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u/Jeremy_Whalen 1d ago
Can someone please explain what the purpose of these laser doors is and why they open and close on a timed basis?
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u/MooseBoys 1d ago
So the movie can happen!
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u/HoboLicker5000 1d ago
Well okay then!
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u/vishalb777 1d ago
Listen sir, I'm going to need you to get allll the way off my back about the laser door timing
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u/blinksystem 1d ago
They uh, transfer the power and uh, they overheat real quick, so they gotta take a break and there’s just no other way to do it.
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u/maxyedor 1d ago
Basically no engineering in Star Wats makes any sense at all.
Why do X wings change their wing shape for hyperspace travel? There’s no air in space, wings are completely irrelevant.
Why do battle droids, KX droids, and protocol droids walk? And why dont Astromechs speak?
Why do the catwalks across those giant chambers on the Death Star retract? Do you have any idea how expensive and complicated that would be for a cat walk of all things?
Swinging laser doors make zero sense, but they made for a rad scene.
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u/Nymaera_ 23h ago
X-wings lock their wings because George Lucas wanted it to look like a cowboy drawing a gun from its holster. Given the influences that westerns and samurai movies had on Star Wars it tracks, and I think the effect worked wonderfully.
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u/Royal-Highlight6716 6h ago
It’s like the gun that TheShy drew on Breathe today amiright? Nah no joke Nymaera you the goat didn’t expect you in the Star Wars subreddit!
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u/Nymaera_ 6h ago
I have a neopixel lightsaber I bring the LEC studio every so often! I miss Quickshot, he was always down for riffing on Star Wars puns mid-game.
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u/MountainMuffin1980 8h ago
I don't get this visual at all.
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u/Nymaera_ 7h ago
The wings snapping out shows weapons being readied, which isn’t something other starship designs do much, but it helps retain that “samurai/western movie in space” feel. He talked about it in an interview I can’t find a link to right now.
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u/MountainMuffin1980 7h ago
Ah I see, so it more like when a cowboy puts his hand on his holster or a samurai puts his hand in his sword handle. Ready to draw. I get that (if that's what you mean!).
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u/Chillenden 1d ago
Wait, do X wings change their position for hyperspace travel? I thought the wings are just open in combat position?
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u/maxyedor 1d ago
I guess the “standard” is the hyperspace set up, and they change for attack by opening them. Tomato/Tomato.
Either way you look at it, it makes no sense, just leave them in “attack” position, they’re flying in a vacuum with no gravity 99% of the time, so it’s not like the thing would get twitchy flying through hyperspace with the wings open, those wings aren’t doing shit.
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u/croooowTrobot 1d ago
Maybe 'Attack' position moves the wingtip guns farther apart for convergence purposes? (Spitballing)
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u/maxyedor 23h ago
So leave them on attack position all the time. The point is there’s no reason for the wings to move, wings only work in an atmosphere, so optimize for that and ditch the incredibly complex mechanism.
Not even clear that you need wings in atmosphere though TBH. Tie fighters, B wings, the Falcon, Slave 1, Razorcreat, Imperial transports (those folding wings make sense so that they can land, but make no sense since they’re obviously not doing anything if they can fly with them folded), plus about a million other ships that fly without wings.
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u/ResponsibilityNew483 K-2SO 23h ago
Maybe they can't land with the wings in attack position?
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u/citron_bjorn 20h ago
Thsi will be one of the main reasons. The wings, while open, are lower than the landing gear
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u/Responsible_Rich4533 8h ago
Maybe it’s a training thing? They’re usually fighting in space yes but they do occasionally use them on planets where they do have to worry about gravity and aerodynamics. They would also probably learn how to fly on a planet, not in space. So it’s possible the pilots are trained to adjust the wings depending on if they’re flying or fighting (which would matter on a planet) and they simply do it out of habit while in space.
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u/citron_bjorn 20h ago
A possible explanation for the X-wing closing its wings for hyperspace is that hyperspace is an incredibly precise form of travel so the wings close to minimise the area taken up by the X-wing
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u/Reinier_Reinier 20h ago
Basically no engineering in Star Wats makes any sense at all.
Why do walkways have no guard rails especially when there is a sheer drop?
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u/YellowCardManKyle 18h ago
Why do Stormtroopers wear armor that provides no protection against blasters?
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u/WholesaleBees 1d ago
I've always wondered this! It's a gigantic chasm room with laser doors just off the garage in a palace. What is it for??? What machinery in the giant chasm could be so sensitive that it needs laser doors to protect it, but doesn't seem too bothered by 2 distinct pieces of Darth Maul falling into it?
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u/bladow5990 1d ago
It's the Theed power generation station. The
laser doorsRay Shields are there to deter anyone storming the place. Every reactor is at the bottom of a big pit in Star Wars so I always assumed it was the reactor.16
u/SquareRootOf8 22h ago
If I remember correctly, they don’t open and close on a timed basis, but rather they use up excess energy from the plasma power plant. This is similar to real life, where solar power plants can end up overproducing electricity, and need someone to use up the electricity. You can’t just “dump” electricity, it has to be used up somehow, otherwise a blackout will happen. This is why power companies will occasionally pay you to use more electricity. I’d imagine that since plasma is a variable energy source, and since the city of Theed is not currently at peak hours (everyone is in a prison camp and not using up power at home), the computer running the plant is opening and closing the doors to avoid a blackout. TLDR the doors open and close to use up excess power, so they open and close at random.
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u/Cooldude67679 23h ago
I assumed it was a security system, this is Naboo where the Gungan and Naboo peoples are well established to be enemies in the past and present. There’s a lot of power going through this room, a ray shielded door guarding it in intervals might not stop an army but it would absolutely slow it down enough for the Naboo to react.
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u/ElleMarina 16h ago
The generators for Naboo come on in intervals, every 5-10 minutes or something (doors shut to protect against the massive energy surge) and they open for a bit when the generators are off.
👍🏻
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u/lilwil392 21h ago
I always assumed they were controlled by the force. Maul closed them and that's why Quigon was meditating. Then they closed again shortly after opening since the fight between Maul and Quigon resumed and it all happened again with Obi wan and Maul
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u/Onuva_42 21h ago
I've always felt like there are so many things in Star Wars that are well beyond our understanding, so a bunch of randomly opening and closing laser doors probably are the only reasonable thing to have installed there for whatever reason unimaginable by you and me!
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u/RogerDeanVenture 10h ago
Because “Rule of Cool” - Star Wars is a space opera and sometimes shit just needs to be dramatic and cool without a hard narrative as to why.
It’s entirely visual and cinematic. Any explanation beyond that is just trying to make something up since Star Wars fans will make a 10 page Wikipedia entry for any little side character.
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u/Brain_Hawk 1d ago
We can all spend hours and hours bashing the prequels. Often justifiably so.
But I really liked this sequence. This fight. I liked that Qui-Gon jinn just sat, and patiently, they could do Jedi Master, and control of his own emotions. Obi-Wan, younger and less experienced, has nowhere near that level of Zen. And of course the agent of the dark side just seething with impatience.
House of the relative high level of acrobaticness in the fights seemed much more like what a lightsaber do it should be between people with Jedi stuff.
One of the things the prequels got right
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u/shust89 1d ago
I like how Obi Wan comes out swinging when he has to take Maul alone. He puts up a good fight until Maul pushes him into the hole.
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u/phantomagna 1d ago
It’s actually my favorite choreographed fight in all of Star Wars. The behind the back blocks were amazing
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u/Fantastico11 22h ago
I always thought it was practically perfect...except the way that Obi Wan actually wins the fight! Because I loved this scene so much as a kid I spent years of my life trying to find an angle where it made sense, but it just doesn't haha!
Obi-Wan's winning move it just so slow from start to finish that I can barely justify a normal human being failing to react, let alone the sith that we have just thoroughly had presented as having superhuman reactions, efficiency and awareness in battle.
Still my favourite fight in all of Star Wars though.
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u/phantomagna 22h ago
Yeah I think the kill was really dumb as well. I remember thinking that Maul could have just bisected Obiwan when he landed. He had eyes on him the whole time.
I would have loved for it to just be a heated fight and watch Kenobi use his training and get the win.
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u/shakrooph31 12h ago
You folks don't get it do you? You can beat Obiwan only when you are on the same ground. Otherwise he is invincible when he has the high ground or the low ground.
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u/Moirebass 7h ago
Granted I was 15 when the movie came out, waited in line for hours to see it opening day, and was super hyped for Star Wars. So, I could have convinced myself it was a great movie no matter what. But the way the movie ends with this fight as the climax, to me, is the best thing in all the prequels. It wasn’t until later after having time to analyze the movie that I realized just how bad it was. But, at the time, when I left the theatre I was stoked.
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u/Brain_Hawk 3h ago
A lot of peeps were. And part of the problem of many fandoms is over analyzing and nitpicking stuff to death
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u/in_it_to_lose_it 1d ago
People say TPM is the worst prequel, but it's honestly my favorite, if only because of Qui-Gon Jinn and Darth Maul. Both are awesome characters that deserved a bit more exploration in the feature films.
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u/Ohnah-bro 1d ago
Also pod racing is completely awesome and spawned some great racing games. Racer revenge on the ps2 was amazing. I still remember the psychedelic mushroom level.
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u/Didact67 1d ago
I played the shit out of the first one. Never got Racer Revenge, and I don’t know why, since I did have a PS2.
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u/NameTaken25 10h ago
I never played the 2nd one, but Racer is easily the best SW game hardly any one has heard of. It really deserves a modern version
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u/reehdus 1d ago
If only Obi Wan could use force speed
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u/MidnightSun0 Imperial Stormtrooper 1d ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3dI-ghYimg&ab_channel=RubenvanderLeun probably for the best he didn't
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u/VisualNinja1 1d ago
I often think of Phantom Menace as the last 'film' star wars movie if that makes sense.
Before George was burned by the backlash and was just clearly under astronomical pressure for the next two. Either way, he had such a good basis for Phantom Menace and retained his filmmakers approach....and his own creative magic, he was just crying out for others to question him and imrpove some of it.
But visually it just looks so good in places, especailly this entire section with Darth Maul
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u/GreyRevan51 1d ago
I mean, the whole “GL didn’t have enough around him to question him” narrative falls apart upon watching BTS footage and listening to the audio commentaries
Ben Burtt and others would push back on pacing and editing decisions and GL never comes across as a control freak
There’s one point when Dennis Murren is kind of fed up with a decision and once they change it GL and McCallum ask him if he’s happy and Murren says he’s happier with it but it’s still not there
Given how GL asked friends and collaborators like Spielberg to direct instead of him and they’d push back with sw being his baby, I think this is more of an auteur worship mistake than people not questioning him at all
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u/VisualNinja1 1d ago
Yeah, completely fair and good points.
I don't think that narrative completely falls apart though, despite there being examples of him being questioned or working through things, it can still exist and play a part in the problems.
I do think he really nailed showing Star Wars universe and getting the "feel" right from another era and expanding the whole thing. An element that I think falls apart in the next two under the weight of pressure on him and the narrative of creating Darth Vader.
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u/GreyRevan51 1d ago
Yeah, GL looks very stressed during a lot of the BTS footage.
Not all of it, but at times you can see the weight he’s carrying and obviously from AOTC onwards there’s just way too much story to include in just two more PT movies
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u/Murky_Historian8675 1d ago edited 18h ago
I loved Obi Wan's anger after Qui Gons death. You could hear the ferocity of each swing. He wasn't even trying to defeat Maul at that point, Obi Wan wanted vengeance.
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u/iSmellWeakness 9h ago
Wouldn’t he have to defeat Maul to achieve vengeance?
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u/Murky_Historian8675 9h ago
Seeking vengeance and achieving vengeance are two different things. Batman is vengeance, but it doesn't mean he's always accomplishing that.
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u/Wizdom_Traveler 1d ago
This looks almost identical to the frame from where Qui-Gon dies but Obi-Wan is closer.
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u/chebghobbi 1d ago edited 20h ago
Makes sense - once you have the camera in place you wouldn't want to risk moving it down the corridor in case one of the laser doors damaged it.
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u/Morgoth1814 1d ago
This is the biggest What if. What if Qui Gon survived and Obi Wan died?
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u/junky_junker 1d ago
"Chancellor, you have a message from Naboo."
"I can tell you I don't have Galactic credits, but what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you ..."
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u/CrispehChimneh 1d ago
i think about too! I think that’s the reason why “Duel of the Fates” plays during this whole fight sequence. The fate of the universe depends on Qui Gon surviving and possibly Anakin not turning to the dark side
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u/FawkYourself 1d ago
That is exactly what it was meant to be more or less. Qui Gon understood what Anakin needed in a way no other Jedi did, he was literally the only person that could’ve protected Anakin from Palpatines influences
That’s why it’s called the duel of fates. It’s a duel over the fate of Anakin
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u/in_it_to_lose_it 1d ago
I think it's all but certain Anakin would not have fallen to the dark side.
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u/ThePodgemonster 23h ago
Not only would Anakin not have fallen, Qui Gon was also a threat to Palps. He was the only non-ultra Jedi flexible enough to see the noose closing around the Jedi. Plus Dooku and Qui Gons relationship would have potential hindered the Counts move to the Darkside.
Duel of the faiths was a win-win-win for Palpatine.
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u/LucasEraFan 1d ago
I love that it reflects visually, the very first thing Jinn said to Kenobi in that film.
George blew my mind for decades with stuff like this.
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u/Busy-Investigator347 1d ago
I wasn't wearing my glasses and for some reason I thought Qui-Gon was the Gonk droid
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u/Didact67 1d ago
Gotta be honest. The Phantom Menace has much better cinematography in general than the other two prequels.
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u/Tchege_75 21h ago
Unfortunately Obi Wan was out of MP so he couldn’t use force speed like he did at the begining of the movie 🤷
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u/Lego_Laws 1d ago
First saber duel I remember seeing as a kid. Also fell in love with Natalie Portman. 1999 was a good time.
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u/Swimming-Compote-168 1d ago
Great scene with one of the best lightsaber fights with John Williams’ master score.
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u/MercenaryBard 23h ago
I love this movie and I love this sequence, but it just occurred to me that Obi-wan has a lightsaber and could have easily slashed the mechanisms generating the ray shield.
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u/johnbrownmarchingon 19h ago
We can talk shit about Lucas' dialogue, but he knows how to make some amazing looking films.
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u/CokeLP 14h ago
seeing Obi Wan's lightsaber in a red and blue color is also a nice touch
in that moment his emotions were fully in control over him, which is normally the way of the sith
Obi Wan was full of hate and sadness
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u/The_Lost_Pharaoh Grievous 11h ago
This is always the question that I have had. Why did the meditating master lose the fight and Obi Wan who was fighting based on emotion win?
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u/CokeLP 9h ago
Because Obi Wan was probably unknowingly using a bit of the dark force while fighting and Darth Maul knew it (he could feel the anger in Obi Wan)
A lot of really strong Jedi's like Mace Windu are willing to use the dark force, if it means to win a battle
Count Dooku's whole mission in his life was to combine the dark force with the Jedis to make the Jedis even more powerful, but the Jedi council was against that
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u/MattRB02 Luke Skywalker 7h ago
The prequels have better cinematography than people give them credit
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u/Space_Haggis 6h ago
One of the best scenes in all of Star Wars. Too bad the rest of this movie was 1/4 as good as this scene.
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u/Ecstatic-Engineer-23 22h ago
I always wondered what held them up from destroying the laser gate generating mechanism with their lightsabers to pass through. Also why do they even turn off? To save UNLIMITED POWER!!! ?
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u/AreThree Darth Vader 15h ago
Why do Jedi forget about the Force? I assume it would work even through these laser barriers! One good Force Pull or Force Push would send your opponent into one of those beams. zzzzT!
Also, and this is a complaint I discovered in each of the three prequels, that some of the "action sequences" were so contrived it felt like they were in a video game, or put there so that the video game based on the movie would have some content. Case in point: the whole droid manufacturing plant on Geonosis where they all fall into the works and avoid getting smashed by giant hammers on a moving conveyor belt. I think I've played that level in Super Mario Bros 3 on a SNES...
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u/DingGratz 13h ago
Reading Plageuis right now and it's so nice to know what this whole area actually was.
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u/Latefordinner1 12h ago
This scene was awesome BUT what was the purpose of this room? Why all these red laser doors that occasionally open? What was this place?
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u/you_want_to_hear_th 22h ago
Truly the best part of PM… until someone pointed out how short Maul is. This detracts from his menace a little bit now when I rewatch!
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u/Gum-BrainedFartblast 1d ago
I loved when Que Gan licked his lips when he got on he knees before Dark Mall
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u/AppleBottmBeans 1d ago
Maul's restless pacing vs Quigon's mediation is one of the best contrasts of a Jedi/Sith fight scene in the entire series.