h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Do you think he needs to go into analysis? those big weight swings can be really damaging!
I always find it interesting when physics (or other science) books say that something is impossible. Go back a couple of hundred years and pose the questions about TV, keyhole surgery or the Simpsons. They are all impossible!

The answer is because the script says so. Anything else is just conjecture and after-the-fact explanations.

Sorry chaps, what I want to know is, why did Obi-Wan say to Luke in The Empire Strikes Back "you must go to the Dagobah system and find Yoda, the jedi who trained me" when we now know that Yoda had nothing to do with it...

And don't say maybe Yoda'll do some training in the next film, cos Obi-Wan is a full jedi at the end of Ep1...

Cause they didn't have a history yet and somewriter scwewed up?

Mebbe he meant like Yoda, the Last of the Jedi that trained me.
Remember, 'ol Obi-Wan was a little lax where the truth was, Darth killed Lukes father 'from a certain point of view.' HAH!

Fortunately, by the time I get round to watching the SW legacy (if?) I'll probably be able to watch it in chronological order.

I was wondering about that Yoda-training-Obi-wan thing too!
Who is this Qui-Gonn person interefering with Obi's training? Wouldn't it have been cool if it was Yoda doing all that running about saving Anakin, Naboo, Gungan, world, type thing - and more importantly, would he have even thought about asking that Jar-Jar character along? Personally, I agree with Obi.

You know there is this site offering light sabres for sale(www.futurehorizons.com). They r supposed to be just like the real thing except not actually deadly, as in they only project a beam of light.... Well anywayz if you have enough cash to buy one you can see how they keep the beam at a certain lenght there. One problem with the sit though is that they offer all these weird things like anti-gravity devices and stuff so im not too sure any of their products actualy work.....

Well, about the original question, the chrystal spacing thing works for me. As for Yoda being Obi-Wan's teacher, it is possible that Yoda did train him....as an apprentice. Then when he hit journeyman, he was transferred to Qui-Gon. Just my theory. And if I could just drag us back to the fading thing for moment, I have an idea about that. No one I know buys it, though. I get the impression in Ep. 4, when Obi-Wan feels Vader in the Death Star, he suddenly has the impression that he is going to die. This would give him the time and opportunity to start working on the "spell" that would allow him to stick around in non-corporeal form. Yoda also knows that he is dying, so is able to do the same. But Qui-Gon's death is rather sudden, so he is unable to do it. Just a thought.

The reason that droids were replaced is that they had one fatal flaw.
Destroy the droid command ship and your army on the surface is poo-ified.

Stick to humans and this won't happen. Although, technically, they could run away if they were all yellow-bellies.

Presumably, a weapon was designed which could get through the trade federation's 'impenetrable' shields, thus rendering the droid armies useless. Besides, they were probably too expensive to make anyways and Palpatine is a stingy shite.

But Vader's death was sudden too, so how come he was at the victory celebrations later? They had to burn his body too.

The Reverend Cat to present a few humble suggestions and solutions to this stream of monstrosities:

Perhaps the matter of dying jedi fading / not fading is less important than the long-term effect; the non-corporeal form? That would explain a thing or two.
Yoda and Obi-Wan dies fairly instantly and therefore are reduced to, eh, oblivion. Qui-Gon and Vader die after some suffering, perhaps they cannot muster the entire effect but have to settle with just achieving the new shimmering form.
Hey, it's a theory even if George Lucas didn't think of it.

As for Jabba the, hm, hutt and his weight-problems: Honestly, when taking a real good look at the four magnificent films I see no weight-continuity problems. Explain that again, Rhogart.

The sabres? Easy, it's the midiclorians! (Even if GL also didn't think of that back in '77.)

And finally who trained Obi-Wan? Maybe the problem arises from the fact that the word 'jedi' is similar in both singular and plural form. He could, theoretically (by a longshot), be talking about jedi in general and not A particular jedi.

BTW: I happen to LIKE Jar-Jar Binks, even if his mental capacity is by far smaller than his merchandise potential.

I'm also of the opinion that JJ could end up being more than he is. People are kind of forgetting that this is the first-part of a dedicated three-part story arc in a way that SW4 never was.

My own hypothesis (worked out some months ago) for the Jedi disappearing trick is as follows:

Why doesn't Qui-Gon Jinn disappear? The assumption is that all Jedi are capable of this feat, solely on the basis of seeing two out of three Jedi (two Jedi and one Sith/Jedi) disappear. Darth Vader does not disappear either, and not because Vader was a Sith Lord, since in defeating the Emperor he had abandoned the Dark Side (Mustapha's note: Both Qui-Gon and Vader are cremated on a funeral pyre. Coincidence? Perhaps this is used in lieu of the Vanishing Trick, and the destruction of the physical form or "oneness with the universe" is part of the Jedi ethos).

Also when Ben and Yoda disappear they are somehow ‘prepared' for the fact that they are going to die (and by ‘prepared' I mean in a meditative sense). GL has said publicly there is something to be read into Ben's phrase "If you strike me down I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine". Ben knows exactly what will happen and quite possibly, how to activate this "Force Phantom" before death.

I suspect that the ability is something that comes with age, wisdom and a certain degree of attainment. Had Qui-Gon lived as long as Obi-Wan, he may have gained this ability. To use a martial arts analogy, Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Yoda are all black belts, which gives them the ability to instruct and take on pupils (see below). When Qui-Gon died, he was 1st Dan, but when Ben and Yoda died, they were about 10th. As for Darth Vader, he may have been a powerful Sith Lord, but perhaps the "quick and easy path" doesn't earn one the inner mysteries of the Light Side.

Anakin's ghostly appearance at the celebrations is probably the result of his conversion, as he wouldn't have been taught the "Vanishing Trick".

As for who taught Ben, it's more than possible he had a number of instructors, teaching a variety of specialised subjects: swordplay, meditation, philosophy, etc., just as when we go to school or university, we have more than one teacher or tutor. Qui-Gon was probably Ben's supervisor for on-the-job training, teaching (through example) practical application of skills learned in Jedi U. So what he said in SW5 "there you will learn from Yoda, the Jedi Master who instructed me" would have been correct, the only thing was that Yoda, being the only extant (and corporeal) Jedi left, he had to teach all these thing himself.

Anyhoo, those are just my particular theories. The trouble is, of course, that they are largely conjecture based on the little information on screen there is to work with. I think this kind of stuff falls into the category of what Marvel Comics used to refer to as "No-Prizes". Any glitches in a Marvel comic with continuity, colouring errors or the like are generally picked up by the readers. If someone wrote in with a creative explanation as to why it wasn't actually a mistake would be awarded a coveted No-Prize.

Any thoughts?

Don't you ever pause for fresh air?

The vanish/not vanish could be explained as sort of a cross between your explanation and mine. Or it could be something entirely different such as the midiclorian-count or the Industrial Light and Magic team having a fun days work.
But I like the comparison with black-belt 1st Dan or 10th Dan. There's a lot of logic to that ides, even if I bet that GL also didn't think about that.
But hey, he did produce some pretty good stuff from the parts he did think about, right?

BTW: I am a spare-time science-fiction-fantasy writer and I have, with my boyfriend, created a vast universe of both magic and advanced technology, and whenever we come up with a new invention, we spend hours or even days debating the 'how's of the new item. Naturally, we cannot explain 100% how, but we can scetch the basics in order to make our universe just a bit more plausible.
Therefore I like debates like this: It's there, but how?
For one, I've stopped counting how often we have debated the principles behind actual technology-based teleportation. But if we could just get a few more issues set right, it could really work! (Provided that a few complicated and non-earthen gadgets were available... ) It's those little details that makes it all so much more fun, right?

But to tell you the truth, we gave up on having light-sabres in our universe; we were unable to explain them. The electro-sling however...

Not for air, no, just for subediting. Fortunately most of that spiel came from a little file I'm keeping on the prequels so I only had to finetune the words.

I'm still wondering about those midi-chlorians, about whether they are the Force or if they are just channel it (and more of them means more ability).

As for lightsabers, I thought they might be some sort of solid light/plasma construct (similar to a hologram). Either in this or another forum, someone said they are supposed to use some sort of crystal, but I think that might just be the "lens" or "focusing mechanism".
Remember, any science that is vastly superior to our own can be described as "magic".

Lightsabers end after a meter because of a metallic plate that bends the blade back to the shaft of the saber. The only reason the saber doesn't get cut is because the metallic plate is made ofone of teh few substances that are not able to be cut by a lightsaber.

Not MicroSoft!

Yah, well, but what substance is that?

Some people say size doesn't matter, others say size is everything. Personally I don't own one, so I don't care. As long as it looks good on the big screen.

I agree with you but why metal why not plastic. the airforce has currenly got several classifed laser types that pilots can be protected against with a simple plastic visor. Back to reality now. To make a light saber you would have to bend the beam back otherwise it would continue ad infintium in a straight line. that is why it is currently inpossible to do so. but hang on if its not solid how can you have a little thingy whatsit floting at the top. it just wouldn't stay there on its own. this means a force field is more likely. like the containment fields on star trek dare i say. however, it would have to have a specific set of properties to work.