ajp4mgs
Super Freak
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Re: Star Wars: Episode IX - December 20, 2019
Galen ended his hologram message with this:
He was addressing Saw Gerrera directly as the one who needed to coordinate the DS destruction effort. So, are you saying that Galen expected Saw to be able to infiltrate an Imperial battle station and blast the reactor from *within*? If that's the case, why couldn't Galen take a shuttle (or have Bodhi take him), under the guise of an emergency need to inspect something in person regarding the instability of the reactor - in order to destroy it from within without nearly as much suspicion (or nearly as many obstructions, hoops, and hurdles)?
You're saying that Galen would've seen it as a suicide mission if it had to be done from within. So he set up a "trap" that would require an inside job. But then he sent Bodhi . . . to recruit someone else with no access to getting inside the Death Star . . . to do a suicide run from within it? That makes no sense. Isn't the inference of the whole message that Saw would find the same lone vulnerable access point to the reactor that the Alliance recognized? Or are you saying that the Alliance was actually too stupid to recognize an easier method designed by Galen?
Precisely.
On the surface, it seems Rogue One was written to explain that the DS was destroyed by way of a deliberate "trap" set by the designer. That was to change how we perceived it for 40 years as being a vulnerability discovered by the Alliance that would need a miracle (enter Luke Skywalker) to exploit it. Luke was behind that miracle shot for 40 years. Now, his shot was designed to be either very feasible, or (incoherently) near-impossible.
The fact that Luke's "one-in-a-million shot" was needed *by design* just adds a murkiness to the coherency of the whole ANH ending. Were the other pilots just horrible shots who couldn't hit what Galen would've thought to be feasible? Or, was Luke merely accomplishing what Galen had planned for, so it wasn't actually all that impressive of a shot?
What RO did to SW canon was establish that the only access point for destroying the reactor was the exhaust port so tiny that every other pilot missed it, at the end of a long trench with canons that would fire on any unauthorized ships, designed as such . . . on purpose! No one seems to have any problem justifying RO's existence, given that premise. Which is perfectly fine, and I'm glad that's the case. I just find it weird that there's so much objection to the existence of the sequels (especially TLJ, it seems) in terms of needing better justification than the prequel of RO has.
Not anymore.
I don't think that Galen Erso ever pictured that the DS reactor could be destroyed from *outside* that battle station. That was all the genius of the Rebel Alliance and Luke's connection to the Force. Otherwise I would have expected Erso's hologram to have said "Tell the Rebellion that I've set a trap, simply shoot a proton torpedo down the exhaust port and you'll destroy the station" and they could have just skipped going to Scarif altogether.
I think that Erso set the trap in the reactor and then assumed it would have to be detonated from within via explosives. My guess is that he was planning on doing that himself as a suicide mission before being taken off the project and reassigned to Eadu. At that point he could only desperately try and get the word out to anyone who would listen that the trap existed and hope that they could find a schematic of the base itself that would allow them to infiltrate and sabotage.
Galen ended his hologram message with this:
"Saw, the reactor module, that's the key. That's the place I've laid my trap. It's well hidden and unstable, one blast to any part of it will destroy the entire station. You'll need the plans, the structural plans for the Death Star to find the reactor. I know there's a complete engineering archive in the data vault at the Citadel Tower on Scarif. Any pressurized explosion to the reactor module will set off a chain reaction that will destroy the entire station..."
He was addressing Saw Gerrera directly as the one who needed to coordinate the DS destruction effort. So, are you saying that Galen expected Saw to be able to infiltrate an Imperial battle station and blast the reactor from *within*? If that's the case, why couldn't Galen take a shuttle (or have Bodhi take him), under the guise of an emergency need to inspect something in person regarding the instability of the reactor - in order to destroy it from within without nearly as much suspicion (or nearly as many obstructions, hoops, and hurdles)?
You're saying that Galen would've seen it as a suicide mission if it had to be done from within. So he set up a "trap" that would require an inside job. But then he sent Bodhi . . . to recruit someone else with no access to getting inside the Death Star . . . to do a suicide run from within it? That makes no sense. Isn't the inference of the whole message that Saw would find the same lone vulnerable access point to the reactor that the Alliance recognized? Or are you saying that the Alliance was actually too stupid to recognize an easier method designed by Galen?
And on the flipside, having the vulnerability be deliberate also detracts from Luke's achievement in exploiting it.
Precisely.
On the surface, it seems Rogue One was written to explain that the DS was destroyed by way of a deliberate "trap" set by the designer. That was to change how we perceived it for 40 years as being a vulnerability discovered by the Alliance that would need a miracle (enter Luke Skywalker) to exploit it. Luke was behind that miracle shot for 40 years. Now, his shot was designed to be either very feasible, or (incoherently) near-impossible.
Yep, a one in a million shot is still a one in a million shot, and RO doesn't change the fact that the Rebels still had to figure out on their own that the quickest way to the reactor was via a torpedo down the exhaust port.
The fact that Luke's "one-in-a-million shot" was needed *by design* just adds a murkiness to the coherency of the whole ANH ending. Were the other pilots just horrible shots who couldn't hit what Galen would've thought to be feasible? Or, was Luke merely accomplishing what Galen had planned for, so it wasn't actually all that impressive of a shot?
What RO did to SW canon was establish that the only access point for destroying the reactor was the exhaust port so tiny that every other pilot missed it, at the end of a long trench with canons that would fire on any unauthorized ships, designed as such . . . on purpose! No one seems to have any problem justifying RO's existence, given that premise. Which is perfectly fine, and I'm glad that's the case. I just find it weird that there's so much objection to the existence of the sequels (especially TLJ, it seems) in terms of needing better justification than the prequel of RO has.
Beg to differ.
That is not lazy writing at all.
The whole point of the tiny exhaust port being the Death Star's vulnerable spot is to showcase the arrogance of the Empire and the ingenuity and courage of the Rebellion, not to mention serving as a way to show the audience how powerful the Force is. Also, there's the whole subtext of one man's will against tyranny, trusting your instincts and not letting technology overwhelm you, etc.
That is good writing.
Not anymore.