CT Medal ceremony? Are you sure that's wise, princess?

So, since I first saw the movie in '77, I've always enjoyed the medal ceremony. A nice way to end the movie. Just now, I realized... there's a bunch of problems here!

Let's pretend we're all members of a secret rebel cause. A cause that the Imperial powers want to find and eliminate. They've JUST BLOWN UP A PLANET to find us. Do we really want to hold a huge, public medal ceremony, gathering all our best pilots together, to honor these three jokers who weren't even part of the cause a week ago?

If you were an Imperial commander and knew there was a hall that size that Princess Leia had access to at a moment's notice, wouldn't you park a Star Destroyer in geosync orbit and wait for her to show? You don't need a Death Star to blow up a civic center!

And while we're at it, there's all those pilots there in that hall. Why weren't THEY in that almost-failed mission to blow up that Death Star thingie?

Well, maybe I didn't JUST realize these things... but they're all good questions anyway. Now how do I get off this soapbox?

 

In Inside the Worlds of the Star Wars Trilogy - I think a point is made of how the Rebels have a shield generator - not as powerful as the Hoth one - but powerful enough that only the not-yet-complete Executor can break through it (or the Death Star).

It's also possible that very few of the guys in the hall wearing pilot uniforms are actually fighter pilots. With those who are - probably having been off Yavin on missions at the time of the Death Star's arrival.

 

Iron_lord, are you following me?

 

Nope - I just look around for topics that interest me and reply to them.

If someone's following you - you get a little alert message: "(NAME)" is now following you.

 

stop following me!

 

I'm pretty sure that in the Novelisation of ANH it said that the walls of the temple were thick enough to withstand conventional weaponry so perhaps a ground invasion was the only option. Now it would take some time for the news to get back to the Empire about the Death Star's destruction and it would take even more time for troops and equipment to be prepared for an invasion. Therefore, the Rebels had enough to hold their.

Also, lets face it. Up until Yavin, the Rebels had had precious few victories - they needed to celebrate every once in a while just to keep morale up.

 

The ANH novel quote:

Theoretically, no weapon could penetrate the exceptionally dense stone of the ancient temple, but Luke had seen the shattered remains of Alderaan and knew that for those in the incredible battle station the entire moon would present simply another abstract problem in mass-energy conversion.

 

Out of universe, it's worth noting that it was meant to be implied that when the Rebels blew up the Death Star, that was it - the Empire had been defeated. The dialogue in the Imperial briefing room had been re-written to indicate that the Imps had put all of their eggs into one basket by dissolving the Senate and relying on a superweapon to enforce authority. DS destroyed - the Empire vs Rebels storyline was done. All but the vaguest hints at further stories were eliminated, due to GL's pessimism regarding the success of the film.

It's not unlike the end of ROTJ - and, of course, everyone still questioned what happened to the rest of the Empire then, hence the existence of the EU, along with the galaxy-wide celebrations included in the 1997 Special Editions.

But as far as the finale to The Film Formerly Known As Star Wars is concerned, circa 1977 - the good guys blew up the bad guys' space fortress, and everyone lived happily ever after. The end.

 

There was the shot of Vader's ship recovering from its spin and flying off...

 

Yes, but that's all there was. Vader was simply a dangerous gun-for-hire, someone who might pop up later on, but all those nasty Imperials who looked a bit like Nazi officers were dead, along with their horrid space station. All the Nice People got to have lovely picnics with ham & turkey sandwiches and lashings of ginger beer.

And yes, while Vader's ship spinning off was a thoroughly deliberate hook, GL did rewrite matters to indicate that the destruction of the DS was the end of the Empire, clumsy though it was. Vader still wasn't established as an Imperial, as many a discussion brings up. He was a Sith Lord, very much an outside figure, brought in to perform some dirty work - much as Boba Fett figures into ESB.

 

The Imperials were killed and Vader was taking a while to get to the nearest Imperial base. So they could afford to spend a day celebrating their good fortune. Then they had to haul ass off of Yavin 4.

 

Yes very much like Durge was to the C.I.S. in the 2003 clone wars cartoon. Another example would be like Belloq to the Nazis in Raiders.

 

My interpretation has always been that after the destruction of the Death Star, the rebels knew they would have some time on Yavin before they had to evacuate. I don't mean, like, months... but certainly enough time to hold a celebration ceremony. And yes, you most certainly hold a ceremony to celebrate this tremendous victory. So much of recruitment into a rebellion rests on people believing that you can actually win. You want the whole galaxy to know you've just had this major victory.

 

1. The Imperials already know the location of the Rebel base. Just because the DS was destroyed doesn't mean that Imperial Intelligence didn't get the word that the base was on Yavin 4.

2. It's NOT a public ceremony. Rebel Alliance members only.

 

Add to that the fact that Palpatine wasn't a Force-user in 1977 and cell-phones didn't exist in 1977. Vader would have a long trip back to the Imperial capital to inform someone who's isolated in his office and might respond with, "Impossible! The Death Star is the ultimate power in the universe!" Furthermore, Vader might not inform Palpatine in fear of being punished for his failure.

 

It was the 70's, man. People would take great risks in order to acquire the perfect gold medallion.

 

Poor Chewbacca. He took great risks. Where's Chewbacca's medallion?!

 

Actually Chewie had the most 70's hairdo out of all of them, so he should've received the biggest medal.

 

I have to admit, I'm relieved to know that I wasn't the only one who was wondering where the heck all those pilots standing around at the medal ceremony were during the battle.

 

Considering that the Death Star was still fairly secret, I doubt Vader would've just called HQ on an open channel and talked about it. Also, this is not the sort of news you give to Palpatine over the radio; he'd deliver it in person. Then, it still takes time to gather up an attack force and send them out to Yavin.

In any case, I figure the Alliance had enough time to celebrate their victory and reward the heroes. And the next day, they bugged out right quick.

 

The just blew up the freakin' Death Star and the ancient temple they were in had an available giant hall, I'm sure they could have thrown that ceremony together in 30 minutes. Then ran for the doors. "Drink the celebratory punch while you pack, people, we gotta go, go, go!"

 

The Alliance had more than 30 starfighters and other support ships. They came up with a battle plan to attack the death star and only used as many fighters as were required by the battle plan. And they certainly weren't going to keep all the remaining ships and pilots sitting on the ground in the event the attack failed. There was only one shot at it, if the first wave failed, the Death Star would fire, and another wave was pointless. So all equipment and personnel not needed for the battle plan were evac'ed from the area. They returned for the ceremony, and other pilots and Alliance personnel came from other bases all over the galaxy for the ceremony and to assist the evacuation of Yavin.

 

How many Rebel Alliance pilots witnessed the ceremony?

 

What's your source for this info?

 

It would seem to me that GL intentionally left the door open for more films without it feeling obvious. The story could have ended with ANH, but things like Vader getting away and the Emperor surviving left the gate open.

With regards to the throne room celebration, it wasn't a publicly advertised event. And who says all the guys in attendance are pilots? Their clothes didn't all resemble what the pilots wore during the battle. We also see tactical technicians, flight control specialists, mechanics, drivers, and a bunch of other people using radar and guiding the ships in and around the temple prior to the celebration. It's also fair to say that the Rebels weren't keeping all their eggs in one basket, and it's possible that they were joined by personnel stationed off-world who came to assist with the evacuation.

As far as the temple itself, I'm sure it was strong and could stand up to artillery quite well, but unless it has an energy shield, those blasts are going to make their way through those windows behind Leia and co.