Poor Design Choices In the Star Wars Universe

Ant writes "John Scalzi's AMC blog shows a short guide to the most epic FAILs in Star Wars design — 'I'll come right out and say it: Star Wars has a badly-designed universe; so poorly-designed, in fact, that one can say that a significant goal of all those Star Wars novels is to rationalize and mitigate the bad design choices of the movies. Need examples? Here's ten ...'"

Comments

At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[eldavojohn]

R2-D2
Sure, he's cute, but the flaws in his design are obvious the first time he approaches anything but the shallowest of stairs. Also: He has jets, a periscope, a taser and oil canisters to make enforcer droids fall about in slapsticky fashion -- and no voice synthesizer. Imagine that design conversation: "Yes, we can afford slapstick oil and tasers, but we'll never get a 30-cent voice chip past accounting. That's just madness."

I believe his primary function is a flight droid so they were built to interface with ships. Not a lot else. John Scalzi seems to suffer from the "must have everything" school of thought and doesn't think the future will focus on minimalism and getting one thing right. Thank god he's not writing software and just another hot air blogger. I reject Episodes I, II & III so I don't know what he's talking about with the oil slick and jets.

C-3PO
Can't fully extend his arms; has a bunch of exposed wiring in his abs; walks and runs as if he has the droid equivalent of arthritis. And you say, well, he was put together by an eight-year-old. Yes, but a trip to the nearest Radio Shack would fix that. Also, I'm still waiting to hear the rationale for making a protocol droid a shrieking coward, aside from George Lucas rummaging through a box of offensive stereotypes (which he'd later return to while building Jar-Jar Binks) and picking out the "mincing gay man" module.

Again, you're overlooking his primary function. C-3PO is a protocol droid designed to serve humans, and boasts that he is fluent "in over six million forms of communication." So he's got arthritis, well, you didn't build him to be flexible or fight. You built him to look pretty and translate. Everything else is bells and whistles. I think he was meant to stand in a corner for some rich merchant or politician and translate any language imaginable. Are you going to tell me that my car is flawed because I couldn't afford a $20 toaster to put in the dash?

Death Star
An unshielded exhaust port leading directly to the central reactor? Really? And when you rebuild it, your solution to this problem is four paths into the central core so large that you can literally fly a spaceship through them? Brilliant. Note to the Emperor: Someone on your Death Star design staff is in the pay of Rebel forces. Oh, right, you can't get the memo because someone threw you down a huge exposed shaft in your Death Star throne room.

Uh, the second Death Star was never completed, you idiot. The rebels learned about it and attacked it before it had everything completed so anything like "four paths to the central core" or "exposed shafts" could well have been necessary during its construction. Haven't you seen Clerks or watched Robot Chicken's parody of Palpatine trying to talk to the foreman?

But Luke's X-34 speeder on Tatooine? The Yugo of speeders, man. One hard stop, and out you go.

He's a farmer. You should have seen the "vehicles" and ATVs I drove while working on farms. One was a modified bus with huge water tanks on the back and an upside down bucket for a seat. They make a Yugo look like a dream car. Are you going to complain about the blast marks and carbon scoring adorning the rag tag rebel ships next?

So easy to rip apart. And you know, he doesn't offer anything constructive. Like the asteroid worm. He would have enjoyed it more if space in the Star Wars galaxy was like our space? Dead, uninhabited and void? George Lucas isn't a god but he sure thought up some neat ideas for a universe that John Scalzi will never come close to.

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[vertinox]

I see you didn't defend the Storm Trooper armor...

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[Shakrai]

Dude, you've got too much time on your hands ;)

I rather liked the attitude that JMS had about this kind of stuff. One time a fan asked him "How fast do starfuries go?" and his response was "They move at the speed of plot"

If the plot makes sense and the universe remains consistent about it's own rules then who cares how functional RD2D would be in our universe or how badly designed the weapons of Star Trek are?

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[Anonymous Coward]

Like the asteroid worm.

Actually, I agree with him on the asteroid worm, what does it eat? Obviously it can't count on spaceships for breakfast ("you aren't actually flying INTO and asteroid field?!?") so what does that leave, asteroids? yummy.

The Sarlak (at least in the old version of the movies) is plausible in the fact that it didn't move much so its energy reqs would be minimal, and it did have a decent sand trap to force stupid creatures in. How it mates or even creates/maintains that sand trap is a bit of a mystery.

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[Abreu]

Also, you have to give credit to the fact that a lot of the things that are "obvious" for us were not necesarily so for someone in the seventies.

Like the fact that Luke drives a fast convertible without any seatbelts or rollbars (unthinkable now, but common then)

Also, some depictions of minorities are considered offensive now, but were ok in the seventies and eighties (nevertheless, that's no excuse for Jar-Jar)

In any case, the original article writer needs to repeat MST3K's Mantra, until he feels better...

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[Shakrai]

I see you didn't defend the Storm Trooper armor...

The armor is easier to defend than their marksmanship ;)

Here we have the pride of the Empire. A professional solider who was cloned from stock hand selected to be the most effective killing machine possible. He spends every waking minute either training for battle or fighting in one. There's Han Solo, less than ten meters away. Avowed enemy of the empire. Working with the terrorist Luke Skywalker to try and overthrow the Emperor. He's ours now! The Stormtrooper raises his blaster to his shoulder, aims, fires....... and misses!

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[SOdhner]

Are you bettering society?

Are you? Relax, it's just a funny article pointing out some absurd stuff from a popular series. That's it. It doesn't need to solve world hunger.

He should have stuck to the physical aspects of the universe like noise in space and being able to see laser shots from the side

Because that would TOTALLY better society. Good call.

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[agentgonzo]

I see the Sarlac as something akin to the venus fly trap. In fact, comparing the Sarlac to a venus-fly-trap makes this blog sound laughable: "A monstrous yet immobile plant that lives in an exposed pit ..., waiting for animals to apparently feel suicidal and trek out to throw themselves in? Yeah, not so much. Not every Sarlaac can count on an army of ants to feed it tidbits." And before everyone replies with "well the Venus fly trap has sugary treats or whatever to attract prey", how do we know that the Sarlac doesn't have something similar and Jabba's just flinging people in as a humourous way to dispose of his enemies?

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[agentgonzo]

Storm Trooper armor is riot gear. It's for protecting against rocks and small arms while they beat down demonstrators.

You mean like those Ewoks that they thoroughly quashed on the moon of Endor?

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[CannonballHead]

Are you bettering society? I think so. Kids learn a lot from TV. Why should they not be instructed that you don't need wings in space? You can't hear sound in space? Light goes much faster? Etc.

On slashdot, of all places, I would have thought debunking scientific fiction that is not at all "scientific" or even "logical"/"good thinking" would be encouraged :)

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[eln]

C-3PO is a protocol droid designed to serve humans, and boasts that he is fluent "in over six million forms of communication."

3PO is there for comic relief primarily, so his cowardice doesn't bother me. What really bothered me about him is the origin story in Episode 1. I mean seriously, are you trying to tell me that an 8 year old, bored out of his mind on a desert planet, with access to enough parts and knowledge to build a basically sentient robot is going to build a PROTOCOL DROID? I mean, he could have built a mindless killing machine, or a machine capable of fixing his speeder for him, or stealing shit from the marketplace, or raiding moisture farms for water, or SOMETHING. But no, he builds a droid designed to communicate politely in 6 million languages and that's about it. What the hell does a kid whose primary interest is podracing need with a protocol droid that can speak 6,000,000 languages, 5,999,999 of which he can't understand, and 5,999,983 of which he's unlikely to ever need to know? This kid had to be the biggest dork in 3 galaxies.

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[Jarjarthejedi]

That complaint always bugged me. I know of 4 occasions in Episode IV (I won't get into the other episodes) where the stormtroopers fire at the heroes.

1. 3P0/R2 wander across the field of fire - Troopers shoot past them to get the actual targets (exactly as you would expect from trained marksmen)
2. Falcon takes off - Troopers shoot at AND HIT a vehicle moving at high speed away from them
3. Trash Compactor - Troopers aren't able to hit a group of people taking cover a good distance off down a dark cooridor. Concealment and Camouflage but they're able to get pretty close in the few seconds they have before they escape.
4. Deathstar Escape Scene - Troopers miss every shot at the group of rebels who are going to lead them to the rebellion base...hmm, could it be they were ordered to miss?

Every other time we see the stormtroopers fire they hit their targets perfectly.

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[eth1]

I think that the entire point of the stormtrooper uniform is to emphasize the mechanistic, monolithic nature of stormtroopers. It also makes sense in the context of stormtroopers all being clones.

I was thinking along the same lines, but in a more practical sense. When the original movies were made, the cheapest and easiest way to make "clones" was probably to cover the actors' faces. No CGI crowds in the 70s. :) Having a fully covered/armored face would look quite odd without body armor, also.

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[kid_oliva]

You do realize it is "FICTION". Fiction is not necessarily suppose to be scientific. The purpose of Sci-Fi in my opinion is to deal with issues of the day in a format where people won't necessarily reject it out right. Many issues are dealt with and warnings are issued. Lucas screwed up the Star Wars universe with the newest trilogy in my opinion to warn against blind trust in Government, the pitfall of hubris and other things that were pertinent at the time and ring true throughout time. I don't appreciate the poor screenplay or crapping writing, but I understand what he was trying to say.

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[Anarchduke]

By way of George Lucas stealing every bit of creativity from Akira Kurasawa movies.

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[hey!]

Well, the storm troopers' battle ineffectiveness is actually one of the few things that ring true about the Star Wars universe.

Once you've got control of the galaxy, you don't want an effective fighting force. Who are you going to use them against? What you want is an effective *intimidation* force that is unable to fight effectively against your smaller but more capable praetorian guard. You keep your praetorian guard divided and intimidated by the higher ups too. Everybody in the galaxy is afraid of the guys just above him, except of course *you*.

Look at military dictatorships. Once they settle in, they're guaranteed to have a totally pathetic fighting capability, despite despoiling the land to support their military. Hitler inherited a capable military culture, so why did he build the smaller parallel Waffen-SS? Because if he had won WW2, he'd have let the regular military stagnate, keeping them under the thumb of a smaller force that he'd keep under his personal thumb. The result would look a lot like the Star Wars Imperial forces. At every level people would be intimidated by those just above them. At the bottom would be the people of course, but the "fighting" forces just above them wouldn't be much more capable than them.

The Death Star confirms this political strategy. Aside from its well known engineering fault, it would be extremely inefficient from a strategic standpoint when compared to a fleet of Star Destroyers of a equivalent displacement. It isn't a weapon designed to achieve strategic superiority, it's designed to keep a relatively small number of individuals in line. In fact, that's exactly how it was used in its one successful engagement. Won't tell us the location of the secret base, princess? Take THAT.

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[Azathoth_lca]

He built C3PO from spare parts he found lying around. Protocol droid parts are what he found.

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[Anonymous Coward]

George Lucas isn't a god but he sure thought up some neat ideas for a universe that John Scalzi will never come close to.

This has to be my favorite line from your rant. You obviously have no idea who John Scalzi is, do you?

(Here's a hint: check out the lists of Hugo award winners from the past few years.)

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[Beardo the Bearded]

R2-D2
  Sure, he's cute, but the flaws in his design are obvious the first time he approaches anything but the shallowest of stairs. Also: He has jets, a periscope, a taser and oil canisters to make enforcer droids fall about in slapsticky fashion -- and no voice synthesizer. Imagine that design conversation: "Yes, we can afford slapstick oil and tasers, but we'll never get a 30-cent voice chip past accounting. That's just madness."

I believe his primary function is a flight droid so they were built to interface with ships. Not a lot else. John Scalzi seems to suffer from the "must have everything" school of thought and doesn't think the future will focus on minimalism and getting one thing right. Thank god he's not writing software and just another hot air blogger. I reject Episodes I, II & III so I don't know what he's talking about with the oil slick and jets.

R2 is a Sith Lord.

Think about it for a minute.
1. We know that damaged Sith get a mechanical exoskeleton.
2. People can understand R2. Canon states that requires The Force.
3. He's got lightning attacks.
4. He was present at the very beginning of the series. Used Force Persuade to prevent the shots from being fired. "Hold your fire; there are no life signs aboard."
5. His jets can't provide enough thrust to lift him. He can fly. We've seen him do it without using his thrusters.
6. Palpatine hid himself from the Jedi; it's a known trick.
7. In IV, he was able to stand outside the bar without getting picked up by the Stormtroopers who were looking for him. "I am not the droid you're looking for."

Watch the scene with the cave on Dagobah again when Yoda and R2 are judging Luke's performance.

Sith.

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[Meumeu]

You do realize it is "FICTION". Fiction is not necessarily suppose to be scientific. The purpose of Sci-Fi in my opinion is to deal with issues of the day in a format where people won't necessarily reject it out right. Many issues are dealt with and warnings are issued. Lucas screwed up the Star Wars universe with the newest trilogy in my opinion to warn against blind trust in Government, the pitfall of hubris and other things that were pertinent at the time and ring true throughout time. I don't appreciate the poor screenplay or crapping writing, but I understand what he was trying to say.

I won't even bother to do anything more than copy-paste this:

This silly opinion implies that the word "fiction" nullifies the word "science." Since it is "fiction", and fiction is by definition "not true", then we can make "not true" any and all science that gets in the way, right?

Hogwash. By the same logic, the term "detective fiction" gives the author license to totally ignore standard procedures and techniques used by detectives, the term "military fiction" allows the author to totally ignore military tactics and strategy, and the term "historical fiction" allows the author to totally ignore the relevant history.

Imagine a historical fiction novel where Napoleon at Waterloo defeated the knights of the Round Table by using the Enola Gay to drop an atom bomb. It's OK because it is "fiction", right?

This non-argument is the favorite of science fiction fans who like all the zipping spaceships and ray guns but who actually know practically nothing about real science. And who cannot be bothered to go learn.

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[DrVomact]

It's not a "Science story". It is a fairy tale. And a damned enjoyable one. Or do you take the "Sci" in "Sci-Fi" literally?

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[Verdatum]

All creative works can be shown to be derivative of other work. What of it?

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[davygrvy]

Agreed, but one also looks to Science Fiction where Science, though not predominant to the story, serves as somewhat accurate glimpses into the future.. But GL gets away from that right in the beginning of the movie with "A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away"

If one is looking to Science Fiction for the Science aspect, there are better ways to find it. Through books for example.

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[Anonymous Psychopath]

I think it's because the first movies came out in the 70's and 80's aimed at the PG-13 market, and we didn't have major release movies showing endless hordes getting mowed down in the style of Tarentino or Rodriguez back then. Heck, the PG-13 didn't even exist at the time, and a R rating would have probably made Star Wars stillborn. As far as I can recall, the first three movies were completely bloodless. Pretty sure all of them were, come to think of it.

Shooting a stormtrooper was like shooting a robot; they didn't come across as being "people" on the screen, just faceless, nameless "bad guys" with no emotional impact or graphic violence tied to their deaths. I think if they were creating the stormtrooper costumes today they'd look quite different.

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[FiloEleven]

The problem lies not with the stories, but with the label. "Science Fiction" is little more than a new label on "fantasy" that is more acceptable to modern readers. As Gene Wolfe says, "All fiction is fantasy, some is just more honest about it." Most SF except for "hard SF" really does use the fantastic elements as a backdrop for character dilemmas and plot development, exploring the themes of humanity. They are often thought experiments that would be very dry if written in an academic manner but become engaging through the use of a story framework. Even "Hard SF," while generally more focused on the scientific aspects, often contains elements that are nowhere near practically possible in the present, and one could argue that many staple elements of fantasy are equally plausible in the future ("Any sufficient technology is indistinguishable from magic," says Arthur C. Clarke).

It is undeniable that SF and fantasy have different flavors, but the dividing line between them isn't so much a line as it is a shifting, subjective porous border. They both fit under the label "speculative fiction" which isn't catchy enough to gain traction, and "science fiction" is so entrenched that the genre will probably never get a better label. We just have to keep in mind that "science fiction" is a descriptive rather than a prescriptive term, and that it should be more accurately called "science-y fiction."

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[Anonymous Coward]

The X-Wing's wings aren't designed to be wings in the aerodynamic sense. Their purpose is to spread the laser cannons out a bit. "Lock S-Foils in attack position."

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[TheRaven64]

Actually, there's a good reason for not giving an astromech a voice chip. It makes them seem less human and more disposable. In some of the extended universe stuff, they point out that it's standard procedure to reset the droids' memory to factory defaults between missions to avoid them developing much of a personality. This makes sense, when you consider that they may be required to go outside the ship to effect repairs in the middle of combat and are basically considered expendable. It's a lot easier for a pilot to tell a droid to do something suicidal if he doesn't think of it as a person.

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[aywwts4]

Yes, but he forgot the Hyphen.

It is not Science & Fiction or Science/Fiction (take your pick)

It is Science-Fiction, The Science is Fictional!

You use the premise of fictional science (I can time travel to kill Hitler) and tell an interesting fiction story. The "Science" requirement needs to be something vaguely more sophisticated sounding than "Magic" (in the 50s-70s add an Atomic something, 70-80s add a bunch of wires and exposed grates, LEDs, and grey panels, 90s - present Genetic Engineering/Mutation or Wormholes. The "Science" is merely a conduit to a fictional story.

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[element-o.p.]

Done well, the dichotomy caused by an almost silent battle in space combined with visual explosions and radio chatter could make for an intensely surreal and disturbing battle scene, I suspect -- rather like the scene in Patriot Games (I think it was...) where the Special Forces fly into the training camp and kill all the terrorists while the CIA team watches in infra-red halfway around the world.

Having said that, there wouldn't be a soundtrack in a 100% realistic movie either, but I don't see too many people complaining about that particular flaw in movies...

Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist

[Anonymous Coward]

Not necessarily. Wikipedia's entry on the topic suggests that Lucas always meant Stormtroopers to be clones (as per commentary of Episode II)

You can't believe anything Lucas said after he started pretending Han didn't shoot first. He can edit his own beliefs just as easily.

Re-cutting

[El_Muerte_TDS]

I think giving George Lucas access to the raw footage was a poor design choice.

Re:Re-cutting

[MrNemesis]

I happen think giving George Lucas access to the star wars prequels was a poor design choice :)

Re:Re-cutting

[Anonymous Cowar]

Worst design decision ever: Letting George Lucas have access to the Star Wars IP after the mid 80's.

Re:Re-cutting

[hal2814]

Yeah, because during the 80's he was doing such a good job with the Star Wars IP...

Death Star

[pwizard2]

Death Star
An unshielded exhaust port leading directly to the central reactor? Really? And when you rebuild it, your solution to this problem is four paths into the central core so large that you can literally fly a spaceship through them? Brilliant. Note to the Emperor: Someone on your Death Star design staff is in the pay of Rebel forces. Oh, right, you can't get the memo because someone threw you down a huge exposed shaft in your Death Star throne room.

I agree with the critique on the Death Stars. Centralized power was the fatal flaw in both, so it would have made a lot more sense to use distributed power systems throughout the Death Star II. (lots of little reactors instead of one big one) That way, the rebels would have had to destroy the DSII apart piece by piece. Given how much time that would take, the Imperials probably would have won.

I won't even go into the Endor holocaust in detail. (guess what happens when you detonate a small artificial moon near a planetary atmosphere? You get lots of fallout, resulting in nuclear winter and lots of dead ewoks)

Re:Death Star

[SnoopJeDi]

Distributing a lot of small reactors sounds like a logistical nightmare. Imagine the power draw when the Death Star actually intends to fire. Is it easier to lay the wire and controls necessary to manage that from one reactor, or several?

Not to mention that by assuming the reactors are nuclear, taking down the Death Star might be even easier. More reactors, less security, I'd think it'd be easier to slip an infiltrator in to sabotage one of them.

This article is garbage. See below:

Let's not even go near the idea of light beams being slow enough to dodge; that's just something you have let go of, or risk insanity.

Ah because slow light is complete science fiction, of course!

Re:Death Star

[gwern]

> Plus, how do you get around the fact that Luke killed way more people by destroying the Death Star I than Vader ever did?

Let's keep in mind that we see very little of Darth Vader; we don't hear about his genocide of the Falleen, for example (I'll assume that you will refuse to accept that Darth Vader is responsible for blowing up Alderaan, even though he was Supreme Military Executor, in charge of all military operations). The EU covers his exploits in much more detail, and gives him a more appropriate bodycount.

Also, the people on the Death Star were military. In war, military personnel are fair game. Luke didn't go after civilians; Darth Vader and the Empire did.

Too easy

[Minwee]

Inconsistencies and illogical details in the Star Wars Universe?

Fish. Barrel. Large bore shotgun.

Star Wars, like much of the Space Opera and Science Fantasy genre, follows only one well tested design strategy: The Rule of Cool. If something looks cool, and it doesn't get in the way of the story, it's in. Once you can accept that you're good.

Re:Too easy

[motherpusbucket]

"Rule of Cool" Exceptions: Jar-Jar
Ewoks
Count Dooku
Blue Elephant playing keyboard

Re:Too easy

[Speare]

A lot of people bitch and complain at the cheesy dialogue, the goofball proper nouns like the Mon Calimari, the broad-strokes caracatures like Jar Jar, and the massive holes in logic. They rally with things like "geez, just hire a dialogue writer and it'd be so much better." Even Carrie Fisher had a hard time coming to grips with how bad the dialogue was.

However, these things are bad by design. Lucas wants it that way. Just as today's kids were not in the theaters for 1977 Star Wars, Carrie Fisher and crew were not in the theaters for the real inspiration: saturday matinee serial adventure movies of the 50s. Indiana Jones is cut out of the same cloth. Pump flashy moves and totally cornball bad-writing into the minds of bored kids, and rake in the ticket sales. These are third-rate comic books in celluloid form, with little more than a title and a short beer conversation for pre-production.

To pay homage and recapture the "magic" of those 1950s serials, Lucas has completely chosen to include a patchwork of nonsensical and patronizing elements. Bad accents equals bad people? Check. Steel-hearted women melt when the hero-boy forces a kiss on them? Check. Layer on a milquetoast political plotline that some people will take to be allegory for current affairs? Check.

Either that, or Lucas is a dipshit. Rolling in money, but somehow a moron nonetheless.

Is that the best you can do?

[91degrees]

Blasters have a lot of ammunition, can penetrate trooper armour, and have inherent tracer rounds. Also we have no idea whether traditional firearms even exist in the Star Wars universe. A landspeeder is a cheap transport in a fairly underdeveloped region. R2 units have no need to speak. Most electronic devices don't. They use standardised alerts. C-3P0 is cowardly because protocol droids are expensive bits of kit and should protect themselves (R2 units are more likely to be useful in the field so are designed to be a little less safe).

No mention of the bridge on a Star Destroyer being such an easy target for a kamikaze, or poor visibility in a Tie Fighter.

Star Wars is Fantasy, Not Science Fiction

[RobotRunAmok]

It's always been about epic myths and magic, Good versus Evil, Greek Tragedy, etc. Except on different planets, not in a mist-shrouded past of Earth. To criticize it's light saber technology is like criticizing Xena's chakram physics.

Guide to the most epic FAILs in this article

[stepinto]

This is not only poorly-written, but the concept is awful. Going after lightsabers because they lack handguards? These are Jedi weapons, guy. The Jedi are surgeons with these weapons, blocking blaster fire on mere intuition. Come on. My ire for this article stems mainly from the fact that the author ignored some of the real problems with the Star Wars universe, touching only on the superficial. What about the time/distance inconsistency? (The Millennium Falcon, as you may recall, travels "0.5 past light", and yet travels from star to star in hours? Just how small and dense IS this far-away galaxy?)

Re:Let's not forget......

[91degrees]

There is no sound in space.

There's no incidental music in the real world. I like to consider space sound effects to be the same sort of thing.

Re:Seat belts

[sznupi]

Airplanes had seatbelts for a long, long time. Even common folks from back then would be used to the idea, implemented in passenger planes.

How can NO ONE have mentioned this yet?

[oneTheory]

Death Star
An unshielded exhaust port leading directly to the central reactor? Really?

I searched all the comments for this and not one person correctly pointed out that "The shaft is ray shielded, so you'll have to use proton torpedoes."

Slashdot, you disappoint me.

It was designed for kids

[AnalPerfume]

All movies are designed visually, with any attention to science as an afterthought. Star Wars was designed for kids, so it's all kid-friendly droids, easy to recognize black / white stuff. It was also designed as a one-off movie because he only got funding for one movie. That's why Episode 4 (a tag added in a later edition) was the only one of the 6 which has a beginning and end, rather than a set up for the next movie. Only after it took off did the funding come in for the other 2. Episode 5 was in large part a set up for episode 6 since they knew they were doing it.

There are plenty of mistakes caused by the prequels, they contradict some history written as a brief throwaway line in the original movies. Everything written for episode 4 set the boundaries for what would come after, from characters, outfits, ships, political / social settings etc. Episode 4 was written as a visual matinée for kids, with lots of effects, shooting, sword duels, saving the princes etc. It wasn't written with any forethought. The designs they could bring to the screen then was limited too in terms of costumes to get actors into, sets for them to act on as well as post production effects. The design process for everything was focused around the fact that it had to be practical to shoot and look good on film, without being too scary for the kids.

In some cases the expanded universe does provide "extra explanations" on some mistakes in the movies, but they are just that, explanations you can use to fill the gap, it does not change the fact that something they put in the movie does not make sense. They are mistake patches, not removers.

It does not help that George Lucas seems to have spent his entire career rehashing the SW franchise every couple of years and releasing yet another new remaster, so you can't just mention which episode 4 you mean but the exact edition. I gave up on this a long time ago, the sooner SW fans boycott new remasters the sooner Lucas will give up trying to milk them. I don't care if Han shot first, I don't care if Hayden Christiansen appeared at Vader's funeral pire as a ghost, the first remaster with everything cleaned up and digitized was fine, leave it alone from then on in.

Re:What about light saber switches?

[ImprovOmega]

The script said they couldn't.

Re:Seat belts

[TheRaven64]

Seat belts are one thing, but when between now and the setting of Star Trek did people forget how to make fuses? If there's a power spike to your console, the fuse should blow, and an engineer should have to pull out the melted components and plug a new one back in before you can use it again. It should not explode and kill you. Given the advances in OLEDs and so on, the power usage of a typical starship console should be well under 10W by the time ST is set. With a properly-rated fuse you should barely feel a shock if it's damaged.