Clone Wars CGI Series - No Letters Home (Pre-Release)

[l33telboi]

I decided to start a small analysis page in the tech debate section of SB for the TCW series, and I thought I might as well post whatever I write here as well. Most of it is going to be a bit redundant in comparison to your page, however. But there might be something of interest there as well.

Decided to start with "Hostage Crisis" for some strange reason.

Oh, and here's the link to the thread on SB, which I'm guessing will start heating up at some point, given the less then stellar showings in some regards.


TCW 1x22 - Hostage Crisis

Anakin Skywalker

There are plenty of interesting things concerning Jedi and how they perform in combat situations in this episode. We’re for instance shown how Anakin handles a fight without his lightsaber, being forced to rely only on his force powers and fists.

When confronted by a bounty hunter and an assassin droid armed with blasters, for instance, Anakin chooses to run away rather then stand and fight. At times people have suggested Jedi would use force wall to block incoming shots if a lightsaber wasn’t enough, but this certainly speaks against this (at least in Anakin’s case, it’s worth remembering that all Jedi are different), with the episode guide even saying: “He is unarmed, and unable to defend himself against their incoming blaster fire.” He does use force persuasion at one point to convince the bounty hunter to stop searching the room he’s hiding in though.

Later on Anakin gets into a one-on-one hand-to-hand fight with an assassin droid, and mostly tries to disable it by hitting it with fists and wrestling it down. After some fighting he finally realizes he has force powers and force pushes the droid away, but it still doesn’t go down, so Anakin proceeds to beat the droid with its own rifle until it’s disabled. Given the droid’s strength, it is rather impressive that Anakin managed to keep up with it (even though he for the most part seemed weaker on a sheer strength basis). All in all this is a fairly interesting fight, considering it shows pretty much to what extent a Jedi uses his force-related powers in a hand-to-hand fight with a droid.

Later still, Anakin gets into a second fight. It starts when he spots the fish-hacker exiting a room and runs after the critter, it subsequently locks itself inside the room it just came from. While banging on the door trying to convince the critter to come out, Anakin is taken by surprise from behind by one of the bounty hunters (no, not in that way). The Jedi quickly force-grabs the pistol from the bounty hunter, but is then surprised for the second time by another bounty hunter, who starts shooting at him from the end of the corridor, he dodges a few bolts and is then surprised from behind for the third time in a row by the fish-hacker, who stuns him unconscious. Not exactly a stellar demonstration of fighting ability or precognition.

All in all, a Jedi without his lightsaber, even someone of Anakin’s caliber, doesn’t seem quite as impressive as is usually assumed. Bane even comments on this later, by saying: “Young Skywalker, not so impressive without your lightsaber, are you, Jedi?”


Cad Bane

Bane is a rather efficient bounty hunter that is introduced in this episode. He carries twin blaster pistols, which are capable of penetrating an unarmed humanoid, when the bolts strike walls and ceilings they leave behind the normal scorch-mark though. He also seems rather proficient in hand-to-hand as he takes out a senate guard in a fight and snaps his neck.


Aurra Sing

Aurra is one of the bounty hunters in Bane’s group. She comes equipped with a blaster sniper rifle and a blaster pistol. The sniper rifle she used struck me as rather impressive. It’s got a long range (not quite sure how long though) and a zoom-capable scope, accuracy seems very good too, with 7 shots and only 2 misses. The bolt also seems to travel rather quickly from shooter to target, indicating a higher then normal bolt speed. Not sure how much of all this is due to the shooter and how much is due to the weapon though. When the bolts impact the senate guards the thrice simply cause a shower of sparks and scorch-marks on the targets, and twice they leave behind a glowing mark. When the bolts hit the ground and walls they throw up a shower of sparks and leave behind a scorch-mark, no visible crater or the like.


Senate Guard

These we’ve seen before, they’re the blue armored guys in charge of senate security. They come armed with a combination of blaster carbines and blaster rifles. They also have the standard commlink unit built into the armor on the forearm. The shoulder pads on the senate guard armor are shown to withstand blaster fire. Something similar was already shown in a previous episode. The rest of the armor doesn’t seem to stop blaster fire though.


Assassin Droids

The assassin droids appear to come equipped with the same long-barreled rifles we’ve seen before, but in this episode we also learn that they occasionally use laser targeting systems when aiming. The weapons also appear quite powerful, as they’re shown to blast through the torso of a senate guard (though strangely enough he tried getting up afterwards), when impacting droids they on three occasions do the scorch-mark thing and once penetrate one, when impacting walls they leave behind scorch-marks. The droids are also equipped with head mounted flashlights, which would indicate that their night-vision is rather limited. They don’t seem to have life-signs detection systems built into them either, as they’re limited to ‘normal’ senses when looking for Anakin, and one barely notices as Anakin snuck up on it from behind. They’re pretty strong though, as one managed to bend the barrel of its own rifle without trouble. Like most droids shown so far, they seem to go down to physical impacts, in this case one is disabled when Anakin bashes it with a rifle, for instance, with the head popping loose at the end. Of course this was done by a Jedi, so it probably doesn’t tell us a whole lot.


Commando Droids

The commando droids come armed with blaster carbines. Like in “Rookies” the commando droids are seen capable of fooling clones by mimicking the voices of other clones. They also used senate commando armor as a disguise.


Thermal Detonators

A TD is thrown into a room with 10 senate guards, with the door subsequently closed behind it. The door is blown off its hinges and the guards are pretty much dead after it goes off, except for one guy that seems to have survived (though wounded by) the blast.


Trip-wire Explosives

16 of these devices were set up around the room the senators were being held hostage in. When activated they projected laser beams to and from each other, forming a cage to hold the senators. Bane said the bombs were designed to go off if someone broke a beam. The bombs were finally remotely detonated, and blew a hole in the roof of the senate building, but the senators, who managed to drop one floor below just before the explosion, were fine.


Senate Security

One of the oddest things in this episode is the ease at which the galactic senate building is assaulted and temporarily captured. Cad Bane assembles a group of criminals (4 bounty hunters, 2 commando droids and 3 assassin droids in total) and then simply flies up to the building in a airspeeder. Granted, they bounty hunters are quickly informed that they’re flying into a restricted area and a group of 6 senate guards comes out to warn them away, but that’s still somewhat lax. Bane lands (despite being told he’s not allowed to land) and the senate guards attempt to arrest him. A nearby sniper starts plucking off the guards, while new ones reinforce the team of 6 already there. Bane and the rest of his cronies attack, quickly disabling the senate guards without a single loss.

One can’t help but wonder how things would’ve gone, had Bane brought along a larger bomb with a mission to simply destroy the senate.

Things don’t get any better after the battle on the landing platform. One of the senate guards are contacted via commlink, with the voice on the other end asking him what just happened, but one of the commando droids diffuses that problem by simply saying that it was nothing more then protestors, while mimicking the voice of the dead guard. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to have cameras or something that could watch what’s going on? All in all it’s not that good a thing that there can be a very visible gunfight on the premises of the senate building that goes unnoticed.

After the group of bounty hunters has entered the building, they proceed to disable the power and then take out a group of 10 senate commandos. After this Bane considers the east wing to be under his control, and after the fish-hacker has ‘activated the security system’ the entire building appears to be in lockdown and communications to the outside cut-off. After this the bounty hunters seem to have free reign of the place, at least temporarily.

After the prisoner exchange has been made and Ziro has been released, Cad Bane and his posse decide to skip town. They fly away in their airspeeder, detonating the explosives holding the senators prisoner behind them. What I find a bit curious that the Republic didn’t manage to catch him after this. I mean he flew away in a speeder in plain sight of the clones and didn’t make any moves that would’ve allowed him to drop off their radar, had they decided to keep an eye on him. And then he even decided to jettison what little leverage he had by throwing away the hostages he had, there was no reason for the clones not to intercept him any longer.

[Mike DiCenso]

Thermal Detonators

A TD is thrown into a room with 10 senate guards, with the door subsequently closed behind it. The door is blown off its hinges and the guards are pretty much dead after it goes off, except for one guy that seems to have survived (though wounded by) the blast.

Interesting to see that the thermal detonators we've all heard about for years and years s as these great and powerful mini-nukes turns out to be not much more powerful an explosive than most real-life modern hand grenades. Of course I expect to hear the Warsie apologists try to claim that the yield was dialed down on the TDs, or some similar nonsense.
-Mike

[GStone]

In RotJ, didn't you notice that the knob BountyHunterLea moved forward and back, moved enough that there could be variable settings for explosives. ;-)

But, for serious discussion, a variable strength bomb? That itself can be interesting and useful. I know, I know, it might sound dumb, but really. It'd be kinda similar to energy weapons with variable settings. The only problem is the waste of explosive resources for weaker explosions. However, sometimes, you might come across situations where you need something weaker for a more controlled explosion for not wanting to damage something else near it that you can't shield/move and you need to get to what is near/in what you want to blow up. Typically, it's set for maximum explosion, but if you need some more delicate work you didn't anticipate, the loss of explosive resource might be an acceptable loss.

[Mr. Oragahn]

In RotJ, didn't you notice that the knob BountyHunterLea moved forward and back, moved enough that there could be variable settings for explosives. ;-)

But, for serious discussion, a variable strength bomb? That itself can be interesting and useful. I know, I know, it might sound dumb, but really. It'd be kinda similar to energy weapons with variable settings. The only problem is the waste of explosive resources for weaker explosions. However, sometimes, you might come across situations where you need something weaker for a more controlled explosion for not wanting to damage something else near it that you can't shield/move and you need to get to what is near/in what you want to blow up. Typically, it's set for maximum explosion, but if you need some more delicate work you didn't anticipate, the loss of explosive resource might be an acceptable loss.

They may be dialed up or down, but also, the big TDs are the Class-A ones iirc. These ones, expensive and rarer, have a greater disintegration/blast radius and pretty much nothing survives within that zone. It's a bizarre weapon which seems to make little damage beyond that radius though. A bit like most explosions in SW in fact.

[l33telboi]

It's also something invented by the EU, which is why I'm rather sceptical about the whole thing.

Thermal detonators and explosives in general are seen quite often in the TCW, and they are quite impressive, all in all. I suspect a TD would be something like 10 times stronger then a modern grenade, given the explosive radius.

But at the same time, none of these man-carried explosives have ever demonstrated near nuclear yields.

[Airlocke_Jedi_Knight]

I haven't watched any of this series, but it is nice to see Aurra Sing make an appearance. She is a fairly popular EU character. Former Jedi. Kick ass bounty hunter.

[Jedi Master Spock]

It's also something invented by the EU, which is why I'm rather sceptical about the whole thing.

Thermal detonators and explosives in general are seen quite often in the TCW, and they are quite impressive, all in all. I suspect a TD would be something like 10 times stronger then a modern grenade, given the explosive radius.

But at the same time, none of these man-carried explosives have ever demonstrated near nuclear yields.

Yet I am still love the idea that "thermal" stands for "thermonuclear." Perhaps it isn't; perhaps it is just a heat-based device; but it is an idea I am fond of.

In that case, it is simply a not especially powerful nuclear device - small amount of reactant and/or a very incomplete reaction due to the small scale of it. A milligram of reactant with a 10% "effective" thermal/blast yield would be not far from ten times a modern grenade.

I'm also still fond of the idea that proton torpedoes have actual "proton" - i.e. protium - warheads.

[GStone]

They reacted strongly in RotJ, but I'd assume it was a powerful destructive explosion and causes some kind of burning effect afterwards, like how white phosphorous works.

[l33telboi]

In that case, it is simply a not especially powerful nuclear device - small amount of reactant and/or a very incomplete reaction due to the small scale of it. A milligram of reactant with a 10% "effective" thermal/blast yield would be not far from ten times a modern grenade.

Yes, I know it could still be nuclear but just have a low yield. That's why I said nuclear-like yields, as in stuff in the kiloton-plus range, which often enough is suggested in various debates.

All in all the visuals don't speak very highly of these things being nukes though. There's no intense flash of light that you’d expect, were this a nuclear device. It looks pretty much exactly the way a conventional explosion would. Or Hollywood explosion, as it were, what with all the great big balls of fire but minimal explosive velocity.

[2046]

Updated that section yesterday then crosschecked against your notes. I should make pics of a handful of things but it's really not an episode in severe need of pictures, which is I think why we slackers are liking it.

:)

[Mr. Oragahn]

In Rookies, those mobile tibanna containers... they blew them up. I suppose there would be quite a good amount of tibanna in these volumes.
Then we can stack this against the explosion of the outpost.

Oh, another thing concerning Rising Malevolence's horrible blaster aim, could it be that these weapons are generally built to be operated in atmosphere, and thus compensate for pressure, gravity and other whatnots that would mess up with the bolt's trajectory, but while doing this in vacuum, sends the bolts flying left and right because the weapons would apply too much correction?

We could assert that many weapons, most notably on space ships, could be recalibrated, but not bog standard guns meant to be used by random clones inside ships and on the surface of planets.

They reacted strongly in RotJ, but I'd assume it was a powerful destructive explosion and causes some kind of burning effect afterwards, like how white phosphorous works.

Erm, you speak of the destruction of the power generator beneath the dish?

I don't know, but what about the fact that the generator was presently channeling energies to protect a whole station plus the tube extending from the ground to this battle station?

Shouldn't we think they actually were lucky that the explosion didn't cook off the whole valley?

[l33telboi]

Oh, another thing concerning Rising Malevolence's horrible blaster aim, could it be that these weapons are generally built to be operated in atmosphere, and thus compensate for pressure, gravity and other whatnots that would mess up with the bolt's trajectory, but while doing this in vacuum, sends the bolts flying left and right because the weapons would apply too much correction?

I don't think there's a single episode in the series that doesn't show similar accuracy with blasters, so assuming this has something to do with atmosphere and vaccuum seems needless.

[Mr. Oragahn]

Oh, another thing concerning Rising Malevolence's horrible blaster aim, could it be that these weapons are generally built to be operated in atmosphere, and thus compensate for pressure, gravity and other whatnots that would mess up with the bolt's trajectory, but while doing this in vacuum, sends the bolts flying left and right because the weapons would apply too much correction?

I don't think there's a single episode in the series that doesn't show similar accuracy with blasters, so assuming this has something to do with atmosphere and vaccuum seems needless.

Yeah well we had the boarding of a Venator by droids which was not glorious, but for some reason, I recall that the Rising Malevolence case was really, really horrible. I mean, they were facing each other, standing up, no cover, 15 meters apart or so?

The movies have shown far better aim for clonetroopers.

[GStone]

Erm, you speak of the destruction of the power generator beneath the dish?

BountyHunterLeia's thermal detonator.

I don't know, but what about the fact that the generator was presently channeling energies to protect a whole station plus the tube extending from the ground to this battle station?

Shouldn't we think they actually were lucky that the explosion didn't cook off the whole valley?

They probably would have, but it wouldn't if we visualize it as an upward thrusting column. When the dish went, the energy it was giving off would continue to be thrust up, as it expanded outward. And that's inconsistent with what seems to be how shields would operate.

[Mike DiCenso]

quote]

I don't know, but what about the fact that the generator was presently channeling energies to protect a whole station plus the tube extending from the ground to this battle station?

Shouldn't we think they actually were lucky that the explosion didn't cook off the whole valley?

[/quote]

They probably would have, but it wouldn't if we visualize it as an upward thrusting column. When the dish went, the energy it was giving off would continue to be thrust up, as it expanded outward. And that's inconsistent with what seems to be how shields would operate.

Explosions in Star Wars, as in a lot of other SF franchises rarely work the way that they're supposed to. I mean, given the Death Stars' sizes, it's amazing that their explosions did not cook Yavin IV or Endor, nor is there canon evidence of other disruptions from the allegedly 1e38 Joule explosion of Alderaan on nearby neighboring star systems, or the remainder of the Alderaan star system itself. So why not have what is a low kiloton level explosion of the shield projector cook the most of valley?
-Mike