Frequently Asked Questions List (FAQ-L)
Version 2.20 - 12/07/92
Introduction =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
This is the Frequently Asked Questions List (FAQL) for the newsgroup
rec.arts.sf.starwars. The purpose of a FAQL is to compile authoritative
answers to many commonly asked questions so that the group will not be
cluttered with repetitive requests for the same information. This list
will be posted to rec.arts.sf.starwars on a bi-monthly basis. Please read
it before posting to see if your question has already been answered!
The rec.arts.sf.starwars FAQL is currently being maintained by me -
Christopher Wolf. Many others have also contributed to the information
contained in this list and I have tried to credit them in the text. If
you have any suggestions for corrections, modifications or additions to
the list please e-mail them to me at "chris@alchemy.tn.cornell.edu".
If you have a question which you think should be added to the list it
would be greatly appreciated if you could also provide the answer (with
source references!).
Thanks and May the Force be With You... Always.
- cwolf
Table of Contents =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Question: Topic:
001 Why is Star Wars titled Episode IV?
002 Were there scenes cut from SW after its release?
003 Was RotJ originally titled _Revenge_ of the Jedi?
004 Do scripts exist for the other trilogies? Will they
ever be made into films?
005 Did Lucas "borrow" ideas from other films?
006 What/where is the "Fall of the Republic" script?
007 What other Star Wars novels exist?
008 What about adaptations to other media? (comics, radio)
009 What sources are canon in the Star Wars universe?
010 Are the Star Wars toys/action figures valuable?
011 What is Hardware Wars?
012 How can I contact the LucasFilm fan club?
013 Where is the infamous tennis shoe in RotJ?
014 Why are there yellow boxes surrounding TIEs?
015 What other fx-mistakes/bloopers are there?
016 Why did Han Solo say parsecs?
017 How did the Falcon get to Bespin?
018 What are the clone wars?
019 How can I participate in a Star Wars MUD?
020 How can I get Star Wars material in electronic form?
021 How old is Yoda?
022 Why does Vader's TIE fighter look different from the rest?
Revision History -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
1.00 - 04/16/92 Original release.
1.10 - 04/30/92 Fixed major mistake in answer to the parsecs question.
Inserted separate question dealing with the "canon"
issue. Added additional info to many other questions.
(novels & bloopers questions in particular)
2.00 - 09/02/92 Sorry it took so long for an update but I was away
for most of the summer. Minor additions to questions
005, 008, 013, 014 and 015. Major changes to question
007 providing references to Erik Olson's Star Wars
bibliography. Question 019 with info about the Star
Wars MUD has been added. Question 020 with info
about obtaining copies of the Star Wars script added.
2.10 - 11/22/92 Modified question 020 to reflect wpi ftp archive.
Minor changes to many other questions.
2.20 - 12/07/92 Added questions 021-022; fixed a few spelling errors.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Q 001: Why does it say Episode IV in the scroll-text at the beginning
of Star Wars, Episode V in The Empire Strikes Back and Episode
VI in Return of the Jedi? Did the Episode IV sub-head appear
in the original theatrical release or was it added at a later
date?
Answer: The Star Wars saga as originally conceived by Lucas was much
too large to be made into a single film or even a single
trilogy so Lucas structured his ideas into three trilogies.
He decided to make the middle trilogy (Episodes IV, V and VI)
first because he believed it had the greatest chance of being
a theatrical success.
An interesting point is that apparently the "Chapter IV: A
New Hope" sub-title did not appear in the original theatrical
release of Star Wars (SW - 1976). According to
pockrand@cs.umn.edu (Mitch Pockrandt) (and others):
"Episode IV: A New Hope" appeared on the opening trailer
at the _second_ theatrical release. (I think this was during
1979, but I'm not sure at the moment.) During the initial
release, which ran from May 1977 through at least March 1978
(in Kansas City anyway) there never was a mention of an
episode number.
Empire Strikes Back (ESB - 1980) was always sub-titled Chapter V
and Return of the Jedi (ROTJ - 1983) was always sub-titled
Chapter VI.
(Note: the name of the first FILM is Star Wars - the name of the
CHAPTER is "A New Hope" In Empire Strikes Back and Return of
the Jedi the film name and chapter names just happen to be
the same. All the films together are collectively referred to
as the Star Wars saga.)
Q 002: Were there scenes cut from Star Wars after its original theatrical
release? I seem to remember a reunion scene on Tatooine between
Luke and his friend Biggs on leave from the academy?
Answer: This scene never appeared in any theatrical release of Star Wars.
The scene is described in the novelization of Star Wars and
apparently was even filmed since images from it appear in the Star
Wars picture-book adaptation. Perhaps is why so many people (me
included) swore that they remember seeing the scene at one time.
Also there was apparently a scene in the Rebel hangar which was
filmed but not included where Red Leader speaks to Luke about
having met Anakin Skywalker and what a great pilot he was.
Another scene that was originally intended for Star Wars was an
encounter between Han Solo and Jabba the Hutt at the spaceport on
Tatooine. The scene was partially filmed but never finished
because Lucas was disatisfied with his options for portraying
Jabba due to budget, FX technology and story constraints.
Partial unfinished footage of this scene can be found on the VHS
video titled From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga.
Also there may have been some additional minor dialog in the
original release of Star Wars. When the StormTroopers are chasing
Han & Chewie through the Death Star corridors in the original
release they first say "Close the blast doors, close the blast
doors!" and when they get trapped on the wrong side of the door
they then say "Open the blast doors, open the blast doors!" In
the VHS version the "Close the blast door" line is not audible.
Q 003: Wan't Return of the Jedi originally titled Revenge of the Jedi?
Why was it changed?
Answer: Up until shortly before it was released ROTJ was indeed titled
Revenge of the Jedi and some promotional materials (movie posters,
patches etc.) were printed with that title. Materials saying
Revenge of the Jedi are now collector's items. There are two
explanations commonly given for why the title was changed:
1) Revenge isn't very Jedi-like. 2) The studio wanted to avoid
confusion with Star Trek II which was due to be released at
about the same time and was originally titled Vengeance of Kahn.
Q 004: Does Lucas have scripts/stories already written for the other
episodes in the saga? Will he ever make them into films?
Answer: No one knows for sure how much development Lucas had done on the
plots/scripts for the other trilogies at the time Star Wars was
released. Some people believe that Lucas has scripts for ALL the
films locked away in a vault someplace. Most people believe
that he has lots of story ideas and possibly preliminary
treatments for the films but not complete scripts.
After Return of the Jedi, Lucas stated he would not make any
more Star Wars films - he needed a creative break and had other
projects going he wanted to concentrate on. Recently however
Lucas has changed his mind and has publically stated that he will
soon be starting work on new Star Wars films. The next films
to be produced will be Episodes I to III of the saga. They
will all be filmed simultaneously and will be released in
consecutive years sometime before the year 2000. No one is sure
of the exact release dates and to the best of our knowledge
Lucas has not started actual work on the films yet.
Episodes I to III are expected to take place about 20 years
before Star Wars. The plot is expected to concern the fall of
the Old Republic, the rise to power of the Emperor, the Clone
Wars and the exploits of Ben Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker.
No plans are currently being made to produce Episodes VII to
IX. Apparently these episodes as conceived by Lucas take
place about 20 years after ROTJ and would also involve a new
set of actors and characters (the descendants of the original
heros?). Lucas has stated many times that the only characters
which would appear in all 9 episodes are the droids R2-D2 and
C-3PO.
Q 005: Isn't Star Wars a rip-off of a Japanese film called The Hidden
Fortress or <insert your favorite film here>?
Answer: elwin@ai.mit.edu (Lee Campbell) writes:
It's pretty clear there *is* a connection between 'Star Wars'
and a Japanese film called 'The Hidden Fortress' made by Akira
(spelling?) Kurosawa. Not that SW is a copy of THF, just that
THF was *one* of the inspirations for SW. [In] this Japanese
epic, a lord has been defeated, his empire overrun, but his
daughter the princess is still free. Some samurai and
retainers are trying to bring her back across a hostile land
to another lord's domain where she will be safe. If it is
true that 'The Hidden Fortress' was an inspiration for 'Star
Wars' than all Lucas borrowed was the idea of a princess,
loyal retainers, and a hostile land.
Also, some people who have seen both films say that there are
also similarities in the dialog, film-making techniques, camera
angles etc.
To answer the more general question about parallels between
Star Wars and other films (in this case Wizard of Oz)
teri@sdd.hp.com (Teri) writes:
I think it is not so much that plots were ripped off but that
both movies express the ancient archetype of the hero who goes
on a quest. In this sense they are very similar. The "plot"
is really an old, old one that goes back to the first
storytelling days of man. The hero is usually aided by
supernatural forces against perilous dangers and ultimate
evils. Joseph Campbell (comparative religion/mythology) has a
lot to say about archetypes like this. See "The Hero of a
Thousand Faces," or some such. This theme appears across many
cultures and many different times. You might argue that the
Indiana Jones series partook of this as well. Or "Clash of
the Titans," a greek myth brought to the screen.
Steve (sdt8s@poe.acc.Virginia.EDU) adds:
I would add that one of George Lucas's original plots for Star
Wars is even more remarkably similar to Hidden Fortress than is
Star Wars as it was released. For a complete synopsis of this
original story see Dale Pollock's 1983 biography of George
Lucas, Skywalking. Star Wars, if made using this plot, might
well have been open to a lawsuit by the authors of Hidden
Fortress; the only point of divergence is that Star Wars occurs
in outer space.
Q 006: I've heard of a movie script that is supposedly for Episode III
of the Star Wars saga? Is it real? Where can I get a copy?
Answer: It is entitled Fall of the Republic and is not a complete script
but more of a plot outline. It is generallly agreed that it
was NOT written by Lucas or anyone with inside knowledge and
therefore should be treated purely as speculative fiction.
See question 020 for instructions on obtaining this.
Q 007: What novels have been created that are set in the Star Wars
universe? Are these official (canon) or not?
Answer: The official novelizations of the movies are:
Star Wars by George Lucas (with help from Alan Dean Foster)
Empire Strikes Back by Donald F. Glut
Return of the Jedi by James Kahn
There are also several official picture-book adaptations of each
of the movies. Additionally many other authors have written
books set in the Star Wars universe with the permission of
LucasArts. The most recent such works are a cycle of three
novels by Timothy Zahn which are set after Return of the Jedi.
These novels are considered canon but are NOT episodes VII, VIII,
and IX of the Star Wars movies.
Erik Olson (olsone@rpi.edu) is maintaining a fairly complete
bibliography of Star Wars related books. Erik writes:
What follows is an imperfect bibliography of Star Wars books.
It's neither exhaustive nor consistently selective, and I
wanted primarily to create an index of story material outside
the movies. Thrown in for good measure are some movie
adaptations and non-fiction.
There are a lot of children's books, especially of the Ewok
and pop-up persuasion, and I have included these, except for
partial movie books.
One title that is missing is a sister book to The Maverick
Moon ("Renegade Robot" comes to mind but I can't be sure)--
both are children's reading but curiosities nonetheless.
Another notable book was The Force of Star Wars, a
fundamentalist perspective that is perhaps even dorkier than
Lucas' Eastern mysticism. I have only listed what I could
verify. Thanks to dra.com for its Library of Congress
facility, and UTCAT.
I would appreciate being filled in on any items that I might
have overlooked, or could not verify. I did not include the
3rd Daley book or the Lando books on purpose. Maybe someone
can locate them in an online catalog somewhere-- that would be
ideal.
The short form of Erik's bibliography is:
Star Wars Short Index
1976 Star wars: from the adventures of Luke Skywalker: a novel
by George Lucas
1977 Star Wars v.1 (Marvel Comics Group)
1978 Splinter of the mind's eye: from TALS / Alan Dean Foster
1979 The Maverick moon / illustrated by Walter Wright
1979 The Wookiee storybook / ill. by Patricia Wynne (Wookie Holiday)
1979 Han Solo's revenge: from TALS / Brian Daley
1979 Han Solo at Stars' End: from TALS / Daley
1980 The Empire strikes back storybook / Steneman, Shep
1980 SPFX--The empire strikes back (48 min. documentary)
1980 The Empire strikes back sketchbook
1982 The Jedi master's quizbook / Rusty Miller
1983 Return of the Jedi / Levy, Elizabeth
1983 The Art of Return of the Jedi (with movie script by Kasdan/Lucas)
1984 The Ewoks' hang-gliding adventure
1985 The Ewoks and the lost children (The Ewok Adventure)
1985 Ewoks v.1 (Marvel Comics Group)
1986 Droids v.1 (Marvel Comics Group)
1986 The ring, the witch, and the crystal (The Battle for Endor)
1987 Star Wars--the first ten years--storybook trilogy
1991 Heir to the empire / Timothy Zahn
1991 Dark Empire (limited series) (Dark Horse Comics)
1992 Dark force rising / Timothy Zahn
For a longer listing (including complete card catalog references,
descriptipons etc. for each work) or to make contributions to this
list please write to Erik directly at olsone@rpi.edu.
Thanks Erik!!!
Q008: Has the Star Wars series been adapted to any other form of media?
Answer: There are two comic book series. The first series was by Marvel
Comics and started with an adaptation of Star Wars and continued
on past the end of ROTJ for a total of 107 issues. Marvel also did
official comic adaptations of Empire Strikes Back and Return of the
Jedi as limitted series. A new limitted series (6 issues) of Star
Wars: Dark Empire comics was recently produced bi-monthly by Dark
Horse Comics. They are consistent with Zahn's novels but take
place at a later date. These also are NOT Episodes VII to IX of
the Star Wars saga. Dark Horse has announced plans to produce
additional series set in the Star Wars Universe.
Andy (hummel@vms.cis.pitt.edu) adds:
In addition to the 107 issues of the Marvel comic, Marvel
published 3 Annuals and at least two paperbacks (the paperbacks
may have been reprints of UK Star Wars comics or from the
newspaper strip, but they were not part of the 107 issue run).
Of the 107 issues, numbers 1-6 adapted Star Wars, and numbers
39-42 adapt ESB. RotJ was a 4 issue mini-series.
The Star Wars newspaper strip has been reprinted in a 3-volume
hardbound set by Russ Cochran Publishing (I think).
Later this year, Dark Horse Comics will be publishing "Star Wars
Classics" which will reprint the newspaper strip in a slightly
edited form with some new artwork.
There is a Star Wars role playing game produced by West End
Games. They produce a lot of supplemental source books for
the game containing tons of interesting info about the
characters/history/technology of the Star Wars universe.
The materials in this game have been declared canon by
LucasArts.
National Public Radio also did radio broadcast adaptations of
Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back. At least some of the
actors from the films (Mark Hamill and a few others) also did
the readings for the radio adaptation. You may be able to
purchase copies directly from NPR.
There were a couple of made for TV specials too including
The Star Wars Holiday Special (involving Chewie visitting
his family on the Wookie home planet) and two shows about
Ewoks: The Ewok Adventure: Caravan of Courage, and The Ewoks:
Battle for Endor. There was also a saturday morning Ewok &
Droids cartoon.
Several Star Wars computer games also exist. There were
several coin-op arcade games and ports of these games to
various computers and consoles. Most recently, a new
computer game called X-Wing is in the works. It uses realistic
3d-graphics to allow the player to simulate flying X-Wing, Y-Wing
and A-Wing fighters in missions against the Empire. The IBM
version is expected to be released in December 1992 and there are
rumors of an Amiga port to be released at a later date.
Q 009: What sources are considered "canon" (official) in the Star
Wars universe?
Answer: Of course the movies produced by LucasFilm and the novelizations
of the movies are "canon".
There is a great debate over which other sources are considered
cannon. For instance, Scavenger (kogutt@ucsu.Colorado.EDU)
writes:
According to LucasFilm: The Zahn Novels, Dark Empire, and
the RPG are all official canon. Also the upcoming young a
adult series and any other comics that Dark Horse puts out.
However, LucasArts has also stated that future Star-Wars films
may invalidate material contained in the Zahn novels and
other sources.
My advice is to ignore the entire debate over what is "canon"
and what is not - form your own interpration of the Star Wars
universe based on the source material YOU enjoy and don't worry
about what is "official" and what is not.
Q 010: Are the action figures/toys worth anything as collectors items?
Answer: Most of the action figures/toys are not all that rare and not
worth anything. I have heard some stories that certain rare
figures and toys (which were produced only in certain countries
or only for a limitted time or only in limitted quantites) are
extremely valuable and sought after by collectors. Unopened
action figures and figures from special limited edition 3-packs
may be worth something. Die cast miniature tie-bomber toys are
also supposed to be valuable. There is a Boba Fett figure which
has a jet pack which launches a spring loaded missile which is
extremely rare and valuable. Yak face figures are also supposed to
be rare. Another rare figure is the original release of Luke
which came with a lightsaber made from two interlocking sliding
pieces.
Q 011: What is Hardware Wars?
Answer: Hardware Wars is a very short, very funny, very low budget
parody of Star Wars.
Q 012: How can I contact the LucasFilm fan club?
Answer: Write to:
The Lucasfilm Fan Club
P.O. Box 111000
Aurora, CO 80011
USA
Q 013: Is it true that a tennis shoe appears in one of the space battle
scenes in ROTJ? If so where?
Answer: Despite the claims of several people to have found the infamous
tennis shoe in several different frames examination of these
frames on high-end video equipment has always resulted in the
conclusion that no shoe was actually in those frames. The rumor
of a tennis shoe in Return of the Jedi still persists but
apparently noone has managed to locate it yet.
Q 014: Why do the TIE fighters in the VHS versions of ROTJ have very
faint hazy yellow boxes surrounding them?
Answer: Its an artifact of the special effects process used to matte the
space-ships. This happens to be more visible on home VHS-TV
set-ups than it is in the movie theatre. Josh Rochester,
joshua@lclark.edu, offers the following explanation for this:
In your FAQ list, you mention that the Matte Lines are highly
visible on VHS. This is not so much a feature/limitation of
VHS, but rather that most people have their TV sets adjusted
poorly. Playing with the brightness and contrast knobs
(different names on some TVs) can eliminate the visible matte
lines (with the side-effects that outer space starts looking
black--really black, not splotchy dark-gray, and that other
colors show up more vividly.) The only problem is that you need
to watch in a darkened room.
Q 015: What other editting/special-fx bloopers appear in the films?
Answer: Lots. In Star Wars, when Uncle Owen is purchasing the droids after
the red R2 unit blows its motivator they decide to purchase R2D2.
When the camera pans back to R2D2 you can still see the red unit
standing behind R2D2 although this shouldn't be since the red unit
is supposed to be next to Luke. Later, on Tatooine during dinner
with his aunt and uncle Luke picks up a glass in one hand. A few
frames later it has magically switched to his other hand. Later,
when Vader and Tarkin are having a discussion in the conference
room Vader's voice and hand-gestures are obviously out of synch.
(He talks and THEN the gestures follow about 2 seconds later.)
Also, when the Stormtroopers are raiding the communications post
overlooking the landing bay where Artoo and Threepio are hiding the
trooper on the right hits his head on the door as he enters. During
saber duel between Vader and Kenobi, in some frames they forgot to
colorize Kenobi's saber (use single frame advance to see this clearly).
In Empire Strikes Back on Hoth when the speeders are out looking for
Han and Luke you can see through the ships in several scenes.
Anytime they are shown from above skimming along the ground at low
altitudes, the terrain below can be seen with the image of the
speeder imposed over it. [Thanks to djb1@kepler.unh.edu, David
Blezard for this contribution.] And davest@sequent.com, David
Stewart, writes: One thing I notice is that Darth Vader's noisy
breathing is often out of synch with his speaking. ie, he sounds
like he is breathing in and out in the middle of continuous
speaches without a break. An example which comes to mind is in
ESB when Han is being tortured in the cloud city by imperials,
Vader's dialog with Lando is totally out of synch with his
breathing.
In Return of the Jedi during the scene in Jabba's palace, the
dancer with the twin head-tails falls out of her costume for
several frames right before Jabba opens the trap door dropping her
into the pit. (You probably need a single frame VCR to see this.)
During the space battle at the end when all those TIE fighters
swoop past the Falcon two can actually be seen to fly through(!)
the Falcon and can still be seen as translucent images even after
they should have been obscured by the Falcon. Also, the star-field
imagery visible behind the Emperor in the throne room is not
logically consistent from shot to shot - the stars get reset back
to their original positions at the start of every shot it seems.
In the throne room scenes there is a dark-blotch that looks like
bad touch-up work consistently visible on the left of the Emperor's
face near the shadows of his hood.
Q 016: Why does Han Solo say that the Millenium Falcon made the Kessel
Run in under 12 parsecs when parsecs are a unit of distance
instead of time?
Answer: There are several possible explanations: 1) Lucas didn't know what
he was talking about and thought parsecs are a unit of time.
2) Lucas knew that parsecs are a unit of distance but wrote the
line that way intentionally to show that Han was just blowing smoke
to try and impress Ben & Luke. 3) During the oddities of
hyperspace travel time and distance are interchangeable. 4) Han
was boasting that he had discovered a new physically shorter route
to make the Kessel Run.
Q 017: In ESB, after their escape from the Star Destroyer Fleet the
Falcon's hyperdrive is still not working. How do they make it
to Bespin and how long does it take?
Answer: There are two possible answers: 1) According to the Star Wars
role-playing game most ships have a back-up hyperdrive which
can be used in emergencies. It is slower than normal hyperdrives,
has a shorter range, is more easily tracked and is only good for
a few uses. It takes a while to switch to back-up which is why
Han couldn't use it escape the Star Destroyers. 2) The time
interval between the Falcon's escape from the Imperial fleet and
its arrival at Bespin is a lot longer than it originally appears
to be. (1 & 2 are not necessarily mutually exclusive) This also
allows sufficient time for Luke's training on Dagobah to occur.
According to someone who's name I accidentally deleted:
I figure it takes at least one year for Luke's training and
for the Falcon to get to Bespin. In Star Wars, Han says that
the Millennium Falcon can "make it to point five past
lightspeed". I take this to mean that the Falcon has a top
speed of 1.5c without using hyperdrive. Interstellar
distances are usually between 2 and 5 lightyears (Alpha
Centauri is 4.3 lyrs away from the sun). That could mean it
would take anywhere from one to three years assuming a
galactic star density similar to ours.
Q 018: What are the Clone Wars?
Answer: No one knows for sure. All that is known is that they were fought
around the time of the fall of the Old Republic and that Ben
Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker fought in them. It is generally
believed that these wars had something to do with the Emperor's
ascendancy to power and extermination of the Jedi. A common (but
unsubstantiated) claim is that the war was between the Jedi and
genetically cloned soldiers created by the Emperor - who later
became known as Stormtroopers.
Q 019: How can I participate in a Star Wars MUD?
Answer: First for those of you who don't know what a MUD is it stands
for Multi User Dungeon and is a multi-player online interactive
role-playing game. The Star Wars MUD described below allows
you to role-play a character in the Star Wars universe.
Thanks to Steven Parks (nudnik@camelot.bradley.edu) for the
following info:
This MUD is in the Netherlands. For a good proportion of
the world, this is long-distance. Be nice to the world,
the phone companies, and yourselves and don't abuse our
MUD-ding priviledges.
This is a MUD. You will have to telnet to the location
and connect to a specific port ("telnet <location> <port>").
The location and port is <duteca4.et.tudelft.nl 8888>,
or, as i understand for a better connection or something,
use the IP numbers: <130.161.144.22 8888>. Once connection is
complete, you will be asked for a name, which you can choose to
be an alias. Then you will enter a password, to be repeated
for verification. (On my first time, a lot of information
passed the screen, and I wasn't ready to pause to read it all.
this shouldn't happen to _you_ now... =)
As I previously stated, this is a MUD; but not just any MUD,
such as a social MUD. This is an LP-MUD, which means you start
at the beginning and continue until you win... ...or die
trying, I guess. The object is to become a jedi, running around
and using the force. You _can_ save your position, therefore
allowing you to return at a later time.
Q 020: How can I obtain Star Wars material in electronic form?
Answer: There is an anonymous FTP site archive at wpi.wpi.edu for all
sorts of Star Wars material in electronic form. The site contains
the complete scripts to Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back and Return
of the Jedi as well as the fake Fall of the Republic script. The
site also has lots of other fan fiction, text files containing
factual information and interviews, image files in a variety of
formats and other miscellaneous Star Wars related files. I want
to say a big THANK YOU to the maintainers of this archive!
If you need help with FTP or with decompressing or viewing the
files on the archive ask your local guru or system adminstrator.
Please do NOT send e-mail to me or post to the rec.arts.sf.starwars
group asking for help with FTP or unpacking files on the archive
- thanks!
Q 021: How old is Yoda? As I recall, he stated he was 800 in Empire
Strikes Back but 900 in Return of the Jedi.
Answer: In Empire, his actual words are "For 800 years have I trained Jedi."
The only thing this tells us about his age is that he is over 800
years old. In Jedi he has a line that says "When 900 years old you
reach, look as good you will not."
Some trading cards released after Empire list Yoda's age as 973.
While this is not an official source, note that it is not
inconsistent with what is said in the movie, since he never comes
right out and says he is EXACTLY 900 years old.
Q 022: Why does Darth Vader's TIE fighter look different from the others?
What are those other TIE fighters that look like his in Empire and
Jedi?
Answer: While this is never discussed in the films, various other sources,
such as the MPC model kits and the rolepaying game sourcebooks, tell
us that Darth Vader's TIE fighter was a prototype model, the bent-
wing design providing better solar collection capabilities than the
regular straight-wing design. Two other types of TIE fighters
appear in the last two movies using the bent-wing design. In the
asteriod sequence in Empire, there are vessels called TIE bombers,
which look very similar to Vader's TIE except that they have two
pods between the solar panels. In the final space battle in Jedi,
vessels known as TIE interceptors appear. These have the bent wings
and a single pod, but the wings have large cut-outs down the front
to provide greater visibility.
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Christopher A. Wolf mail: chris@alchemy.tn.cornell.edu IRC: cwolf (#amiga)
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