In Revenge of the Sith we catch a glimpse of some strange markings on the side of Obi-Wan's Jedi Starfighter. Do we know what they mean?
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why the downvote? I'm always happy to use feedback to improve my questions.– RedCaioCommented Dec 13, 2015 at 0:09
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1Not the downvoter, but some people dv things that seem really obvious, and kill tally marks are a pretty common thing on fighter planes, especially in WW2.– phantom42Commented Dec 14, 2015 at 17:37
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Really I had no idea– The MandolorianCommented Dec 16, 2015 at 17:23
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1 Answer
According to Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith Incredible Cross-Sections, a DK Publishing reference book published in 20051, they are kill markings; although the diagram in the book shows Anakin's fighter, not Obi-Wan's, the markings are the same:
Kill markings, equivalent to tri-fighter squadron
That seems like a strange thing for a Jedi to be tracking, but there you go2.
Out of universe, this is a reference to a very real practice of fighter pilots, especially in World War 2; a Google Image search for "plane kill tally" will show you hundreds of historical examples.
Since Lucas rather famously based his starfighter scenes on WW2-style dogfights, it's reasonable to assume that this was an intentional reference.
1Since this was a reference book published before the Great Disneyfication, the status of this information under Disney Canon is questionable.
2 Of course, it occurs to me that this isn't the first time we've seen Jedi do this; in "Landing at Point Rain", an episode of The Clone Wars, we see Anakin, Ahsoka, and even Ki-Adi Mundi comparing their kill counts. So maybe it's not as odd as all that
answered Dec 12, 2015 at 4:48
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2Well, it's still in the movie and the marks clearly resemble the droid attack fighters. Don't see any canon issue with that, unless they remaster the "old" episodes.– MarioCommented Dec 12, 2015 at 8:40
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2That seems like a strange thing for a Jedi to be tracking - I'd hazard a guess that Obi-Wan didn't do them personally, it would most likely be the maintenance crew (without being asked, since it is traditional). I suppose if he'd ordered them not to they'd obey, but it probably didn't matter enough to him to be worth making an issue of it. Commented Dec 12, 2015 at 8:57
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@HarryJohnston I also remembered that we've seen Jedi tracking kills before; not Obi-Wan, but maybe he got off his high horse about it in the intervening period Commented Dec 12, 2015 at 15:17
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It'd make sense to me if they only tracked droid kills, since they don't seem to value droids as life.– user31178Commented Dec 12, 2015 at 15:26
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@CreationEdge True, but then "violence is not the Jedi way." Ah well, if it's good enough for Ki-Adi Commented Dec 12, 2015 at 17:18