LogFAQs > #938641617

I find The Last Jedi to be pretty bad. But then, I am someone who actually expects battle tactics to be at least half sensible by pre-existing Star Wars rules.

And no, I am not talking about the ram. I could easily see a theory two on why the ram would work despite it not being done before almost instantly (short version: the target has a special tracking system that allows you to track a target through hyperspace, and something about this system would also make the vessel carrying it one of the few that are actually vulnerable to this sort of ramming. I still like my idea better than the post-release official reason of "special raddis shields"). So the ram is actually the thing I have the LEAST problem with.

But yeah.

Battles: Just about everything about the first military engagement was done in a spectacularly terrible manner. Bombers flew way too close to each other, the escort fighters (many of which are the type literally called Interceptors) literally wait for enemy fighters to actually start shooting at bombers before breaking off from their bomber escort and engaging. In other words, the worst escort EVER. Entire wing of fighters and bombers just go along with the "rogue" pilot despite said pilot being the ONLY person to shut off their comlink to command (and thus, all those bombers and fighters. The New Order putting the big artillery dreadnought in the FRONT of their formation of star destroyers in complete disregard to any sensible naval strategy ever (not to mention their commander actually taking the time to listen to a single random enemy pilot and then taking the time to yell back after getting pissed off by said pilot). Both sides of the engagement were pretty much just COMPLETELY AWEFUL at any sort of battle tactics.

Yeah, those bombers are actually much better than the battle would suggest. One of them finally goes down due to the New Order ties being the only ones who seem to actually understand what "intercept" means. A single bomber carries enough ordinance to take out that entire dreadnought if you hit it right. So naturally, when it goes up, the other bombers that are flying way too close ALSO go up. <nerd voice> Worst escort ever. </nerd voice> And yet, despite just how massively the fail on the resistance side was, one of those things actually managed to get over the dreadnought with its bombs and gravity tubes intact and still technically functional enough to keep flying forward despite a huge amount of damage, with one final crewmember releasing the bombs. They were operated and protected in almost the worst possible way for the given assets to do so, and one STILL survived functional enough to barely do its job.

Plot elements: Poe did the RIGHT THING. He disabled the remarkably sparse but supposedly specialized oversized long-range anti-fighter/bomber turrets on the big, exposed dreadnought. And the fighters and bombers to deal the next blow were already sortied into space and ready to go. So clearly command had to have been planning this. Until no, lets actually NOT take the opportunity to kill a huge enemy bombardment vessel that is helpless aside from having TIE fighters. And then lets really dress down the one guy who actually did the right tactical maneuver. Or even just order back the bombers and fighters who went with Poe's command, seeing as they did NOT turn off their radios. The fact that they were idiots in "how to protect bombers" is not on Poe's hands either.

Naturally, he then gets dressed down after the battle (for "losing" a bunch of bombers and fighters that command could still contact and order back if they had wanted, and who themselves clearly lacked a clue what "escort" actually means, to catastrophic results). And then later, there is basically a reason of "we can't tell you this or that because we think there might be a spy." But no, they never actually say that (if they had, then Poe might not have started distrusting them and everything). So naturally, Poe gets fed up and does his own thing. Which by sheer coincidence involves picking up someone on some planet who turns out to be an actual spy and bringing them along, with said spy somehow finding out a thing about the shuttles that neither he or Poe never had any access to or reason to question.

And then there is the final "salt-hoth" battle. In which, again, a certain someone makes the RIGHT move of potentially sacrificing themselves to stop the big enemy cannon. Since if the cannon fires, it will destroy the wall and EVERYONE will get killed. But no, this time they "listen to reason" and back off.

Seriously. I get they were trying to do a character growth thing. But for that to work, the character needs to be legitimately shown to be wrong. And the movie's battles AND script were so poorly written that it actually felt like the exact opposite.
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