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On the plus side, it did actually have a handrail around it- it was probably the safest Shaft of Death/Bottomless Pit in the whole saga.

Well, yeah. It had an old man shuffling around it. And old man they cared about. Most of the rest of the time it was people who they could replace in five minutes, no need to even put up a "Now Hiring" sign.

Actually, I think a bottomless pit is THE must-have for evil overlords.

Most probably there were energy couplings like in a pod racer in there, only more powerful.

Maybe it takes less concentration to cushion your fall than it does to levitate, possibly because it takes more force (pardon the pun). In the first case, you're just slowing yourself to the point where your bones don't break on impact. In the latter, you're actually overcoming gravity.

I base this on scenes in the EU novels The Courtship of Princess Leia and Children of the Jedi.

In Courtship, Luke settles to the ground like a leaf after being blown out of an X-Wing in the upper atmosphere, prompting Hapan Prince Isolder to wonder if that's where his ancestors got the surname "Skywalker". (He succeeded at this after briefly putting himself in suspended animation to make Zsinj's pilots think he was killed when his fighter blew, no less.)

In Children, there's at least one sequence where Luke levitates while aboard the Eye of Palpatine. But he only levitates for brief periods and has to focus heavily, no mean feat since I think he's under fire at the time. (Admittedly this example isn't perfect since he had a broken leg and was in great pain.)

EDIT: First line should've read, "... possibly because it takes more force (pardon the pun) to do the latter.

TheHammer wrote:Makes you wonder why palpatine didn't stop himself from falling down the shaft.

While we're on that train of thought, I wonder why didn't Vader use TK to raise Luke back onto the atmospheric platform in Cloud City? Perhaps subconscious compassion for his son?

Also, has any one considered that Palpatine couldn't levitate back up because Vader might have been pushing him back down into the shaft? Or it may only be that he was just so shocked at that point by the turn of events that he couldn't concentrate sufficiently to do it.

Darth Tedious wrote:On the plus side, it did actually have a handrail around it- it was probably the safest Shaft of Death/Bottomless Pit in the whole saga.

This annoys the shit out of me. In the original trilogy there are actually only a couple places that should have handrails that don't. In the Death Star "commence primary ignition" scene, the tractor beam controls that Obi-Wan disables, and I think the shuttle landing platform in ROTJ are the only ones I can remember. Everywhere else, handrails. [End Rant]

This might sound counter intuitive to the whole "The Force is in all living things"
But...

What if it is just easier to lift non living things then living things?

I mean think about it. Virtually all examples of the Force being used to move things in the movies where used to move inorganic objects.

I hear its easier to lift non living inert objects using ones own muscles and limbs as well, to an extent. I think you're right for the wrong reason, they aren't easier to lift because they aren't living. They are easier to lift generally because they aren't moving, or attacking. There is also the fact that living objects don't require to be moved as often as inert objects. If the XWing could have flown itself out of the swamp I think it would have.