oh_riginal said:
In response to the above image, I had always assumed that the threat of the Empire meant taking over Cloud City, not necessarily destroying it. Think Martial Law, not Mass Execution.
Yes exactly, this is how I viewed it too. Unless Cloud City put up a direct fight against the Empire, which we never saw them doing (and adding such elements would only alter the story and distract from the current narrative), it wouldn't make sense for the Empire to open fire and cripple/destroy Cloud City.
Not a bad idea with the Star Destroyer at Cloud City, but I wouldn't push for it either.
@Ronster: Regarding Lando saying, "What about those fighters?", nothing needs to be done about that. It can be assumed that, sometime during their flight out of there, they did notice some Tie Fighters approaching the city from a different/opposite direction.
The only thing that has niggled me about this segment of the movie (but it shouldn't necessarily be changed from how it was originally) is the amount of time the Falcon initially had to escape Bespin - from the time when they leave the pad all the way to when Luke telepathically communicates with Lea. Because of the editing and everything that has happened on screen, you feel like they would have been way out in space already by the time Luke "speaks" to Lea (not in the clouds, still), especially when you compare the sequence of them quickly returning to rescue Luke and quickly leaving the planet. This is my theory for why Lucas added the various clips of Vader's shuttle, to give the viewer a sense of time passing by (although I think we all agree it wasn't done right and so it didn't help).
And lastly, I agree with whoever pointed out that Lea points upward (with Lando and Chewie also looking upward) at the Super Star Destroyer when in the next shot we actually see it much lower. To correct that, I think it would look good and be easiest to have that cockpit view be adjusted so we are looking further up through the upper windows, where Lea would have seen it when pointing.