LogFAQs > #909873868

Unbridled9 posted...

Those bays have been long-established to have forcefields for that sort of thing.

Exactly - so why wouldn't the bombers have the exact same thing?

Unbridled9 posted...

Rogue 1 ended with the Rebels in a massive battle and only a small portion escaping. It leads right into Episode IV as well (like, almost literally 5 minutes before IV starts, possibly less).

And? The Battle of Yavin is at the end of that movie. In between, Artoo and Threepio crash on Tatooine, a day passes before they wind up in Luke's hands, another day passes before everyone meets Obi-Wan, then they spend an indeterminate amount of time in space heading to the Death Star, then on to Yavin, then some more time passes while the Death Star plans are analysed and everyone's briefed on the weakness.

At bare minimum we're talking three days between the end of Rogue One and the Battle of Yavin. That's more than enough time for the Y-wings to be refueled and prepped for combat.

Unbridled9 posted...

Now, you can say that the movies show Y-wings as being no better than X-wings (and what happened to A-wings?) but ANH was the first movie in the franchise. We can be a bit forgiving that Lucas hadn't worked out the relationship between the fighters.

I'd buy this, except Lucas never *does* work out the relationship between any fighters in his movies - they all perform pretty much the same (aside from the fact that TIE Bombers can drop bombs). It was entirely the EU that came up with the Y-wing + B-wing = slow but tough bomber, X-wing = jack of all trades fighter-bomber, A-wing = fast but fragile interceptor.

Unbridled9 posted...

In the EU the Y-wing is a very capable bomber with multiple roles that it can fill even if it's primary is bomber while the dumb-wings role is... 'glowing target that you'll need to shoot and has no dodging capabilities'. What do these dumb-wings do, that isn't Johnson wanking his johnson for slow bombing runs, that a Y-wing couldn't?

Blow up a Dreadnought. I've been saying that for a while now.

The Y-wing was a fraction of the size of the Resistance Bomber; it could not carry enough ordinance to have a hit like that. Does the Resistance Bomber give up manoeuvrability and speed as a tradeoff? Yes - that's why it needs a fighter escort and isn't expected to fight on its own. It is more focused in its role than the Y-wing, but it has far greater yield in return.

And for all your calling these ships badly designed, they pretty closely mirror how bombers operated in WW2 (which is where Star Wars dogfighting draws nearly all of its inspiration). The Boeing "Fortress" line of bombers (on which the Resistance "Starfortress" Bomber is based) had a reputation in WW2 for being slow, but tough - very vulnerable to enemy fighters, but capable of sustaining significant punishment and still completing their missions.

Also, as previously mentioned, even in the EU the Y-wing was known for being an outdated pig; it was being used by the rebels because they were desperate, not because it was effective (they were swiftly replaced by the B-wings and K-wings when those went into service).
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