Why does Han ask for the shield to be deactivated?

I'm sure this has been asked before...but rewatching ROTJ recently, is there a reason he asks for the sheild to be deactivated? The crew is only "parts" for the forest moon...so why does he ask for the shield to the Death Star to be turned off?

 

Cuz...that's standard Imperial procedure?

And uh...the shield is in his flight path?

Maybe...bound for the Shield Generator site?

I dunno.

 

it could be that the shuttle's flight path from the "ship" to the forest moon intersects with the raised shield. If the shuttle were to come in contact with that shield, it would be destroyed. Definitely not fun for our heroes, who need to get to Endor and disable the shield.

Plus, if you notice, the landing platform on the imperial base is practically under the shield generator's broadcast beacon. Since Han and co. are pretending to be Imperials, they need to have the shields down for them to supposedly get to the shield generator platform.

the practicality issue I have with that whole series of events is this: if, according to the tactical display of the shield over the new death star is only coming from a small part of the forest moon, why couldn't our heroes land their shuttle on the far side of the moon, away from the base and hoof it to the station? I know, they needed to get there quickly is probably one of the reasons. But could another be that the Imperial fleet completely encircled Endor?

lots of speculation

Doc Obi-Wan

 

The shield needed to be deactivated so that the second Death Star could be destroyed. That was the ultimate aim of the entire exercise after all. That's why they went to the moon according to the original plans. It was only when Luke felt he was giving the whole show away by being there that he decided to surrender to the Empire and face Vader.

 

The shield protecting the death star also had to cover a part of the forest moon. Otherwise, fighter planes would just attack the generating plant on the surface and then go after the death star.

 

Shield down = Death Star BOOM .

 

Okay guys I am FULLY aware that they need to get the sheild down to blow the damn thing up! BUT when Han and crew arrive in the shuttle they ask for the shield to be deactivated just to LAND. THAT was my question

 

Ship 1: "Sir, we'll be landing on the forest moon of Endor."
Operation Control: Need the shield down?
Ship 1: That's okay.
OC: Okay...
Ship 1: The shield wont-AAAAAHHH CRAP! *huge explosian and a bunch of screams*
Leia: Han, dont forget to ask to turn the shield down.
Han: I won't forget...

 

The shield protecting the death star also had to cover a part of the forest moon. Otherwise, fighter planes would just attack the generating plant on the surface and then go after the death star.

Exactly. And the area they would be landing would have been protected by the shield, thus it had to come down temporarily to allow the strike team to land on the moon.

 

I always wondered why they didn't land the shuttle on the opposite side of the planet and then take speeder bikes to sneak up on the shield generator. I guess that would have been too easy.

 

But if there happened to be an Imperial ship that saw them approach on the far side of the planet, their cover would have been blown immediately, because no Imperial ship would have needed to do that. It would have been completely unnecessary to even use the stolen Imperial shuttle anyways in that case, but regardless of the ship, they risked detection at a point that would have blown any possibility of success. Chances for getting onto the moon undiscovered were considerably higher by pretending to be an Imperial supply shuttle.

Although I've wondered a few times what the Imps thought when the shuttle didn't land on the landing pad...

 

...a shield was cover endor, cause they were posted their. in order for a ship to enter the shield must be down, that is all. NOT the death start shield.

 

I think there was only one shield that went from the Forest Moon to the Death Star. It probably also covered the Endor base and landing platform which is why the whole thing had to be turned off if anyone wanted to land. On the rebels' hologram the shield emanates from a wide area rather than a single point, suggesting that it covered an section of Endor as well. The rebels had to pretend they were there on legitimate business otherwise they'd have been destroyed. They might not have actually needed the shield to be down since they weren't planning on landing at the base but they had to follow correct procedure.

 

I always assumed that he was asking for Executor's shields to be deactivated so they could do their super-close "keep your distance, but don't look like you're trying to keep your distance" flyby.

I guess the partial covering on the surface seems almost more accurate. I might even go so far as to say the surface shield would have a separate generator so the DS2 wouldn't be exposed to attack every time they have to send parts and crew to the Sanctuary Moon.

 

It makes more since that there would be a second shield over Endor to protect it, that way fighters just couldn't come in and blast the shield generator. It's like the Gungan's shield on Naboo in TPM.

 

If a two or three month journey on a speeder bike would be "too easy", then yeah, I guess.

The RotJ novelization makes it clear that the shield covered Endor as well as the DSII.

 

If you wanted to cover an entire planet with a shield wouldn't you need projectors all over?