I mean, they already managed to bring it down to the ground. They pulled the ropes around it and it collapsed into the snow. What the hell/heck was the point of blowing it up??? It kinda seems pointless and redundant to me. It was already, for all practical purposes, destroyed, in a sense, pulled down to the ground. So why go even further and destroy it???
I think Kershner, Lucas, Kasdan and Kurtz had a collective vision that, in thirty years' time, it would give people on internet forums something to talk about.
If the machine just tipped over then it could have been put back on it's feet. Semi tractors aren't exploded when they tip over. They just use heavy equipment to set it straight again. Rebels probably didn't want to take a chance of them coming back for it and using it against them again.
Maybe they wanted to eat it.
My assumption would be that they wanted to kill the imperial troops on board.
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I imagine there would be a possibility of the thing firing from the ground or even getting up again if it wasn't destroyed.
nightstalkerpoet said:
My assumption would be that they wanted to kill the imperial troops on board.
Wat do u mean by that?????
....
In all seriousness, I had hoped this thread would die a painfully ignored death.
Bingowings said:
Maybe they wanted to eat it.
You raise a good point. If you just knock it down, it's uncooked and therefore potentially unsanitary. Everyone knows a good AT-AT should be heated to at least 350 degrees for a minimum of forty-five minutes.
LOL @ this thread....
To keep it from communicating with the Empire, and to stop it from jamming Rebel communications.
And I still think FS is (was) kenkraly after successful electroshock therapy. You have to be careful what you wish for.
"Close the blast doors!"
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I saw Kennyboy commenting on SW.com the other day. Still the same guy.
Anyway, I'm gonna address this now that I won't have anyone telling me that there were innocent Imperials on there that had families and were only retaliating against terrorist Rebels.
They blew it up because the Empire is bad and was attacking them. Anybody questioning why enemies kill one another in wartime is missing a valuable part of their animal instinct that says to destroy that which is attacking you.
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How come they were able to blow it up, though? "That armour's too strong for blasters."
Maybe it was leaking something flammable? I'd have to look at the movie to see where the blaster shots actually hit it after it fell. The windows in the head could have been cracked or weakened in the fall, making a shot into the cockpit do the trick.
Where were you in '77?
Easterhay said:
How come they were able to blow it up, though? "That armour's too strong for blasters."
They hit it in the neck. The neck is a weak spot as it's more like the corrugated passage between train cars than the train car itself, and therefore less heavily armoured; you'll notice that they also hit it in the head and it remains undamaged until they hit the neck - If I were to speculate, I would say that the lasers pierced through the neck and then through the deck and hit the motors for the front legs and that caused the explosion.
Targeting it while the AT-AT was moving would be more difficult, but once it was stationary... boom.
The AT-ATs are also weak from the underside.
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They hit the flashing gold box, obviously.
Hey. The target is RED, thank you very much.
A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em
Obviously I'm using EU sources for my explanation and we all know that those are not on the same timeline as the movies because "reposted George Lucas quote for the millionth time".
I always just assumed that they hit some vulnerability in the armour there that they couldn't before.
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I asked my older brother the same thing as a kid, and he told me this, which I always assumed to be the truth:
That heavy fall seriously fractured the armor, leaving it vulnerable to blaster fire. Makes sense to me.
When an imperial probe droid encounters an enemy it is unable to effectively combat, the Empire has programmed it to self-destruct to prevent the enemy from gaining anything of value from the captured probe droid. An AT-AT is likely a million times more useful to an enemy than a probe droid. And IMO they didn't hit it that hard.
Also AT-ATs would be totally sanitary on Hoth because no bacteria/mold could grow on it. It just tastes better cooked.
EDIT: Shit. Forgot that most imperial vessels are infected with worms to begin with. Even the original Death Star had an infection in its garbage compactors. They had to cook the AT-AT to kill the worms. Also it tastes more like turkey than chicken.
And Leia ordered it destroyed to cover her tracks, so nobody found out she'd been feeding rebel information to the Empire this whole time.
1. IIRC there was game where if you didn't blow up the AT-AT it would indeed get back up.
2. It was an enemy force only stunned and it needed to be stopped.
3. It was a great semi-victorious moment in the face of overwhelming odds and loss.
4. IT'S A FREAKING WAR!
VADER!? WHERE THE HELL IS MY MOCHA LATTE? -Palpy on a very bad day.
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captainsolo said:
4. IT'S A FREAKING WAR!
There's no need to take this topic seriously.
bkev said:
Hey. The target is RED, thank you very much.
Well excuse me for being so old that I actually played it on a real Atari 2600 WHEN IT CAME OUT, and my memory ain't what it once was.
I like the self-destruct thing.
But... but... I gave the canon reason!
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