doubleofive said:
Darth Venal said:
The line seals it.

Piett was about to clear them even with the older code and after hearing where they were going. There is no hint of suspicion on Piett's part, IMO. To me, the scene almost plays as if Piett goes through this all the time with Vader and is playing along as Vader stares off into the distance for a minute or two. Why is Piett even doing this, since the Executor probably doesn't hang around the DS2 all the time. Shouldn't the DS have its own group to handle this?

The new shuttle design comes from the idea that Vader and Palpatine should have executive shuttles and the Rebels having the same design for "parts and technical" seems rather odd. You'd think they'd have an older shuttle to go with their older code, and for a design we've never seen until this movie (SE notwithstanding), it just makes sense to have an older/different design, at least to me.

I can see why they wanted to give the shuttle model a lot of screen time (it was expensive and it looked great) but shuttle says personnel to me and since the SE we have had the larger transporter which screams materiel at me.

It's sufficently obscured in ANH:SE to get away with using the cockpit of the shuttle as the cockpit of the transporter so all we would need would be a new model.

A new craft for the Emperor creates problems because the underside of the set would have to match any new model you make (which would mean not only making a new matte or model but designing one that matches the bottom of the shuttle).

Removing the shuttle status from the Tydirium frees up some nice shots of the model to use on Vader's landing or Palpatine's landing for added impact.