The HOLDO moment...

I suspect that, given how Rian butchered some of JJ's characters, he would fear some retaliation. So he killed her before JJ could strike back.

 

I did not mind the moment at all or that a person made the sacrifice (instead of a droid). However, I rather had a known character make the sacrifice. I hardly knew the character of Holdo, so her sacrifice did not mean much to me. What about Nien Numb or Admiral Ackbar? With all the technology available to Disney, the use of aliens in Star Wars has been disappointing.

 

Because writing a cohesive or consistent story is not fashionable today, just keep the audience entertained and don't let them think too much.

 

The droid issue has always been a glaring thing in Star Wars, it’s nothing new in TLJ. The issue is this: If robotics are seriously so advanced in the galaxy, why aren’t they used for war?

The closest George Lucas came to addressing it was with the battle droids in the prequels, and even that wasn’t satisfying, as the droids were never as deadly, efficient, and hard to kill as they should have been. Anyways, it’s not something you can really say is Rian Johnson’s fault, and not something you can suddenly hold against Star Wars now if you’ve been following it over the years. At the end of the day, for whatever reason, droids exist in this galaxy, but it’s biologics that do the thinking, fighting, and dying. That IS Star Wars.

 

Why not let the droids piloting the x-wings, A-Wings, B-wings, Y-Wings, MF during the battles of both DS? Or leave to the droids the task of attack the trade federation battleship with the naboo starfighters??

Because there are no drama in that. Thats why Holdo was left for the sacrifice. One of the best momments in the movie by the way.

 

I thought it was a really incredible moment. Theres arguments about how she could have set it on automatic and left the ship but I doubt it because the imperials would have shot an escape ship down.

 

This sequence was, by far (for me, at least), the most visually impressive moment in SW history.

We can argue all we want as to why a droid or autopilot wasn't used (maybe there's a good reason why they weren't, or maybe not *shrugs*), but whatever the case, that can't be changed now. I'll just continue to enjoy it for what it is: a beautifully visualised heroic sacrifice that made me feel something. It gripped me on the first viewing and the several since.

 

Agreed. Why'd they make Laura Dern's character out to be so inept? What a demeaning role!

We witnessed ship after ship destroyed after running out of fuel. If Holdo's plan was a kamikaze mission, why didn't she think to use the other large ships?
If her plan was evacuate people on transports, why did she wait until they were trapped at Crait. You do that after each jump before the FO catches up & send transports to hyperspace in different directions with fighter escorts.
Holdo clearly had no plan.

Leia demoted Poe for losing all the bombers. Holdo lost the fleet but wasn't demoted. Why? Seemingly the only thing she could do successfully was suicide. Leia wasn't about to talk her out of the kamikaze mission.

Very sad.

 

OK I loved the movie but admit, this scene opened questions for me and my family.....mainly......why can't someone invent hyperspace missiles? No defense against them whatsoever. I guess it is one of those "Star Wars things" you just live with.

 

I think Obi-Wan said it best about droids. "Well if droids could think, there'd be none of us here, would there?"

 

Well, not that I'm trying to defend this movie but perhaps the reasoning would be something like this(this is based on my recollections from playing the star wars flight simulators):

All ships except for some fighters are supposed to have shields, the cruiser could have overwhelmed the shields due to it's considerable large size, perhaps smaller craft or misiles would work just like their non hyperdrive versions, they couldn't bypass the shields.

 

The thing about that stunning hyperspace destruction scene, which is absolutely spectacular, no doubt, is that it's a bit too powerful of a tactic, that one would expect to see exploited more often in the Star Wars universe.

I'm not saying it couldn't work from a physics point of view, but I mean, it seems that all you'd have to do to take down a super star destroyer, or any other massive capital ship or space station from this point foward (or at any point in the Star Wars universe), would be to send a single empty cruiser, turn hyperspace on and direct it towards the massive capital ship and that would be it.

Also, why not do that to the Death Star itself to begin with? A couple of cruisers, or any empty large bulk ship with an hyperdrive on autopilot would probably have done it.

I found that scene stunning, but it seems to open a big precedent. Hyperspace ramming would be an almost unstoppable tactic in this universe. Doesn't this bother anyone else?

 

Considering that Snoke's ship was damaged and not completely destroyed, I don't really think it would have stopped the Death Star unless perfectly aimed (and the Death Star's defenses were built with cruiser-defense in mind).

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 26, 2017, Original Post Date: Dec 26, 2017 ---

Still trying to figure out how the entire Hoth invasion fleet couldn't spot the Falcon on the star destroyer. lol

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Each of the 3 theaters I went to experienced the air just sucked out of the room at that moment. It really is amazing.

 

Holdo's plan was not to go kamikaze on Snoke's ship at first, but to pilot the cruiser and silently serve as bait until she would run out of fuel (the FO's fleet was following her), while the cloaked transports would safely travel towards Crait unnoticed. This until DJ revealed the plan to the FO and the transports started to get shot at and destroyed one by one.

She then had no choice than to improvise. So, she directed the cruiser towards Snoke's ship and hit the hyperdrive. At least that's how I interpreted that scene.

 

Who's Holdo?

 

Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo, they're talking about her sacrifice.

 

I made mention of this in the spoiler review thread. At the end of Rogue One one of the fleeing cruisers at Scarif broke up when it collided with Vader's destroyer. Yet Holdo was able to split a much larger ship doing essentially the same thing. It's bothered me since opening day and still bothers me now that I've seen it twice.

 

Holdo’s ship was much larger than the Rebel transport that broke up in Rogue One. She was also much further away and entered light speed when she collided. The transport was preparing to jump but hadn’t yet. Not sure what the issue is.

 

I haven’t seen RO in a while, but my recollection of that scene was the same as yours with the transport preparing to jump but not yet jumping, and the distance between the two ships being much closer to one another.