Writing science fiction is like walking a tightrope; you want the stories to be incredible and supernatural, but still somehow within the realm of believability. Star Wars has always had this issue (explosions in space?!), but some fans tend to pick apart the more obvious questionable decisions in the universe.
Case in point: over on the r/StarWars subreddit, user fired-raptor posed a question about the structural integrity of an underwater base and fans had a field day over it.
The fortress in question is the Fortress Inquisitorius heavily featured in the Disney Plus show Obi-Wan Kenobi. As to why it has windows, some people seem to think it’s because they look cool, like CritMasterFlex.
“Lord Vader, having windows would seriously undermine the structural integrity of t-“
“RULE OF COOL.”
“… yes, my Lord.”
It could just be that the Empire is pretty lax on regulations, according to Atrobbus.
“I mean… There are no railings on the death star either.
Maybe the Empire really hates workplace safety regulations and I would assume the Stormtroopers are not adequately unionized to change it.”
User ZenMonkey47 also pointed out the lack of safety railings.
“Seems in line with the Empire’s whole “no railings over chasms” philosophy.” User jondoe550 actually has a pretty good explanation for the lack of railings.
“I love the joke, but fun fact. The Death Star doesn’t have railings is because it was designed by the geonosians back on ROTS, and they have wings, so they don’t need to worry about falling.” Good to know.
Unfortunately, a lot of the explanations for things in any Star Wars property turns out to be “does it fit the plot,” as illustrated by user Nova_Hazing. (The following comment was edited for concision.)
“I mean the entirety of kenobi is “PLOT” reasons. How is Riva alive? Plot reasons. Why did Vader not just kill Kenobi when he had the chance? Plot reasons. Yes, this one kinda made sense he wanted to beat him properly, but Vader’s anger would just push him too far and snap his neck.
How did the single ship get away from the empire? Plot reasons. Why did Vader not just grab the second ship as he very easily could with his power in the force? Plot reasons. Why did Riva and the Grand Inquisitor have an argument when he could clearly see she was occupied maybe even found Kenobi and not just say, ‘Oh hey, well done you found Kenobi’ like the Grand Inquisitor would? Plot reasons. Why did the Grand Inquisitor have such a change of character from his depictions from Rebels? Plot reasons.”
Using that line of thinking then the plot called for the glass to break, and it did. Could it really be that simple? Even if that was the case, the egregious lack of safety is jarring to everyone.
User RecommendationOk253 said “… as far as the glass, I don’t know that one. They don’t even have shutters or anything in case of an emergency.” User applejackrr said “My only thought was that they’re super confident no one would break in.” User centran pointed out that things don’t even seem to be sealed off in an emergency.
“And the doors which you’d assume would be water tight to seal off compartments in case of breach are clearly leaking water when they close.”
Another user, inmartinwetrust, pointed out that this isn’t even the first time the facility got flooded.
“Especially crazy when you realize, just a few years earlier, Cal from Jedi: Fallen Order also infiltrated the same base the same way, and also flooded the base when a window smashed. I guess the empire never learns, or better yet, the writers never learn.”
User Dontfrown said what we’re all thinking: maybe it’s just bad storytelling.
“Honestly, while I’m only four episodes in I personally have found this show to be one of the worst culprits of plot holes and just generally unexplainable and at times downright blatant shit storytelling.”
Also the fact that it only took a single blast from a standard issue stormtrooper blaster raised a ton of eyebrows, said user fredagsfisk.
“Yeah, I feel like if the structural integrety of your base depends on something, said something should at least be strong enough to survive a single shot from the ranged weapons of the soldiers patroling said base.
It gets broken by a lightsaber or a direct application of the Force? Fine.
It gets broken by a heavily modified weapon smuggled in by someone? Fine.
It gets broken by the standard issue blaster of Generic Stormtrooper 532549? Nah.”
When you put it like that, there’s always another explanation, according to user WeirdMeatinSpace.
“The dark side is not the brightest.”
Check out the whole thread over on Reddit.
