Originally posted by Jetmech Jr.
ICS? What?
ICS = Star Wars Episode II Incredible Cross-Sections. As official official literature with LucasFilm's full blessing, it stands only if something in it is DIRECTLY contradicted by novelizations or movies, which means that it overrides EU literature and fan speculation.
The Laws of Physics>Lucasfilm
Boo ****ing hoo. Suspension of disbelief, which is the ONLY system of vs. debating, does not cling 100% to laws of physics, because things in a film or official document may contradict the laws of physics.
[qupte]It's the ULTIMATE canon source, overriding any others.[/quote]
Wrong. On-screen events are. Anything in the super-canon (movies, novelizations, and radio plays), Lucasfilm literature, and EU literature can override laws of physics. The idea is to rationalize the events with the laws of physics as well as you can, but not at the expense of changing canon.
If a Stardestroyer has 800 gigaton Turbolasers, then Star Wars doesn't have a scrap of claim to the title Science Fiction, or even Science Fantasy. It's PURE Fantasy (Elves and magic and demons and such).
Cry me a river. Babylon 5 is called SF even though it has organic living ships that are more durable than the strongest metals, telepaths, super-humanoid aliens (a laughable idea), and Delenn magically changing her species. Star Trek is called SF even though it has gods (Q, Douwd, Apollo, etc.), guns that make people disappear (Whatever happened to the laws of thermodynamics?), and more of those goddamned human-in-makeup aliens. Our beloved FreeSpace is considered SF even though it has ships that fly like airplanes in outer space and lasers that don't act anything like lasers. Warhammer 40,000 is considered SF even though it has souls, sorcery, daemons that eat people's souls and possess machines, and viruses that kill all living beings no matter what they are and set air on fire (these are used to perform Exterminatus, the 40k equivalent of Base Delta Zero). Even Doom is considered SF, even though you not only fight demons but actually VISIT HELL! What you are describing is hard SF, which is pretty damn rare. The only one of those universes I mentioned that might not be considered SF is Warhammer 40,000 due to its blatant use of magic and monsters.
If we're going to play by these rules, then I will make these assertions about B5:
1. Shadow battle crabs don't have that fancy bioarmor, because the laws of physics dictate that bioarmor will not be as strong as Shadow armor and it won't magically adapt to weapons.
2. There are no telepaths, period.
3. There is no FTL, period.
4. Anything "gravimetric", as well as artificial gravity, don't exist because the laws of physics do not allow for an operating mechanism for these.
5. Sheridan either never died or never came back to life after he died the first time.
6. The Omega's rotating section provides a very unequal gravity field that, at floor level, is 10 times stronger than Earth gravity because of the size and speed of the hab module.
7. Hyperspace and anything related to it do not exist (bye-bye, First One power plants)
8. Inertial dampers do not exist in any form.
Um. You mentioned the Vorlon Planet Killer later on in your post so What the F**K are you on about!
The VPK is inferior to the SPK, ISD, Eclipse, or Death Star in planet-wrecking abiliity. It is faster than an SPK or ISD, but it does not perform a complete sterilization.
Survivors indicate mass destruction on a planetary scale. We continue to need medical ships, transports, anything that can fly. We are in special need of atmosphere-capable shuttles to evacuate survivors from the ground.
That's from the episode of Babylon 5 in which the VPK blasted a planet. Not only has the planet not been completely destroyed (unlike Alderaan, which was totally annihalated), but there are even survivors. In a Shadow PK, ISD, Eclipse, or DS attack, no one survives. The VPK would destroy an ISD with a hit from its main weapon, but since the weapon is designed to take out planets, which are really big and move in predictable patterns, it would likely be impossible for an ISD to be hit by the main weapon.
And I ****ing TOLD You, if I saw SD.net here...
The Turbolaser Commentaries are by Brian Young. MW only added some comments, which are clearly marked as added comments and are written in a different color to further distinguish them!