LogFAQs > #909869914

In Episode IV it's established to be a critical weakpoint that lead down to its reactor that the imperials didn't know about prior. R1 established that it was intentional as well, but even without it it's understandable. In VII Poe also got into a key and critical area. Likewise in I Ani fired off torpedos while INSIDE the ship. V's walkers had a weakness not even the rebels realized initially (and the imperials did learn from; though it's still a mystery as to why they abandoned AT-TE's). In VI, yea, but not only did that make at least some sense the guy was aiming on a precision strike for his kamikaze run. Compare that to bombs landing on the OUTSIDE OF YOUR HULL where things like 'armor' and 'shields' should have been and resulting in your ENTIRE SHIP blowing up and the payload not even being something fancy but a ton of basically grenades and... you have a ship designer who needs to be executed.

In short, it's not that 1 ship took out a capitol ship... it's that 1 ship took out a capitol ship when said ship should have had ample defenses and ways to stop it; especially when the thing is as nimble as a beached whale.

Poe disobeyed direct orders and his actions got a lot of people killed. In addition, he lost roughly half of the Resistance's already limited starfighters, including its entire contingent of bombers. If Poe had done something like that in real life, he wouldn't have been slapped and demoted, he would have been court-martialled, charged with insubordination and dereliction of duty and, depending on how strict the Resistance's code of military justice was, would be facing either a long time in prison or a summary execution.

Bombers like those would have been crap in a real fight (another reason why Y-wings were superior) and that doesn't change that the trade-off was a stellar one. His entire job is also to do exactly what he did. Want to also talk about 'losses'? Leia's actions caused them to lose their best pilot and have him get grounded in the following fight. They had their best pilot unable to help because they got pissy that he made the odds more favorable to them.

....you lost a sizable portion of your force -- apparently those were the LAST bombers they owned -- to take out a ship that the FO had dozens of. As far as "trades" go, it's Pyrrhic victory; hell, it's arguably even worse because they didn't even "win" following that engagement.

They lost a larger percentage of their force in that failed battle.

Pha! You don't know what 'Phyrric' means. A trade like that isn't 'Phyrric' by any means. Especially since those bombers were useless in fighter combat and could only be used for bombing runs (which the rebels had no way of doing). If anything it was 'Phyrric' for the empire since, even though they drove the rebels off-world and got them running, it cost them a capitol ship and multiple TIEs to take down a relatively small amount of fighters and otherwise-useless bombers.

It's a terrible trade when your only remaining bombers -- ships that could have been used in many other attacks with greater impact -- are sacrificed to take out a ship that the FO has plenty of. This wasn't a Death Star run, this was a far smaller win.
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I am the gentle hand who heals, the happy smile who shields, and the foot that will kick your ***! - White Mage