Star Wars category

Questions

51 entries tagged Questions, 13 of them long reads. The rest of the wiki points here most often at How Did Anakin Survive Mustafar? and Why Did Anakin Turn to the Dark Side?.

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Could The US Military Defeat One Imperial Star Destroyer?If the Star Destroyer were foolish enough to fly into Earth's atmosphere, the US military would probably win. Nuclear missiles could break its shields and blow it apart. The Empire would never fight that way, though. It would sit in orbit and run a Base Delta Zero.

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Did Anakin Kill Padmé?Not with his own hands, but Revenge of the Sith makes him the cause. He choked her on Mustafar, and she died after giving birth because, in the medical droid's words, she had lost the will to live. Here is what the film shows and what it leaves to the viewer.
Did Darth Maul Become Less Powerful After His Duel With Obi-Wan?No. Maul grew stronger after losing his legs, while Vader never recovered from Mustafar, and the difference was mental rather than physical. Losing limbs did not reduce a Force user's potential. What reduced it was the confidence the injury took away, and Maul had confidence to spare.
Do Blasters Ever Run Out Of Ammunition?Yes. Blasters run on compact power packs, and an E-11 gets around a hundred shots from a standard cell or more than five hundred from a plasma cartridge. The reason nobody reloads much is that the packs last, not that they are endless.

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How Could The Pearl From A Krayt Dragon Create The Most Powerful Lightsaber?Krayt dragons swallow stones to grind their food, and the pearls that come out of their guts are formed from kyber. Drop one into a hilt and it produces an extremely powerful, destructive blade that howls when it ignites. Getting one means killing a krayt dragon first, which is why almost nobody has.
How Did Anakin Become a Force Ghost?The films never explain it. Anakin never trained in the technique Qui-Gon discovered, but StarWars.com's canon Databank says his sacrifice let Obi-Wan and Yoda preserve his spirit in the Force. Here is what the films show, what canon adds, and why he appears young.
How Did Anakin Become Darth Vader?In two steps, both in Revenge of the Sith. Anakin pledged himself to Darth Sidious to save Padmé and was named Darth Vader that night. Then Obi-Wan left him maimed and burning on Mustafar, and Palpatine had him rebuilt in the black armour. Here is how it happened, in canon and Legends.
How Did Anakin Bring Balance to the Force?By destroying the Sith. In Return of the Jedi Anakin throws Palpatine down a shaft on the second Death Star and dies himself, leaving no Sith alive, which is what the films say the prophecy meant. Here is how that works, and what Palpatine's return in The Rise of Skywalker does to it.
How Did Anakin Get His Scar?In canon, nobody knows: Anakin has the scar over his right eye from The Clone Wars onward, and no film or series shows how he got it. In Legends, Asajj Ventress gave it to him in a lightsaber duel on Coruscant in a 2004 Dark Horse comic. Here is what each continuity says.
How Did Anakin Lose His Hand?Count Dooku cut off Anakin's right arm in their duel on Geonosis at the end of Attack of the Clones, and he wore a mechanical replacement from then on. Here is how it happened, how he paid Dooku back, and how the same wound runs through his son's story.
How Did Anakin Survive Mustafar?Obi-Wan left Anakin Skywalker legless, armless and on fire beside a lava river on Mustafar. He lived because Palpatine sensed he was in danger and got to him in time, and because the dark side kept him going long enough to be rebuilt as Darth Vader.
How Did Coruscant Become Hell After The Fall Of The Empire?Coruscant went through four separate catastrophes in under seventy years. Imperial warlords carved it up, the Yuuzhan Vong conquered it and terraformed it into a jungle, the rebuild never reached the lower levels, and finally Abeloth tore chunks of the planet apart with seismic activity.
How Did Grievous Almost Become Force Sensitive and Dooku's Sith Apprentice?Dooku engineered the crash that nearly killed Grievous, then had the dying Kaleesh transfused with the midi-chlorian rich blood of the Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas. The blood saved his life. It never gave him the Force.
How Did IG-88 Almost Destroy The Star Wars Galaxy?IG-88 woke up on a laboratory bench, killed everyone in the room and took over the droid factory world of Mechis III. Every droid built there shipped with hidden code that would trigger a galaxy-wide droid revolution. He got as far as the second Death Star before Lando Calrissian blew it up with him inside.
How Was Cad Bane So Good At Defeating Jedi?Most bounty hunters avoided Jedi work entirely. Cad Bane went looking for it, and he kitted himself out specifically to shut down what Force users do best, down to the breathing tubes that made a Force choke useless.

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Were Regular Guns The Perfect Weapon To Defeat Jedi?Slugthrowers worked on Jedi in a way blasters never did, because a lightsaber cannot deflect a physical round. The catch is that they only worked as well as they did because most Jedi were never trained to deal with them.
Were There Any Sith Lords Who Used Their Powers For Good?Two Sith from the Rule of Two era come close. Darth Gravid rejected the dark side and tried to drag the order back towards the light, burning centuries of Sith lore before his apprentice killed him. Darth Vectivus kept his old moral code intact and died of old age surrounded by friends.
What Excuse Did Vader Give For His Defeat By Obi-Wan Kenobi?Vader never blames his own arrogance for losing on Mustafar. On the Death Star he frames that duel as the learner against the master, which fits the grievance Anakin had carried for years: that Obi-Wan and the Council were holding him back.
What Happened to Anakin's Face?Anakin's face was burned on Mustafar. Obi-Wan left him limbless beside a river of lava, the heat set him on fire, and he spent the rest of his life scarred, hairless and unable to breathe without Vader's mask. The single scar over his eye is older, from the Clone Wars. Here is every time the saga shows what is under the helmet.
What Happened to Anakin's Lightsaber?Obi-Wan took it from Anakin on Mustafar, gave it to Luke on Tatooine, and Luke lost it at Cloud City. It turned up decades later in Maz Kanata's castle, passed to Rey, broke, was mended, and was finally buried on Tatooine. Here is the whole trail, film by film.
What Happened to Anakin's Mother?Shmi Skywalker was left behind as a slave when Anakin went off to become a Jedi. She was later freed and married, then kidnapped by Tusken Raiders, and she died in her son's arms. Her death is the first big step on his road to becoming Darth Vader.
What Happened To The Girl Who Hit On Darth Vader?An Imperial nurse on the first Death Star became obsessed with Darth Vader, hoarding scraps of his armour and a vial of his blood as keepsakes. When she finally walked into his quarters and confessed, he stared at her, ran her through with his lightsaber and called the bridge to have the body removed.
What Happened When A Clone Commando Got A Jedi Padawan Pregnant?Jedi General Etain Tur-Mukan and clone commando Darman of Omega Squad had a son, Venku Skirata, and formalised their union under Mandalorian custom. Etain survived the first hours of Order 66 only to be cut down by a Jedi Padawan when she stepped in to shield a clone, as her family came to collect her.
What Happened When Darth Vader Found A Picture Of Jar Jar Binks, Kenobi And Padme?Hunting for whoever hid his son, Vader went to Naboo and was lured into an underwater Gungan monument to the Trade Federation's defeat. On the wall was a painting of Palpatine, Jar Jar Binks, Kenobi, Padme and a nine year old boy from Tatooine.
What Was It Like To Be Hit By A Blaster Bolt?A blaster bolt is a packet of high energy plasma, and it does two things at once. It burns and melts through what it hits, and its concussive force can rupture organs and break bone around the wound. It hurts in ways a bullet does not.
What Was The Devastating Ability That Only Starkiller Could Use?The lightning bomb. Starkiller could pour Force lightning into a target and then keep amplifying it until it hit a critical point and detonated, destroying the victim and everyone unlucky enough to be standing near them. It sits at the far end of a discipline he had already rewritten.
When Darth Maul Fought Darth VaderIn Legends, a cult of Sith fanatics brought Darth Maul back from the dead and sent him after Vader on the volcanic moon Kalakar Six. Maul had the duel won until Vader ran a lightsaber through his own body to reach him.
Who Was The Only Force User That Boba Fett Feared?In Legends, the only Force user who genuinely rattled Boba Fett was the renegade clone of Galen Marek, codenamed Starkiller. Fett took a contract from Darth Vader to hunt him, saw what he had done to a Gorog and an entire city, and decided to go after the clone's lover instead.
Why Are Orange Lightsabers Weak?Some orange blades are not powered by kyber at all. They run on kohlen crystals, a near identical cousin that looks the same and even resonates in the Force the same way. The blade it produces is low powered and struggles to cut, which earned the crystal the nickname fool's kyber.
Why Couldn't The Jedi Sense That Palpatine Was A Sith Lord?Palpatine was the most accomplished user of Force concealment in the galaxy, the Jedi Temple was built on top of a Sith vergence the Order never fully capped, and a thousand years without an enemy had left the Jedi out of practice at looking for one.
Why Did Anakin Kill the Younglings?Anakin killed the younglings because Palpatine told him it was the price of the power to save Padmé. Here is what Revenge of the Sith actually shows of that night at the Jedi Temple, how the others found out, and why he went through with it.
Why Did Anakin Turn to the Dark Side?Anakin Skywalker turned to the dark side because he was terrified of losing Padmé, and Palpatine convinced him only the Sith could save her. Here is how the films and The Clone Wars build that fall, from his mother's death to the night he knelt to Darth Sidious.
Why Did Ancient Sith Lords Hate Palpatine And Darth Vader?Some older Sith thought Palpatine and Vader were not really Sith at all. The clearest case is Darth Momin, who called the Sith of their age Jedi-obsessed weaklings and told Vader he was unworthy of the dark side.
Why Did Both The Jedi And Sith Hate This Lightsaber Variant?The flicker phase blade switched itself on and off at random, which made it nearly impossible to block and impossible to lock. The Jedi called it dishonourable and unsporting, and the Sith had their own reasons to leave it alone.
Why Did Jabba The Hutt Force His Favourite Dancer To Wear Strange Make-up?Because she reminded him of his mother. Jabba was close to her as a young Huttlet, and when he first saw the Askajian dancer Yarna d'al' Gargan he thought her size resembled a Hutt's. The make-up was there to push the resemblance further, and it is what kept her out of the rancor pit.
Why Did Luke Skywalker Use A Sith Lightsaber Crystal?Luke built his green lightsaber on Tatooine with no way to reach a natural crystal world like Ilum. So he fell back on notes and equipment left in Obi-Wan Kenobi's hut and grew a synthetic crystal, a method the Sith pioneered and the Jedi discouraged.
Why Did Palpatine And The Sith Fear Qui-Gon Jinn More Than Any Other Jedi?Sidious sent Maul after Qui-Gon personally, and not because Qui-Gon was the best duelist in the Order. He was the one Jedi openly questioning whether the Jedi should be serving the Republic at all, and he believed in the Chosen One when nobody else did.
Why Did Palpatine Love Maul's Lightsaber?Because of what it told his own master. Sidious trained Maul as an assassin rather than a Sith Lord, and the brutal, ancient saberstaff advertised exactly that. It made Maul look like a weapon instead of a successor, which kept Plagueis from noticing what his apprentice was really building.
Why Did The Empire Make Boba Fett's Disruptor Rifle Illegal?Disruptors do not kill you, they take you apart. The Imperial Senate banned them after the Empire used T-7 ion disruptors to almost wipe out the Lasat, and even Darth Vader told Boba Fett there would be no disintegrations.
Why Didn't Darth Vader Upgrade His Suit?Vader's armour was slow, heavy and painful, and in Legends he was offered the chance to replace it with something far better. He turned it down because the procedure could have killed him, and because the pain kept him tied to the dark side.
Why Didn't The CIS Make Lightsaber Resistant Battle Droids?They did. The Techno Union built the C-B3 cortosis battle droid, armoured in a material that could deflect and even short out a lightsaber blade, and it worked. The programme died on Metalorn when Anakin Skywalker destroyed the factory producing them.
Why Do People In Star Wars Use Blasters Instead Of Guns?Blasters won on logistics and stopping power. A single small gas canister feeds hundreds of shots, ammunition is cheap and light to carry, and bullets simply were not powerful enough. Even low grade armour that blasters cut through would reliably stop a slug.
Why Is Anakin the Chosen One?Anakin Skywalker is the Chosen One because he fits a Jedi prophecy: a child born without a father, stronger in the Force than anyone, who will bring balance to the Force. Here is what the films say about it, how he fulfils it, and what stays open.
Why Plagueis Went to Meet Anakin in The Phantom MenaceIn Legends, Darth Plagueis was still alive during The Phantom Menace. The moment he saw Anakin Skywalker arrive on Coruscant he was hit by a vision of a black helmeted cyborg, and he went looking for the boy. He was too late.
Why Was Darth Vader Terrified After His Duel With Obi-Wan Kenobi?Because the body disappeared. Vader had waited two decades to kill Obi-Wan, and when he finally did there was nothing left but robes. He suspected a mind trick, found nothing under his boot, and realised the dark side had no explanation for what he had just seen.
Why Was General Grievous So Pathetic When He Fought Obi-Wan In Revenge Of The Sith?Two things gutted him. Obi-Wan was a master of Soresu, the defensive form built to punish exactly the kind of wild aggression Grievous relied on. And by Utapau the general was already badly damaged, carrying the crushed chest and the cough that came with it.
Why Was General Grievous So Weak In Revenge Of The Sith?Grievous spent the Clone Wars slaughtering Jedi Masters, then lost to a single Obi-Wan Kenobi. In Legends the reason is Mace Windu, who crushed his chest with the Force during the Battle of Coruscant. In canon the cough and the frailty were always there, built into a botched cyborg conversion.
Why Was Hyperspace So Terrifying?Nobody in the galaxy actually understands it. Ships fly into stars, get pulled apart by gravity wells, and occasionally end up somewhere that is not space at all. Outside a hull it kills faster than vacuum, and in Legends staring at it too long could drive a person mad.
Why Was It So Difficult For Non-Force Sensitives To Use A Lightsaber?The blade has no mass but the weapon still fights you. Energy pouring through the kyber crystal creates a gyroscopic effect that makes a lightsaber pull and wobble in the hand. The Force lets a wielder feel the crystal's rhythm and cancel it out. Without that, you are wrestling the thing.
Why Was Moff Gideon So Terrified Of Luke Skywalker?Gideon spent two seasons unbothered by anything. Then a single X-wing docked and a hooded Jedi walked through his dark troopers. To what was left of the Empire, Luke Skywalker was the man who had personally ended every symbol of Imperial power they had.
Why Wasn't Count Dooku Deformed By The Dark Side?Dooku never went far enough into the dark side to pay for it. The disfigurement and yellow eyes came from prolonged, total immersion, and Dooku used the dark side sparingly, leaning on his Makashi lightsaber form instead. His eyes only turned during moments of real anger.