I see some hands over here...
Wow, okay let's deep into the geek side of life for a moment. In the conversations I had following the viewing, we came up with most of the same things. Here are the theories we decided upon as plausible explanations (and feel free to disagree and bicker).
1. Anger and Hate are paths to the Dark Side. Anakin, supposedly, had good intentions for turning to the dark side but when that went awry and Palpatine told him that Padme died by his hand, the majority of his feelings were replaced with Anger and Hate prompting the rest of the switch to the dark side and subsequent servitude to Palpatine.
2. We were a little split on this. Either Yoda felt an obligation to watch over Luke and Leia from afar and didn't want to risk something going wrong with that...or he foresaw that the end of the Emperor would happen by the hand of Vader thus technically fulfilling the prophecy.
3. It seems that the Jedi who were prepared for death (Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Anakin) ended up in the green haze. Those that were killed suddenly or caught unprepared for death didn't disappear. However, the flaw is...why didn't Qui-Gon show up in some form or another in the original trilogy. Anakin made peace with death and Luke and thus his human spirit showed up. Luke merely burned the robotic remnants.
4. The only thing we can figure is that the Death Star is being built in secret so materials and labor are scarce so as not to alert the star systems as to what is happening since remnants of the Senate/Empire exist until the beginning of Episode V. When they start construction of the new Death Star there's no opposition that can't be crushed so they throw the full weight of materials and labor into it.
5. I think that although the name change would have helped, they knew that Vader wouldn't travel back to the planet that caused him so much pain in his youth so Luke was relatively safe. His "Uncle" probably had instructions not to allow him to leave the planet which might be a more plausible explanation for the delay to the academy.
And now we can shut down the geekiness for a while.
4. And in a different universe, the CEO behind the Death Star's productivity growth rate would be on the cover of Forbes and get their own business book bestseller deal. Did the bottom 10 percent of the performers get liquidated?
At least you got to see the movie, and in the theater, too. I never got to see the bowl games I missed for Kristin's wedding! *grumbles goodnaturedly*
2. Additional answer: Double-teaming in lightsaber fights never turned out well. Darth Maul was able to hold off both Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, seperate them and kill Qui-Gon without much trouble. Obi-Wan and Anakin didn't manage very well against Dooku (take 1)... and them being there injured made Yoda have to worry about making sure stuff didn't fall on them thus allowing Dooku the chance to escape. The second time Obi-Wan and Anakin fought Dooku they did a little better but Anakin didn't win until Obi-Wan was knocked out. And I'm not sure how much of that I credit to Anakin - or the knocking out of Obi-Wan to Dooku - both bits seem too much like just what Palpatine wanted.
4. Additional answer, courtesty of S.R.Hadden in Contact: "First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price?" The second Death Star wasn't finished (even though it was operational) but it was clearly of a new design. They had full plans for the first Death Star at the end of Ep II... and had already analyzed the plans and made significant progress by the end of Ep III. Industrious Imperial design engineers would have, however, noted things that they would've done differently... thus starting the plans for the second Death Star. They very easily could've started procurement and even basic ground-based fabrication before the first one was destroyed... partially because the infrastructure was already there, they already had the contacts, the mining surveys, etc. One ultimate power in the universe is cool... but it's a big universe, you know?
Also the kid is right, or at least I thought it was pretty clear that it was Sidous' mentor that cause Anakin to be conceived by the mitichlorians.
I was wondering if Qui-Gon was Darth Sidious' mentor and that's why he didn't disappear, or am I reading that whole story line all wrong?
In the radio version of Star Wars, Captain Antilles is the guy who gets tossed away by Darth Vader. Never clear whether he's related to Wedge.
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