Star Wars tech regression?

[GotWookiee]

It's a common complaint about the prequels "The tech level in the prequels is WAY more advanced then in the OT!" Whenever this is said, hordes of fans nod in agreement, "just another example of the prequels ****ting over the continuity of the OT."

Yet the only examples I've seen are things like "the prequel ships are streamlined and pretty, while the ships of the OT are blocky and old-looking," clearly confusing fashion with function.

What are some other examples of this supposed "technological regression?"

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Because there aren't any. The fighters in the Prequels don't even have integrated hyperdrives, so I don't see how they're more advanced. I'm also pretty sure they didn't have a ship the size of a super star destroyer either. The ships may be prettier, but prettier doesn't equal more advanced.

 

[robo3687]

i always put it down to the empire stamping out the "prettiness" of everything and making everything structured and geometric...

 

[GotWookiee]

Indeed, that's my opinion as well. I'm just curious to see what those who disagree really have to say.

The characters in the PT are mainly wealthy civilians living on the richest planets in the galaxy. In the OT it's all military hardware in mostly uncharted settlements and backwater planets. Tatooine is a dump in Episode I. It's still a dump over 30 years later.

 

[cboath]

Because there aren't any. The fighters in the Prequels don't even have integrated hyperdrives, so I don't see how they're more advanced. I'm also pretty sure they didn't have a ship the size of a super star destroyer either. The ships may be prettier, but prettier doesn't equal more advanced.

I think the elegant design of the PT ships is one aspect, but the most important aspect to it, for me at least, is in the control systems for the ships. All the PT ships have huge digital readouts, animation, hi rez screens etc. Meanwhile, the OT ships are all buttons, swtiches, and joysticks with a little targeting screen that runs at like 160x120 resolution. The text R2 beeps to Luke in ESB (i think) moves on the screen and wasn't fixed in the SE's. Not to mention that the graphics of the death start and it's explosion in the rebel base briefing were great by 1977 standards, they're very low end compared to anything PT. Even by ROTJ their tech jumped hugely for the death star sim.

*I* realize that the graphics in all three OT movies was state of the art for the time. However, all the same type of shots for the PT, which were 20-30 years prior to ANH were all state of the art graphics for when the PT was made and far exceed those of the OT. The rationalization I always heard/accepted for it was that after the Emperor took over, tech waned big time because of the financial grip he imposed on the galaxy people accepted lesser tech to get the job done so they could make a buck and eek out a living. It wasn't really ever explained though and is something that stands out to me every time I see it.

Ship design doesn't stand out so much because we saw rebels and smugglers in the OT and in the PT we saw a royal family and royal escorts. The jedi fighters and droid fighters design doesn't seem that advanced to me.

 

[darth_myeek]

The rebels were on the run in the OT, and I felt like their ships reflected that pretty well. The PT felt like a renaissance which could explain a radical difference, but the PTs never reeaally bridged us well to the OT beaters fighter wise. I was really happy with the Prequel cruisers (avoiding the phrase liking PT Cruisers). I just hoped to see new x-wings rolling off the assembly line and before some says well that was like a bazillion years before Star Wars, Jango's ship and the "Falcon" are enough to discount that.

 

[nickytea]

It's a common complaint about the prequels "The tech level in the prequels is WAY more advanced then in the OT!"

Easily the worst complaint of the prequel bunch. The change in aesthetic is representative of a long form visual story. Don't like the story? That's fine, but clearly there's a congruous thought process behind the aesthetic shift. Civil war/Empire-ruled galaxy should look different than the soon-to-be-disrupted state of perfection. The contrast makes the sense of loss on the galactic scale greater when viewed in episode order.

 

[terryr]

It's a fact that any dictatorship stops progression. The people in the castle want everything to stay as it is for them, and as long as they're happy who cares about the rest.
China was the world leader in tech until the emperors took over.

So there would be some backsliding. Less yachts, more oxcarts.

 

[Wes R]

I always figured that things just never got more advanced since the only people allowed to have armed ships were the Imperials so anyone else just had to scrape by with whatever they could come across.

 

[slave1pilot]

R2 used to fly.

 

[GotWookiee]

R2 used to fly.

On Dagobah, Artoo rises out his droid socket after crash landing in the middle of a lake. He beeps at Luke.
Luke: "No Artoo, you stay put. I'll have a look around."

I had always wondered how Artoo was going to go anywhere until Episode II pretty much answered that question. Surely he wasn't planning on being projectile vomited by a swamp monster.

 

[slave1pilot]

but he did not "fly" on Dagobah.
He could not have used his leg rockets to extract himself from the Droid Socket because there is no clearance on the sides of his legs to allow the rockets to extend.
I don't know how he got out, but it wasn't by rocket power.

I don't know how he got out, but it wasn't by rocket power.

 

[GotWookiee]

He used an elevator to leave his droid socket. I was talking how he was going to get from the ship to the shore. Luke obviously expected him to be able to do it. That's why he told him to stay put.

 

[slave1pilot]

And why did he not fly out of the swamp?
Or out of the sand when he fell off of the sail barge in ROTJ?

 

[GotWookiee]

And why did he not fly out of the swamp

He gotten eaten, but Luke didn't seem to worried about it. He obviously expected Artoo to be able to get out on his own.

Or out of the sand when he fell off of the sail barge in ROTJ?

I don't have an answer for that one.

 

[tubachris85x]

I can say with the upmost confidence that if the special effects tech was there at the time of the OT filming, that Lucas would have had Artoo flying circles and shooting lazers everywhere.

 

[defstartrooper]

........

 

[GotWookiee]

I can say with the upmost confidence that if the special effects tech was there at the time of the OT filming, that Lucas would have had Artoo flying circles and shooting lazers everywhere.

No doubt. The "Your lucky you don't taste very good" scene was probably a creative solution to the problem of getting Artoo onto the shore.

 

[Zombie_61]

And why did he not fly out of the swamp?
Or out of the sand when he fell off of the sail barge in ROTJ?

Easy. As was explained earlier, once the Empire took charge of the universe everything fell into a state of disrepair, including R2's rockets. He didn't use them on Dagobah or Tatooine because, by then, they were no longer functional.

Okay, I don't really know. But my theory is at least as good as anything Lucas would come up with to explain the discrepancy.

 

[Too Much Garlic]

Well... why doesn't he change all that old-style tech that doesn't match the PT in his constantly altered OT SE's? Why change some things and not the big glaring differences. Seems inconsistent to me. It's that hack-job, jarring of the old and new in the SE's that's one of the more annoying things when watching them. Like they didn't care and just said **** it.