Monroville said:Just watch RETURNING TO JEDI; you actually have Harrison Ford doing a commentary during both the Sarlaac pit scene and the end battle at Endor saying that Lando was supposed to die at either location (no doubt the Sarlaac death was an earlier draft).
One thing that always bugged me even as a kid (after the 10th time watching JEDI naturally, when you get over the WOW! effect and start to really watch the movie) was: how is it that the reactor just exploded and it takes the Death Star like 10 minutes to actually explode? As soon as that thing crashed and exploded behind the Falcon - BLAM! WHITE LIGHT! OUTSIDE SHOT OF DS EXPLODING!
You never had a 10 minute build-up (with the Death Star explosion) in ANH (remember the time factor was the torpedo travelling down the shaft to reach the reactor - once it hit, the whole thing blew up), so what they did in JEDI just seemed like these characters just CAN'T be killed no matter what happens - not even PHYSICS can kill them! So on top of the teddy bears, the constant "FREEZE, Rebel scum!... Wait a minute, the rebels aren't telling US to freeze... they just SHOOT us!" moments and everything else, how can we possibly take this seriously, regardless of Lando dying or not?
That's never really bothered me, though I've been concious of the discrepancy. Remember the first Death Star was complete and most likely fully pressurised as a sealed unit. My impression was that DS2 had very few habitable parts, and much of it was somewhat open to space.
The comparison I draw is igniting a small pile of gunpowder in a pill box, then igniting the same quantity packed into a bullet casing.