Question regarding Clonetrooper armor..

[SylasGaunt]

In regards to..

This was demonstrated most strikingly when a wheel-droid destroyed one of the AT-TE's. Clone troopers clustered around the AT-TE were not killed or apparently even injured by the explosion

Now I was watching AOTC earlier and I don't recall any indication of the clonetroopers starting to get up or otherwise being anything but down.. is it mentioned in the novelization or ICS or some such?

[Omega-13]

In regards to..

This was demonstrated most strikingly when a wheel-droid destroyed one of the AT-TE's. Clone troopers clustered around the AT-TE were not killed or apparently even injured by the explosion

Now I was watching AOTC earlier and I don't recall any indication of the clonetroopers starting to get up or otherwise being anything but down.. is it mentioned in the novelization or ICS or some such?

They could have been knocked out by the concussion of the explosion

[Vympel]

There are Clonetroopers kneeling next to it when it explodes, they are unaffected. Watch the movie again.

[Darth Raptor]

Maybe it had to do with the missile itself. Could it have been an armor piercing missile with a contained disruptive charge like exists in thermal detonators? This would have caused the walker's fuel reserves and drive motors to blow, destroying the vehicle. This explosion would have had significantly less splash damage than if the missile had destroyed the walker with explosive force alone. Correct me if I'm wrong, because I only have the old V&V guide at my disposal and know virtually nothing of Clone War tech other than what I saw in the movie.

[Vympel]

Maybe it had to do with the missile itself. Could it have been an armor piercing missile with a contained disruptive charge like exists in thermal detonators? This would have caused the walker's fuel reserves and drive motors to blow, destroying the vehicle. This explosion would have had significantly less splash damage than if the missile had destroyed the walker with explosive force alone. Correct me if I'm wrong, because I only have the old V&V guide at my disposal and know virtually nothing of Clone War tech other than what I saw in the movie.

The explosion was quite massive regardless- today's shaped charges do significant damage to the target vehicle depending on their design- the Soviet T-64 to T-90 have a serious catastrophic-explosion-upon-penetration problem due to the unprotected ammunition stowage- whatever happened, that missile must've destroyed something sensitive. We know from canon and official that the AT-AT is also easily destroyed *if* you can penetrate it's armor (the T-47 Snowspeeder destroying the tripped up one, Luke with the bomb, Wedge destroying one in an X-Wing), maybe the design flaw is two-fold. Perhaps it hit something sensitive involving the four laser cannons set up on either side of the cockpit.

[Crazedwraith]

Does the AT-TE have a fuel slug in the underside? I always though the missle had bolw up it fuel.