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ANH Death Star Assault

Discussion in 'Original Trilogy' started by Lock_S_Foils, Feb 16, 2018.

  1. Star Dude

    Star Dude Jedi General

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    Danke for the clarification! :)
     
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  2. Lt. Hija

    Lt. Hija Rebel Official

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    Gern geschehen! Which reminds me I should see to it to finish my Tantive IV accurate deck plans project...
     
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  3. Star Dude

    Star Dude Jedi General

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    Well, that will be of interest too for @Lock_S_Foils , @Bloo Leeder , @Lazarus Dei and all the other starship enthusiast here for sure. (star destroyer)
     
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  4. Lock_S_Foils

    Lock_S_Foils Red Leader

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    Oh.....my...... @Lt. Hija you had me at "Tantive IV"......thanks!
     
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  5. Lock_S_Foils

    Lock_S_Foils Red Leader

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    OK fans, let's talk Rebel Pilot Helmets.....

    My favorite helmet in all the movies is worn by Garven Dreis, Red Leader in ANH and R1....

    garven dreis and astromech.jpg

    6994523294_467104a747_o.jpg
     
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  6. Star Dude

    Star Dude Jedi General

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    There’s too many of them! :confused:

    yWingPilot.jpg
     
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  7. Lt. Hija

    Lt. Hija Rebel Official

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    I agree because Dave's helmet features the Imperial insignia roadkilled...:D

    That's still the best graphic compilation of Alliance pilot helmets I'm aware of. But if you pay close attention, you'll notice that the element on all helmets (except for Bold's, of course, as that used to be Han's Imperial training helmet Luke used in ANH for his excercises) is not the bird, BUT the circle uniting seven lines, which IMO is the genuine Alliance insignia, i.e. a depiction of the Alliance (circle) uniting the individual rebellion cells (lines).

    Regarding the bird I'd like to draw your attention to a particular detail on the 'hero' helmet of Luke. The bird logo was created by costume designer John Mollo and being aware that Luke's helmet would be the one most often photographed he left us a little 'rosetta stone' literally enabling us to make head or tail out of it:

    Royal crest of Alderaan.png

    To the left is the image published on a whole page in the 1977 Star Wars Storybook. You can clearly see what looks like an eye on the 'left' wing of the bird, except we are not looking at the left wing but actually the bird's neck and head overlapping with the left wing.

    To the bottom right you see the whole bird in a less aggressive posture and I even found a graphic resembling it unter the heading "dove" (symbol of peace). Now, Alderaan is peaceful and from whom else other than Leia could Luke have received what is apparently a used helmet? I have no doubt whatsoever that the bird on *some* pilot helmets is actually / was intended to be the royal crest of Alderaan, however with the neck turned around 'to fight'.

    What is also noticable in ANH is that a lot of 'nuggets' have blank helmets with only the blue bird on it. The way I see it, some of the newbies added the crest of Alderaan to their helmets as a sign of sympathy and awareness, acknowledging the wretched destruction of Alderaan by the Empire.

    Rebel helmet before and after the destruction of Alderaan.png

     

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  8. Lt. Hija

    Lt. Hija Rebel Official

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    Luke's helmets ESB and ROJ.jpg

    And here's an interesting oddity: How could Luke possibly still wear the same helmet in ROJ although he had left his X-Wing behind in Cloud City?

    Upon arrival and assuming they'd all have to escape together in one ship, he must have gone to the Falcon first and left his helmet there.
     
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  9. deadmanwalkin009

    deadmanwalkin009 Force Sensitive

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    Honest question, what part of the death star does the trench run takes place at? Is it in the middle where all of those docking bays is at or is there a small trench on the north or south hemisphere? The movie didn't make it really clear. Also another thing that has bothered me, why didn't the pilots fly above the trench and swoop down before they get to exhaust port to shoot their torpedo? The movie didn't make it too clear if they trench was lined with turbo lasers above the trench. What's the in canon explanation? (I know, we wouldn't have a movie if they did that, just like if Gandalf gave Frodo and Sam his eagle to fly to Mordor)
     
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  10. cawatrooper

    cawatrooper Dungeon Master

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    I always just assumed it was the "equator".

    As for why the run was even necessary... in other media (like Rogue Squadron 2) it's because the turbolaser fire is too intense above the trench.

    As to why that doesn't seem to be a problem for anyone else who isn't doing the trench run... well, I don't know. Perhaps it's because while swarm tactics could help distract turbolasers, a small squadron running an objective would be an obvious target? Or maybe the area near the exhaust port had higher defenses?

    Not really sure about that one.
     
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  11. Lt. Hija

    Lt. Hija Rebel Official

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    Death Star I equatorial trench height calculation.jpg

    We saw the Death Star's equator earlier in the film and its walls are rather plain, the vector graphic in the Alliance briefing film revealed the exhaust port trench to be in the northern hemisphere and to give us an idea of the (smaller) size of the exhaust port trench there was even a turbolaser emplacement on the edge (first post in this thread).

    14995816150_0cc60282b0_b.jpg

    ^ Turbolasers equator

    star-wars4-movie-screencaps_com-12951.jpg

    ^ Turbolaser exhaust port trench

    Regarding the necessity to fly through the trench, there were various suggestions in the screenplay drafts that all the interference above trench level would greatly affect maneuverability and speed, so the trench was like a sweet spot enabling the Alliance fighters to be unaffected by these limitations.
     

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    #31 Lt. Hija, Feb 23, 2018
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  12. Lock_S_Foils

    Lock_S_Foils Red Leader

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    Hold on everyone , the trench run is done on a trench like a line of longitude I.e. running northward towards the “north pole” of the DS. This is covered in the prebrief in ANH and also in the novelization of R1
     
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  13. Lt. Hija

    Lt. Hija Rebel Official

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    Show, don't tell... ;)

    Death Star Alliance briefing schematics.jpg

    (Must be talking to myself)...just found this on YouTube...the original (unedited !!!) Alliance briefing film starts at 7:26

     
    #33 Lt. Hija, Feb 23, 2018
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  14. Lt. Hija

    Lt. Hija Rebel Official

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    Admittedly a little bit off-topic but in the other message board we had been discussing whether the tractor beam (?) dishes of the new Arrestor Cruiser in Solo would or could be compatible with tractor beam dishes on the Death Star. Re-examining the equatorial matte painting of DS II I found two circular surface structures above the equator and felt compelled to (finally) do a thorough equator height examination. I found the preliminary results to be somewhat disturbing (less than I expected), apparently DS II is roughly the same size as DS I, only its equator (on the VFX models) is half as tall as the one of DS I:

    Death Star II equator hangar confusion and size evaluation.jpg

    Here is a detail enlargement of the upgraded matte painting after the Emperor's shuttle has landed,
    I guess it's obvious that it would hardly fit inside the small bay to the right (usually assumed to have been the one where Vader landed):

    Death Star II equator details after the Emperor's shuttle has landed.jpg

    (work in progress, equator height evaluation still to follow)
     
    #34 Lt. Hija, Feb 26, 2018
    Last edited: Feb 26, 2018
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  15. SegNerd

    SegNerd Rebel Official

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    The Battle of Yavin is simply one of the greatest cinematic moments ever. Not only are the effects great, but it's great how every piece of the story comes together at exactly the right moment, and the key is not "Who has the biggest kablooey" but "Will Luke make the right decision at a difficult time?"

    I'm almost ashamed to admit this, but I can get excited just from listening to the Battle of Yavin music.
     
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  16. Lock_S_Foils

    Lock_S_Foils Red Leader

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    @SegNerd Ashamed to admit THAT?????? No way dude!!! I listen to just the music all the time!!! I listen to just the audio of the attack on my bluetooth in my car, driving my wife crazy!!!! You are among fellow Death Star Assault nerds here who wear the title proudly....
     
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  17. Lazarus Dei

    Lazarus Dei Tree Dodger Extraordinaire
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    So, @Lock_S_Foils - was Dorovio Bold's helmet simply re-purposed from the Falcon training helmet prop by removing the blast shield?
     
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  18. Lt. Hija

    Lt. Hija Rebel Official

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    Although I wasn't asked, here is the image of "Dorovio Bold" (who was probably Red Four during the Battle of Endor):

    pilot3.jpg

    It probably is the same helmet Han used to have in ANH (with the Corellian crest), AFAIK her helmet is lacking the original Alliance insignia, i.e. the circle with seven lines.
     
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  19. Lt. Hija

    Lt. Hija Rebel Official

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    As I'm currently in the process of writing an in-depth article about the accurate sizes of Death Star II and Death Star I it became necessary to take a closer look at turbo-laser tower sizes.

    I came across a rather unusual image from Prop Store from 2014

    Death Star Turbo Laser towers.JPG

    What you see on the right is an actual VFX model from ROJ, the one on the left however left me scratching my head as I had never seen it in the actual film ANH (but correctly features the small turbo-laser gun turret model built for ANH).

    At first I thought it was a fake, but looking at Sculpting A Galaxy and the new Star Wars Chronicles from Japan I noticed genuine ANH Death Star trench photographs that revealed that originally there had been the 'Obelisk' turbo-laser towers and the pyramidal ones close to the upper edge of the exhaust port trench.

    As it turned out it appears that ALL pyramidal turbo-laser towers (like the one in the above image to the left) were transformed into "deflection towers" instead.

    ANH turbolaser size.jpg

    If the rungs on the gun turret led the way, the gun turret would be much smaller as visualized by Stinson Lenz:

    2-18-13 deathstar joke.png
     
    #39 Lt. Hija, Mar 12, 2018
    Last edited: Mar 12, 2018
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  20. Star Dude

    Star Dude Jedi General

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    OK, now you got me: I remember the term ‘deflection tower’ in the pilot’s chatter over the DS, but never paid attention to it. Is there any in-canon explanation of them, are they just providing deflector shields for a certain area?! Or is there more about them?!

    If they would just provide shielding, why this sentence: “There's a lot of fire coming from that Deflection Tower…
     
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