General Grevious thoughts

[Kurgan]

To touch on that last point, could the suit have been intended for Palps? Not the limbs of course, but the enclosed and partially armored lifesupport system may have been intended for his use if he couldn't discover the secret to prolonging life before age crippled him.\

I like this idea. It shall [not, oh well!] be forwarded to Lucas!

Age did eventually cripple him of course, as he hobbles with a cane in ROTJ, though. We know people can use the Force to make themselves springy and agile (Yoda, Dooku, etc). Still, it was a good thought.

Now Vader requires a different size helmet, and mechanical limbs and what not, but with the Emperor's resources building a suit tailored to Vader's body wouldn't take long--provided the plans exist in some form. So if Palps had the basic blueprints floating around for his evential use Vader could have benefitted from that. Take some measurements, download some artificial limb blueprints (these should be easy to find) and tailor to Vader's size, build the custom helmet and lifesupport system, add some cool looking armor and youu've got Vader. Make sense?

Like Vader was the prototype for Palpy's eventual suit? Fascinating theory.

[Anguirus]

Once his limbs are hacked off he has little choice... but then what's to stop him from insisting on an upgrade after he's back on his feet (so to speak).

Well...he does upgrade. It's in Dark Lord, apparently.

And the funny thing about the Tantive and the DS...ILM got the Slave I absolutely PERFECT.

[Kurgan]

Except for the engines... but Lucas "fixed" that. Heh


Tell me more about this "upgrade," I never plan to buy or read the book, so I'm okay with spoilers.

[FSTargetDrone]

Once his limbs are hacked off he has little choice... but then what's to stop him from insisting on an upgrade after he's back on his feet (so to speak).

Well...he does upgrade. It's in Dark Lord, apparently.

And the funny thing about the Tantive and the DS...ILM got the Slave I absolutely PERFECT.

In the ROTS commentary, John Knoll says of the "Tantive IV" that, "This ship is meant to be either the same ship that we see later in epsiode IV, or it's meant to be a ship that's just like it...from the same assembly line."

Then again there is an implied contradiction when he immediately says of the ship's interior set that they did a "reconstruction of the original set, very faithfully remade from photographs..."

Same ship?

Who knows...

Is it ever even named Tantive IV in ROTS? If so, I've not found it yet.

[Greymalkin]

Except for the engines... but Lucas "fixed" that. Heh


Tell me more about this "upgrade," I never plan to buy or read the book, so I'm okay with spoilers.

As a side note, wouldn't Vader's replacement limbs have to be modified or themselves replaced as he continued to age? Granted, at the time Anakin would have been mostly done growing... but the body does continue to change well after puberty. Just a thought?

Also, a night spent surfing Dr. Saxton's site got me wondering if Vader continued to suffer physical (and/or emotional) pain after being placed in the suit. Chronic pain as a result of serious injury is common enough. Dr. Saxton has an overview of Vader's injuries on his website - here.

Lastly, Nightmare...
Ya still don't get it do you?

How do you get from completeness/ incompleteness of the body being a determiner for force capabilities to sheer body mass being the determiner? They are not the equatable - having your limbs severed, your flesh burned off and all the other shit that happened to Vader is not the same as being the size of Yoda or whoever.

Do you understand that?

[Greymalkin]

In the ROTS commentary, John Knoll says of the "Tantive IV" that, "This ship is meant to be either the same ship that we see later in epsiode IV, or it's meant to be a ship that's just like it...from the same assembly line."

Then again there is an implied contradiction when he immediately says of the ship's interior set that they did a "reconstruction of the original set, very faithfully remade from photographs..."

Same ship?

Who knows...

Is it ever even named Tantive IV in ROTS? If so, I've not found it yet.

In the Art of Star Wars book for ROTS, there are drawings of the ship that are labled the as the "Rebel blockade runner/ Alderaan space cruiser." And there was a note that goes -

Also on January 10, Lucas reveals that first ship seen in the 1977 Star Wars flim - the Rebel blockade runner (aka the Tantive IV) - will reappear in Revenge of the Sith. Within the ship, in addition to reconstructing the familiar corridor through which Darth Vader strides, Lucas requests a new meeting room. He aslo approves of an idea whereby the ship could be reverse-engineered from its Episode IV Rebel version to an earlier peacetime version of itself.

That is the closest I have ever seen. Oh, yeah, that tid bit is on page 104.

[Kurgan]

I think it's obviously meant to be the same ship, just like the Death Star is meant to be THE Death Star from Episode IV, they just got it a bit wrong.. so we're forced into these SOD contortions to make it fit, like that these were prototypes, refits, reconstructions after catastrophes, renamed similar designs, etc.

[Anguirus]

He aslo approves of an idea whereby the ship could be reverse-engineered from its Episode IV Rebel version to an earlier peacetime version of itself.

Bam. That's IT. That's conclusive.

The ship is never named on-screen, not in RotS or ANH.

[Kurgan]

I hereby dub this ship the "Vomit Comet." *

*any resemblance to earth airships is purely coincidental *waves hand*