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Palpatine Falling

#1 User is offline   Primetime Icon

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Posted 12 May 2005 - 09:14 AM

The reveiwer from ign.com (as seen in a previous post - "It All Makes Sense Now . . .") brought up an EXCELLENT point. I can't believe I've never thought of this in all the years I've obsessed about these films:

If Jedi can fly (or at least jump safely from great heights, as we saw Luke and Vader and Anakin do, among others), then how come Palpatine couldn't stop himself from falling to his death in ROTJ after Vader throws him?

And don't forget, we're talking about the most powerful Sith Lord/Dark Jedi out there!!
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Posted 12 May 2005 - 09:53 AM

But it was a bottomless pit. What's your problem? cool.gif
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#3 User is offline   Chefelf Icon

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Posted 12 May 2005 - 10:04 AM

I remember always wondering about this as a kid. Surely Palpatine is lighter than an X-wing, right?

This was actually covered in great detail in the Timothy Zahn novel Heir to the Empire. He explained that Jedi could not levitate themselves or fly but could merely use the Force to push themselves upwards (i.e. Luke's jump out of the carbonite freezing chamber in ESB).

Oh sure, it's a load of BS, but it's an explanation. Just a really, really thin one. wink.gif
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Posted 12 May 2005 - 10:52 AM

I'll have to go back to Heir . . . it's been a long time.

Yet now the prequels have established an ability to safely free-fall (Anakin, AOTC), or am I wrong?
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#5 User is offline   ernesttomlinson Icon

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Posted 12 May 2005 - 01:18 PM

Presumably Palpatine was already hurting from force-lightning-blowback or whatever it was that was happening when Vader had picked him up and the Emperor had started screaming, and therefore could not save himself with the Force.
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Posted 12 May 2005 - 02:15 PM

I always figured either a. Palpatine survived he fall, but died when the Death Star blew up, or b. Palpatine lived and would return in the sequels.

Now I just think it's a bunch of crap.
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Posted 12 May 2005 - 02:27 PM

forget the prequels. luke could only jump about 10 ft up out of the carbonite chamber... he would have fallen to his death later, if he wasn't sucked out into the cloud city garbage chute.
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#8 User is offline   Vwing Icon

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Posted 12 May 2005 - 03:05 PM

Yeah I don't understand the problem here. Even as established in the prequels, Jedi can only control their fall or jump really high, not levitate or fly. Palpatine was thrown into what seemed to be the core of the Death Star, or at least into some pit that leads into space or a power source. He wouldn't be able to survive that, no matter how well he controlled his fall. And Jedi can't jump THAT high, even in the prequels.

Personally, one of my only Jedi complaints is that, despite the Vader-Luke-Emperor scene at the end being a great scene, Vader shouldn't had just thrown him down the shaft, for emotional reasons, not practical ones. He should've combined "forces" with his son and with their combined power they could've defeated the Emperor, who before dying kills Anakin. But given that they had the fall, I don't see the practical problems of it, as nothing has ever established that Jedi (or Dark Jedi or Sith) can even come close to flying, and can only jump high or control their falls. So I happen not to agree with that point.
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Posted 12 May 2005 - 05:20 PM

I think maybe his greatest powers had passed with age, and in ROTJ he only had authority because he could do force lightning, and for the fact that he was leader of the Sith.
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#10 User is offline   Lord Melkor Icon

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Posted 12 May 2005 - 05:22 PM

And Vader might have blocked his attempts to use the Force.
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Posted 12 May 2005 - 05:53 PM

They can't levitate or fly - the Force is a lever but to use a lever you need a place to stand.
Also - even if you were to control your descent, falling down a bottomless pit that seems to a be a lift-well or rector shaft that traverses the entire length of the Death Star, you aren't getting back up any time soon.
In younger days, I always thought the blue glow surrounding the reactor when Lando and Wedge flew in to the core was caused by Palpatine's death... but then again I thought the log Luke and Ben sat down on was a park bench.... maybe I shall be silent.
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Posted 13 May 2005 - 01:51 PM

How far did Anakin freefall in AOTC? I believe the reviewer was referencing that scene in contrast with Palpatine's fall in ROTJ.
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Posted 13 May 2005 - 03:53 PM

I assumed that he fell into some sort of power core, and was incinerated. At least that why we see the blue flash after he falls in.

Ofcourse it does rasie questions of why an open shaft leading to a power core would be doing in the Emperors throne room. Ahh, those Genosians. thumbsup.gif
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#14 User is offline   ernesttomlinson Icon

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Posted 13 May 2005 - 04:12 PM

Maybe the Emperor liked receiving disloyal subjects and, after browbeating them a bit, throwing them into the shaft.
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Posted 13 May 2005 - 08:23 PM

Beats the heck out of sharks with laser beams attached to their heads.

It could have been the lift-well. That what I think it is, at least.
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