Question for Star Wars fans - why does everything blow up with one shot?

[NewJeffCT]

In the first Star Wars (episode 4) - the Death Star is blown up with one shot - Luke's "one in a million" shot using the Force. Great ending to the story.

Then, in episode 6 (Return of the Jedi) - the new Death Star is also blown up with one shot.

Going ahead (or back) to episode 1 (Phantom Menace) - young Anakin Skywalker blows up the main droid army controlling ship with - you guessed it - one lucky shot.

If the Emperor is so powerful and is smart enough to manipulate himself into getting voted supreme chancellor, why does he keep building such massive ships that can be taken out by one little shot? You'd think by episode 6, he'd have learned to compensate for that weakness and maybe have several reactors throughout the new death star?

Any answers?

[taterguy]

1. The first movie made a bazzillion dollars

People must enjoy seeing things get blown up with one shot so give the people what they want. That's not a sentiment I agree with but I understand it.

Or maybe George Lucas just has an obsession with the USS Arizona, which was one of the world's most powerful warships until it was taken out with . . . one lucky shot.

[Little Wing]

3. furthermore, if the rebel scum,, err fleet pounded on it for a few hours

viewers might feel sympathetic towards the death star

:cry:

[Little Wing]

2. Youtube doesn't come up well at work, but this video is related to the question

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRQv4_xnjvA

( should work, anyway )

[NewJeffCT]

4. Thanks - I'll try to watch it when I get home tonight

You Tube is blocked at my work.

[stuntcat]

5. rocket science ;)

the first DS was blown up by Luke blasting proton torpedoes down a thermal exhaust vent leading to the reactor core, it caused a chain reaction that blew the whole thing up from the inside out.

On the second Death Star the Empire changed the ship so there was no such port but before it was finished the rebels got the shield down then flew little fighters in to the main reactor and blew that up and were then able to fly out right before it collapsed on itself and exploded and started another chain reaction blowing the whole ship.

That and it's Fiction! :)

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

6. What if they just captured the Death Star in Episode 6

They'd depose the emperor, put him in the brig and start a trial.

They'd hire a big contractor to complete construction of the Death Star.

They'd create a big re-educational effort to get the storm troopers to recognize the superiority of the regime change.

The rebel forces would blow all budgets to hell and possibly not accomplish anything.

The storm troopers would probably split into factions and have their own civil war, with the rebel forces trying to clamp a lid on the whole mess.

No-longer-employed Jedi would form a security company and get lucrative no-bid contracts as bodyguards.

It's just easier to have the Death Star blow to smithereens from one lucky shot at the central generator. There's nothing like a nuclear explosion for special effects.

[NewJeffCT]

8. While it's more dramatic to blow it up with one lucky shot...

Doing it 3 times over 6 movies seems a bit overdone to me.

[dysfunctional press]

21. "No-longer-employed Jedi would form a security company/get lucrative no-bid contracts as bodyguards"

actually, at that point in the story, luke is the only jedi in existence.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

24. But, he completed his training in a swamp ...

and another term for "swamp" is "black water". coincidence?

He has a few jedi ghosts behind him.

And a soon-to-be jedi sister. You know, unless she gets knocked up, marries a smuggler, and lives on beat-up star cruisers for the rest of her life.

He'll get that mercenary business up to speed in no time.

[GirlinContempt]

7. They explain it all

Sheesh pay attention man.

and theres nothing little about photon torpedos. Aint no blaster there, son.

[YankeyMCC]

9. Halliburton construction nt

[NewJeffCT]

17. it's possible

but, if Halliburton did it, the garbage in the garbage disposal area Luke, Han, Chewie & Leia fell into would have been seeping out and leaking all over the Death Star and contaminating the water supply there... and, it probably would not have held up to the fire of Solor's blaster.

[The2ndWheel]

10. People can only sit there for so many hours at a time?

[Orsino]

11. During Return of the King, the Lord of the Nazgul says...

...of Gandalf, "I will break him." Having seen Fellowship of the Ring, my friend whispered to me, "Unless he has a torch."

When you're pure of heart, one shot/blow often suffices. Less worthy people have to do it a hit point at a time.

[derby378]

12. Boy, aren't you a killjoy? :)

If you'll remember from Return of the Jedi, though, that ultra-massive Star Destroyer (the Executor, Vader's "personal" cruiser) took a massive amount of abuse in that battle over Endor. Finally, its bridge was wiped out IIRC, causing the Executor to drift inexorable towards the nearest massive object that exerted gravity - namely, the new Death Star.

[RedStateShame]

13. 'Cos Han Solo taught them how to shoot.

[unpossibles]

14. because it can

mitichlorian overload?

[RevCheesehead]

15. "Negative. It impacted on the surface."

Episode IV. True, it wasn't Luke who fired the first shot, but they did try.

[ContraBass Black]

19. .

:hi:
:loveya:
:woohoo:

[slj0101]

16. MIHOP.

:tinfoilhat:

[Oeditpus Rex]

18. Good guys are crack shots

Bad guys have inferior skills and inferior ordnance.

That's the lesson we learn from Hollyweird.

I got so sick of Reagan-era movies like "Top Gun," in which Mer'kins disintegrated Commie planes with one missile — or, worse, a machine-gun burst — but never the other way around. :eyes:

[dysfunctional press]

20. and what good is all that armor that the storm-troopers wear?

they usually go down with one shot, too.

[NewJeffCT]

22. When faced by rock & stick wielding Ewoks...

it seems that the stormtroopers go down faster than Jeff Gannon a cheap hooker

[mvd]

23. It's fantasy action - I don't worry about it much

Kind of like soap operas have soap license.

[Esra Star]

25. After the Kennedy-Oswald thing they realised that the public

would buy anything. No questions.

[NC_Nurse]

26. Because they can.

[DubiousLee]

27. Episode 6 was not one shot. eom.