"The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force"

The Force can destroy stars (soms sith did that before)

Of cource, those sith were killed. I wonder if Palpatine knows how to destroy stars

 

That's why I mentioned Darth Nihilus. The Thought Bomb:

 

I think Vader's statement is perfectly correct when taken into consideration that technology is created by sentient, mortal beings, and therefore is finite like the minds of its creators. The Force, being what one might call, the "Infinite Reality" from which all things are born and to which all return, is by nature, infinite, and therefore much more powerful.

Now, destroying a planet with the firing of a single laser is by no means an insignificant event. I don't think even Vader would argue that point. That's the galactic equivalent of nuking a city in a war. People stand up and take notice of what happened. But I think he was trying to remind Motti and all the other officers that the finite is not quite as powerful as the infinite, since death limits the finite. As we learn in the prequels, Anakin is not the most adept at conveying his points verbally; although that is probably one of the most powerful lines in the saga.

As has been said previously, it also foreshadows the destruction of the Death Star, the first instance in the OT where a man - without the use of his targeting computer - defeated a machine. It showcases the Empire's weakness - overconfidence and it's resulting reliance on technology to control others.

I can think of several recent events where nature has shown us that our technology is not quite as omnipotent as we'd like to believe.

 

i think in ANH

vader is just pissed that everyone is poking fun at the force-users in general and understimating the Force-wielders.

His (vader) comment is like hearing a Grandmaster of Kungfu telling a gangster wielding a shotgun, that "there was a time long ago where martial arts were feared and respected, now u have any bum buying a shotgun with stolen $$$"

 

/\ /\ /\ I agree. I watched ANH today, and the way Vader acted really reminded me of Anakin in AOTC. It's like a more grown-up version of his irritation when someone else crossed him/whining.

 

Personally, I think that this is largely a delusional comment from Vader and shows that even despite what happened to him in ROTS, he still likes to think he weilds awesome power. Of course, he remains incredibly powerful for a human being, but I certainly see nothing in the films to suggest that destroying a planet is "insignificant".

He's not just talking about his personal power. He's talking about the power of the Force as a whole. Even Vader, as powerful as he is, is just barely touching on the infinite power of the Force.

 

The Problem with the Film Jedi is that they NEVER meet the expectations of a group who has held the reins of power in the Galaxy for 1,000 generations. This failure to make them more than what a Cripple, a Novice and an Old Man were in the first trilogy essentially takes Lucas' 'life is stronger than mechanization' theme so far that it obviates itself based on the _fear_ of representing the Jedi as themselves being 'more machines than men' in their own use of their abilities to Superman every problem.

In fact some of the wooden acting (ignoring a spoiled child with 20K years of Jedi Holocron references to 'Apprentice Raising 101' prior expert database psychology on your side) actually makes the Jedi seem more robotic than the entirely human (greed, aggression, manipulation, fear) and therefore understandable motives and ingenuity of the Designated Bad Guys.

Again, this might work if the Jedi were seen to be 'all that' to begin with and then nothing when robbed of their powers. But they are not and that story suffers as a result.

Having said this, the real problem with a planet destroying weapon is that it can never 'win friends and influence people' beyond their own immediate means to control others. i.e. You blow up Alderaan, whoopy. What about a culture 500,000 light years on the other side of the Galaxy? Without a shared set of morals, species and societal (economics etc.) interests, the destruction of one planet does not have enough meaning to make a difference.

In this, you have the reverse effect of terrorism. In that an Al Quaeda type threat at least has reason to believe they can stampede the uni-cultural sensitivities of the 'Western World' by attacking the center of it's capitalist way of life symbolism in New York. But there is little or nothing which would unite a multi-species group composed of _thousands_ of star systems to either fight back. Or knuckle under. They just wouldn't understand a notion of communal risk which pays them to expend resources on far away aid.

In THIS ALONE the Death Star is a sledgehammer whacking mosquitoes. And always will be brought down, not by it's own effect but the quality of it's designated victims.

OTOH, comparitively, the ability to 'shroud' a Galaxy with Dark Side nullification of precognitive Jedi awareness is so incredible as to be beyond belief in any mortal being. We are so far beyond spatial measures that have meaning as to be impossible to assign values but trillions to the thousandth power of lightyear separated objects (and Force generating life forms) would have to be bridged to keep ALL Jedi from sensing ALL time/event sequences related to say the buildng of a hidden battle fleet and clone force.

This even before you consider things like forensic accounting.

In the Comics (especially those covering the post-regnum Empire and pre-Jedi eras) and Fan Fic, you get a little closer to the reality of what The Force MUST allow individuals to do in counterweighting the mass of humanity as a mechanized and ranged-weapon equipped mob.

But even here there is way too much emphasis on the warfighter methods and doctrines to truly separate The Gift of Force Endowment from the very same (destructive) means employed by technology which 'must be contained' by living sacrifice.

As such, I would like to think that the REAL promise inherent to such advanced Psionics must be the shared wealth and concurrences of view it brings to diverse peoples through a more _utilitarian_ application of skills. Plotting the most efficient hyperroutes and then flying them. Healing the sick of world-threatening plagues in a universal trade environment dominated by 'Outbreak' scenarios of billions of xeno-microbial threats. Using Force telepathy/empathy to impart and gain language skills based on visual concepts in both First Contact and Negotiating (lie detector) diplomacy. Tracking down serial killers or rapists by _post_ cognitive 'scene matching'. Or counseling their victims by revisiting and maybe editing memories. Performing geo-surveys of planets

 

He's not just talking about his personal power. He's talking about the power of the Force as a whole.

Agreed. I don't think Vader was dellusional enough to think he or the Emporer could blow up galaxies with their mind or anything of the sorts.