Jar Jar plays Turn the Terrible Tank

[Cocytus]

I was watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade recently. The scene on the tank reminded me of another, far less interesting scene on a tank, specifically from the Battle of Naboo. Jar Jar lands on the tank's gun barrel, then almost falls off, and in so doing he manages to drag the entire turret downwards, causing the tank to veer off course and its leading edge to plow a little furrow in the ground.

Modern tank turrets alone weigh multiple tons. Jar Jar obviously isn't that much heavier than any other humanoid, given that Qui Gon was able to carry him a brief distance as the canister vacuum was bearing down on them. What is that tank turret made of, that Jar Jar was able to drag the entire goddamn thing off axis? And what can it possibly weigh? Is it armored? What kind of armor weighs so little that Jar Jar can tip the bloody tank the way he does? Or is the repulsorlift system's safety factor as small as the weight of a Gungan?

[Praeothmin]

Probably made from the same lightweight, flimsy material as the standard Battle Droids are made of...

[Lucky]

I was watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade recently. The scene on the tank reminded me of another, far less interesting scene on a tank, specifically from the Battle of Naboo. Jar Jar lands on the tank's gun barrel, then almost falls off, and in so doing he manages to drag the entire turret downwards, causing the tank to veer off course and its leading edge to plow a little furrow in the ground.

Modern tank turrets alone weigh multiple tons. Jar Jar obviously isn't that much heavier than any other humanoid, given that Qui Gon was able to carry him a brief distance as the canister vacuum was bearing down on them. What is that tank turret made of, that Jar Jar was able to drag the entire goddamn thing off axis? And what can it possibly weigh? Is it armored? What kind of armor weighs so little that Jar Jar can tip the bloody tank the way he does? Or is the repulsorlift system's safety factor as small as the weight of a Gungan?

AAT are not very well armored. Even during the Clone wars they are destroyed by sustained small arms fire at close range. You can kind of think of them as if they were up armored humvees with big guns on top.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qZJ85MdS-g
At about 1:20 on the video above you can see an AAT blown up by Naboo security forces.

At about 2:20 you see AAT firing on Naboo fighters.

At about 2:50 you can see the AAT blasting away at the Gungan plasma shield
http://starwars.com/explore/encyclopedi ... ungantech/

I think there are some quotes about how many things in Star Wars are made from sort of foam so they are surprisingly light.

[359]

Actually, if you look at the video (especially frame-by-frame) you'll see the tank begin to tilt before the turret swings around. Then the turret swings back 180° against gravity and the tank rights itself, but continues traveling in the wrong direction. So Jar Jar's mass at the end of the turret is not the problem, the tank clearly was executing a powered turn. I suspect that the maneuver may have had something to do with the recently defunct driver. Then perhaps some auto-stabilization kicked in after the tank's computers decided that it no longer possessed an operational driver as that could not be an intentional maneuver, so it righted itself.

Watching slow playback of the event I noticed that the tanks have missiles. That it what caused the explosion knocking Jar Jar onto the tank in the first place, it came from the tank back and to the right of him and his steed. These missiles seem to range in effect from less than an ounce of C-4 (the volley of six after the shields are destroyed (I always thought those were blaster bolts)) to a couple ounces (the blast that throws Binks onto the AAT)

Also the tanks are actually quite heavy. In the scene several seconds earlier while Jar Jar is running from the large blue sphere weapons, one strikes a tank and "whatevers" through its armor. The tank then proceeds to drop its small side guns and dig into the ground. It is not going very fast, so to dig in that much the tank can not be to light. The loss of the side gun is likely not due to poor structural engineering. The explosions coming out of the back of the vehicle suggest extensive internal damage, which probably resulted in the destruction of the support structures that affix the side guns.