sublight speeds.) An ingenious solution involves the \* Avenger \* jumping to hyperspace with the Falcon still attached to it, landing in the nominal outer reaches of the Anoat system: actually far enough from the Anoat’s star that one could get to Bespin in six weeks, but in an area which the Falcon’s maps would show as Anoat because the whole galaxy is divided into systems.
> [@](#):
>
> And what would it be like to have brunch with Vader? “Darth pass the Castup…with your HANDS damnit! You freak the piss out of me when you do that!”
He couldn’t take the mask off outside of the chamber on the \* Executor \* so he likely got his nutrition intravenously.
> [@](#):
>
> Episode VI
> Why does Luke’s light Sabe act like a Louisville Slugger rather that slice up the folks?
Could you clarify what you’re referring to here?
> [@](#):
>
> Why didn’t the Emperor choose a planet with existing mines for resourses for construction of his new Death Star?
The materials had to be synthesized and treated anyway (I don’t think “transparisteel” or “ferrocrete” occur naturally) so there would be no particular advantage to that. He chose a remote planet where no one would stumble on to the project.
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2003, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-star-wars-i-cant-get-answers-to/172513/11 "2003-05-02T03:29:10Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by RawkStah \*
> \*\*Sounds good an all, but, Endor WAS a moon. Unless, of course, you mean that the Empire acquired one of the other moons around Endor (the planet). \*\*
Well, I suppose that depends on how you interpret the phrase, “forest moon of Endor.” I’ve never really thought about it before, but there’s two ways to take that. I interpret that as, “There’s a planet Endor, it has moons, one of them is forested.” However, I only just now realized that you could say “moon of Endor” the same way you say “city of New York.” I always assumed it was the former, but maybe I was wrong. Can’t recall ever seeing it directly contradicted, but then, I’ve also never seen a name for the moon itself, which is odd, now that I think about it.
Huh. I wonder which it is. I can’t believe I don’t know this for certain. If the planet was Endor, what the hell was the name of the moon?
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### Author:  [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2003, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-star-wars-i-cant-get-answers-to/172513/12 "2003-05-02T03:55:58Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by RawkStah \*
> \*\*Sounds good an all, but, Endor WAS a moon. Unless, of course, you mean that the Empire acquired one of the other moons around Endor (the planet). \*\*
There’s nothing to keep a moon from having a moon of its own. Provided that the root planet was sufficiently far enough away to not disturb the system. Not that I think that was the case in this system.
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### Author:  [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2003, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-star-wars-i-cant-get-answers-to/172513/13 "2003-05-02T03:57:49Z")
I would say it’s highly unlikely for a moon to have a moon that big.
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### Author:  [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2003, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-star-wars-i-cant-get-answers-to/172513/14 "2003-05-02T03:59:35Z")
Oh nevermind. I see what you’re saying. Right, well, yeah, that makes sense, but that’s a very low orbit for a moon, I would say.
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### Author:  [@RawkStah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RawkStah)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2003, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-star-wars-i-cant-get-answers-to/172513/15 "2003-05-02T04:05:22Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Achernar \*
> \*\*Okay, here’s an easy one that I’m sure has come up a million times. The Ewoks’ home is not called Endor, is it? Or is it? It’s always referred to as the forest moon. \*\*
According to [starwars.com](http://starwars.com/databank) , the planet Endor and the forest moon share the same name. IMHO, they share the name because the planet is a gas giant, while the moon is habitable. Yeah, it’s weak, but…
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2003, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-star-wars-i-cant-get-answers-to/172513/16 "2003-05-02T04:12:49Z")
Um… I didn’t think he killed the snow beast thing. I only saw a fore arm drop off.
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### Author:  [@Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weird_AL_Einstein)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2003, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-star-wars-i-cant-get-answers-to/172513/17 "2003-05-02T04:17:14Z")
> [@](#):
>
> _Originally posted by Roadwalker \*
> \*\*
> Why did they take The Falcon to Yavin anyway? They knew they were being followed._\*
I think that Leia felt, after seeing the Death Star in action against her home planet, that it was worth the risk to try to get that thing out of commision as soon as possible.
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Roadwalker \*
> **Why doesn’t Luke just stay in the snow monster’s cave after he kills it. Or at least use the skin for a coat.
> (this is a big one)**
He’s terrified, high on an adrenalin rush, and not thinking straight. And presumably he didn’t realize how cold it was outside.
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Roadwalker \*
> **Just how much time does it take for _The Falcon_ to reach Bespin using sub-light?
> On the same note, does Luke’s training take so little time?**
I have a theory that accounts for these two. For it to work, the Bespin system has to be within a few light years of the Hoth system, let’s say ~3 light years, about the distance between our solar system and Alpha Centauri. It’s a stretch, but not impossible.
Given that, I think that the Falcon actually did travel to Bespin on sublight drive, but at a significant fraction of the speed of light, so that because of time dilation it was much less than three years for Han and Leia and company, but Luke actually experienced the full three years training with Yoda on Dagobah.
I don’t think this theory directly contradicts anything we saw in the film. We didn’t really get a sense that that much time had passed for Luke, but then the movie is hazy about how much time all this stuff actually did take.
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Roadwalker \*
> **Why does Luke’s light Sabe act like a Louisville Slugger rather that slice up the folks?**
Huh?
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Roadwalker \*
> **Why didn’t the Emperor choose a planet with existing mines for resourses for construction of his new Death Star?**
Why would he want a planet with mines? You have to drag everything out of a gravity well. I presume the Endor system had mineable asteroids.
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### Author:  [@BraheSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BraheSilver)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2003, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-star-wars-i-cant-get-answers-to/172513/18 "2003-05-02T04:22:27Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Um… I didn’t think he killed the snow beast thing. I only saw a fore arm drop off.
I prefer to think that the wampa was dead. That way I can stick my fingers in my ears and pretend _Darksaber_ hadn’t been written. 😉
But yes, having an arm burned off didn’t kill Ponda Baba (from Mos Eisley), so it might not have killed the wampa. And Luke certainly wouldn’t want to stick around to find out.
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### Author:  [@Second\_Star\_to\_the\_Right](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Second_Star_to_the_Right)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2003, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-star-wars-i-cant-get-answers-to/172513/19 "2003-05-02T07:12:36Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Roadwalker \*
>
> **Episode VI**
> Why does Luke’s light Sabe act like a Louisville Slugger rather that slice up the folks?
Seems to be some confusion regarding this question. I’m guessing what Roadwalker means is all the blocking of shots and deflecting of blasts that Luke does with his lightsaber in ROTJ. Before ROTJ, all we’d really seen a lightsaber do was, well, slice up the folks(cutting off arms, etc.).
My answer: The change in how Luke uses his lightsaber in ROTJ is a mark of his increasing Jedi skills. A lightsaber’s primary purpose is for self-defense. In Episodes IV and V, Luke was still training, thus the reason for us seeing little more than amputations and cutting people in half. Remember, a key Jedi philosophy is that a Jedi Knight “uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack.”
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### Author:  [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2003, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-star-wars-i-cant-get-answers-to/172513/20 "2003-05-02T11:20:56Z")
> [@](#):
>
> According to [starwars.com](http://starwars.com) , the planet Endor and the forest moon share the same name. IMHO, they share the name because the planet is a gas giant, while the moon is habitable. Yeah, it’s weak, but…
This is fairly logical, in terms of what people tend to do. If you’ve got and isolated, very tiny town that’s pretty much composed of one gas station, it certainly isn’t nuts to refer to the gas station _de facto_ by the town name. Plus, there isn’t anyone interesting or imporant, by galactic standards, living on Endor. There’s a bunch of furry midgets. Probably, the sun was named and then whoever bothered to note the Ewoks simply referred to them as living on “Endor”. There’s only 3 million (at least) inhabited worlds in SW, so its not like anyone is going to have extra names.
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