Does it actually say that about the reactor in RO (genuine question, I’ve only seen the film once)?
“The reactor module, that’s the key…any pressurized explosion to the reactor module will set off a chain reaction that will destroy the entire station.”
Aren’t volatile reactors all the rage throughout the saga? Anakin blows up a Trade Federation ship by accidentally hitting the reactor with big torpedoes. Death Star II is all about hitting the reactor. The Super-Star Destroyer cops it in the ol’ reactor too!
Take it up with Star Wars (1977):
“The shaft leads directly to the reactor system. A precise hit will start a chain reaction which should destroy the station.” - General Dodonna, Star Wars
Okay, so did the DS reactor in ROTJ have the same implanted flaw? What about the reactor on the Trade Federation ship? The saga clearly shows us that hitting the reactors can blow these things up. All three films demonstrate, as you quoted, that a hit to the reactor should do the trick.
So we’re left with two choices here. Galen Erso made the reactor extra explodey and hoped that somehow the rebels would get a crack at it. Or he designed the exhaust port and ‘cleverly’ made it nigh impossible to get a torpedo into.
Or the third choice - it all went down like the original movie said it did and the rebels simply exercised great ingenuity borne of desperation and, thanks to Luke Skywalker, achieved the nigh impossible.
Look, I get it. Many fans didn’t think the initial Death Star takedown was plausible, and RO supposedly answers that age-old question.
Uh…what? “Many fans”? Gonna need to see some examples of that as I’ve never heard that brought up as an issue. Let alone enough to make it an “age-old question.”
Google ‘Rogue One Death Star reactor flaw’ and you’ll see articles and blogs galore about this issue bothering fans over the years. I myself was unaware of this until RO came out and people started going on about this alleged problem. Like i said it never bothered me.
I’m probably gonna get slapped here, but I despise this film. Talk about Special editions - this film is ‘Han Shot First’ on steroids. Placing the Tantive at the battle itself and having Vader - who had just seen the rebels passing the plans through a doorway - suddenly get his facts wrong (“several transmissions were beamed to this ship…”),
Several transmissions were beamed to the ship that the Tantive was docked inside of:
Yes, not the Tantive itself. The dialogue makes no sense.
The data from the drive that Erso took was uploaded in four simultaneous transmissions.
The dialog from the film confirms this, “Admiral, receiving transmissions from Scarif!”
As for Vader’s dialog, humdinger has already addressed how Vader isn’t shown to know that a Rebel is trying to get the plans onboard the Tantive. At that time all Vader is concerned with is stopping anyone from escaping. Where the plans are is a secondary concern to stopping the Tantive from launching.
Sorry, I’m confused here. So Vader didn’t know the plans were being handed through the door and was only preventing any escapes. So why pursue the Tantive at all? It only makes sense to pursue Leia if he thinks the plans are aboard - and he’s only going to know this by virtue of having seen the plans being handed through the doorway - which means he knows they weren’t transmitted - which means the dialogue in ANH makes no sense…
followed by an interrogation with Leia that doesn’t remotely reflect what Vader has supposedly just witnessed
They both know she’s been caught red handed but that doesn’t mean she has to capitulate and admit to everything or anything. In that situation all she can do is deny, deny, deny and hope that Artoo can escape with the plans. And Vader knows she’s lying and openly calls her out on it, “You are part of the Rebel Alliance and a traitor!”
The whole point in ANH is that Vader’s holding her on suspicion alone - hence “holding her is dangerous, if word gets out etc etc”. Vader says “I have traced the rebel spies to her…”. Why not just say “she was present at the battle of Scariff, resisted arrest, and is now a war criminal”? And why not just say this to Leia, rather than some song and dance about supposed diplomatic missions to Alderaan?
…and all so we can see Vader exhibit a particular badassery that he fails to wield ten minutes later in 1977?!?
As has already been pointed out, Vader was in a rush to stop the Tantive from launching before. By the time he’s caught up with them, they’re trapped with nowhere left to go. He doesn’t need to charge in. Why take the brunt of an attack when you have lackeys to do that for you?
Fair enough, if that works for you (not being sarcastic here).
Rogue One is by no means a perfect film but I would say it does an excellent job of capturing the feel of the OT era and of delivering on its original mandate which was to bring these opening paragraphs to life:
It is a period of civil war.
Rebel spaceships, striking
from a hidden base, have won
their first victory against
the evil Galactic Empire.During the battle, Rebel
spies managed to steal secret
plans to the Empire’s
ultimate weapon, the DEATH
STAR, an armored space
station with enough power to
destroy an entire planet.
It does capture the look of the OT. I was amazed at the accuracy in depicting the tech and what-not in a way that links to ANH (rather than having TESB-style Star Destroyers circling the Death Star for example), but for me the movie overreaches by meddling with ANH plot points and upstaging what should (IMO) remain as Vader’s first entrance in ep 4.
Star Wars post-1980 is absolutely built on retcons - some work and some don’t. I just wish more care was taken with the writing. For example Lucas could simply have written the timeline so that Owen and Beru were actually the correct age, instead of having fans awkwardly postulate that they were ‘aged rapidly by the twin suns’. Or he could have had Padme survive for a few years (as originally planned) so that Leia could legitimately remember her (as opposed to the clumsy “uh, she was remembering through the Force but baby Luke couldn’t…”). Don’t get me started on “Leia, Leia’s my sister…” or Threepio having had a prior farming apprenticeship with Owen Lars…
Rogue One plays the same game for me. The plans weren’t beamed to the ship but Vader didn’t know that and Leia was at the battle but neither of them are admitting it and the Death star flaw was deliberate but not too deliberate etc etc. Why not just write a cool story about the acquisition of the plans, have them beamed to Leia, and leave ANH alone?