In Attack Of The Clones, Obi-Wan attempts to arrest the bounty hunter Jango Fett on Kamino. A fierce fight ensues, and Jango eludes the Jedi knight. Some rabid Trekkies have called into question the firepower stats for the tail guns on the Slave-1, listed in Attack Of The Clones: Incredible Cross-Sections at 600 gigajoules. Note that this would be at the weapon's full power; something the Trekkies happily ignore when discrediting the AOTC:ICS. The reason stated by VS Trekkies that want to dismiss this number is that Obi-Wan Kenobi survived a few full-power 600 gigajoule shots striking near him from those same tail guns during the Kamino scuffle with Jango Fett. Of course, there's absolutely zero evidence those guns were dialed to full power when young Boba Fett fired them. In fact,the novelization states that the Slave I's cannons went silent, the energy pack depleted for the moment. If one looks at Slave 1's pursuit of Kenobi's Jedi Starfighter during the later scene in the Geonosian ring-asteroid field, there's more than ample evidence that weapons dialed even close to full power wouldn't peter out after a few shots. So no, the tail guns weren't at full power.

Still, this idiocy persits, mainly because the VS Trekkies have a vested interest in attempting to have every firepower quote in AOTC:ICS thrown out as "non-canon" or some such idiocy. They insist that since Obi-Wan wasn't fried by the "full power" shots on the platform, the guns weren't 600 gigajoules. Nice circular reasoning, eh? Let's examine the scene...

In the book, Inside The Worlds of Attack Of The Clones, it states that the Kamino platforms are protected by the powerful lightning storms on the planet by a shield. We see clear evidence of this in the movie. First of all, Jango takes off into the sky to avoid a lightsaber strike from Obi-Wan, and continues firing on him.

Obi-Wan blocks most of Jango's blasts with his lightsaber. Note this particular shot above which Kenobi deflects into the platform:

The platform is undamaged by the deflected blaster bolt, even though it gave off some impressive pyrotechnics. The last shots Obi-Wan decides to dodge. Note the hits to the platform's deck:

The shots from Jango's blaster leave small scoring marks on the deck, but no part of the deck has been gouged out or damaged. Next, (as Boba fires up the Slave 1's weapons systems) Jango shoots his backpack missile at Obi-Wan:

Note in the above pictures, Obi-Wan wasn't thrown in the air as he was by Jango's jetpack missile. As a matter of fact, going by the two brown lines to either side of the ramp, (he's moved from the "left" side of the ramp to the right side only.) he wasn't thrown far at all.

Also clear from the above pictures is that the fireball made by the tail guns dissipates quickly, leaving no marks on the deck at all. Now, check this out:

This is the deck of the landing platform after the Jango vs Obi-Wan action, where Jango has just climbed back to the top of the platform. The deck of the platform is pristine. Jango's blaster shots may be too light to be seen from this angle, however.

So what conclusions can we come to? Is Jango's jetpack missile more powerful than the tail guns of the Slave-1? Judging by the fireballs, it sure looks that way:

What makes more sense to a rational person? That Jango would rather wear a weapon on his back more powerful than the defensive blasters on his ship? Or that the tail guns weren't at full power? The answer you come to will give you a strong indication of whether or not you are a complete imbecile.

Special thanks to "Meest" for the animated gifs, Brian Young, Curtis Saxton for helpful comments.