AOTC Observations

[Darth Garden Gnome]

While watching AOTC again on HBO I noticed the following things and raised the following questions.

1.) Why does Jango use a poison dart to kill Zam on Coruscant? Using a blaster would make his shot untraceable (AFAIK in the SW universe you can't trace blasters). The fact that he uses the dart instead of his blaster leads to the death on Geonosis!

2.) Obi-Wan's hand-held tracking device is powerful enough to track Slave 1 from Kamino to Geonosis. This took minimal effort, all Kenobi had to do was toss it and he immediately had trans-galactic tracking ability. In ANH, Tarkin seems concerned that tracking the Falcon from Alderaan to Yavin 4 won't work. While it is indeed roughly twice the distance, if Kenobi's hand-held was enough to track half as far AND was un-detectable, surely Imperial technology can easily replicate this effect. So, Tarkin, what gives?

3.) Just before Obi-Wan's landing on Geonosis, he flies dangerously low over groups of TradeFed Core Vessels without them noticing. How could he do this without detection?

4.) Why do Anakin and Amidala land in the exhaust vents? It's clear they have no idea where they are when they step inside the factory and proceed to wander about for ten minutes aimlessly. Did they think the factory lead to Dooku and a captured Obi-Wan or something? AFAICT there's no connection between the two.

5.) When the battle commences, Anakin's gunship fires and destroys a Techno Union starship. Later when we get a wider view of the battle, that same downed starship is on the other side of the battefield from where the Republic army is. This would mean, that when Anakin's gunship lifted off from the arena, they flew directly over the droid army, went to the Republic assembly area on the opposite end of the battlefield, then turned around flew back around over to the droid army to fight. Not a big problem, but I was a tad confused the first time I thought about it. Is my description correct?

6.) After Padme falls out of the gunship, Obi-Wan shouts to Anakin "I need you, if we catch Dooku we can end this war right now!" Is this true, or is Kenobi over-exaggerating the importance of Dooku? Why would the Seperatists suddenly surrender if Dooku was captured? Yes, he was the one convincing all the star systems to become part of the Seperatists, but by the Battle of Geonosis the group was already a monster, it could've prospered without him.

[Darth Wong]

While watching AOTC again on HBO I noticed the following things and raised the following questions.

1.) Why does Jango use a poison dart to kill Zam on Coruscant? Using a blaster would make his shot untraceable (AFAIK in the SW universe you can't trace blasters). The fact that he uses the dart instead of his blaster leads to the death on Geonosis!

Maybe he just likes the style of the poison dart. Maybe the Jedi's danger sense is so attuned to blasters that he figured they'd react to a blaster and block the shot even if it's not directly aimed at them.

2.) Obi-Wan's hand-held tracking device is powerful enough to track Slave 1 from Kamino to Geonosis. This took minimal effort, all Kenobi had to do was toss it and he immediately had trans-galactic tracking ability. In ANH, Tarkin seems concerned that tracking the Falcon from Alderaan to Yavin 4 won't work. While it is indeed roughly twice the distance, if Kenobi's hand-held was enough to track half as far AND was un-detectable, surely Imperial technology can easily replicate this effect. So, Tarkin, what gives?

He didn't ask whether it would work. He asked if Vader was sure that it was "secure" aboard the Falcon. It obviously wouldn't help them track the Falcon if it got knocked off.

3.) Just before Obi-Wan's landing on Geonosis, he flies dangerously low over groups of TradeFed Core Vessels without them noticing. How could he do this without detection?

Tracking and verifying the identity of every flying craft on a typical SW planet would require an awful lot of effort, and they're probably not concerned about anything but a large fleet approaching.

4.) Why do Anakin and Amidala land in the exhaust vents? It's clear they have no idea where they are when they step inside the factory and proceed to wander about for ten minutes aimlessly. Did they think the factory lead to Dooku and a captured Obi-Wan or something? AFAICT there's no connection between the two.

Because they're stupid. Obi-Wan made his way right into their base without being detected. That's why he's the Master, and Anakin is the Apprentice. Amidala is just eye-candy.

5.) When the battle commences, Anakin's gunship fires and destroys a Techno Union starship. Later when we get a wider view of the battle, that same downed starship is on the other side of the battefield from where the Republic army is. This would mean, that when Anakin's gunship lifted off from the arena, they flew directly over the droid army, went to the Republic assembly area on the opposite end of the battlefield, then turned around flew back around over to the droid army to fight. Not a big problem, but I was a tad confused the first time I thought about it. Is my description correct?

How do you know it was the same ship?

6.) After Padme falls out of the gunship, Obi-Wan shouts to Anakin "I need you, if we catch Dooku we can end this war right now!" Is this true, or is Kenobi over-exaggerating the importance of Dooku?

He's the leader of the separatist movement. It's normally considered quite a big deal to capture the leader.

Why would the Seperatists suddenly surrender if Dooku was captured? Yes, he was the one convincing all the star systems to become part of the Seperatists, but by the Battle of Geonosis the group was already a monster, it could've prospered without him.

Perhaps Obi-Wan is assuming that if the Separatists don't capitulate without a leader, they can make him talk or drag the information out of him with the Force or something. If he knows where all of their major military assets are, that would be a big help.

[Darth Fanboy]

1.) Why does Jango use a poison dart to kill Zam on Coruscant? Using a blaster would make his shot untraceable (AFAIK in the SW universe you can't trace blasters). The fact that he uses the dart instead of his blaster leads to the death on Geonosis!

If he hit with the blaster but was off by just a little bit the wound may have been non lethal, but the poison dart hitting anywhere meant death in this case.

2.) Obi-Wan's hand-held tracking device is powerful enough to track Slave 1 from Kamino to Geonosis. This took minimal effort, all Kenobi had to do was toss it and he immediately had trans-galactic tracking ability. In ANH, Tarkin seems concerned that tracking the Falcon from Alderaan to Yavin 4 won't work. While it is indeed roughly twice the distance, if Kenobi's hand-held was enough to track half as far AND was un-detectable, surely Imperial technology can easily replicate this effect. So, Tarkin, what gives?

Possibly Technology in conjunction with the force but I doubt it. More likely Obi Wan got to his starfighter fast enough and was able to follow Jango Fett in hyperspace, but far enough behind so that he wasn't noticed. Maybe Tarkin was only concerned that he would not find the Rebel base by some means, a man in his position would be very fearful and careful with regards to error when the outcome in their minds is in doubt.

Or possibly he feared there was a chance that the homing device would be discovered inside the ship and removed or disabled, unlike Obi Wan who was able to do it more deftly.

6.) After Padme falls out of the gunship, Obi-Wan shouts to Anakin "I need you, if we catch Dooku we can end this war right now!" Is this true, or is Kenobi over-exaggerating the importance of Dooku? Why would the Seperatists suddenly surrender if Dooku was captured? Yes, he was the one convincing all the star systems to become part of the Seperatists, but by the Battle of Geonosis the group was already a monster, it could've prospered without him.

Cut off the head, kill the body I would think. Without Dooku there was no one to really function as a center to bring those groups together. Who else would have risen to take Dooku's place?

3,4,5

Meh, no help here.

[Darth Fanboy]

Now that I think about it though, Obi Wan flying low ove rthe Tradefed ships, he did get found out and attacked by the Droideka, I guess maybe the Sepratist though that if he lande,d they dhave a better chance of capturing him without letting him get away.

[Darth Garden Gnome]

Maybe he just likes the style of the poison dart. Maybe the Jedi's danger sense is so attuned to blasters that he figured they'd react to a blaster and block the shot even if it's not directly aimed at them.

I don't think Fett would let something like style get in the way of common sense. Although you may be correct about the "danger sense". It would Jedi often move to deflect blaster bolts before they are fired, meanwhile when Dooku tried to smash Yoda with the machinery in the hangar Yoda took a short moment after it starting coming towards himt o react.

He didn't ask whether it would work. He asked if Vader was sure that it was "secure" aboard the Falcon. It obviously wouldn't help them track the Falcon if it got knocked off.

Ah right.

Tracking and verifying the identity of every flying craft on a typical SW planet would require an awful lot of effort, and they're probably not concerned about anything but a large fleet approaching.

There didn't seem to be any other vessels coming in/out of Geonosis when Obi-Wan arrived. Although I recall now the AOTC: ICS says that Geonosis had lazy scanner techs.

Because they're stupid. Obi-Wan made his way right into their base without being detected. That's why he's the Master, and Anakin is the Apprentice. Amidala is just eye-candy.

Ain't it the truth?

How do you know it was the same ship?

We witness nor hear about any other of those vessels being destroyed, plus the fallen ship we see in the background of the battle has fallen at the same angle as the one Anakin felled. Maybe coincidence. But consider that every Techno Union and TradeFed ship were on that side of the battlefield. Confirmed by the tactical display in the Seperatists lair.

Perhaps Obi-Wan is assuming that if the Separatists don't capitulate without a leader, they can make him talk or drag the information out of him with the Force or something. If he knows where all of their major military assets are, that would be a big help.

Dooku didn't seem to be the type that was in charge of remembering where major military instilations were. What's more, throughout the Clone Wars (as per EU) either side of the conflict seems to be well aware of where the others starship factories and the like.

But that could still have been Obi-Wan's thoughts on the matter, so conceded.

[Master of Ossus]

Regarding how Obi-Wan was able to fly over the TF ships, remember the asteroid belt in orbit? I would find it highly likely that tracking targets as they moved down from orbit would be seriously complicated by such a large, apparently low asteroid belt, which would doubtless confuse sensors.

[Sea Skimmer]

4.) Why do Anakin and Amidala land in the exhaust vents? It's clear they have no idea where they are when they step inside the factory and proceed to wander about for ten minutes aimlessly. Did they think the factory lead to Dooku and a captured Obi-Wan or something? AFAICT there's no connection between the two.

Notice how Obi-Wan could look down into the factory when he was looking around and found Dooku. The two where connected.

5.) When the battle commences, Anakin's gunship fires and destroys a Techno Union starship. Later when we get a wider view of the battle, that same downed starship is on the other side of the battefield from where the Republic army is. This would mean, that when Anakin's gunship lifted off from the arena, they flew directly over the droid army, went to the Republic assembly area on the opposite end of the battlefield, then turned around flew back around over to the droid army to fight. Not a big problem, but I was a tad confused the first time I thought about it. Is my description correct?

ICS locations shows the routes of each gunship and they do loop around quite a bit, they also where flying over multiple battles spread over many square miles. The main battle which Yoda was overlooking was around 15 miles from the initial battle and group of starships the gunships flew over after leaving the arena.

[Macross]

With regards to number one, the dart was untracable, the droids at the jedi archives failed to identify it. Obi-wan only learned of its origins through one of his contacts. Also the location of the Kamino, the origin of the dart, had also been erased from the archives. It was probably dumb-luck that he even found Kamino in the first place.

[Crown]

With regards to number one, the dart was untracable, the droids at the jedi archives failed to identify it. Obi-wan only learned of its origins through one of his contacts. Also the location of the Kamino, the origin of the dart, had also been erased from the archives. It was probably dumb-luck that he even found Kamino in the first place.

[Obi-Wan] In my experience, there is no such thing as luck. [/Obi-Wan]

[FTeik]

With regards to number one, the dart was untracable, the droids at the jedi archives failed to identify it. Obi-wan only learned of its origins through one of his contacts. Also the location of the Kamino, the origin of the dart, had also been erased from the archives. It was probably dumb-luck that he even found Kamino in the first place.

[Obi-Wan] In my experience, there is no such thing as luck. [/Obi-Wan]

From a certain point of view.

[FTeik]

3.) Just before Obi-Wan's landing on Geonosis, he flies dangerously low over groups of TradeFed Core Vessels without them noticing. How could he do this without detection?

4.) Why do Anakin and Amidala land in the exhaust vents? It's clear they have no idea where they are when they step inside the factory and proceed to wander about for ten minutes aimlessly. Did they think the factory lead to Dooku and a captured Obi-Wan or something? AFAICT there's no connection between the two.

About 3:
The TF-vessels seem to be fully automated (TPM, Cloak of Deception) with only a bridge-crew in most cases. Perhaps their automated scanners weren´t programmed to react to a craft as small as Obi-Wans fighter.

Another possibility is, that (given the nature of missions of the Jedi) the Jedi-starfighter is somehow "stealthy".

About 4:
While Obi-Wan was able to determine the major enemy stronghold by following Jango (he simply had to search close to, where the bounty-hunter landed) Anakin and Padme lacked this possibility.
According to the EU the factories on Geonosis were dormant for a long time, so it should be possible, that they wanted to investigate, what is suddenly going on in the factories. They could as well be searching for a hint, where to look more closely (to find Obi-Wan without being discovered themself). Of course it would have been helpful, if they had taken R2 with them.

[SPOOFE]

Why does Jango use a poison dart to kill Zam on Coruscant? Using a blaster would make his shot untraceable (AFAIK in the SW universe you can't trace blasters).

Let's examine the two scenarios:

-Poison dart: One person notices that the shapeshifting bounty hunter has been shot in time to catch a faint glimpse of a shadowy figure disappearing.

-Blaster: Five hundred people notice that the shapeshifting bounty hunter has been shot in time to catch a faint glimpse of a shadowy figure disappearing.

In short, by using the dart, Jango decreased his odds of being discovered several hundredfold.

[Obi-Wan] In my experience, there is no such thing as luck. [/Obi-Wan]

Wasn't luck. 'Twas knowledge. He knew people to talk to.

Obi-wan makes his OWN luck.

[PainRack]

Here's my own questions.

1. How long were Anakin, Obiwan and Amidala on that planet? If it was only one day or so, the ability for the Clone Army to mobilise and attack Genosis is truly remarkable. Gathering the ships, men and equipment for a war isn't something one can do off the buff, or were the clone army already put on alert, having their stores and equipment in space?

2. How were the payments made to Kamino? Were there any form of budgetary concern in the Senate? Why wasn't Judical concerned over the amounts of money being spent?

Was it hidden under the Jedi budget and thus not under the overview of civilian political leaders?

3. A space battle was described in the novelisation. Were the Accalamators involved in this battle or other dedicated warships added? How did Dooku evade the interdiction efforts?

[FTeik]

1) I think those, who were finished were kept on constant readiness. The only thing they probabely had to do was board their ships.

2) Sidious or Dooku could have given them a credit-order on a secret account (perhaps even from the IntergalacticBanking-Clan). After thousand years there should be a lot of money on the accounts of the Sith.

3) The novels speaks of different ships beside the troop-transports (battlecruisers and fighters). Interdiction-effects were no problem, since the technology was only developed twenty years later (the DS had a prototype of a gravity-well-technology aboard and according to another source, the empire stole the technology from the Hapes).

[Crazy Goji]

I figured the dart was actually to help the Jedi find Kamino. Kind of leading the way.

[StarshipTitanic]

Geonosis probably has crap falling out of the sky all the time, look at the rings they have. the itty bitty fighter was probably written off as debris.

[Crazedwraith]

What I don't get is why when their chasing Dooku in the gunship, we're told they can't shoot down Dooku because "we're out of rockets sir" Why didn't they use the forward blasters? or the ball turrets? Why don't the Clones just lean out of the side and use their rifles?

[Wild Karrde]

Geonosis probably has crap falling out of the sky all the time, look at the rings they have. the itty bitty fighter was probably written off as debris.

Infact that's the explanation ICS gives for Amidala's ship.

ICS pg.17:

Stealthy Approach

"When nearing and landing on Geonosis,
Padmé and Anakin lower the yacht's
sheild power to reduce easialy detectible
energy by-product emissions.
An unsheilded or lightly sheilded ship
passively hurtling down into a planet's
atmospere might be mistaken for a
meteorite, and, since Geonosis is
surrouned by a rocky planetary ring,
Anakin guesses correctly that its
scanner technicans are lazy about
meteor-like detections."

[Darth Wong]

What I don't get is why when their chasing Dooku in the gunship, we're told they can't shoot down Dooku because "we're out of rockets sir" Why didn't they use the forward blasters? or the ball turrets?

They were presumably out of ammo for those too.

Why don't the Clones just lean out of the side and use their rifles?

I may not have any experience as a military marksman, but that sounds insanely dangerous and difficult. Could you lean out of an aircraft and accurately fire a heavy anti-materiel rifle one-handed at a moving target?

[Crazedwraith]

What I don't get is why when their chasing Dooku in the gunship, we're told they can't shoot down Dooku because "we're out of rockets sir" Why didn't they use the forward blasters? or the ball turrets?

They were presumably out of ammo for those too.

how can u be out of ammo for an energy weapon? why not pump power from their generators into their guns?

Why don't the Clones just lean out of the side and use their rifles?

I may not have any experience as a military marksman, but that sounds insanely dangerous and difficult. Could you lean out of an aircraft and accurately fire a heavy anti-materiel rifle one-handed at a moving target?

fair enough.

[Master of Ossus]

Regarding leaning out of helicopters, there were gunners in Vietnam that attempted to do this, but they almost immediately prompted the US to begin equipping their helicopters with restraining devices to alleviate the danger involved. It was impossible for a helicopter that was even maneuvering slightly to allow for accurate (or safe) fire, while leaning out of it.

[Stravo]

What I don't get is why when their chasing Dooku in the gunship, we're told they can't shoot down Dooku because "we're out of rockets sir" Why didn't they use the forward blasters? or the ball turrets? Why don't the Clones just lean out of the side and use their rifles?

Just a WILD out of the blue supposition, no support nor do I say this is true but would be cool. What if the clones have been hardwired not to hurt Dooku, since he was the one that commisioned them? It would be a cool explanation for why they ran out of ammo on energy weapons. The clone trooper just lied.

Just a cool idea.

[Sea Skimmer]

how can u be out of ammo for an energy weapon? why not pump power from their generators into their guns?

That assumes there powered by a generator and not a battery like hand held blasters are, we dont know. And even a generator has a limited fuel supply. In the novel the pilot says there out of ordinance, mean all weapons where expended.

[Wild Karrde]

What I don't get is why when their chasing Dooku in the gunship, we're told they can't shoot down Dooku because "we're out of rockets sir" Why didn't they use the forward blasters? or the ball turrets? Why don't the Clones just lean out of the side and use their rifles?

Just a WILD out of the blue supposition, no support nor do I say this is true but would be cool. What if the clones have been hardwired not to hurt Dooku, since he was the one that commisioned them? It would be a cool explanation for why they ran out of ammo on energy weapons. The clone trooper just lied.

Just a cool idea.

Moderately possible, because after the pilot says that there's a scene with Anakin and Obi where you can see the underside of the wing; the air-to-air rockets are still there, that wing's fully stocked.

[Sea Skimmer]

1. How long were Anakin, Obiwan and Amidala on that planet? If it was only one day or so, the ability for the Clone Army to mobilise and attack Genosis is truly remarkable. Gathering the ships, men and equipment for a war isn't something one can do off the buff, or were the clone army already put on alert, having their stores and equipment in space?

The US Army can have a brigade anywhere in the world on 24 hours notice, and in terms of relative scale the clone army is massively smaller. When Obi Wan was inspecting the clones we saw them loading onto there transports and they have class .6 hyperdrives, which would allow them to reach Geonosis in a few hours.