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Topic:
DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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Vortigern99
Title: Manager Emeritus
Registered:
Nov '00
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Date Posted:
12/19/07 7:02pm
Subject:
DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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I checked the thread index and could find nothing about this. My wife, the Force love her, was clever enough to ask me why, during the Rebel attack on the Death Star, there seemed to be no tractor pull on the small fighters -- X-Wings and Y-Wings -- making the assault. I could only snap my fingers and say that was a darn good question! Logic would dictate that the DS tractor beam would have pulled the fighters one by one into the docking bay(s), or else the turbolasers would have blown them to smithereens as they came in under the beam's influence. Yet the fighters seem totally unaffected by the beam. Surely by the time the DS reached Yavin, the Imperial technicians would have restored the beam to operability after Kenobi had disabled it?
Thoughts?
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Master_Starwalker
Registered:
Sep '03
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Date Posted:
12/19/07 7:38pm
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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I assumed they were too small but, I don't know if that has basis in anything official.
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"Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous." - Bill Moyers
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Darth_Davi
Registered:
Jul '05
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Date Posted:
12/19/07 11:33pm
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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When I first read the topic, and was waiting for the thread to open up (I have dialup, so it takes a few seconds) I thought of possibly the fighters were moving in too many directions, while the Falcon was mainly going in a straight, easy to get a lock on, line. And then, a second after that, I realized that the X-Wings and A-Wings were heading in a straight line, as they were approaching the DS, so that logic was completely illogical. So, basically, I got nuthin, unless you want to accept the "because then the movie would have been over" line of reasoning.
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timmoishere
Registered:
Jun '07
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Date Posted:
12/20/07 12:56am
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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The best explanation is that the Imperials hadn't fixed the tractor beam yet.
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yodas_waiter
Registered:
Oct '06
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Date Posted:
12/20/07 3:23am
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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I guess that the tractor beam perhaps hadn't been recharged after Obi-Wan brought if offline and the the X-Wings and Y-Wings were to small and moving to quickly to be effectively targeted by the tractor beam if it were online.
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TwiLekJedi
Title: Classic Trilogy & YJCC Manager
Registered:
Jun '01
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Date Posted:
12/20/07 4:31am
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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Kenobi switched off ALL tractor beams? That's hard to believe. Surely it was just the one(s) for the Falcon's hangar...
and the Imperials probably didn't even try. They're just one-man fighters, after all. No threat. None at all. Half a dozen TIEs out of a gazillion* are more than enough to handle them.
(*not a canonical number  )
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jedibri
Registered:
Jul '00
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Date Posted:
12/20/07 4:51am
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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Because Obi-Wan had turned it off to get the "Falcon" out. One can only assume it was never turned back on. Either they didn't relize it was turned off or they didn't think it would matter.
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DarthButt
Title: Manager
• Classic Trilogy
Registered:
Jun '03
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Date Posted:
12/20/07 8:50am
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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They had to have realized the tractor beam was off. The tractor beam was supposed to be holding the Falcon there and they escaped. I doubt everyone on the DS were sitting around scratching their heads saying "hmmm... I wonder how they got out of here..  ... hmmm well that's one for the scholars!". Of course they knew the tractor beam had been disabled. 
My guess is being that there were thirty ships, it was impractical to attempt to single out each one of them, and they blindly assumed they were no threat and they relied Death Star's turbo lasers to take them out. It's also possible that once they got close to the equator they may have gone into a blind spot, and the tractor beams were useless.
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jedibri
Registered:
Jul '00
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Date Posted:
12/20/07 8:51am
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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Perhaps it had to stay shut down in order for the Tie-fighters to come and go during the Death Star battle?
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Jesus says "Unless your attitude is that of a Child you will not enter Heaven."
That's why I'm glad he gave me Star Wars.
It always reminds me of my childhood.
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General Kenobi
Title: Comms Admin
SW & Film Music
Classic Trilogy
Registered:
Dec '98
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Date Posted:
12/20/07 9:37am
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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But remember that they allowed the Falcon to escape to track it to the rebel base. So they wouldn't have attempted to use the tractor beam. It is possible that they didn't realize and fix the power loss. Perhaps the rebel fighters had deflectors that jammed the tractor beam ("We're passing through their magnetic field, switch your deflectors on double-front"). And even if it worked, they could only apply it to one ship at a time.
The bigger point though, is the arrogance of the Imperials on the Death Star. "This station is now the ultimate power in the universe, etc."
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zombie
Registered:
Aug '99
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Date Posted:
12/20/07 11:45am
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
- Date Edited:
12/20/07 11:46am (1 edits total)
Edited By:
zombie
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This is actually a topic I hadn't thought about before! It makes sense though--why wouldn't they use the tractor beam?
General Kenobi posted:
But remember that they allowed the Falcon to escape to track it to the rebel base. So they wouldn't have attempted to use the tractor beam. It is possible that they didn't realize and fix the power loss. Perhaps the rebel fighters had deflectors that jammed the tractor beam ("We're passing through their magnetic field, switch your deflectors on double-front"). And even if it worked, they could only apply it to one ship at a time.
This is the best explanation. Remember, the Falcon didn't actually escape--they let them go. As far as we know this means that the Imperials themselves had switched the tractor beam off in the hanger so when the Falcon escapes no one is scratching their heads--they are rubbing their hands going "everything went as planned." So they never knew that Kenobi had, unbeknownst to them, actually disabled the whole damn thing!
Also, the tractor beam is designed to guide incoming ships into the hangers--but the X-wings and Y-wings are not incoming, they are skimming across the surface in trenches and weird places. The only area where the tractor beam would actually work is when the were first approaching the Death Star, because then their trajectory could be just pulled into the hangers. But you can't magically pull people into the hangers when they are somewhere else, especially when they are ripping along twenty feet above the surface. Its possible that the Imperials tried to use the tractor beam, it conked out because no one realised Kenobi had sabotaged it, and before they could do anything about it the rebels are divebombing and hence out of range.
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Master_Starwalker
Registered:
Sep '03
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Date Posted:
12/20/07 12:06pm
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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TwiLekJedi posted:
Kenobi switched off ALL tractor beams? That's hard to believe. Surely it was just the one(s) for the Falcon's hangar...
I assumed that the Tractor Beam terminals formed a circuit and that shutting down one would disable them all.
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"Surely you must understand that the means are no less important than the ends." - Luke Skywalker
"Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous." - Bill Moyers
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jedibri
Registered:
Jul '00
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Date Posted:
12/20/07 12:27pm
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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Master_Starwalker posted:
TwiLekJedi posted:
Kenobi switched off ALL tractor beams? That's hard to believe. Surely it was just the one(s) for the Falcon's hangar...
I assumed that the Tractor Beam terminals formed a circuit and that shutting down one would disable them all.
Me to.
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Jesus says "Unless your attitude is that of a Child you will not enter Heaven."
That's why I'm glad he gave me Star Wars.
It always reminds me of my childhood.
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MisterVader
Registered:
Nov '06
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Date Posted:
12/20/07 1:08pm
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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This is funny...
If the Rebels hadn't known that Kenobi turned off the tractor beam, then how could they have attacked the DS in the first place?!
Their whole plan depends on the tractor beam not working, but the only reason it wasn't working was because they happened to get captured beforehand.
That's ridiculous! If we pretend that the MF was never captured, then the Rebels would have NO PLAN.
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General Kenobi
Title: Comms Admin
SW & Film Music
Classic Trilogy
Registered:
Dec '98
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Date Posted:
12/20/07 1:16pm
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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Master_Starwalker posted:
TwiLekJedi posted:
Kenobi switched off ALL tractor beams? That's hard to believe. Surely it was just the one(s) for the Falcon's hangar...
I assumed that the Tractor Beam terminals formed a circuit and that shutting down one would disable them all.
"A power loss at one of the terminals will allow the ship to leave." [/C3P0]
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Katana_Geldar
Title: Former CR Tasmania, AU
Registered:
Mar '03
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Date Posted:
12/20/07 1:23pm
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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Wasn't the Death Star quite close to Yavin which has a HUGE gravity well? I think I remember reading something how using a tractor beam a lot was bad when you were near a planet. Of course, there's Leia's ship at the start of the film but the Avenger was on a direct intercept course.
I prefer Butt's theory though, there were far too many fighters (at least thirty IIRC) for them to target with any sort of success. The Death Star had a lot of tractor bays, but I doubt if it had thirty of them. Besides, the ones they hadn't got would have still been able to do any damage.
Remember, the Falcon didn't actually escape--they let them go.
Only Vader and Tarkin knew that. I reckon your average stormtrooper would have thought they escaped.
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