Star Words: Episode IV, Part 33

[matril]

As we approach our thrilling climax, the stakes are set. It's all or nothing. Frequent cuts to Tarkin and Vader remind us of how quickly the Death Star is approaching, how little time is left. The last chance for the Rebels is to destroy the Death Star before it can destroy them.

General Dodonna offers the details of this desperate chance. They aren't particularly promising. While the massive station doesn't expect an attack from small fighters, it will still provide some formidable obstacles. The one weakness is a tiny exhaust port, and only a precise hit with proton torpedos will trigger the crucial chain reaction. Most of the pilots are thoroughly dismayed by the odds.

"That's impossible, even for a computer!"

Luke has a different perspective. He's never manned an X-Wing, but he used to bulls-eye womp-rats, roughly the same size of the exhaust port, in his T-16 on Tatooine. (Side note -- a rat over two meters long?? Talk about an ROUS. I shudder to imagine it.) He carries a confidence that could either be inspiring or insane.

Impossible is a powerful word. Some of the most interesting developments in a storyline come from fighting the impossible. Going up against unthinkable odds. Defeating the undefeatable. I prefer to blithely ignore the clumsy "plot hole" bandage created by Rogue One and instead imagine that the Empire was fully aware of this teensy design flaw. Why bother fixing it? What kind of insane, ridiculous odds would allow a one-man ship to penetrate the shielding of the mighty Death Star, arrive at the incredibly precise location of the exhaust port, release the proton torpedo without the slightest deviance in trajectory so that it detonates not too soon and not too late, and triggers that chain reaction? Come on! One of the other Rebel pilots, far more experienced than Luke, does everything right and still fails, even aided by his computer. Luke prevails because, quite simply, the Force wills it. It brings him to that crucial moment, guiding his every action.

That's not to say that he's merely a passive instrument. Luke has absolute trust in the Force -- or more specifically, in Ben's voice and his teachings. He listens. He is teachable, and willing to take the untrodden path. He has faith. The kind of faith that has him nodding and smiling in certainty at the end of Dodonna's tutorial, rather than murmuring and frowning and doubting like everyone else. And trust me, I'd be one of the doubters. This is David against a moon-sized Goliath. This is pretty much the opposite of a sure thing. And that's what makes it so satisfying when Luke's pure faith prevails.

Next, an endlessly quotable line....

Comments

[krpalmer]

With my own background I can suppose (perhaps more that than "recall") this scene and line touched off technical debates about Death Star defences and "snubfighter" tactics, of course brushing aside the little matter of the Force in the story's reality... Unfortunately, too, I also have an impression some now look to it to proclaim "of course Luke has problems and it was inevitable he'd wind up like that in the [Disney Space Movies]..."

I did see an interpretation of Rogue One that proposed "Jyn's father didn't design in the weakness; he just kept anyone else from noticing it too and designing it out..." Unfortunately, that's not the only thing about that movie that now doesn't quite seem to mesh with my interpretations of even the saga's technology (if someone can just jump to lightspeed from somewhat above the ground with no apparent consequences for their ship, five out of the six saga movies are suddenly obsolete, and the blockade runner fleeing the battle itself to provide an upbeat ending after everyone else is dead seems to threaten everyone on it knowing where the Rebel base is, which makes Vader keeping Leia alive to find the location from her more trouble than it's worth.)

[matril]

Delving deep into technical questions can lead to a lot of frustration, particularly for films that are more in the category of "space opera" than true science fiction. I'm fine with details that don't mesh with the laws of reality (like sound in space, for example) but what I do look for is inner consistency. If it's a significant plot point that ships can't enter hyperspace without certain crucial preparations, then yes, that contradiction is going to bother me. It's that "Mary Sue-ish" tendency, for a lack of a better term, in which everything has to be ever more INCREDIBLE and AMAZING! than everything that's gone before it, thus making all the originals look kind of inept in retrospect.