darth_ender

CP3S said:

darth_ender said:

I think the Bible is actually very clear that not everything from God is perfect.  In specific, what the Bible implies in various places God's greatest creation, that being mankind, is also clearly pointed out to be quite flawed.  And if his greatest creations are flawed, why is it so hard to believe that the message given to and received by and interpreted by those flawed creatures is imperfect?

I didn't mean to say everything from God is perfect, I meant that the Bible claims that God's message is perfect.

And it is.  But the Bible is not.

That said, picking the good out of the bad, I could take this more specifically into LDS doctrine, but allow me to say in more general terms that the Bible tells us that those who have testimonies of Christ have the "spirit of prophecy."  This means that we each have some degree of access to the mind of God.  Obviously, we have been commanded to disregard certain laws in our day.  But on things that are more vague, I think that the humble seeker can gain some understanding of what is right and what is wrong.

So, the "spirit of prophecy" solves it for the LDS. But what about those countless denominations on every street corner throughout the Bible belt, and much of the US, who can't agree with each other on the Bible's message enough to share a building together? I suppose your answer would be that they haven't seen the truth yet as they are missing an important piece of the puzzle by rejecting The Book of Mormon and other important religious texts.

I meant that was the more general Christian interpretation.  You'll find that most Christians agree that most other Christians will be saved, according to their own definitions, regardless of their differing interpretations.  Even the more dogmatic Catholic Church acknowledges baptisms performed by most non-Catholic Christians (Mormon baptisms are not, as I'm sure are other groups' such as Jehovah's Witnesses and so forth).  My point is that most people believe they are indeed being guided by God from day to day, believe that they do gain an understanding of what in the Bible is applicable to today and what is not.  If I were speaking more specifically about Mormon doctrine, I would have brought up our other scriptures, modern day prophets, etc. at this point.

And now, for preemptive purpose:

What about those fundamentalists who feel God wants them to bomb abortion clinics?  What about those who believe God commanded them to rape or murder someone?  Etc., etc.

None of that is in the Bible, so it has more to do with mental stability and/or justification and less to do with being misguided by ancient Holy book.

 

Indeed.

I know the context of the verse.  The Sabbath was a blessing, and still is in my mind.  Goodness, I'm working in a framework that is a little difficult for me, because I see things somewhat differently than the rest of Christianity.  But look at it this way: God created laws that indeed conformed with mankind's expectations.  He worked with the tools he had in the day.  He even gave commandments that seem harsh by today's standards, but were the expectation of the day.  He was giving his law to a rebellious people (emphasis on people, as in human), through a person (i.e. fallible human).  He gave them what they could understand.

My children are young.  To make a point clear, sometimes very clear punishment may be affixed.  For instance, I say, "Don't run in the road or I will spank you."  May seem harsh.  Surely when my children are more mature, they will not get a spanking for running in the road, but rather a talking to.

You find for me a culture in 1200 BC that was not harsh in law enforcement.  Mankind was immature.  God gave commandments and affixed punishments that they would understand.  The point of Jesus' higher law was that mankind was mature enough to understand the spirit of the law and not always simply comply with the letter.  Punishment too was changed: no longer were people put to death.  They instead faced punishments more applicable to a more mature species.

CP3S said:

Essentially, what we have here is a book that claims itself to be the word of god, and it makes further claims that everything written in it is from god (2 Timothy 3:16), and even further claims that everything from god is perfect. You take these things and willingly accept them to be false claims, but still find great merit in this book regardless. What???

Like a feces laced batch of brownies, how can you pick out the good stuff from the bad? Clearly, you'd have to assume any and all claims made about scripture and gods word being perfect, or about the Bible being god's word, are themselves corruptions and blatant falsehoods. It is now a ridiculously slippery slope. And this book is the bases, the very foundation, of the Christian religion.

I think the Bible is actually very clear that not everything from God is perfect.  In specific, what the Bible implies in various places God's greatest creation, that being mankind, is also clearly pointed out to be quite flawed.  And if his greatest creations are flawed, why is it so hard to believe that the message given to and received by and interpreted by those flawed creatures is imperfect?

That said, picking the good out of the bad, I could take this more specifically into LDS doctrine, but allow me to say in more general terms that the Bible tells us that those who have testimonies of Christ have the "spirit of prophecy."  This means that we each have some degree of access to the mind of God.  Obviously, we have been commanded to disregard certain laws in our day.  But on things that are more vague, I think that the humble seeker can gain some understanding of what is right and what is wrong.

And now, for preemptive purpose:

What about those fundamentalists who feel God wants them to bomb abortion clinics?  What about those who believe God commanded them to rape or murder someone?  Etc., etc.

Well, it gets harder for me to defend general Christian doctrine when I'm coming from a very specific and unique perspective which actually IMO provides clearer answers.  But again I'll simply say that a God of mercy clearly does not authorize specific individuals to engage in terrorist activities.  Again, see my earlier post about God working with modern man.  Our standards today, which are based largely on Christian beliefs and morals, clearly indicate that such is wrong.  But man, I've already put more effort into this than I should, and sadly, I probably will have to let you have the last word because I can't spend the time to keep up the interesting debate.

(Carried over from Politics thread)

...assume that mankind will have drastically changed his understanding of right and wrong, good and evil, of morals in general.  I ask you, do you think God would judge mankind today by the standards of humanity's 300 year in the future morality?  I think not.

God reveals to man what they are capable and ready to hear.  He changes not, but man changes.  He is dealing with such inferior mortals, such finite minds.  He commands what they are capable of absorbing, internalizing, and learning from.  When their understanding changes, he perpetuates the same core message, but changes the delivery vehicle.  Just because God commanded the stoning of ancient adulterers and Sabbath-breakers doesn't mean that God ever approved of cruelty or senseless killing.  Again, he was working with a culture and people who saw the world very differently than we do today.  He gave commandments that they could understand.

Awesome! These would help with my project.

CapableMetal said:

I don't know about a hack, but someone has made new installers for the Collectors Editions, XvT and XWA to allow installation on 64 bit versions of Windows (the original installers are 16 bit and therefore don't work). There's also a lot of work being done to update the ship models in XWA to more detailed versions.

@Spilkabilka, perhaps hack is the wrong word, and CapableMetal is right; this is actually what I used, one with the new installer.  I found it on TPB.  But I also found these guides that could be helpful.

http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_X-Wing

http://www.savingcontent.com/2012/03/guide-play-x-wing-series-on-windows-7-with-an-xbox-360-controller/3/

Also, this site has a guide on how to update graphics for X-wing Alliance (which I had no trouble installing on Win7), and a mod that would change the game to the original X-wing misisons but with the updated graphics.  Pretty cool stuff!

http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/10/11/play-x-wing-with-upgraded-graphics-trust-us-you-should/

Tobar said:

darth_ender said:

Not a bad idea.  May just have to do this myself.  Thanks for the ideas.  I haven't had the chance to try bkev's idea yet, but I'll get to it as soon as I can.  Either way, it may just be easiest to have the older system.

I just stumbled upon this guide that might be of some help.

Thanks Tobar!

There obviously isn't much expansion in ROTJ, though there is a bit that was kind of fun.  I thought it was kind of clever that one scene was described in a conversation between C-3PO and Arika, aka Mara Jade undercover.  There are only six episodes, compared to 13 in ANH and 10 in ESB, but to the credit of ROTJ, the episodes are a bit longer.  Also, considering there were many scenes without much dialogue (the battles in particular), it's kind of hard to make that into a purely audio experience of any significant length.  But I do agree, I wish it had been longer.  But I also agree with fishmanlee, I was surprised at how well I liked it, and in some ways I liked it better than the film!

Finished ESB and ROTJ.  Man I love the radio dramas.  They're not perfect, but they're really a fun take, and I can enjoy the stories while I drive.

I will confess there are difficulties during scenes that in the films used little dialogue and a lot of visual.  They were obviously difficult to reproduce for a purely audible story.  I think most efforts were quite good, and even those that fall short don't bug me, but I tried to imagine the story if I'd never actually seen the films and was simply hearing the story for the first time through the radio dramas, and there were a few parts that would have been hard to understand in that frame of mind.

But I wish to end on the same good not that I started with: the radio dramas are simply awesome!

When I first saw this thread, I hoped it was actually a commitment from sexy Bill Will!

j/k ;)

I have little free time these days, but I've been trying out a slightly hacked version of X-wing from the Collector's Edition (with the better graphics), and X-wing Alliance.  Id' forgotten just how fun these games are, even years after first playing them and lengthy intervening time without.  It's so refreshingly nostalgic!

I am very excited about this as well.  I can't wait to get this!  Keep up the good work!

I've been following on and off the trial of Jodi Arias.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Travis_Alexander

She killed her boyfriend, but when questioned, has described three substantially different stories.  She's done quite a bit to damage her credibility, and now accuses her deceased victim of being very abusive and that she killed him in self defense.

The reason this story fascinates me stems from how close to home it is (Mesa, AZ), as well as the religious affiliation of both the killer and victim (LDS).  I would certainly say that neither was exactly what I would call a shining example of Mormonism, even prior to the killing.  It's interesting how the media covers such things by making statements like, "Strict Mormon law disallows premarital sex."  Well, I think most churches believe that such is wrong, but generally it's not like we bar folks from the chapel because they're engaged in premarital sex.  I guess the obligatory usage of the words "strict" and "law" are strange to me.  But in any case, it's a macabre story of what the media has described as "the next Casey Anthony."  She's now facing cross examination at the hands of a fiery prosecutor.  I believe she is guilty in spite of her talented lying.

Not a bad idea.  May just have to do this myself.  Thanks for the ideas.  I haven't had the chance to try bkev's idea yet, but I'll get to it as soon as I can.  Either way, it may just be easiest to have the older system.

I have a feeling it had to do with the time of release, since ANH came out in '81, I have a feeling that Daley had the inside scoop on some details of ROTJ, such as the fact that Jabba would appear.  He wanted to include the scene, but didn't want it to conflict with ROTJ's portrayal of Jabba, so he changed the character instead.  That's my theory anyway.

@Neverarthegreat, I first found the new Ben to be boring when I first listened, but he really grew on me.  The hypnotic suggestion that bugs you confuses me...like when Ben tells the stormtrooper, "Move along"?  If that's it, I didn't have a problem with that.  The only suggestion Vader did that I can remember was when torturing Leia, and he had the torture droid inject drugs into her that would weaken her understanding of her situation.

Like I said, there are a couple of parts that do feel unnecessary to me as well, but like you said, it was a fun journey.

Something that stood out to me as substantially improved was the interaction between Admiral Motti and Tarkin, where Motti subtly encourages Tarkin to use the Death Star as a bargaining chip and essentially stage a coup against the Emperor, which ultimately leads to Tarkin's unwillingness to evacuate the Death Star in spite of the known danger.  Sure, it's fun to see Tarkin as just the arrogant evil man in the film, but to see that there was a more sinister game afoot with the help of Motti...I found it very interesting.

Thanks! I'll give it a try and let you know how it turns out :)

Can I run a Windows game in DOSbox?  This is after X-wing and TIE fighter were updated for Win95.  Thanks :)

Perhaps I could enlist a little help here.  I am trying to install the Star Wars: X-wing Collectors Series on my Windows 7 machine.  This is the re-release of X-wing and TIE Fighter on CD for Win95.  Though I was surprisingly able to install the only slightly newer X-wing Alliance, I cannot install this one.  I've tried setting the Install file to compatibility for Windows 95, I've tried running it as an administrator, but no success.  Now I know that there are some amazing technical geniuses who frequent this site, so I'm wondering if anyone knows how to install a stubborn 32 bit game on a 64 bit operating system?

I haven't played these games for ages, and I'm anxious to do so once again...in my very limited free time, of course.

So I'm listening (again) to the Star Wars Radio Dramas.  I really do enjoy it.  I agree that there are some scenes that are unnecessary, but since it was released as weekly episodes, this may have been less of a problem.  Several of the scenes are really interesting and add to the overall story, so I have no problem with those.

I really enjoy having Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels there.  I think it helps keep the familiar feel.  I really enjoy the Obi-Wan actor (can't remember his name), and feel that he does a very nice job.  Ann Sachs is a very good snarky Leia.  What I find interesting (and was noted earlier in this thread) is the very different Vader and Han actors.  Vader feels very different, more subject to his passions.  The Prowse/Jones film version always seems very angry, but always in control.  The radio version seems more willing to lose his temper and lash out.  His voice is less intimidating, but I think earlier posts nail it that he feels more like a classic villain.  Han feels even more different, where he comes off as a bigger jerk.  His voice is more reminiscent of an arrogant high school punk.  At first he was quite startling, but I'm surprised how well I could settle into this very different Han.  I don't like him better than Ford, but I can't say that I like him much less; he's actually a pretty interesting different take.  Let's see, I also like the Biggs actor, the Tarkin actor...man, I guess I just really am surprised how well I enjoy the radio drama.  I'm nearly done, so I'll be starting ESB soon.

I don’t know why, but I feel compelled to tell why I love Star Wars so much.

I was born in 1982, a year before ROTJ came out.  When I was young, maybe 3 or 4, Star Wars frightened me, particularly ROTJ: you see, I was afraid of the “Jedi Worm,” better known as Jabba the Hutt.  My family claims I came up with this name, but I find it hard to believe that I would ascribe such a name with such a limited knowledge.  But in any case, he terrified me; I even remember having nightmares about him!  But I had an interest in the films because I knew my older siblings, particularly my brother, really enjoyed them and watched them frequently.  I just didn’t have the courage to take them on.

One day, I was probably 5 or 6, I thought I would finally face my fear and watch ROTJ.  I remember sitting right up next to the screen, and when Jabba came on, I laughed in his face!  I had defeated him and was open to watching all the films.  Sadly, I cannot remember when I first saw each of them completely, or even what order I watched them.  I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know that Vader was Luke’s old man.  But my victory was merely an opened opportunity.  I did not actually grow to love Star Wars just yet.

In third grade, I decided I wanted to be a mama’s boy and stay home for the second semester and be home schooled.  It was the only time in my life I was, but it served as a turning point for me.  My mother would teach me and give me assignments, and I’d race through them and be done with school often before lunch.  During that time, I started watching the films, and in particular fell in love with ANH.  I can’t even tell you how many times I watched it that semester.  I was hooked for life!

In fifth grade I made a friend (not my first, but my most significant childhood friend).  He was two years younger than I, but we were on the same wavelength.  We were interested in many of the same things, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, science (both of us were big Bill Nye fans), etc.  We would get together and not play video games, not watch movies, not play board games, but play what we called “imaginary games,” where we would assign both of ourselves roles in Star Wars or Star Trek stories, come up with scenarios, and reenact them.  I usually took the Luke Skywalker-type role (often with my childhood crush being the damsel in distress, though the real thing never new it ;), while my friend played more of a Han Solo-type character.

Over time our scenarios became more and more elaborate.  Though I knew what an X-wing was, my friend was the first to inform me that those other ships were Y-wings (I thought that was pretty cool).  Then I remember going to my aunt and uncle’s home in CA one Thanksgiving and playing the video game X-wing for the first time, and that was where I first heard of the other classes of fighters, such as A-wings, B-wings, TIE Interceptors, etc.  I was so excited that I designed my own ship that I called a V-wing (before I knew the name had already been used).  This was my custom ship that I flew in battles in our imaginary games.  Then my friend later obtained this little gem.  It was so darn cool and we treated it like a religious text.  My friend also recommended reading the Thrawn trilogy.  I’d never heard of EU novels before, so I couldn’t believe how amazing this book was and how it would broaden my concept of Star Wars.

Over time, I started purchasing books which expanded our understanding further.  For instance, I remember when I bought this for $9.  I literally destroyed it by reading through it so much.  I also fondly remember my purchase of the WEG Imperial Sourcebook, a book which I still have and treasure.  Though my friend and I had heard allusions to different classes of Star Destroyers, we finally had some textual description in the Guide to the Star Wars Universe, and more importantly had something visual in the WEG book.  These volumes alone drastically shaped how we played.  It was like we were playing an RPG, except without the dice; merely our imaginations.

Okay, that was long and meandering, but I don’t think there was a more influential period in my Star Wars love than when I was with that friend.  After he moved away at the start of my eighth grade year, I never found a friend who was so interested in Star Wars as I was.  My love never faltered, by my interest waned.

Over time, I started to realize that the EU was bloating up the Star Wars universe, and I admit that in 1999 at the end of my Junior year in high school, I was disappointed with TPM.  Star Wars had lost its magic somewhat to me, and this only progressed over time.  I still liked aspects of it, but I’d realized that there was never an end to ridiculous superweapons, there was never an end to the stupid plots such as kidnapping Jedi children or harnessing human souls to power your machines or crystal stars that affect the Force.  And though I enjoyed Rebel Assault as a youth, when I realized that even that held a level of canonicity, I threw my arms up in the air and decided that Star Wars would be the joy of my childhood, and merely an interesting story to periodically revisit as an adult.

One day in 2007 I decided, literally out of the blue, to look up “Star Wars deleted scenes” on YouTube.  It was there that I learned of the Behind the Magic CD and OCP’s Deleted Magic!  There was something drastically new to latch onto, something interesting to learn.  I got ahold of the disc (paying Mr. Gilchrist $10 because I knew no better) and loved it!  I distributed it to friends and family.  I later learned about Jamie Bennings (a.k.a. Jambe Davdar) efforts with the trilogy and wanted to get my mitts on those as well.  I finally ventured into torrents.  And my research also led me to fanedit.org and originaltrilogy.com.  I tried out ANH:Revisited, and I loved that as well, and I realized that Star Wars had the magic of my youth once again.

Over time, my views have been reshaped.  What was merely an ethereal concept has been solidified: I now only consider canon what I find convenient at the moment; the OT really is what Star Wars has always been special to me; there are variations of the same tale that are worth telling/hearing.  In the end, I really do love Star Wars.  I love its history, thanks in part to our favorite Zombie.  I love its permutations, through script drafts, the novelizations, the Radio Dramas, the fanedits, and the official releases.  I love Star Wars again.  I owe a large part of that love to this site.  So this lengthy stroll down memory lane may serve as a thank you for originaltrilogy.com.

While I'm not in total agreement, I see where HotRod is coming from. I've been listening to the Radio Dramas which uses the original JW music. It amazes me how easily I recognize the part of the film the song originally played in, regardless of the fact that it is simply a reprise of an oft-repeated theme. It's surprising not only how iconic the main themes are, but also how memorable and individualized each background piece seems to be.

I can't say the same for the PT, though to give JW the benefit of a doubt I'll admit that I've not seen it nearly as many times.

I'm excited that this project is progressing again.  Glad to see you again.

@Bingo, I wasn't originally a fan of the snapping off dish, but after consideration during the ambitious and futile ROTJ edit project, I really came to like it as well.

@tim, again, nice work, and while I of course don't always agree with everything, it's fun to see the rebuttals. But there is one I have to say you didn't address properly: 12 man squads. That is a typical American-sized squad, but the Imperial ordered "three squads to help," which apparently totaled 12 men. Seems small to me. Otherwise, nice work.

@xhozi, I really am glad you included your post on ST09, as I think more need to contribute to this thread, whether seriously or in jest. Maybe if I slightly rename it, it will get more attention. I see your point about the wink-winks. If they beat you over the head (like the ST09 ones did), then it sure is aggravating. We've been over it before, but I don't have as much of a problem with the Robin one as you. But again, I see your point.

@Frink, where do you sit when you pet your evil minion cat then?

@Wook, I didn't realize that TAS was official canon; I thought it still fell outside of Gene's or Paramount's official universe. Has that changed?

Bottomless pits are "in" for big bad guys.  Look at Nero.  Look at the Balrog.  It's cool when you're bad, like you fear nothin'!

Yeah, most of my criticisms here are not to be taken too seriously (though it really was distracting when I watched ST09).  Many of your ideas sprang to mind as I wrote my criticism, including how you handle the shield generator (I was actually thinking of your "snap off" idea) and your Endor Prime (or was that Davnes007?).

I had not heard this "switch to Endor" idea and I like it...seems reasonable if it could be pulled off, and it could be exciting.  Wonder if Ady is interested.

Return of the Jedi

A number of criticisms have already been leveled against what may be my favorite Star Wars film numerous times on this site.  I will probably use some of them, but I will try to generally avoid too much rehash.

1. It was very wise of the Empire not to include any small shafts that led directly to the reactor so the Rebels couldn't repeat the same attack as they had on the first Death Star.  Instead they made a larger shaft directly to the reactor so entire ships could fit.

2. Luke's brilliant plan the rescue Han was to get more and more of his friends captured so...what?  It just made his job harder.  It's not like anyone was in a more valuable position because they were captured, except perhaps R2.  And the only successful and undetected infiltration (Lando) proved rather useless, as he struggled with one guard, got knocked off the skiff, and had to be rescued.

3. How was the smaller Rebel armada with smaller ships able to defeat the much larger Imperial fleet with larger ships, including the Executor, especially with the threat of the Death Star at the rear?  In fact, what happened to the Imperial fleet once the Death Star was ready to explode?  It's like they all just vanished!

4. How big is a legion?  Apparently not as large as its terrestrial counterpart, where a Roman legion was about 5,000 soldiers.  It's hard to believe that the Ewoks could defeat such a force unless they outnumbered them by at least 3:1, even with the element of surprise, given their small size and inferior technology.  In fact, why don't we see very many Ewoks die in comparison to the armored stormtroopers?

5. How big is an Imperial squad?  It must be pretty small as well, since three squads were sent to help in the pursuit of the "routed" Rebels, yet only twelve men emerged from the bunker.

6. Considering the bunker was the prize of the surface battle, and considering two very valuable Rebels were trying to break into that bunker, you'd think that the Imperials would have devoted more effort to trying to kill or capture Leia and Han rather than pursuing the fuzzy little bears till they fell into their traps.  The Ewoks could wait.  The bunker could not!

7. How did Han and Leia stay safe during that battle anyway?  There was only cover from one side.  From the other side they were fish in a barrel, as they were stuck against a wall.

8. What happened to all the B-wing fighters sent into the battle?  They jump to hyperspace, evade the Death Star's shield, and disappear!

9. I understand that CGI was not up for the job of creature creation in 1983, so puppetry was required instead, and some of the puppetry in ROTJ is incredible IMHO (i.e. Jabba).  However, puppets like Max Rebo and Droopy McCool, who look more like plush toys disrupt the illusion, and even did so for me when I was only five.  Not that the CGI that later fleshed out the scene looked much better in the end anyway.

10. Why would a plan like "split up and head back to the surface" successfully distract those stupid TIE pilots?  If the Rebels could tell which way was to the core and which led to the surface, surely the Imperials could too.  And considering the fact that the core is where the all-important reactor is, you think they'd be more determined to protect that instead of pursuing those other fighters.

11. While I don't have a problem with its story function, I can't help but wonder if it would be economically wise to build a second Death Star at all, when the first proved to be extremely costly and ultimately wasteful.

12. Why is Lando made a general?  He was never a member of the Alliance till now?  And don't generals plan land-based missions?  You'd think he'd be the naval equivalent: an Admiral.  Except admirals command entire fleets from a flagship, sort of an objective point where they can provide more broad strategies; they don't personally guide fighters into battle.  So maybe he should be a wing commander.

13. But Han becomes a general.  Okay, he's leading a land force, but...that's not really an army.  General's tend to lead large armies, again usually from an objective POV.  Maybe a lieutenant or a captain would lead a strike force, but a general???  And though Han has certainly helped out the Alliance more than his friend, he only just officially joined since his return from Jabba's palace as well.  It sort of cheapens Rebel ranks a bit.

14. Boba Fett must have been short on business to hang around with Jabba's cronies for 6 months - 1 year after he dropped off his prize.  Maybe one of the SE girls and he were having a little romance that kept him around.  Maybe we could get a spinoff movie centered around that exciting tale.

15. Why is it that no matter from which direction we are viewing the Death Star, it is always the same face looking at us: superlaser to the upper left, incomplete half to the right, even on Endor's surface?

16. Hey, there's an AT-AT on Endor!  Why didn't they use that to fight the Ewoks?

17. The shield bunker logically must have been pretty close to the shield generating dish, the we never see the two in relationship to each other.  Lines like "There's a secret entrance on the other side of the ridge," and facts like the explosion inside the bunker detonated the whole massive dish, lead me to conclude they must be quite close.  That said, Han hardly got any distance from himself and the bunker before it blew, yet we see the whole dish go up in a massive display of pyrotechnics that surely would have killed him, the other commandos, taken out the nearby landing pad, and destroyed any other party that hadn't gotten at least a mile's distance from the generator.

18. "It's a trap!"  So while three dimensional space offers several routes of escape, let's fly right at the Imperial fleet that is only preventing escape in one direction.  Even with Endor interfering, there still were several other directions they could have fled.

19. What is Endor anyway?  Is it the name of the moon, per "forest moon of Endor"?  Or is it the planet, and the Death Star orbits the moon of the planet?  Not very specific, but either way, I'm confused, because all moons have planets, and yet we never see anything resembling a planet!

Actually, I'll play devil's advocate for a moment.  There is something that appears like a planet in a couple of shots from the film.  Could this be the Endor planet?  This is actually a realistic celestial distance.  But why don't we ever see it again, particularly when the Rebel fleet exits hyperspace?  You'd think that from at least that distance it would enter our view.  In the Ewok films we see a much larger object that would also serve well as the planet.  It can't be the same object because it's closer and looks very different from the other candidate.  But it seems even less believable that we wouldn't have seen this when the fleet approached the moon.

Maybe we could use the ROTJ novel's explanation, where we are told that the planet was destroyed eons before.  But a moon without a planet that still orbits the star on its own is a planet in its own right.  My head hurts.

20. As has been noted before, an explosion the size of the Death Star, especially when so close in orbit, would rain complete destruction upon the life below.  Imagine a reactor clearly using unbelievable amounts of energy (it has to fire that planet-exploding superlaser, remember), detonating 2000 km above the surface, hailing down radiation, heat, large and small fragments, and explosive force...it's untenable that without a plantary-capable shield, anything would survive.

21. While the loss of the Death Star and the Emperor would be bad for an evil regime, I find it hard to believe that the whole Empire would collapse.  There were still hundreds or thousands of high ranking, ambitious, ruthless politicians wielding large military forces who could, at the least, hold sizeable portions of the Empire in their grip.  But in the movie, the Empire's capital immediately overthrows the government, and it appears there are no repercussions.

Many of these were thought up by others, but I also had some original or independently identified ideas.  And yet, in spite of it all, I still think that parts of me hold this as my favorite Star Wars flick!