It's as if millions of voices cried out and were suddenly silenced...

Do you think that by this statement, the inhabitants of Alderaan could see the Death Star orbiting the planet, and perhaps even see the ray shooting down at them?

I'm watching ANH again, and I just thought of it.

 

I would imagine that the inhabitants would look up to the sky in terror and see the ray rappidly approcahing.

Then it would be all over...

 

I think they saw the DS and the green ray.

 

Of course, only those on certain parts of the planet would be able to see it. Just the part where it was orbiting.

 

It would suck to see that green laser ripping through the ground.

 

[image=http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Tech/Beam?deathStar4.jpg]

I think it's safe to assume that as soon as the Death Star entered the system the inhabitants of Alderan knew, from whatever sensors the civilization will have. Much of the population was probably on high alert.

The blast from the DS only takes a moment to hit the planet, and just a moment for the planet to erupt fast.

They may have known about there inpending doom unless the Death Star was totally secret. Even so, it would not be surprising if the Imperials sent them a message of doom before unleashing the superlaser.

The beam is at least a few miles across, if anyone was looking in the right direction they might see a bright shaft of light peirce through space, then the atmosphere, and then the eruption of the planet.

The thing is though, if you watch the blast it happens so fast that the inabitants might only have enough time to have a basic thought of "the end". It would be like having a 1megaton nuke go off a few miles from you, one bright flash, and you would not even feel it.

But in the case of the story, more than enough time for the collective minds of Alderan to "scream out" as it were.

 

"It's as if millions of voices cried out "

i think they thought the 'the holiday special' was being broadcast to all their tv's.

 

^ X 1138

I like that explanation better.

 

I always assumed the "millions of voices crying out" meant the huge amount of death at that one instant, when the planet was destroyed.


Not actual voices. Could be wrong though. I see a lot of things in a rather weird light.

 

No, you are right.

People didn't just start screaming. The Death Star blew up the planet seconds after the laser started.

 

I would have tried to do a few other things before I screamed.

 

Did the people of Alderaan know about the Death Star is the question. Leia had just received the plans to the Death Star when she was captured on the Tantive IV. It was just a new discovery, one that wasn't public knowledge yet. Blowing up Alderaan was a deminstration of the power of the Death Star. I'm sure the people of Alderaan wondered about the Death Star when spotted, probably not sure of what it was and what it was going to do. But know knows.

 

I would have tried to do a few other things before I screamed.

Somehow I doubt Debby Does Dallas would have downloaded in time before the blast hit

 

I always pictured this more like the way that the people of Krypton died in Superman: the Movie. A bit morbid I know, but basically the planet blows up, not everyone is killed instanly, but as soo as the atmosphere disperses, they'd go pretty quickly if not crushed first.

As for the statement, I don't think it was literal. I think what more than likely happenned was Obi-Wan felt a disturbance of death in the Force, only multiplied by millions of deaths. That was simply the way he described what he felt.

 

The Death Star was big enough to be viewed from Alderaan with the naked eye once it was in orbit. And I'm sure that Alderaan had sensors in space for intergalactic traffic, so the DS was probably detected as soon as it entered the system.

I'm sure there was pleanty of panic and just a few moments of screaming. Obi-Wan's line is, "...as if millions of voices suddenlycried out in terror..."

The screaming didn't start until the Death Star fired.

 

GL is redoing ANH again and we should be seeing what it was like on Alderaan "as if a million voices cried out and were suddenly silenced"

 

It would be horrible to see the Death Star from the Alderaanian point of view.

Being near the blast point would be interesting, though...



You Rebel Scum!
~Bôba Fe++

 

"I always assumed the "millions of voices crying out" meant the huge amount of death at that one instant, when the planet was destroyed. "

I agree.

 

To add on to VadersLaMent?s fantastic description... Consider if you were on the far side of the planet. Suddenly the planet below you blew up. Each fragment would be a few miles across, approximately. Let?s say you?re in the exact middle of that few miles. You notice that you, now, aren?t on a planet, you?re on a fragment and that humongous boom you just heard was your planet being destroyed. You scream in the last few seconds of your atmosphere escaping to space? and then are silenced. There had to be at least a million of those types of voices screaming in utter horror. I know I would.

 

Yes, that was a great vivid description Vaders La Ment.

The beam is at least a few miles across, if anyone was looking in the right direction they might see a bright shaft of light peirce through space, then the atmosphere, and then the eruption of the planet.

That's a pretty horrific image to imagine.
Good thing Luke would do the same to the Death Star.

 

I think everyone on Alderaan cried out in terror after seeing the DS in orbit over the planet and after they looked with their binoculars at the DS and saw the Superlaser dish charging i think they realized what was going to happen and screamed like maniacs until the planet was obliterated,their mistake was probably thinking the DS would only attack the surface and destroy the cities,nobody anticipated the planet itself bing targeted for Termination.

 

I think the key here is It's as if. Ben doesn't say "millions of voices have cried out." He says It's as if, which means he is putting into words a feeling, he is not being literal.

 

Yes, I know. What I'm saying is: I doubt if they had much time to scream, but I was asking if anyone thought they could see the Death and/or the ray coming down.

 

""I always assumed the "millions of voices crying out" meant the huge amount of death at that one instant, when the planet was destroyed. "

That's what I'd put it down to, as well.

As to whether or not the inhabitants saw the laser that destroyed their planet, surely some amount of the population would have been watching the sky at some point. Some of them must have seen it.

 

Also, keep in mind that Yoda told us that the force flowed through all things - that rock, that tree. The crying out could very well have been the plants and animals on that planet or even the planet itself crying out. Who says that the planet wasn't alive?