My wife hadn’t seen The Last Jedi yet, so we went to go see. She had quite a bit to say about space tactics on the trip back, although she liked the movie overall (as much as she likes movies, which is kind of hit or miss usually). Honestly, the most interesting thing about her reaction? …The Porgs, man. She thought that the Porgs were hysterical. I may have to go to the mall tomorrow. Or maybe the Target will have them. Yeah, I should check the Target first.
Moe Lane
PS: I personally found that the movie rewarded a second viewing, although I understand that half of my readership were not entirely impressed by a first viewing. I readily concede that I am easygoing when it comes to movie reviews.
Does she object to the ramming scene? Please say she objects to ramming scene.
I wouldn’t have objected to the ramming scene if it had actually done the damage a ship that size *should* have done. Of course, then the hero death toll would’ve been higher, and the whole final sequence wouldn’t have taken place.
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But in a (rare) defense of the movie, I think there’s good reason we don’t see this attempted a lot in the SW universe. You’d probably have to override more safety interlocks than an AI would allow. And someone has to be willing to be the kamikazi, when most people would be just fine jumping in the escape pods and living to fight another day. And we don’t see sublight ramming because ships would be incinerated before they got close enough.
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No, I have about 6 other scenes and an entire character arc that needs excising before I get terrible concerned about the ramming scene.
I don’t buy those defenses of hyperspace ramming. We’d have to see something, anything, for us to believe that this is a one-of-a-kind opportunity. As for safety interlocks and stuff like that, why? If ramming through hyperspace is so effective, then, thousands of years ago, somebody would have just developed hyperspace missiles.
I am…skeptical…that there would be safety interlocks preventing such unusual use of hyperspace drives in a universe that doesn’t put railings on walkways over effectively-bottomless pits.
As far as the level of damage that might be done, I find the MST3K mantra helpful here. There was as much damage as the plot required. “Why has nobody ever done it before” is a more useful question.
I doubt hyperspace missiles would work. You’d have to figure out how to put a hyperspace module on a craft smaller than an X-Wing. TIEs don’t even make hyperspace jumps because of size constraints.
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Besides, we already know technology has gone basically nowhere in the SW universe for 5000 years.
So make the hyperspace missiles bigger than an X-wing. Seems to me all you need is mass and hyperdrive. Thats easy.
I .. don’t think she was *in* hyperspace, though .. just accelerating to pick up the necessary speed to *jump* to hyperspace ..
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As for “why it isn’t done” .. I suspect the answer is physics .. the damage is due to good old E=MC2 .. the ship, on its’ way to hyperspace, got to near C=1 .. *but* the *cost* to get a sufficient mass up to a sufficient speed to do that kind of damage would be .. huge.
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The *better* question, then, is why the Empire bothered with a Death Star .. slamming several outdated/surplus Star Destroyers into Alderaan would’ve messed the place up pretty much indefinitely at a fraction of the cost.
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*Depending* on how many surplus cruisers the rebels can get their mitts on ..
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Mew
Surplus cruisers?
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Mount lightspeed drives and guidance systems on the nearest asteroid. At the speeds and distances in the film, you probably don’t need pilots to be clever/unpredictable. A few X-Wing sized bricks at a significant fraction of C ought to ruin a Star Destroyer’s day.
One imagines, from the number and variety of both engineers and engineering work spaces, that “lightspeed drives” may be just a *tad* complicated ..
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By the time you’re done surveying the asteroid (without the advantage of having a Jedi-engineer around mind) so you know where to put the bricks, how to connect the bricks, what settings to feed the bricks, etc. etc. .. you’re left with a brick rather far from where it’s needed ..
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Mew
Porg are food.
Indeed. Chewy was right. But hey, at least the supposed cute cuddlies weren’t cannibalistic this time.
But that was the ewok’s only redeeming quality!
Ewoks!? I thought he was talking about Galaxy Quest!
I’ll be seeing it a second time next week, so I’ll see how well the initial impressions hold up. As far as the ramming scene… Gotta go with Ben Domenench on that one. It should have been Admiral Ackbar and “It’s a trap” should have been his send off line.
Well I agree Ackbar deserved better than what he got. And I could’ve not watched Miss Admiral in an Evening Gown who couldn’t tell anyone her plan so Finn and Poe could do their useless plan that served no purpose.
To be fair Ms. Vice-Admiral was likely working with a fairly tight OpSec requirement .. one that *didn’t* include a former Imperial ..
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That said .. Finn and Poe and their useless plan very nearly was .. non-useless .. and some payback is set for the next film.
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Mew
Good to hear about the second viewing. I remember watching TFA a second time and… well… it suffered badly. In particular, the opening scene in which Kylo Ren is introduced ruthlessly destroying the settlement just doesn’t work as well when you know who’s under the mask.