FAQ for
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)

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In the opening battle, aboard the bridge of General Grievous' starship, the General evades Obi Wan and Anakin by punching a hole through the ship's windows. The two Jedi are seen grabbing onto machinery and apparatus within the ship to prevent them falling out, but this does not explain how they are still able to breathe once the emergency windows have sealed the ship.

IMDb contributors have suggested four potential ways this could occur:

1) As the rules of logic don't always apply within the Star Wars universe (there's no sound in space), George Lucas may be using artistic licence to keep the Jedi alive.

2) On closer inspection, the space battle is actually taking place in Coruscant's atmosphere and not in deep space. This means there may still be some oxygen left in the ship.

3) The window was only open for a short time before a system kicked in to seal it. If a system to seal the window exists, it's reasonable to assume there would also be a plan for piping in more air. Additionally, the ship in question was very large, and would not have been completely emptied of its atmosphere in such a short time.

4) Jedi reaction times allowed Anakin and Obi-Wan to sense what was about to happen and take a big breath. This breath then lasted them until the room was repressurized.

As no "official" answer to this question has been given, we leave it up to the reader to pick their preferred explanation.

Despite Anakin's turn to the dark side and the ambiguity over who created him that is contained within Episode III, Anakin is still the chosen one. Although at the end of the film Yoda and Obi-Wan seem despondent and of firm beliefthat they were incorrect, they will later be proven right in Return Of The Jedi.

The Jedi prophecy states that a chosen one will one day bring "balance to the force". Anakin eventually does this by destroying not only the Emperor, his master, but by sacrificing himself, Darth Vader, in doing so. Thus he fulfils the prophecy and does what no other Jedi was capable of. Had Anakin done the right thing and destroyed the Emperor in this movie, when given the chance, he would have fulfilled the prophecy even sooner, having already killed Darth Tyrannus earlier in the film.

There is lots of speculation about the prophecy. Some say it was a lie created by a Sith lord, the others say "Anakin WAS created from the Force, but Darth Plagueis influenced it to do so." This remains unconfirmed and therefore ambiguous, however plausible.

One further interpretation is that the Jedi misunderstood the meaning of "bringing balance" to the force; that they wrongly assumed it meant the force existing in peace and harmony, without conflict. This different interpretation suggests that Anakin actually brought true, literal balance by murdering the Jedi and bringing the number of both Sith and Jedi to two, Sidious and Vader, and Obi-wan and Yoda. But this angle is dismissed by George Lucas in a 2005 interview, where he says "Anakin is the chosen one. He does bring balance to the force by destroying the Sith, meaning The Emperor and himself. And he does this because he is redeemed by his son."

One could realistically argue that all of these theories have elements of truth, because based on the above theory, the prophecy would also have been fulfilled by destroying Luke, leaving only the Sith - something The Emperor tried to accomplish in Episode III.

In the animated series "Clone Wars", after Grievous has captured the Chancellor, Mace Windu chases him to his ship. In a desperate attempt to stop the General, Windu uses the force to crush Grievous' chestplate, thus causing his coughing in Episode III.

However, on review, this appears to be nothing more than a tie-in deliberately made by the tv show, not actually conceived by it. It was already established in the editing of the film, before the second series of Clone Wars cartoons had even been produced, that Grievous would cough - a decision made by Lucas to better characterise his alien cyborg creature, giving him a more vulnerable, rugged quality - an indication of the discomfort he feels within his droid shell and of the transformation he has been through.

There are a couple of theories on this subject, neither confirmed or denied by Lucas.

The most obvious of these suggests that it was the deflection of his own lightning, originally directed at Mace Windu, which caused Sidious his facial deformity. It is said that the loop caused by Windu's lightsaber explains the enormity of the injuries. However, seeing as Luke suffers a similar attack in Return Of The Jedi, for an even longer period, almost dying as a direct result, other theories have been speculated. It is possible that he was intending to kill Luke slowly and was therefore using less power, whereas the situation with Mace involved a determined and armed opponent who was an obvious, imminent threat, and Palpatine consequently used more force.

Although he explains to the Senate that he was left "scarred and deformed", there is another theory that Sidious is, at least in some form, a changeling, like Zam Wessel from Episode II, who, by using the dark side, has altered his appearance and disguised his true age to gain popularity in the Senate ; a move which has given him his political rank. This theory suggests that the deflected bolts of lightning that burn at Sidious' face do not scar him, but actually rob him of this ability and therefore he reverts to his natural, decayed, gruesome look, seen in this and the later films. Many subscribe to this theory as it seems to fit more within the mythical, and less scientific influences on which Star Wars stories have been based.

Also, in Dark Horse Comics' Dark Empire, The Emperor himself - having transferred his conciousness into a clone body - says "..flesh does not easily support this great power", in explanation to a) how he survived Endor, b) why he need clones of himself. Granted, most Extended Universe books disregard the Dark Empire series, but it's still approved by Lucas (or his company!) and is - at least officially - canon.

However, especially from the games (Jedi Academy), it can be considered as a consequence of a Dark Rage. In the games, Dark Rage drains your health to make you much stronger. The "health draining" can be considered as the deformation of his body. Palpatine was facing a great threat so it is logical that he uses Dark Rage to survive. However, this theory does not explain the deformed appearance. The health draining would not permanently deform the body.

The most likely is the first theory. It is very possible that Palpatine was not expecting Mace to deflect the lightning, so he gave his full power to stop Mace from killing him, thus the full power of the blast hit himself head on with no defense against its force.

Also, it is said the Windu's lightsaber's crystal has properties of both light and dark side. And Mace's style of combat, Vaapad, brings the user dangerously to the dark side. and that only the strongest of the Jedi can use this style and not fall to the dark side. It has also been theorized that Palpatine didn't know that a fully formed seventh style existed. So, if Palpatine use a full force - Force lightning attack on Mace, it was amplified even more, and only Sidious' extreme power was able to keep him alive from the deflection.

Firstly, the lightsaber wounds from Obi-Wan's blade, however serious, are not fatal because the weapon seals all wounds on impact, explaining the lack of blood loss. The most devastating event in this scene is the fire, which leaves Vader deformed. There are two reasons why Vader could survive such an ordeal.

We know Vader is the most powerful Jedi/Sith in the galaxy, and his power seems to give him a great resistence or ability to fight death; more than most ordinary beings. It is also said that Vader's hatred and anger, from turning to the dark side, gives him a greater source of energy, allowing him to defy his seemingly obvious fate. The Sith can also use pain to feed their hate and anger, thus strengthening them through the dark side of the Force.

Sometime off-screen, Vader clearly manages to extinguish the flames, either through use of the force, or allowing it to burn out and be consumed by the soil, rocks and natural sources around him. But he is still in a critical condition. It seems that Palpatine's arrival is the ultimate factor in Vader's survival. He uses scientific methods i.e. the medical capsule, which he requests from his troops, but there is even a hint, by the way he places his hand on Vader's forehead, that he is using the dark side to keep his apprentice alive long enough to be treated properly, much like he proposed he could do with Padme. This is at least partially supported by the fact that Obi-Wan precisely echoes (or prefigures, depending upon what order in which one views the films) this gesture when he revives Luke after his encounter with the Sand People in A New Hope.

Clearly needing long-term support to continually stay alive, Palpatine orders a survival suit be constructed for his apprentice, presumably to utilise whatever power Vader has left, until the day a new, stronger apprentice can be found (which is Luke).