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A Question of Scale 01: Kom’rk-class

OK, so I’m going to “nerd out” here a bit. I’m a big fan of Mandalorian stuff, so I’m interested in the sizes of the various Mandalorian ships. But there seem to have been a few inconsistencies on the shows, and in the various reference materials, so I’m going to dive into that a little bit here.

Kom’rk-class Mark 1: OK, so when the Kom’rk-class ship was first introduced in the Clone Wars TV show, it was a really big ship. According to Wookieepedia it was 68 meters long (223 feet.) When it drops Mandalorians in jet packs out through the bottom hatch, I believe it drops them in groups of 24 troopers! So that’s a mighty big ship!

Kom’rk-class Mark 2: Later on, a smaller version of the Kom’rk was introduced, being 52.3m long (171.6 feet.) This ship is never officially referred to as the “Mark 2,” but I’m calling it that for clarity’s sake. The Mark 2 is similar to the Mark 1, but it’s smaller, and its wings and nose are clearly shaped somewhat differently. Wookieepedia clearly acknowledges the Kom’rk coming in these two different sizes.

Kom’rk-class Mark 3: Later on, we finally get to see a Kom’rk-class ship in live-action! Yay! Bo Katan flies one of these ships in the so-called “Mando-verse.” (Several other ships of the same design appear in these episodes as well.) Now when this ship first appeared in live-action, we all noticed that there are quite a few differences between this version of the ship and the previous animated versions. Of course, things tend to change when a ship migrates from animation to live-action. This live-action version is clearly not big enough to be a Mark 1, so maybe it is intended to be the Mark 2, (but just adapted and updated with a lot more visual detail for the live action screen.)

Well, Wookieepedia seems to agree with this idea, because it shows this live-action version as having the exact same length dimension as the Mark 2 (52.3m or 171.6 ft). Just so that each version can be referred to by a different name, I’ve shown this large 52.3m (171.6 ft) long live-action version of the ship above as “Mark 3A.”

There’s just one problem. On page 216 of “The Art of Star Wars The Mandalorian Season 2” the great Doug Chiang is specifically quoted as saying: “We realized that, in real life, Bo-Katan’s ship was just way too big. It was almost twice the size of the Falcon, which didn’t make much sense. So we kept scaling it down, scaling it down, while keeping it true to its animated origins.” One adjacent image in the book (on this same page) specifically calls out the new length as being “97 ft” (29.6m.) I show this smaller interpretation of the Kom’rk in the image above as “Mark 3B.”

Now, of course, one might speculate that perhaps Doug Chiang explored the possibility of making the Kom’rk 97 ft. (29.6m) long, but then thought better of it, and changed it back to 52.3 meter (171.6 ft.) length of the Mark 2. Perhaps they just failed to mention that in the book.

That could be, but if you watch the live-action show, there are several scenes in which Bo Katan’s ship flies alongside Din Djarin’s tiny little N-1 Naboo Starfighter. In those scenes, you can judge the relative size and scale of the Kom’rk ship as compared to the Naboo Fighter. In one view, the width of the N-1 seems to reach from the wingtip of the Kom’rk to about the center of the Kom’rk’s nearest engine nacelle. That matches perfectly with the 97 ft (29.6m) long version of the ship. Now I realize that perspective and parallax can make such estimations tricky, but the particular scene that I’m referring to is shot at very long range, with the ships in tight formation, so that perspective and parallax are diminished in the extreme.

By contrast, if you look at the N-1 next to the hulking 52.3 meter (171.6 ft.) version of the Kom’rk, the N-1 nearly disappears. The wingspan of the N-1 doesn’t even reach from the wingtip of the Kom’rk to the outer edges of the Kom’rk’s engine nacelle.

I’d also argue that as Bo Katan maneuvers her ship down between the rocky canyons, with TIE Interceptors on her tail, audiences don’t have the impression that this is a ship that it MUCH BIGGER than the Millennium Falcon. If anything, it seems like Bo’s nimble ship might be a little smaller than the Falcon.

Once more thing to consider. The main cockpit on the Mark 1 and Mark 2 had side-by-side seating, not unlike the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon. But Bo Katan’s ship has a single centrally-mounted seat for the pilot. That’s not proof, but this is more consistent with a smaller ship, like the Razor Crest. Also, the live-action Kom’rk drops only 10 Mandalorian jet-pack troopers at a time, as compared to the Mark 1, which dropped 24 at a time. Again, it’s not proof, but that’s a lot fewer troopers, and suggests a pretty dramatic scale reduction from the Mark 1.

In closing, I think Wookieepedia has the wrong listing the length of the live-action Kom’rk as being 171.6 feet (52.3m). I think that the image shown in the concept art book, depicting the ship at a length of 97 ft (29.6m) is much more consistent with what we see in the live-action shows.

If I’m right, the dimension listed on Wookieepedia might not be “wrong” so much as it is, “out-of-date.” This could simply be due to the fact that we haven’t really gotten a lot of detailed technical information on any of the ships, gadgets, characters, locations, or planets from the Mando-verse. In the old days, we used to get a “Visual Dictionary,” or an “Incredible Cross-Sections” book with each new show to help clarify this sort of thing. Of course, those books weren’t prefect either, but they certainly helped.   Since those sorts of books have not been forthcoming recently, (at least with regard to the Mando-Verse, little issues like this tend to remain unresolved.

Of course, I could be mistaken about the whole thing, and what does it really matter in the big scheme of things? But as a Mandalorian fan these things interest me. I’m not interested in getting into a big argument over any of this, I just thought some folks might find these observations interesting.

Description

A Question of Scale 01: Kom’rk-class

OK, so I’m going to “nerd out” here a bit. I’m a big fan of Mandalorian stuff, so I’m interested in the sizes of the various Mandalorian ships. But there seem to have been a few inconsistencies on the shows, and in the various reference materials, so I’m going to dive into that a little bit here.

Kom’rk-class Mark 1: OK, so when the Kom’rk-class ship was first introduced in the Clone Wars TV show, it was a really big ship. According to Wookieepedia it was 68 meters long (223 feet.) When it drops Mandalorians in jet packs out through the bottom hatch, I believe it drops them in groups of 24 troopers! So that’s a mighty big ship!

Kom’rk-class Mark 2: Later on, a smaller version of the Kom’rk was introduced, being 52.3m long (171.6 feet.) This ship is never officially referred to as the “Mark 2,” but I’m calling it that for clarity’s sake. The Mark 2 is similar to the Mark 1, but it’s smaller, and its wings and nose are clearly shaped somewhat differently. Wookieepedia clearly acknowledges the Kom’rk coming in these two different sizes.

Kom’rk-class Mark 3: Later on, we finally get to see a Kom’rk-class ship in live-action! Yay! Bo Katan flies one of these ships in the so-called “Mando-verse.” (Several other ships of the same design appear in these episodes as well.) Now when this ship first appeared in live-action, we all noticed that there are quite a few differences between this version of the ship and the previous animated versions. Of course, things tend to change when a ship migrates from animation to live-action. This live-action version is clearly not big enough to be a Mark 1, so maybe it is intended to be the Mark 2, (but just adapted and updated with a lot more visual detail for the live action screen.)

Well, Wookieepedia seems to agree with this idea, because it shows this live-action version as having the exact same length dimension as the Mark 2 (52.3m or 171.6 ft). Just so that each version can be referred to by a different name, I’ve shown this large 52.3m (171.6 ft) long live-action version of the ship above as “Mark 3A.”

There’s just one problem. On page 216 of “The Art of Star Wars The Mandalorian Season 2” the great Doug Chiang is specifically quoted as saying: “We realized that, in real life, Bo-Katan’s ship was just way too big. It was almost twice the size of the Falcon, which didn’t make much sense. So we kept scaling it down, scaling it down, while keeping it true to its animated origins.” One adjacent image in the book (on this same page) specifically calls out the new length as being “97 ft” (29.6m.) I show this smaller interpretation of the Kom’rk in the image above as “Mark 3B.”

Now, of course, one might speculate that perhaps Doug Chiang explored the possibility of making the Kom’rk 97 ft. (29.6m) long, but then thought better of it, and changed it back to 52.3 meter (171.6 ft.) length of the Mark 2. Perhaps they just failed to mention that in the book.

That could be, but if you watch the live-action show, there are several scenes in which Bo Katan’s ship flies alongside Din Djarin’s tiny little N-1 Naboo Starfighter. In those scenes, you can judge the relative size and scale of the Kom’rk ship as compared to the Naboo Fighter. In one view, the width of the N-1 seems to reach from the wingtip of the Kom’rk to about the center of the Kom’rk’s nearest engine nacelle. That matches perfectly with the 97 ft (29.6m) long version of the ship. Now I realize that perspective and parallax can make such estimations tricky, but the particular scene that I’m referring to is shot at very long range, with the ships in tight formation, so that perspective and parallax are diminished in the extreme.

By contrast, if you look at the N-1 next to the hulking 52.3 meter (171.6 ft.) version of the Kom’rk, the N-1 nearly disappears. The wingspan of the N-1 doesn’t even reach from the wingtip of the Kom’rk to the outer edges of the Kom’rk’s engine nacelle.

I’d also argue that as Bo Katan maneuvers her ship down between the rocky canyons, with TIE Interceptors on her tail, audiences don’t have the impression that this is a ship that it MUCH BIGGER than the Millennium Falcon. If anything, it seems like Bo’s nimble ship might be a little smaller than the Falcon.

Once more thing to consider. The main cockpit on the Mark 1 and Mark 2 had side-by-side seating, not unlike the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon. But Bo Katan’s ship has a single centrally-mounted seat for the pilot. That’s not proof, but this is more consistent with a smaller ship, like the Razor Crest. Also, the live-action Kom’rk drops only 10 Mandalorian jet-pack troopers at a time, as compared to the Mark 1, which dropped 24 at a time. Again, it’s not proof, but that’s a lot fewer troopers, and suggests a pretty dramatic scale reduction from the Mark 1.

In closing, I think Wookieepedia has the wrong listing the length of the live-action Kom’rk as being 171.6 feet (52.3m). I think that the image shown in the concept art book, depicting the ship at a length of 97 ft (29.6m) is much more consistent with what we see in the live-action shows.

If I’m right, the dimension listed on Wookieepedia might not be “wrong” so much as it is, “out-of-date.” This could simply be due to the fact that we haven’t really gotten a lot of detailed technical information on any of the ships, gadgets, characters, locations, or planets from the Mando-verse. In the old days, we used to get a “Visual Dictionary,” or an “Incredible Cross-Sections” book with each new show to help clarify this sort of thing. Of course, those books weren’t prefect either, but they certainly helped.   Since those sorts of books have not been forthcoming recently, (at least with regard to the Mando-Verse, little issues like this tend to remain unresolved.

Of course, I could be mistaken about the whole thing, and what does it really matter in the big scheme of things? But as a Mandalorian fan these things interest me. I’m not interested in getting into a big argument over any of this, I just thought some folks might find these observations interesting.