About Episode VI and the Endor Holocaust.

[Omeganian]

I brought up this question up in a couple of other places. Do you think it would be better, if Episode VI was given a minor edit to remove the possibility of Endor holocaust? For example, by having the bunker not blown up, but somehow reprogrammed (maybe with R2-D2 heroically managing to work despite being damaged) to shield Endor (and, perhaps, the Rebels) instead of DS2.

[Illuminatus Primus]

As it is, I don't find an immediate Holocaust credible simply because the radiation and debris should fry the entire region we see in ROTJ almost immediately. There must be some planetary shield which was kept online.

[Darth Hoth]

Still not possessing the Saxton books, what would the radiation of an exploding Death Star be? Have any such calculations been made, and what would they then be based on? I am asking purely out of curiosity.

[Illuminatus Primus]

Well, the station was fragmented and almost entirely vaporized; the heat requirements are fantastic - radiated heat alone should devestate the world below (granted the Death Star II is neither conventional metal nor solid, but if anything its specific heat and heat of vaporization is probably much greater). Reading Saxton's page on it, some of the visible "fireball" fragments being forcibly ejected (at hundreds of kilometers/sec) would impact the moon in minutes even; any one of those many greatly exceed the impact yield of the Chicxulub impact event, which immolated North America and caused continental earthquakes and other natural disasters. I don't think that can be reconciled with the end of ROTJ. And that's taken apart from the great majority of the siegecraft's mass and the emitted heat of the detonation. Thermodynamics dictates that the energy released in the destruction event must be carried away by the debris and radiation; certainly most of the radiation harmlessly radiates into deep space, but some will not, and much of the debris will fall back into the planet - some of it's kinetic energy will be transfered to the atmosphere through friction as heat and the rest of it's kinetic energy will be transfered to the crust of the planet.

[Darth Hoth]

I never doubted your initial hypothesis, which the film evidence cannot but be said to support; rather, I wondered whether there were any set numbers to it.

[Illuminatus Primus]

Its exceedingly difficult because we really don't know the material make-up of the Death Star; so calculating its disintegration and partial vaporization energy is basically guesswork. One imagines that idealizing it as iron or steel would produce a lower limit.

[Darth Hoth]

Once more, we are in agreement. I thought that producing a figure, based on in-universe data, would perhaps have been something that Saxton or someone else could have done.

[Battlehymn Republic]

Seeing as how the Rebel post-victory party was held on the moon of Endor, isn't it still reasonable to assume that the the Death Star destruction didn't hit the ewoks particularly hard?

[consequences]

The easy way to make it fit is if the planetary shield had a separate generator(or series of generators around the planet) from the shield projected around the DS2) which projected the planet, which just barely failed under the bits of DS2 so the Rebels could have their Ewok party.

Of course, without something actually backing this up, it remains pure speculation.

[Galvatron]

The easy way to make it fit is if the planetary shield had a separate generator(or series of generators around the planet) from the shield projected around the DS2) which projected the planet, which just barely failed under the bits of DS2 so the Rebels could have their Ewok party.

Of course, without something actually backing this up, it remains pure speculation.

I've long been in favor of this theory. After all, what's to stop a squadron of X-wings from making planetfall beyond the shield's coverage and skimming the treetops till they reach the projector dish and blasting it to pieces just like the Empire did on Hoth?

[Fire Fly]

The best retcon I can think of is that Endor had two shield generators: one that projected the shield around the Death Star and another one for the planet or local area. This would explain why the Rebels required a clearance code to land on the moon and it could also explain why the Rebels and Ewoks on the surface weren't killed in the aftermath.

[Galvatron]

The best retcon I can think of is that Endor had two shield generators: one that projected the shield around the Death Star and another one for the planet or local area. This would explain why the Rebels required a clearance code to land on the moon and it could also explain why the Rebels and Ewoks on the surface weren't killed in the aftermath.

I wouldn't even limit Endor's shield to the local area. I think it must've encompassed the entire globe or else the rebels could have just descended to an unprotected region and circumnavigated to the target area in snubfighters.

Is that any less believable than the aerobatics they performed while speeding through the DS2's innards to reach its core?

Oh, and just for IP, I'd be happy to see ROTJ edited out of existence and replaced with a better movie written, directed and produced by me.

[Zac Naloen]

Doesn't the diagram in the briefing show a shield that extends around the entire moon with a bit sticking up for the death star?

[Galvatron]

No.

[Ritterin Sophia]

Doesn't the diagram in the briefing show a shield that extends around the entire moon with a bit sticking up for the death star?

That's the novel, IIRC.

[Darth Fanboy]

I've long been in favor of this theory. After all, what's to stop a squadron of X-wings from making planetfall beyond the shield's coverage and skimming the treetops till they reach the projector dish and blasting it to pieces just like the Empire did on Hoth?

Or a few turbolaser shots from an enemy fleet. Without a shield protecting the Forest Moon it's possible the Rebels wouldn't even have had to send in the team in advance to blow the generator if they could have exitied hyperspace, fired off a few shots from long range, and then went to work.

[Swindle1984]

If I recall correctly, the facility blown up by rebels was the main shield generator, but there were multiple shield projectors like the huge dish we see near the generator.

[FTeik]

Doesn't the Complete Locations-book speak about extra-shielding around BrightTree-village?

[Galvatron]

Yes, but shielding one small portion of the planet's surface wouldn't spare them from the immediate effects of mass-extinction impacts half a world away. By the time of the celebration in the Ewok village we should have seen obvious signs of such impacts, not just a clear night sky.

[bz249]

Its exceedingly difficult because we really don't know the material make-up of the Death Star; so calculating its disintegration and partial vaporization energy is basically guesswork. One imagines that idealizing it as iron or steel would produce a lower limit.

The radiated energy could be calculated using the Stefan-Boltzmann law and from the color of the debris (assuming it's thermal radiation) in the perfect black body limit... wheter it is a better guessing is another question.

[Illuminatus Primus]

I wouldn't even limit Endor's shield to the local area. I think it must've encompassed the entire globe or else the rebels could have just descended to an unprotected region and circumnavigated to the target area in snubfighters.

Aircraft are blocked by theater shields (TESB)

Is that any less believable than the aerobatics they performed while speeding through the DS2's innards to reach its core?

Oh, and just for IP, I'd be happy to see ROTJ edited out of existence and replaced with a better movie written, directed and produced by me.

See here.

[Illuminatus Primus]

Yes, but shielding one small portion of the planet's surface wouldn't spare them from the immediate effects of mass-extinction impacts half a world away. By the time of the celebration in the Ewok village we should have seen obvious signs of such impacts, not just a clear night sky.

Continent-spanning earthquakes, for one.

[Galvatron]

I wouldn't even limit Endor's shield to the local area. I think it must've encompassed the entire globe or else the rebels could have just descended to an unprotected region and circumnavigated to the target area in snubfighters.

Aircraft are blocked by theater shields (TESB)

How do you figure? The rebels were able to fly their speeders under their own theater shield on Hoth.

See here.

What am I supposed to see there?

[Darth Yoshi]

The Hoth shield wasn't up all the time. And the snow speeders didn't necessarily have to pass through the shield to engage the AT-ATs.

[Illuminatus Primus]

How do you figure? The rebels were able to fly their speeders under their own theater shield on Hoth.

Not the same as flying through the perimeter from without. AOTC ICS mentions that walkers are favored over repulsorlift vehicles because their grounding shields them against perimeter discharges or interference.

See here.

What am I supposed to see there?

That I am not a fan of ROTJ either and have suggested the same.