Skip to main content

star wars - Why Obi-Wan wasn't able to cross all laser gates in the fight with Darth Maul?


At some point during the battle between Qui-Gon and Darth Maul, then enter a corridor. Obi-Wan follows them, but is separated from them by some kind of laser gates.


Obi-Wan behind laser gates


Qui-Gon and Darth Maul reach partway through the corridor while they are dueling, only travelling at a speed of someone walking. When the gates open, Obi-Wan rushes to join the battle, as fast as he can. But even then he can't reach Qui-Gon and Darth Maul before the gates close again.


Why wasn't a running Obi-Wan able to cover a greater distance than what Qui-Gon and Darth Maul managed to cover whilst fighting?



Answer



The assumption you make is that the gates are open for the same amount of time on each cycle. The scene goes like this.




  1. Maul and Qui-gon make it to the gates as Obi-wan starts running.

  2. All the gates open simultaneously, Maul makes it to the final gate, Qui-gon to the penultimate gate and are thus separated. Obi-wan makes it to the first gate, as they all close out of sync.

  3. The laser gates now open sequentially. First the gate behind Maul, then the one separating Maul and Qui-gon. They both get at duelling in the final chamber.

  4. Obi-wan waits for the first gate to open. Maul and Qui-gon are still going at it.

  5. The gates continue to open sequentially. The first gate opens, and Obi-wan runs to the end, slowed down by the gates opening. He is closed off by the final gate shutting before he can help Qui-gon. This open-close cycle is much shorter than for Qui-gon.

  6. Maul Kills off Qui-gon. The gates still aren't open.

  7. The gates open, duelling occurs.


So as you see, the gates are not one a simple open-close cycle, the time and order that the gates open changes and requires some time to move through a full cycle. This is why Obi-wan never made it in time, he is held back by the sequential opening of the gates.


Ironically, I could believe the presence of two living creatures would change the environment in the inner chamber. If the gates were for security of environmental control, that might make the gates close faster/sequentially.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

languages - Do we ever see written English in the Star Wars films?

In Empire Strikes Back , we see a transcription of what R2's beeps and bloops mean, but it's not English (sorry for the low quality, it's from the 2004 DVDs): I'd assume it's what Basic looks like when written, but is there some point in the the Star Wars films we see written English instead? (This sort of spun off from a discussion in How do people understand astromech droids? .) Answer At one point there was English but it has been phased out in subsequent versions of the films. Chris Gould at DVD Active did a comparison of all versions of each of the Star Wars films, and in his comparison of Episode 4 , there are a couple of screenshots showing how the power gauge for the Death Star tractor beam was changed. I imagine there are probably more to be found in his other comparisons but I haven't got around to reading those yet.
Post a Comment
Read more

Was the "pure soul" of Harry's what had really hurt Voldemort?

In the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort possesses Harry, and it hurts. Greatly. I think that Dumbledore explained that it was because Voldemort's rotten soul was incapable of assimilating Harry's pure soul, that Voldemort didn't understand the love and friendship etc that Harry has in his heart. But, I think it was a lie. Remember that in Deathly Hallows, while looking for information regarding Horcruxes, it is discovered that it is in fact possible to merge a soul fragment back, but that the process was extremely painful. Now then, if Voldemort tried to possess Harry, and Harry had a fragment of Voldemort's soul, I think that it could have been the true cause of Voldemort's pain: the fact of having his soul so close of another fragment. I think that Dumbledore knew that fact, but had to lie to Harry because it was inappropriate to let him know that he had one of Voldemort's soul fragments at the moment. Is that right? Or was it truly the pure soul of Harry's...
Post a Comment
Read more