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star wars - Why was the image of Supreme Leader Snoke not "scaled to fit our primitive screens"?


Holograms are common in the Star Wars universe. The first, or at least the most memorable, being R2's projection of Princess Leia.


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Note that this is a scaled version of Leia. Possibly because that took less memory to store, but importantly supporting that holograms can be easily scaled, even by a humble astromech droid.



Then we come to:


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My neck hurts just thinking of a helmeted figure craning to look into the eye of that character.


Why did the viewers not scale the hologram to a convenient size?


(And boy, I sure hope the "I am your father!" shock reveal of this trilogy is not "I'm as tall as Yoda!")



Answer



I would say the answer is as simple as an intimidation factor...


From the primary canon, we see Emperor Palpatine use the same technique in The Empire Strikes Back. He wanted to project himself larger than life even though Darth Vader has known the Emperor for years.


A bit of EWAG speculation... the viewer does not have to control over the scale of the hologram. It is based on the size of the projector and/or the size the broadcaster wants.


emperor




Looking to the EU we have this scene from The Last Command (part of the Thrawn Trilogy). Emphasis is mine. Thanks to Aaganrmu for the quote



The pause symbol vanished before Thrawn could answer; but it wasn’t the standard quarter-size figure that replaced it. Instead, a huge image of C’baoth’s face suddenly glared out at them, jolting Pellaeon an involuntary step backwards.


Thrawn didn’t even twitch. “Good morning, Master C’baoth,” the Grand Admiral said, his voice mirror smooth. “I see you’ve discovered the Emperor’s private hologram setting.”




To say the least, being the Emperor or Supreme Leader is going to have its advantages...


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