TheBoost said:professa adyfan said:i don't need an explanation
because what luke saw was just a meteor
star wars movies do not jump around in time like that
i'm just saying the fact that the probe droid doesn't approach luke and the wampa adds to the case of it not being just a few hundred yards away at that time - and it is conspicuously absent through the whole of the rescue of luke and han. if it had been around it would have recorded the transmissions broadcast from zev and the other rogues (commander skywalker do you copy? captain solo do you copy?) and transmitted them to the empire rather than just an image of a power generator. it didn't do it coz it wasn't in that area at the time.
what are the chances of it landing within spitting distance of vaders number one target when it would have had a vast (maybe planetwide)area to cover
I agree with everything said here. In fact, it never even occured to me that it MIGHT not have been a meteor Luke saw. Gen. Reiken even says 'sure are a lot of meteors around here.'
Interesting, because my experience has been quite the opposite. Ever since childhood, I figured it was the probe because of the exact same explosion being used. I always felt dread at Luke wanting to check out the meteor, knowing that the probe would recognize him and start shooting. Thankfully he was distracted and pulled in the opposite direction by the Wampa.
The probe droid may not have picked up Luke due to interference (from the sensors that Han placed?) and no Rebel sensors picked up the Wampas at all. Also, the probe didn't pick up that it was surrounded by Han and Chewie until they started yelling and shooting, so maybe its not configured to pick up life forms (or maybe to just ignore them until they pose a threat). I'm sure all comm chatter was encoded, so the probe may not have picked it up. So the only thing it could have found was the huge power generator whose signature and size they could not cover up.
Even so, if you were a probe droid and landed on a planet, would you immediately go after the faint life signs you're picking up all the way down a mountain (if you could see them at all), or the HUGE power generator giving off all kinds of energy?
This is the kind of thing Revisited should fix / change definitavely. If Lucas can't be bothered to clarify anything, Ady can.