# So Leia just happened to be around the corner from Tattooine? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [September 17, 2020, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-leia-just-happened-to-be-around-the-corner-from-tattooine/920841 "2020-09-17T15:21:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-leia-just-happened-to-be-around-the-corner-from-tattooine/920841/61 "2020-11-03T18:04:27Z")
I had forgotten that bit. Good catch. Since the Millennium Falcon isn’t that much larger than a fighter, and seems about as maneuverable as one, presumably it also slipped through the outer defenses. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-leia-just-happened-to-be-around-the-corner-from-tattooine/920841/62 "2020-11-03T19:03:03Z")
> [@gdave](#): > > I’m pretty sure it was mentioned upthread, but it was a plot point explicitly called out in dialogue that the AA guns stopped shooting to allow Vader and his wing of T.I.E. fighters to engage the Rebel fighters. Perhaps so, but Millennium Falcon engaged from above on Vader’s six. He wasn’t in the trenches, he would have been exposed to other AA batteries. So the theory holds that MF survived at least because it had deflectors, and likely because a lot of the other AA batteries likely had been disabled. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-leia-just-happened-to-be-around-the-corner-from-tattooine/920841/63 "2020-11-03T19:14:51Z")
Perhaps so, but Luke’s wing were the only fighter craft left, and AA guns were still firing at them until they stopped firing to let Vader’s wing engage them. There demonstrably were AA guns still in operation when Solo swooped in - they were deliberately withholding their fire at that point. It’s also possible, especially given the deliberately-World-War-II-era capacity of most sensors and data processing in the movie, that it was as simple as the gunners and lookouts being distracted and no one noticed a single small ship approaching to join the fray. There’s also been a _lot_ of fan speculation over the decades that Han Solo was unconsciously a powerful Force adept, who unknowingly Used the Force to pull off impossible maneuvers, perhaps such as slipping unnoticed and unscathed through the Death Star’s defenses. Ultimately, of course, it’s because it was a suitably dramatic moment. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-leia-just-happened-to-be-around-the-corner-from-tattooine/920841/64 "2020-11-03T19:58:50Z")
> [@gdave](#): > > There’s also been a _lot_ of fan speculation over the decades that Han Solo was unconsciously a powerful Force adept, who unknowingly Used the Force to pull off impossible maneuvers, perhaps such as slipping unnoticed and unscathed through the Death Star’s defenses. That’s not how the Force works! ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-leia-just-happened-to-be-around-the-corner-from-tattooine/920841/65 "2020-11-03T20:10:45Z")
> [@gdave](#): > > Perhaps so, but Luke’s wing were the only fighter craft left Mostly true, though in addition to Luke and Wedge, there was also one Y-wing (pilot not established in canon, AFAIK) which survived the battle, as shown in this still of the ships flying away from the Death Star just before it explodes: [![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/eELK6.jpg) ](https://i.stack.imgur.com/eELK6.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-leia-just-happened-to-be-around-the-corner-from-tattooine/920841/66 "2020-11-03T20:28:06Z")
Ok, so that’s a point in @HMS_Irruncible’s favor. Maybe there was a wing of Y-Wings still taking out the surface defenses while the other fighters were making the trench run. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-leia-just-happened-to-be-around-the-corner-from-tattooine/920841/67 "2020-11-03T20:44:13Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > > [@KneadToKnow](#): > > > > > [@erysichthon](#): > > > > > > Maybe they’re low on … whatever those guns use. > > > > Blaster fluid. > > Imagine the poor newbie sent all around the Star Destroyer for more blaster fluid. > > “The guys at the magazine sent me here.” > “We’re the armory, we don’t have any blaster fluid. Did you try engineering?” They usually store it next to the relative bearing grease. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-leia-just-happened-to-be-around-the-corner-from-tattooine/920841/68 "2020-11-03T20:46:54Z")
> [@gdave](#): > > Ok, so that’s a point in @HMS_Irruncible’s favor. Maybe there was a wing of Y-Wings still taking out the surface defenses while the other fighters were making the trench run. Well my broader point is that while AA was still active, there would be fewer due to combat damage. But now that I think of it, I only remember the fighters doing trench runs and dogfighting. And the operations briefing did not mention tasking anyone to suppress AA, so maybe there’s nothing to that line of thinking. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2020, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-leia-just-happened-to-be-around-the-corner-from-tattooine/920841/69 "2020-11-04T01:00:27Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > A more interesting question is why was the only copy of the Death Star plans on the same ship picking up Obi-Wan? Why not put them on a ship going straight to Alderaan, or even better, make a bunch of copies and put them on a lot of ships? The ending of Rogue One explains this pretty well - the Rebel fleet was about to get its collective ass handed to it, the ship that received the plans was currently being boarded by the most terrifying person in the Empire, so the only thing they had time to do was give the plans to Leia. I think maybe because a bit of secrecy was required? I think pre-Rogue One the assumption was the Rebels didn’t want the Empire to even know they had the plans (lest they weld a two meter wide armored grate over the thermal exhaust port). The Death Star wasn’t exactly in the public domain at that point. hence the comment “that’s no moon, that’s a space station”, instead of “that’s the moon-sized space station that I just saw on the hyper-net blow the shit out of Jedha City and the planet Scarif after some sort of terrorist attack there.” In all fairness, they don’t really delve too deeply into how quickly news travels around the Galaxy in Star Wars. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2020, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-leia-just-happened-to-be-around-the-corner-from-tattooine/920841/70 "2020-11-05T04:00:21Z")
At least you could still get an accurate weather report in some sectors. > **[This Week's Alderaan Weather Forecast](https://unrealitymag.com/this-weeks-alderaan-weather-forecast/)** > > I feel like this is probably a T-shirt somewhere, but I'm not comfortable promoting fictional genocide on my chest. I never did quite understand how the ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2020, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-leia-just-happened-to-be-around-the-corner-from-tattooine/920841/71 "2020-11-05T04:00:57Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > At least you could still get an accurate weather report in some sectors. I used to have that on a T-shirt, in fact. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-leia-just-happened-to-be-around-the-corner-from-tattooine/920841.md?page=3)