How do BLOCKADES work? Why not just go around? | Star Wars Lore 

I definitely overstated in saying that travel outside hyperspace lanes is impossible, however, it is very dangerous

I still can't believe a planet like Naboo depended solely on interstellar trade in order to survive and suffered after mere days of blockade. They have shiny ships but no agricultural or medical industry to keep the people alive? The Gungans on the other hand not only has a self-sustaining civilization that made them oblivious to some blockade but later provided the bulk of the army that fought the droids.

Is Endor the forest moon or the planet? EckhartsLadder: Yes.

Hyperspace jumps aren’t like cropdusting, they need millions of precise calculations Episode 9: LIGHT SPEED SKIPPING!

Curious to know how the hyperspace jumping in episode 9 works with this video

#askEck how many Imperial Class Star Destroyers do you think Spaceball One could defeat?

Ah the memories, remember when Hyperspace had rules? You couldn't just jump out from atmosphere, or into atmosphere, or instantly travel from atmosphere of one planet into the atmosphere of another.

Well researched and presented

"Hyperdrives do not allow a vehicle to enter hyperspace and just willy-nilly travel... Unless it's part of the Sequel Trilogy." Fixed that for you.

*hits block button* hOw Do BlOcAdEs wOrK?

Interesting concept for a video, definitely interested!

Sorry for the late upload - I explain what happened on Twitter: twitter.com/EckhartsLadder/status/1082051636078526467 After finishing this video, I found out that Alex from SWE made a similar video, more focused on Star Wars canon. We came to similar conclusions, though each focus on different things. You can see that here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vwfbe_cgyik.html Thanks guys!

So Do planets not move in Star Wars or do they just all know where the planets are at all times? Would rotating around other masses temporarily close hyperspace lanes

It might be slow, but why can't you just go out the side, take a long detour, and just sneak in farther down the hyper lane? As long as you line up with the lane, right? Why wouldn't that work? I'm sure if you needed to, you could calculate the distance already traveled down the lane.

This is one of the main reason Star Wars factions would have a hard time invading other galaxies without years, perhaps decades, of advance scouting. Sure, Hyperspace travel is much faster than most other forms of FTL travel in fiction, but requires them to have home field advantage to use it accurately. This is actually something that would put them, for instance, at an extreme disadvantage against the UNSC (in this one area), because of the Cole protocol, which prevents exactly that kind of navigational data from getting into enemy hands at all costs.

My question is: Can you drift while travelling at hyperspace?

Officer: “Sir, there are ships attempting to circumvent our planet-wide blockade! They’re attempting to go around us, what are your orders?” Admiral: “...Shoot them?” Officer: “Oh. Right.”

Just build a wall... and have Naboo pay for it.😂

Another major factor is that a spacecraft's velocity in orbit is significantly faster than any spacecraft's velocity in the atmosphere. Taking Earth for example the ISS travels at a speed of 4.76 miles a second or Mach 22, the fastest non-rocket powered aircraft ever built the SR-71 only did Mach 3 an X-Wing fighter can only pull off a paltry Mach .8 (or 1050 KPH) while "in the soup". This means that any spacecraft attempting to run the blockade from the planet ends up in the situation where an interceptor in orbit can cut off their escape route by the mere fact that it is in orbit already traveling at a significantly greater speed. This actually comes up in an old Star Wars novel, one of the Has Solo novels where young Han has to have it explained to him that no ship in an atmosphere can outrun a starship in orbit. Interestingly this velocity difference also extends to a spacecraft in a very high orbit, which a spacecraft entering the orbit of a planet after it has exited hyperspace would be in. The way orbital dynamics work is that in an orbit the closest point to the body being orbited, the periasis is where the orbiting object's speed is at its maximum. Imagine a ball rolling down a hill, when the ball reaches the base of the hill it will be going its fastest because gravity has been pulling down on it the whole time, now if that ball rolls up a hill on the other side of the bottom of the first hill when it reaches the top gravity will have pulled down on it making it travel slower. This slow point is analogous to the apoapsis or highest and slowest point of an orbit. Any spacecraft looking to land on the planet will burn off its velocity at apoapsis because since it is at its slowest any maneuver it makes will have the greatest effect, just imagine if someone is moving very slowly towards you- it will be far easier to push them out of your way compared to if they are running at you like a linebacker. Therefore a spacecraft coming out of hyperspace with the intention of landing on a blockaded planet ends up in the situation where it is traveling very slow and is thus an easier target, especially for sublight only fighters like TIEs or Droid Starfighters since those crafts are lightweight with high acceleration profiles since they aren't overly burdened with extra fuel and hyperdrives needed for long-range missions. Basically, any ship attempting to leave the planet runs into the problem that any spacecraft in orbit can cut off his escape due to their higher base velocity while any spacecraft attempting to get to the planet has to fly through a danger zone where snubfighters can intercept him, make a firing pass then be clear before he can respond with ease due to his lower base velocity.

Damn, Han made tons of jumps and this video just makes me appreciate his skills as a smuggler

You can't enter an Hyperspace lane Behind an egress Point? So you can't fly out into the System, come onto the Hyperspace trategtory and jump from there?

U got to love how well organized and thought out Star Wars is. I mean we r just talking about hyperspace and look at all this information that comes will. U can tell Lucas put is heart and soul into Star wars

The whole thing still makes no sense. A planet is in an ORBIT around a STAR. It's not just sitting somewhere in space. The hyerspace egress point needs to be either moving with the planet (very unlikely), or be much larger than the planet, probably as large as it's orbit, or even more likely the whole star system. But then Lucas was recreating WWII and samurai movies, not a space simulator. Most of it makes no physical sense.

Thanks a lot! I just rewatched the last few episodes of Rebels. I was wondering why the Ghost always comes out of hyperspace directly infront of the Imperial blockade of Lothal. Now I get it.

so put in normal terms, its just like police camping the start of a highway

"As you know, our blockade is PUH-FECTLY leguh, and we would be happy to accept the Senata's Ambassadas"

Very informative video, Eckhart! It's a shame the films didn't elaborate more on the hyperspace mechanics, because without reading more lore or watching videos like yours, a lot of fans will miss out on explanations that explain things like "Why not go around the blockade?"

like in real life blockades are set up where traffic is coming through, yes you could go around but that takes additional time.

Nooo! You can just jump to lightspeed randomly! Poe: Haha hyperspace hop go brrrrr

How to make space blockade 1 Fire trash in space in low orbit 2 leave ships in space in orbit 3 ? 4 profit Note: no one can get to you, but now you can’t leave

To bad the lore of hyperspace has been retconed in Rise of Skywalker so now you can hyperspeed skip between worlds F Disney

8:25 Revenge of the Jedi? Now thats a movie I'd like to see! XD Leaked Episode IX title?

#AskEck How could Naboo be starved in the first place? It seems like an extremely lush planet with abundant wildlife, little urbanization, and Naboo agriculture is confirmed in the Star Wars Wildlife Field Guide. I understand it would hurt the economy and prevent industrial goods from coming in, but it doesn't seem it would be a immediate pressing life or death issue as it is in the film. Furthermore in the episode III visual guide, when discussing the theed spacesport it basically says Naboo up until recently had been very isolated from the galaxy and before didnt really have much in the way of large spaceports. So it doesnt seem like blockading Naboo would hurt it all that much.

#AskEck In the Battle of Yavin, would it have been possible for the empire to shoot through the planet and hit the moon? I ask since the planet of Yavin is supposed to be a gas giant, meaning as long as they didn't hit the core, they should theoretically be able to shoot through gas.

Empire: We have an army Rebels: we have the Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi: I HAVE THE HIGH GROUND!

The problem I have with star wars is everything is linear flat like naval warfare , space is a three dimensional battle field and I've watched , all star wars films , clone wars and rebels and not once have I seen them use the space above or below in space combat for example, i refer to enders game. Using any angle for attack not just straight ahead assault.

#askEck Why not jump out of hyper space a ways before the planet, fly down a bit, and approach the planet at its poles? I mean, we do have 3 dimensions to work with. Also, in episode V Vader says "You came out of light speed to quickly," implying you can exit hyperspace before reaching the planet itself.

#AskEck Attempt 29: What if Palpitine lost control over the CIS. Battle of Umbara Breakdown Eck's top 5 favorite space battles Battle Breakdown of assault on Starkiller A weekly series that answers some of the fans questions about lore in just a few sentences. It would get a lot of people the response they want, without all the extra work. How long would the Republic last against Yuuzhan Vong How do blockades work? A series dedicated to each giving an in-depth analysis about the imperial warlords and their factions. How Large Was The Yuuzhan Vong Invasion Fleet | Star Wars Lore Video Battle of alsakan Battle breakdown of battle of Naboo Battle breakdown of battle of Battle of Yavin (time of exar Kun) Battle breakdown of occupation of Mon Cala (18 bby) Battle breakdown of operation ringbreaker Battle breakdown of battle of Malachor V Battle of deepspace besh 5 largest upset battles (small forces beats big one) Eck's top 5 favorite land battles Battle of thyferra from x-wing (including skirmish at yag-dul) A history of the Reaper SSD The death of Ardus Kaine The major star wars ship yards/ ship building companies (Incomm, Republic engineering, KDY...) Battle breakdown of battle of Borleias (x-wing series) Continue coverage of Yuuzhan Vong war Viscount Vs. 2 bellators Viscount vs. Something else cool DO YOU LIKE PINEAPPLE ON PIZZA??? More battle breakdowns!!!!

It's amazing this was on my recommendations, I've been watching clone wars and this is exactly what I was wondering everytime I saw a blockade. Makes perfect sense, even in a make believe universe it can be assumed certain laws of space travel will apply and therefore there will be rules.

If this is the popular understanding of hyperspace travel in the SW universe, then Thrawn's micro-jump tactics must be shockingly brilliant!

Actually, there's a mathematical theorem about this. You can blockade a 2D region on a 2D map. However, you can't blockade a 3D region in 3D space. This is only if you can travel freely. If you are limited to nodes on a graph, as would the case with hyperlanes, then you can totally blockade in 3D space. (As Eve Online shows.)

Replicators vs a Unified Star Wars universe (421st try now, *_I._** WILL NEEEEVER EEEVER GIVE UP!!!)*

I havent watched EckhartsLadder for ages glad to be watching again

You’re channel is nice for me because none of my friends are geeks about this stuff. I mean geek in a positive way. I enjoy geeking out on this like you do. Thanks for giving me an outlet for my need to discuss silly things like this from movies I like.

No, you cannot go around a blockade, I tried… Edit: Holy Sarlacc! This is the most likes I’ve ever gotten!

Great video. An issue with the example of Naboo given here, though, is that the fleeing ship continues at sublight speed for a ways before ever jumping to lightspeed, and is still within the orbit of Naboo's moon even at that point. That would mean that, for the blockading ships to be sitting sitting on the hyperlane's exit point, said point would actually be within the moon's orbit. Which is odd, seeing as how the gravity of a body like the moon would presumably cast a shadow across the hyperlane. As an aside, it does seem weird that a hyperlane would lead directly to a planet instead of to what would normally be the largest gravity well in the system, that being, the star. In practice, I imagine that the real blockade of Naboo revolved around the use of fighters, which would've been too small to appear on screen in the film's opening shots. Garrisoned in the many Trade Federation ships in orbit, they would've been able to catch anything leaving the surface and, if the hyperlane access point was further out, intercepted anything coming in. Also, and although it's more interesting the other way, being within a planet's gravity well doesn't prevent hyperdrive travel. It wasn't Legends but, in Rogue One, they escaped Jedha while close to the planet's surface.

Ahhh! Totally believable, and clears up the "2-D" thinking I felt was a thorn I couldn't get past. Sadly, this is not the case in the Star Trek Universe in which I was born. 😉

"Why do blockages work? Why not just go around them?" That's the point of a blockade right?

I've been wondering that Endor question for 35 years. Thank you for clearing it up!

You know its a good RU-vidr when they mention other RU-vids that made videos about the same things

ODSTs vs N7 and UNSC Marines vs System Alliance Marines

This is my favorite video Eckhart. I love the references to the Prequels the originals and to the legends books 👍👍👍

This actually helps against arguments I've been in with friends and is very informative. Thanks!

What about a Han Solo's trick on Starkiller???

What about micro jumps?

This aged like milk. Good job Disney

This was something i had been wondering, cause in both animated series it only shows 3-5 ships blockadeing the planet, and like just leave on the other side was a thought that came to mind often

This is something I have always wondered about but never looked up guess RU-vid recommendations actually did me a favor.

While an interesting plot device to explain the effectiveness of blockades, since both planets and star systems move these hyperlanes cannot possibly be a narrow as they are protrayed to be.

#askeck Did Darth Vader ever learn anything of Darth Plagueis besides at the opera with Palpatine ?

Wow, that explained a lot. After watching this, I think I understand how they thought of the idea and why some of the concepts seem so illogical. They just consider the Hyperspace as a highway system. And that's it. This is where they get the idea of the blockade as a compact placed ships. That's what you do to block the highway route - just stick half a dozen of patrol cars or road blocks in one place. Yep, looks like they did it. It also explains about the entrance/exit point. Which should be a lane, logically - you would think you can at least enter the lane somewhere in the middle, but no! It sure looks more like a point than a lane, the way they consider it.

I love this show! Answered so many questions I never thought would be answered. Thank you!

I thought the name of system was Endor and that the moon was named Forrest. Making it the Forrest Moon, of Endor.

8:26 Wait, Revenge of The Jedi?

Covenant CAS Assault Carrier vs First Order Resurgent Class Star Destroyer (25th try, I won’t give up, like so eck can see!)

This video actually answers a question I've had about Star Wars -- why the other planets in any given solar system are so often ignored. The answer is now simple -- there's no hyperspace egress points to the uninhabited planets in a system, and one wouldn't be put in *unless* there was a reason to do so. So no swinging around, say, a gas giant system-mate of Tattooine's. Going at sublight speeds simply isn't done in such a busy galaxy. However, this is also a common oversight that a prepared tactician could take advantage of. Thanks for the insight.

Thanks for sharing. Totally makes sense now.

#Askeck what do you think of the deepest levels of the underworld? (Lvl 1, 2 etc) what is down there?

Personal shield technology compared Dune Halo Mass Effect and Star Wars

1 tactic could be to stop well short of the Egress point, well outside sensor range of any ships, make a very short jump sideways/diagonal to the hyperspace lane and keep doing these tiny jumps skirting gravity wells, that way you can come in sideways and get to the planet, maybe using sensor jamming tech to get in without being seen.

That is super interesting, thank you

One additional point. It seems most of the cruiser class ships were designed with their cannons on their sides for broadsiding. A direct approach exposed you to fewer cannons, with the most exposure only happening as you pass the blockade, which is relatively fast if you can survive it. If you exit hyperspace and try to fly around the ships would turn to follow you, exposing you to all of their broadside cannons and making it more likely your ship will be destroyed. As such, a direct approach is better.

Space blockades, I really like what enders game had on this concept in the book. Sure you might technically have the high ground but good luck feeding your fleet without the ability to grow food. Now in Star Wars it would be a bit different since the blockade could get resupply from other planets and well robots don't need food.

#AskEck what is the galactic federation of free alliances an how was it formed?

"Why can't you just go around?" More like why can't every ship have at least one competent droid to just repair the damage after you get through the blockade...

#AskEck What Happened To The Clones In Their Pods at Kamino Durring Order 66?

Man I love your star wars videos you give so much insight on everything.. making me fall in love with star wars more... just by the way you explain everything. Keep doing what your doing much love 😎🤘

3:08: The Vong, as well as Obar, would do well to remember, there is no guaranteed winning hand.

Why not just go under ? Space isn't a flat plane, like it's portrayed in almost every piece of science fiction. That's what's so annoying about alot of space sci fi. Blockades should be extremely difficult damn near impossible due to the fact that they'd have to form a sphere like formation around the planet or system. But they form a circle that shouldn't be effective at all. Makes me wonder how they hell did they accomplish interstellar travel.

#AskEck how did Kylo Ren destroy Luke's Jedi Order before the movie The Last Jedi

I think there's a lot more comments with hearts from Eck than usual, someone's in a good mood today, eh? EH? ECK?

Good video. I always wondered why they didn't just fly in another direction.

This all makes sense and is a great explanation, but (perhaps) the ONLY problem with this is that it forgets about Lightspeed. Yes, it makes sense that: 1. The blockading faction would block each hyperspace entrance. 2. The planet’s gravity well necessarily means it takes longer to even get to a hyperspace entrance. 3. They can still leave the planet but since they don’t have access to a hyperspace lane they are easy to intercept Etc.... BUT, because lightspeed is still a thing for many ships, why don’t they just leave the system via lightspeed OR use lightspeed to get past the blockade and THEN enter hyperspace? Otherwise, this makes sense and btw it would be awesome to see blockades depicted in a circular pattern. Since the hyperspace lanes are tubular and not just slits, it would make more sense to have the blockading ships form a circle that covers the diameter of the hyperspace entrance!

you can’t go around it if there’s no belgium in space

As far as I understand it, hyperlanes are indeed *lanes* which means that you should be able to enter hyperspace from any point on a hyperlane. That brings up one rather obvious workaround to this blockade issue; while it might be really hard/expensive to find new hyperspace lanes, it really cannot be that hard to figure out which parts _within the same system_ are safe (those issues Han Solo mentions with blind jumps, running into a sun or such, can't apply in-system since you KNOW where all celestial objects are with great precision). We know they can make short, in-system, jumps. So, why not leave (in this example) Naboo from the "south pole", and as soon as you leave the gravity well make a micro-jump at an angle that will have you appear right on top of the true hyperspace lane (still within the system, maybe just 2-3 times farther away from the planet as the blockade). You could then immediately make another jump and make use of the lane. This tactic would make it really hard to blockade a system as you would need these interdictor fields put up along the whole lane in-system (and a star system is BIG, so it would be expensive as hell)

in the game Starshatter The Gathering Storm, the main scenario is a blockaded planet that your forces go liberate. the blockade in question, is five destroyers, one aircraft carrier, and one land outpost, plus 30 to 40 mines, in groups of 5, on one side of the planet. granted, the starships alone pack a hell of a punch and can orbit around the planet as needed, ..... but you also have starships of your own that can ALSO move around the planet!

#AskEck What if the Forerunners defeated the Flood

But how does the mafia work ?

Im sorry im late but here Blockades: *exist* Other ships: How do we get through Charger c70: observe

Another thing about blockades is that you will need a lot of vessels to cover as many ways in as possible. The amount can vary quite a bit depending on the range of the blockading fleets weaponry and its mobility. Any fleet blockading a planet will need good sensor coverage so they can detect and intercept anything trying to run the blockade.

This kind of reminds me of some other thing about Star Wars about planet attacks or getting around things: why didn’t the Rebels go directly to the exsaught port of the Death Star instead of flying around for a bit before having one group go in and why at a time instead all at once?

5:37 I think we do see the blockade on both sides of Naboo. Because Obi-Wan and Qui-gon were on one of the blockade ships and when they landed on the planet they have to go through the core to get to the queen. then as soon as they take off the blockade is right there in front of them. I think it’s reasonable too say that was the part of the blockade that was stationed on the other side of the planet.

This answers a lot of question. Thanks.

SkyNet vs The Flood 248th Attempt Scenario: SkyNet beats the resistance, and then a Flood scout ship crash-lands on Earth, the Flood form inside does not survive, SkyNet retrieves the body and studies it, and learns the basics of it (it is infectious, has some sort of hive mind, and can take memories), SkyNet salvages the ship for whatever is left, and manages to decode transmissions from the Flood, alerting them of the Flood threat coming to Earth, SkyNet then prepares for the next 5 years, The Flood will arrive using multiple High Charity's, including it's fleets, weapons, and so on, in Scenario 1a it gets 5 High Charity's, in Scenario 1b it gets 10 High Charity's, and in Scenario 1c it gets 20 High Charities, The Flood may not use the Logic Plague on SkyNet, SkyNet may not travel back in time and just constantly give pre-Flood War SkyNet better and better stuff and information, If SkyNet can survive until Scenario 1c then I personally say that it would win, although if that is not enough each scenario could in fact be a wave that SkyNet has to destroy, which would make 35 High Charity's in total, and each wave would come a week after the wave before it was totally destroyed, giving SkyNet the chance to regroup and analyze whatever data it received from the battle, whether it be more efficient ways to kill Flood Forms or even gathering and using/reverse engineering Covenant Technology for its own use,

your ships speed also affects your hyperspace capabilities. A faster ship can cut closer to gravity wells, as shown by the falcon. People make fun of the kessel run line, saying that par secs are a unit of distance instead of time. Kessel , the source of the spice glitterstim, is close to the maw cluster which is a cluster of black holes. Most ships gave the maw a really wide berth to avoid being trapped in the gravity well of a black hole and killed. The falcon, being faster, was able to get closer without as much danger and as such was able to take a better angle and cut par secs of travel off the route. also, I believe you had to override safety protocols to jump into or out of a planets atmosphere because it was so dangerous. if you are off to any degree in your entry or exit angle, you plow into the dirt at extreme speeds with little to no chance for correction.

Ur outro will never get old...

Just get out of hyperspace and use the regular thrusters to go around, or use hyperspace to go to other side of planet, and travel behind the blockade to where u wanna go

This is amazing completely changed the way I look at this now

Do Faction Versus videos again please. Do the Forerunners vs The Imperium of Man. (Halo vs Warhammer 40k) I am not giving up until then.

Why don't we take the blockade and PUSH IT somewhere else?!?