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Discuss this article by @Thande here
As an adult who has found out how large-scale projects are put together, I find the idea that the Death Star's design flaw was a genuine oversight rather than deliberate sabotage a lot more convincing than I did as a kid. I'm also forgiving of the idea that its construction lasted years longer than initially intended because it kept running into fresh problems. Frankly, these days I'm more impressed by projects that are actually completed at all and don't immediately fall to pieces.The Death Star’s fatal flaw exploited by the Rebels in ANH, its unshielded exhaust port, is a genuine oversight, with the novel Death Star further hinting it was karmically caused by the Empire’s mistreatment of its slave labour – it was spotted during construction, but never fully reported and corrected due to a slave falling ill.
I think it makes sense that a lot of the planets we get to see are only marginally inhabitable--if they were better suited to large scale settlement, they would already be settled, and when you've seen one space age megacity, you've seen 'em all.I was more thinking of (as I hinted above) how Rogue One, especially the earlier parts, is way too dark – I don’t mean in the edgy way, I mean literally. It goes to more planets than most Star Wars films, and an awful lot of them feel confusingly, indistinguishably dark.
I'm coincidentally reading about the 1931 Nautilus Arctic expedition, which intended to see whether the polar regions are navigable underwater. The submarine left harbor in June and it was only in August, as it was reaching Arctic latitudes, until anyone saw fit to check if the diving planes were installed. Of course they weren't, and without them the ship was impossible to control while submerged."The exhaust port is intentional sabotage" does seem a big flaw to me - like @Hendryk says, these sort of oversights happen and it was a difficult target to hit (one surrounded by guns too so the Empire seems to have known about it). Once it's a cunning plan of sabotage, there are questions like "did nobody notice he was doing that", "why did he pick something that you need high-level skills and the Force to hit" etc.
Well the Nazis did, so there's that.I have a bit of trouble picturing anybody else building their most important and complicated superweapon - stealth bombers, supercarriers, etc - with slave labor, but so be it.
Which makes eense, as the Imperials are in some ways Space Nazis.Well the Nazis did, so there's that.
It’s worth listening to what the Death Star architect has to say:"The exhaust port is intentional sabotage" does seem a big flaw to me - like @Hendryk says, these sort of oversights happen and it was a difficult target to hit (one surrounded by guns too so the Empire seems to have known about it).
It does, but I'm not too familiar with it (someone has since Questionably Legally uploaded it to Youtube, so I'm thinking of listening to it) so thanks for the information. I only know about it because it was quoted a lot in the earliest-published Star Wars encyclopedias (the ones that still acknowledge 'The Glove of Darth Vader' and all that rubbish) as a beta canon source.The earliest description of the stealing of the Death Star plans was in the 1981 NPR radio adaptation of ANH (or Star Wars, as it was then known). This adaptation started a bit before the events in the film. In episode 2, Points of Origin, the Death Star plans are obtained after a Rebel attack on an Imperial convoy. Rebel agents then transmit the Death Star plans from the planet Toprawa to the Tantive IV.
Edit: Just noticed that the radio drama does get mentioned in the article. That’ll teach me to avoid posting without reading carefully.
It’s a long while since I listened to them. They were broadcast in the UK on Saturday mornings on Radio 1, which is a bit outside their usual remit. Normally you’d expect a drama series to be on Radio 4. Presumably it’s a sign of the on-going popularity of the first movie that the BBC put it somewhere where a larger (and more importantly younger) audience would be more likely to hear it.It does, but I'm not too familiar with it (someone has since Questionably Legally uploaded it to Youtube, so I'm thinking of listening to it) so thanks for the information. I only know about it because it was quoted a lot in the earliest-published Star Wars encyclopedias (the ones that still acknowledge 'The Glove of Darth Vader' and all that rubbish) as a beta canon source.
It should probably be further noted that Saw Gerrera was not only a major character in an arc of the full Clone Wars series - putting him at only a slightly lower level than, for example, Katee Sackhoff’s character, the Mandalorian warrior Bo-Katan Kryze, who plays a significant role in The Mandalorian while featuring in multiple arcs of Clone Wars - but he was also an arc character in the later, less popular Rebels animated series — which was contemporary to Rogue One. Indeed, Gerrera’s increasing extremism and detachment from the Rebellion was a significant plot element in that series, and he was ultimately played by the same actor as in the film.If we're talking comparisons between iterations, the Clone Wars TV series premiered on Cartoon Network with 4 million viewers, largely retained through the show. The Thrawn Trilogy had combined sales of 15 million when it was released, so that's probably about 5 million people who bought the book.
So honestly any major character in the Clone Wars is approximately as well known as literally the biggest character in the EU novels.
It's available on archive.org too; go to the 'Old Time Radio' section (https://archive.org/details/oldtimeradio) and search for 'Star Wars Original NPR Drama.'I'm thinking of listening to it
Extremely good timing - you posted this right when I was taking a break in the middle of a long car journey! Listened to it all evening, thanksI've been inspired by the comments above to download them, but haven't listened to them yet - that might wait for a long car journey!