(Of course the more blatant excuse is that Luke’s the main character. This kind of logical nitpicking probably wasn’t that much of a concern for either filmmakers or viewers back in the 70’s.)
But of course. However, thought experiments like these can be fun.
I agree (I probably should have phrased that last sentence a little better).
These kinds of explanations are also examples of why it’s so nice to have an EU. It can help explain the more logical details of something which your suspension of disbelief can handle while watching a film for the first time, but which might get a little weirder as you get older and start to really think about it.
It’s also a good example of the kind of things that an EU should do, as opposed to, f. ex. Grievous’ cough. It should “expand” the universe, not necessarily “explain” it. ANH gave us enough clues, but not all the facts. ROTS just showed something at us with no explanation what-so-ever.
Isn’t there some ROTS concept art of Grievous where it’s clearly Maul’s eyes behind the mask? Someone at ILM must have at least thought about the idea, even if George never did.
Are you thinking about this one?
(This was the highest res. one I could find.)
I would also add to the Grievous complaint list the fact that he’c completely CG. Yes, that’s hardly a fair cmplaint for a movie that was more-or-less 80% CG, but I do think it’s funny that Hollywood keeps doing these types of character 100% digitally when even cosplayers can do it practically.
Imagine using the same basic technique as in the photo above, only with a proper Hollywood budget of millions of dollars. Maybe digitally erase the performer in the back rather than hide him in the cape, use CG for the more extreme movements, etc.