311
votes
Accepted
Why does the Death Star have a trash compactor?
The Death Star is 160 km across, or 80 km radius. It is a mixture of air and metal and other substances.
If we assume it is roughly as dense as water (as it looks roughly as dense as a ocean going ...
- 5,331
144
votes
Accepted
Why did Luke use his left hand to shoot?
Luke is pretty consistently shown to be ambidextrous (having the ability to use both hands without favouring one) throughout the original trilogy film series.
In A New Hope he totes a gun and shoots ...
- 710k
139
votes
Accepted
Why does the Star Wars universe use such a primitive technology as data-tapes?
Because it's the backup and backups are better on tape.
The fewer moving parts an object has, the more robust it is. Additionally, the long term degradation of electronic memory cells is a problem. So ...
- 32.6k
115
votes
Accepted
Why didn't Luke use his lightsaber during his mission on the first Death Star?
Luke's a farmer, not a swordsman. He had never held a lightsaber in his entire life until that day. However, he has used rifles before; when he went out looking for R2-D2 on Tatooine, he carried a ...
- 11.9k
106
votes
Why didn't the Imperials block the exhaust port on the Death Star during the Battle of Yavin?
The relative difficulty of getting to the exhaust port - location and defenses - was the entire reason for the trench run. It was easier to do with a small craft than a more powerful vessel.
...
- 5,478
99
votes
Why does Greedo say "Maclunkey" in the Mos Eisley Cantina?
The Complete Wermo's Huttese Transcript
http://www.completewermosguide.com/hutttranscript.html
This Huttese website lists Sebulba's lines from the Episode I script, as well as a mention of a ...
- 1,590
88
votes
Accepted
Was there a Biggs Darklighter scene on Tatooine in "A New Hope"?
There was an interactive DVD-ROM released on PC in 1998 called Star Wars - Behind the Magic that this, and a few of other deleted scenes, appeared on.
If you ever owned that, it's possible that this ...
- 696
86
votes
Accepted
Did Luke really not know about Mos Eisley spaceport in the original “Star Wars” (1977) film?
Luke is clearly aware that Mos Eisley exists
He refers to the outpost in Obi-Wan's hut, shortly after viewing Leia's message:
Luke: Look, I can take you as far as ...
- 164k
79
votes
Accepted
What made the Tusken Raiders unable / unwilling to shoot down Luke's Landspeeder?
The rifleman was, according to the short story Rites, acting on the orders of his chieftain. When it came time to take the shot, he counselled them against wasting it and scaring off their potential ...
- 710k
78
votes
What did Darth Vader mean by “There’ll be no one to stop us this time.” Who had “stopped” Vader—or the Empire—previously?
You are overthinking this. He just means Leia, who he has correctly inferred stopped him from getting the plans when he captured the ship. Vader evidently did not reckon on the possibility of a ...
- 99.1k
78
votes
Was the original Star Wars film originally called "The Star Wars"?
Yes, this is correct
One of Lucas' earliest drafts of the script, penned in 1974, sold at auction in 2013; that script bore the title "The Star Wars" (click to embiggen):
And fan-made scans of the ...
- 164k
75
votes
Accepted
Who is this character on the Star Wars: A New Hope poster?
It may not be anyone... consider this other Russian poster for Star Wars.
This is quite literally a "space cowboy". I mean one could argue it is supposed to be a depiction of Han Solo, but how could ...
- 61.3k
74
votes
Accepted
Why didn't the Empire target Yavin Prime?
This was addressed in an "Ask the Jedi Council" feature on the StarWars.com website.
According to LucasFilm's (former) Head of Fan Relations/Director of Content Management Steve Sansweet, ...
- 710k
74
votes
Why did Luke use his left hand to shoot?
During the Detention Centre shootout, Luke is taking cover on the right-hand side of the corridor (from his perspective) and the alcove he's using for cover would make it harder to fire his blaster ...
- 8,438
73
votes
Why did Obi-Wan have to sneak around the Death Star?
The goal is stealth. Even if he somehow manages to use force-persuasion on everyone he encounters, this still doesn't factor in the possibility of his being seen by a droid, a security monitor or ...
- 710k
72
votes
Did Vader actually die in the original Star Wars movie, now known as A New Hope?
Vader's death wasn't canonically confirmed in the film, nor in the original novelisation which was released several weeks before the film came out (and which, in turn is based on the final draft ...
- 710k
70
votes
Accepted
Why didn't Obi-Wan refer to Darth Vader as Anakin during the Death Star duel?
It's a fairly major plot point that he didn't want Luke to know that Vader was his father.
Based on ROTJ, Obi-Wan considered Anakin to be dead. This was likely to help him fight with everything he had ...
- 52.8k
69
votes
Accepted
What did Darth Vader mean by “There’ll be no one to stop us this time.” Who had “stopped” Vader—or the Empire—previously?
My assumption was always that he meant the senate; his later conversation with Tarkin is that the senate had been dissolved, giving total power to the Moffs. Given that Leia and her (adopted) father ...
- 594
69
votes
Why does the Death Star have a trash compactor?
The Death Star was 160km across. Trash from the centre has to be moved through at least 80 kilometres of station before it can be vented into space, so the more compact it is the better, if you don’t ...
- 62.4k
68
votes
Why was Vader surprised that Obi-Wan's body disappeared?
At the end of Revenge of the Sith (2005), Yoda talks to Obi-Wan Kenobi about meeting an old friend, his old master, Qui-Gon Jinn, who we know became a force ghost.
02:04:50 - Yoda: One who has ...
- 5,718
68
votes
Accepted
How did the Rebels find the design flaw to the first Death Star?
The Rebels had a slight advantage: they already knew what they were looking for; Galen's message, relayed by Jyn, explained both what to do, and what the result would be:
"What kind of trap?&...
- 164k
65
votes
Why was Luke surprised that Obi-Wan had fought in the Clone Wars?
Imagine you grew up a farm boy in some podunk town in Backwater, Nebraska, where nothing ever happens. All your life you have never been further than 20 miles from the place you were born, and in that ...
- 5,954
64
votes
Accepted
In episode IV, did the inhabitants of Alderaan realize what was about to happen?
According to the (canon) short story Eclipse, the inhabitants were largely in the dark about the nature of their impending demise. The "planet killer" was a closely guarded secret. A few individuals ...
- 710k
61
votes
Accepted
What is Darth Vader holding on the cover of the original Star Wars novelization?
In the original John Berkey painting, it appears that Vader is holding his lightsaber, stylized in a similar manner to Luke's lightsaber. (In fact, it almost looks like a solid metal blade with light ...
- 8,612
61
votes
Accepted
Was there a particular reason for putting the driver's seat of Luke's landspeeder on the right?
The landspeeder was designed to be driven under its own power and was based around a right-hand drive vehicle called a Bond Bug. The Bug was produced solely for the UK market, hence the driver side ...
- 710k
59
votes
Accepted
Why are there no Imperial KX-series Security Droids in the original trilogy?
Most of the answers here so far have not focused much specifically on the class of droid that K-2SO belongs to, the KX-series Security Droid (also known as "Imperial enforcer droids"), which is what ...
- 3,932
58
votes
Why does the Star Wars universe use such a primitive technology as data-tapes?
The out-of-universe answer is that the original films were written in the 70's, and SF&F usually has some basis in truth. The idea of flash drive equivalents probably didn't even occur to Lucas ...
- 718
58
votes
Why didn't the Imperials block the exhaust port on the Death Star during the Battle of Yavin?
Tarkin's arrogance prevented him from taking the threat seriously.
Let's say you've decided to construct a technological terror of some kind. A large spherical battle station that can blow up a ...
- 7,901
57
votes
What did Darth Vader mean by “There’ll be no one to stop us this time.” Who had “stopped” Vader—or the Empire—previously?
The impression I've always gotten is that Vader is saying this in an ironic (storytelling) way. Send troopers down, grab the droids, and come back. This should be a piece of cake for Storm Troopers.
...
- 52.8k
57
votes
Accepted
Why didn't the original Death Star's shields protect against small fighters?
This is directly addressed in the movie during the rebel briefing on Yavin IV (emphasis added):
GOLD LEADER: Pardon me for asking, sir, but what good are snub fighters going to be against that?
...
- 17.3k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible