Tag: anonymous

Hello! I just had a quick question. I was wondering about starfighter dogfights and what sort of system they use to identify threats and such on a spatial level. They dont use 5 o’clock and such I dont believe, and was wondering if you might know? I tried myself but got as far as the Galactic coordinate system. Perhaps similar? Thank you!

The most accepted system is simply using degree measurements to identify headings and the relative placements of other ships and objects in space. It seems that the measurement can be given as an angle in standard position (degrees from 0-360 going counterclockwise from east) or as an angle with a specified heading. For example, a squadron leader could direct their starfighters to follow them on a heading of 200 degrees, depress four degrees; or a flight coordinator watching the dogfight from a capital ship could direct a fighter twelve degrees west; or a different reference could be used, e.g. approaching at a forty-five degree angle to the flight path of the target. Port and starboard are also used in place of left and right or west and east. Basically, any way you can think of to express an angle will work. 

Hope that helps!

~ Jacen

How was Coruscant protected at the height of the empires power? How would palpatine ensure that the stationed fleet can’t turn against him?

Coruscant was guarded by the First Army, a powerful reserve fleet put in place during the Clone Wars. The rest of the Core Worlds surrounding the Coruscant Sector were also protected by their own sector armies, numbered two through seven, making it very difficult for enemy operatives to fly or land in the area without detection. Coruscant also had the benefit of a very big on-world security force and a large population of rich humans to support Palpatine. 

I doubt that Palpatine ever really believed the First Army would turn against him. The Imperial sector armies were commanded by Grand Moffs, all of whom were pretty close confidants of the Emperor, relatively speaking. They would have been unlikely to betray him, and their subordinate officers were generally either truly loyal to the Empire or scared of defecting. In addition, it was a huge fleet; there’s no way the entire force would defect together, and a few ships wouldn’t be able to do much of anything. 

I hope that helps!

~ Jacen

In ESB, when Luke tosses a detonation device to the rear of an AT-AT, why does the front explode first ?

My guess would be that either the beginning of the series of explosions occurred inside the AT-AT before reaching the cabin, or the detonator managed to land far enough towards the front end of the belly that the explosion reached the cabin right away. Of course, there’s probably no canon explanation for this specifically, so I’m just speculating. 

~ Jacen

How was the imperial probe droid able to broadcast the image of the rebel base on Hoth to the super star destroyer so quickly?

Imperial probe droids were equipped with high-frequency HoloNet transceivers for exactly that purpose. Because the HoloNet functioned by routing messages through hyperwave transceivers, not subspace ones, communication over the HoloNet was nearly instantaneous and depended little on the distance between the source and the destination. 

~ Jacen

Is there a Star Wars equivalent to hippies? Like yoga instructors, alternative medicine practitioners, anything like that? If so: on what planets, what do they wear? Any visuals?

There’s pretty much an infinite number of people/groups/professions that could plausibly be seen as hippie-ish. Notably, the Jedi were sometimes viewed that way, depending on the time and perspective. If there was a specific planet or species or type of job you were thinking of, that might help me narrow it down?

~ Jacen

Do you have an example for a very very unpopular job onboard a Star Destroyer, ideally something that is also dangerous (as in life threatening) but it would also do if it’s just a ‘lowly’ task. TIA so much

I’m sorry, nothing like that is coming to mind. The issue would be that most of the dangerous jobs and some of the menial ones were done by droids rather than crew members. The closest thing I can think of would be sanitation duty, which probably isn’t all that dangerous but would likely be considered lowly and unpopular. 

If anyone else can think of an example, please add on!

~ Jacen

Do you have any insight in what happened to defectors from the imperial armed forces? Or what the outcome of insubordination would be? (Thx, you rock!)

It depends a lot on the circumstances. Sometimes, the punishment for insubordination could be as light as an official reprimand or a strike on the person’s record. Others, they could be court-martialled or, if working with Darth Vader in particular, killed on the spot. 

The consequences of insubordination or defection will change with the time period, the officer’s service record, and who their superiors are. After the destruction of Alderaan, for example, some people who deserted were actually allowed back into the armed forces with relatively minor punishments. This is due mostly to the fact that the Empire was low on personnel after the first Death Star was destroyed, and they couldn’t afford to turn away skilled pilots and commanders. Likewise, around this time, small offences were forgiven with as little as a reprimand, especially for officers with otherwise perfect service records and/or connections higher up in the military. 

However, when the Empire had an abundance of troops and officers, insubordination tended to be much more harshly punished. The Imperial Security Bureau (Internal Affairs division) would investigate the incident, and it was not common for ISB to take the side of the accused person if there was any evidence at all that pointed to them being guilty. Sometimes, in the case of deserters, officers would be sent to actively track them down; otherwise, a warrant would be put out and if they were found and arrested they would be court-martialled or executed without trial. 

I hope that helps!

~ Jacen

Do you have information about what the empire did with kids whose parents died in war? Are there special military orphanages for orphans?

I can’t recall any information on what the Empire did with its orphaned children, but I do know that the Alliance ran foster homes for orphans who were victims of the Empire. Other military/police organizations like the Corellian Security Force set up funds for the families of officers killed in the line of duty, so perhaps there was something like that in the Empire. Judging by the Empire’s other public services, any initiative put in place for orphans of the war would probably be more PR than actual help, and I suspect there would not be one unified system in place on all Imperial worlds.

I hope that helps at least a bit!

~ Jacen