Why did the Executor have to crash into the Death Star?

Spacehunter....

The Star Destroyer that Ackbar order's concentrated fire upon in fact WAS the Executor.

 

No, he's referring to the ISD that explodes outside the Home One's viewport as Ackbar gives the orders to take down the SSD.

 

Yes, Bib...but he referred to the line....

"Concentrate all fire on that Super Star Destroyer..."

 

Because when Ackbar is saying that line, the ISD is exploding.

 

Ok as a physics major in training let me just confirm that that gravity indeed depends on mass of the objects, their rotation wont matter. According to Newton's Universal Law of Gravitation:

Force of Gravity = (GMm)/R^2

where G is a constant, M is the "big mass" m is the "little mass" and R is the distance bewteen the two objects. (the radius of the orbit) Technicall, there is no such thing as a centriptal Force, its just the name we give to the sum of all the forces and so on involved.

That said, the executor spun out of control, and crashed. End of story, if it did because the DS's mass pulled it so, or if it just went on a collision course, it happened. I happen to think it was the best way to get rid of it, because if it did blow up under some large bombardment, It sure as hell wouldnt be the rebel fleet.

 

You know, I've been reading the EU (big surprise! ), and whenever an SSD gets destroyed there, it's rarely by brute force. Some mishap almost always downs the SSD prematurely:

Lusankya: Destroyed when it rammed a Yuuzhan Vong worldship.
Knight Hammer: Engines were destroyed by a bomb, then it got sucked in by Yavin's gravity.
Iron Fist: Han shot the ship's bridge at point blank range with concussion missiles.
Razor's Kiss: Shields were sabotaged, and it got hammered by the Rebel ships.

There are quite a few more SSDs in the GFFA, but I don't remember their fates right now.

 

Really Bib? Wow... I thought the Executor was the only one. Btw, nice to see you again ol' friend, Havent been here since June...

 

The pilot crew was dead so it jsut fell.

 

Iron Fist: Han shot the ship's bridge at point blank range with concussion missiles.
Actually, the SSD Iron Fist was bombed by the Hapan forces, while the ISD Iron Fist was destroyed by said concussion missiles. (There were 3 Iron Fists, first a VSD, then the SSD, and finally the ISD).

 

No, the Iron Fist that Han destroyed at Dathomir was an SSD. Remember, when the Falcon arrives at Dathomir, they see an SSD in drydock getting repairs. Combine this with the end of Solo Command, where we learn the Iron Fist is still operational, and Han destroyed the SSD Iron Fist at the end of Courtship.

The Hapans did damage the Iron Fist during the first sortie at Dathomir, but it was still intact.

 

"Why did the Executor have to crash into the Death Star?"

Because GL wanted it. As simple as that. He is the God of the GFFA, even when the executor should have secondary control bridges, as todays ships have. That "DS gravity" pseudoexplanation (or any other) is just absurd

 

Now it's been a while since I?ve watched RotJ so bear with me. Now IIRC the Executor started to descend when it's command structure blew after the A-Wing hit it. Now in space we know there is no up or down so when the A-Wing plowed into the Executor, the ship would have just sat there with it's command structure burning and would not have gone into a nose dive for the Death Star.

Now you could say that the executor tried to turn to miss the A-Wing but that is absurd since a ship of that size could not have turned so quickly. And the Executor was not pointing at the DS when it hit because you can see that the Executor tilting down as soon as the command structure was hit. So if a ship of that size turns so dramatically, it could only be because of something pulling it, i.e. the DS pulling it toward it. And again I distinctly hear the Executor's engines whining to try to back away from the DS, but it was too late.

 

EDIT: Oops -- didn't see V-Wing_Fighter_Pilot's post. Anyhoo...

In the case of the Executor, it was in all liklihood pulled in by the gravitational forces of both DSII and Endor and DSII just happened to be what it hit.

Either way, I thought it was fantastic on screen. (And should I even mention the Mon Calamari exclaiming "So long, d#ckheads!")

 

RE: Why did the Executor have to crash into the Death Star?


Because it was in the script

 

Why did it happen as it did?

Because George has always loved the idea of a small force of "primatives" taking down something much more powerful than then themselves.

Hence the Ewoks and the Gungans.

That's on the AOTC DVD commentary.

But it also works in this case.

Its interesting that this isn't the way it was going to happen at all. Read the novel. In the novel, Ackbar never orders an attack on that "Super Star Destroyer". Lando and Co. think of it themselves. So dozens of "Rebel" Gallofree (sp) transports loaded with explosives do kamikaze missions on it, and it goes down like in the movie.

The idea that the Death Star's gravity caused something that big to crash into it is silly. As enormous as a DS is, it doesn't have enough mass!

 

Okay, I hate to have to get called on to PPOR, but according to the OS, the Executor crashed into the Death Star because of the DS's Gravity well.

http://www.starwars.com/databank/starship/superstardestroyer/

 

Which to me does not make sense. If it required a crew of 250,000+ to operate, there should have been some sort of back up control device, even if the Engine Room on their own reversed engines or something like that.

The other side of that, is that the Emperor was already dead, and as mentioned in the ROTJ novelization, the effect of it was harsh upon the Imperial Fleet, to the point that people may have already been abandoning stations or such.

 

I agree that the transports' attacks took out the secendary bridges.

Besides, it was also under attack by at least some of the rebel capital ships.

Note: Those globes cannot be shield genoraters. Never in Star Wars do we see this crucial function done by an external device, especially something so obvious like those globes.

 

Never in Star Wars do we see this crucial function done by an external device,

Of course we do. The Star Destroyers have shield generator domes, so therefore, we see them being used that way in Star Wars.

Would you care to post proof that they're not shield generators?

 

DV damaged the Emperor before the Excecutor was even in trouble.

 

Yeah, I guess that's true. Once the Emperor died, the battle became much easier for the Rebels from then on.

 

I thought those domes were specificially used to disrupt hyperspace drives.