Power of Trek weapons, exaggurated??

[Master of Ossus]

Patrick's solution, while potentially accurate as it involves the correct damage pattern (or, at least, it might), does not quite match what we saw. The Lars family was clearly attempting to run from the house when they were consumed. If they were being tortured, we would expect to find them either near a chair, in some kind of a sitting position, or much closer to each other than we did. We would also expect that their hands would have been bound, or their mobility in some way impeded. The fact that we see none of these things is still more indicative of flame projectors than blasters.

Consider the positions of the bodies. What we saw demonstrated that the both bodies retained full mobility (lack of binders, ropes, etc.), until they were killed. Their arms were splayed, and it appeared as though they were attempting to claw their way from their homes. This is inconsistent with torture. The bodies were a slight distance apart, which while possible had they been captured and tortured, would also be unusual. Further, they were neither facing away from each other, nor towards each other. Very rarely are prisoners tortured in such a manner that one of them can see the other, but the other cannot see the first. This would be very unusual. While I cannot definitively rule out Patrick's solution, I would find it very surprising if that was what was going on.

[Patrick Ogaard]

Aw, shucks.

Then again ...

Actually, the way I would visualize the operation is essentially as follows:

The smart guys in the sensor pits of the ISD bridge of Vader's personal ship plot the course of the escape pod. Vader immediately dispatches a black ops squad via shuttle, and the local governor, quaking in his boots, dispatches dewbacks to a rendezvous point.

The black ops squad of stormtroopers proceeds to examine the area, then follows the trail left by C-3PO until they find the trail ending where it intersects the track left by a sandcrawler.

The sandcrawler is dutifully ambushed, a few well-placed blasts from the heavy blaster weaponry of the stormtroopers taking out the tracks. The jawas are quickly blasted, except for a few retained for quick interrogation. The troopers also quickly search the cargo bay, and then set a controlled blast in the bay to destroy any droids that might have witnessed the events. Basic effort is made to give the appearance of an attack by Tusken Raiders, possibly involving the use of "borrowed" banthas and gaffi sticks.

Operating on the information provided by the Jawas, the troopers proceed to the Lars farmstead and proceed to take control of the situation. While several troopers conduct a physical search of the premises, others disable the threat personnel. Both threat personnel are neutralized by nonfatal shots to the legs immediately upon exiting the underground farm building. A thorough interrogation is carried out, keeping in mind the need to sanitize the site and establish plausible deniability.

The threat personnel are subjected to thermal interrogation without moving them, and a thermal detonator or incendiary charge is used to establish a further attack by Tusken Raiders. A cursory investigation by local authorities, appropriately guided by the Imperial governor, reveals nothing more than the fact that a moisture farm was attacked and burned, and the farmers perished in the flames but managed to crawl to the doorway before expiring.

Information provided by the terminated threat personnel indicated the domicile of a Ben Kenobi as the likeliest place to search for the missing droids. The site is found abandoned, making the nearest space port, Mos Eisley, the likeliest place for the fugitives to take the droids. The Mos Eisley intelligence section is activated, and the Mos Eisley military garrison is placed on alert and given instructions to keep a lookout for two droids.

A local informant locates the fugitives and the black ops team proceeds to the launch bay, in a hasty attempt to end the flight of the fugitives. Then things go wrong as Han Solo goes for his blaster pistol.


Sure, it may not have happened that way, but it's reasonably cool.

[Master of Ossus]

Sure, it may not have happened that way, but it's reasonably cool.

Agreed.