Star Wars stormtrooper armor?

[AndyC]

Luke pulling off the helmet could be because he didn't fully fasten it around the neck, or simply that nobody really thought about it when that scene was shot.

Hard to explain the armour's inability to deflect or absorb blaster fire. I might have suggested that blasters are simply so powerful that the necessary armour would be bulky and impractical. However, as was mentioned in another post, blasters can sometimes seem to do very little damage. Different "calibres" maybe?

Are we putting way to much thought into this?

[John Morgan]

NO, not at all.

When we start getting into heat dissipation ratios and energy coefficients, then we've gone to far.

[Glaxar]

The good guys always win-
Even if it's against the laws of physics.

[Pete B6K]

>Thinking about the effect of the blasters for a moment, I'm sure I've seen people >shot by a blaster jump backward as though hit by a bullet. Is this thing strictly >heat weapon, like a laser, or does it deliver some kind of physical shock as >well?

If youve ever burnt your hand on something you know it flys backwards pretty quickly. Maybe the movement is an instinctive reaction to the burn.

[jmc]

I didn't think young Boba was that annoying.  He reminded me of "Butch" from The Little Rascals.  

But I can't stand kid Annakin or teen Annakin.

[AndyC]

Look on the bright side. Jar Jar could have had a son.

[J.R.]

I thought Hayden Christenson was pretty good. He probably seems annoying to some because the dialogue he has to use is so stilted and mechanical. When The Dark Side begins to well within him you can see the anger and pain in his eyes, and it works well. What happened to Lucas' scripting abilities? Luke and Laia and Han felt so natural, but these characters are less expressive and natural than a droid.

[Neville]

jmc said:

"I didn't think young Boba was that annoying. He reminded me of "Butch" from The Little Rascals.

But I can't stand kid Annakin or teen Annakin."

Maybe Lucas himself can't as well, and that may be the reason why he wears a helmet in "future" episodes: maybe he grows even more annoying. If this keeps on going like this, I can imagine people shouting "Yes, yes!" when he finally puts the helmet on in Episode III. Think of it: who would be a bad actor when replaced with a stunt double body and James Earl Jones voice? Even Macaulay Culkin could recover his career in that fashion.

[John Morgan]

I think the movies are not being recieved very well because we all KNOW WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN.  We have, for the last 20 years, be formulating in our mids the fall of Anakin into Darth Vader and the destruction of the Jedi.  We know that the stories will ALWAYS have R2-D2 and C-3PO in them.  

The movies are "hitting assigned marks." (to quote a film critic.  I can't beleive I just did that.)  We know that somehow, the Falcon will come into the picture. (How did Obiwan know about it?) We know that Amadala will have twins.  

We have all formulated in our minds how the story is going to go.  We Lucas comes up with his ideas of the story and they don't agree with ours, we get upset.  "Anakin's not supposed to be a kid!!" "What the heck is the Trade Federation?"  "Jedi ship with Imperial markings?"

Anakin a Kid - Jedi were supposed to start out a young as posible
Trade Federation - Some type of big infrastructure is ALWAYS needed behind someone who wants to get power.
Jedi Ship with Imperial Markings - Markings are of the Republic, one day it was no longer a repuplic.

[john]

Next question: If both R2D2 and C3PO met and spent time with Obi-Wan Kenobi in these movies, why doesn't C3PO remember him in Star Wars?

 Ok, I know the reason is because Lucas hadn't thought all this out when he made that movie, but now he seems to be obsessed with connecting every single element in the movies together. In the first one, when Annakin's friends were looking at his racer I half expected two of them to be named Han & Lando.

[Jay O'Connor]

>Next question: If both R2D2 and C3PO met and spent time with Obi-Wan Kenobi in these movies, why doesn't C3PO remember him in Star Wars?

According to Lucas, both of them have had their memories wiped over time, and this might actually happen in Ep III

[AndyC]

The thing I've wondered is why Obi-Wan wouldn't remember the droids.  

Come to think of it, why didn't they ring a bell with Uncle Owen when he bought them. Sure, there are lots of droids that look just like R2 and 3PO, but they seem pretty distinctive nonetheless. Maybe Owen did remember them, but was trying to hide the truth from Luke. But then, why would he have knowingly bought Luke's father's droids to work on the farm with Luke? Memory lapse?

Another question that springs to mind: Was the whole schtick of Anakin dropping his lightsabre introduced as a means for it to fall into old Ben Kenobi's possession later on?

I think we can see that the tension between these characters is building to a big confrontation in the final installment. I have no doubt this confrontation will leave Anakin disfigured and in constant need of a life-support system. It would make sense for Obi-Wan (Ben) to collect the lost lightsabre after leaving his former pupil for dead, then moving to Tatooine to hide from the emperor and quietly watch over baby Luke. Meanwhile, Vader is recovered, barely alive, and given medical treatment. Perhaps the coolest possible ending for this trilogy would be to have Vader/Anakin "killed" by Kenobi. Have all the survivors flee into hiding as the Empire comes into being, but also show the beginning of the rebel alliance. As everything falls into starting position for A New Hope, finish off by cutting to a medical bay where, amidst all the activity, we hear the familiar heavy breathing begin. End the movie with Anakin emerging as the masked Vader we all know.

I've suggested this to a couple of friends, and their feeling is that they'd rather see more of the familiar Vader. I think this is more dramatic, and if this trilogy is the story of Anakin's fall, it would be the logical conclusion.