Star Wars: Admiral Holdo

[Sandfall]

Where will she rank in your list of worst and most annoying star wars characters?

[Zero Hunter]

Somewhere between Jar Jar and Watto.

[Username taken]

I didn't like the Last Jedi but I liked Laura Dern as Holdo.

Her taking out the First Order fleet was pretty cool. I didn't like her interaction with Poe, she was a bit of a tool towards him.

[keeen]

It doesn't make sense to me why you'd keep your plan, or even backup plan, secret from everyone who could have a role in enabling or undermining it, but I like Laura Dern, so she only annoyed me a little.

[Mia]

It doesn't make sense to me why you'd keep your plan, or even backup plan, secret from everyone who could have a role in enabling or undermining it, but I like Laura Dern, so she only annoyed me a little.

How many generals and admirals broadcast their battle plans to the entire corps/fleet?

[Totoro Man]

How many generals and admirals broadcast their battle plans to the entire corps/fleet?

is your question about historical means of communication, fictional counter-examples, or is it a merely rhetorical counter?

national leaders have addressed entire nations by radio, television, or telegram in the past. in some cases these national leaders were also military leaders. in the original Battlestar Galactica it seemed like there were several times were Adama addressed the entire combined fleet with an audible message.

in other cases, in ancient warfare a commander usually spoke to their entire combat force because they were usually within shouting range. in the modern era it varies based on means and methods. but usually all of the primary commanders are given written instructions that informs them of what needs to be done.

she didn't even have to broadcast it to the entire fleet-- although it should have been simple enough to do. all she had to do is follow the example of Mon Mothma and tell everybody in the room the basic plan and the means needed to make that plan come to reality. every other Rebel leader up to that point seemed to do a pretty good job of making their intentions clear.

if there was concern about a spy (which was ultimately a red herring/loose end) they should have brought that up as an issue earlier AND followed up on it more. you would think that there would also have been more suspicion of Finn as the obvious Imperial defector (wearing a device that helped him track Rey. honestly, I thought that was how the First Order was tracking them, and wondered if Finn and Rose left the planet if they wouldn't send FO landing forces after them as well).

ultimately, they don't even bother explaining how Hux had them tracked... and nobody in the Rebellion seems show an interest in how to prevent them from doing that again. they simply despair that the FO tracked them through light-speed and assume that it will happen again in the future. if they could disable the tracking method then they could simply go into hyperspace again and lose them altogether.

at that stage EVERYBODY knew that they were out of apparent options and simply running for their lives. there was no benefit in trying to keep their end game a secret for a couple of reason:

since it was an old rebel base they were fleeing towards it's possible the First Order already knew about it at some point; it might even be why it was abandoned in the first place. presumably the First Order didn't know about it because they didn't prepare ambushes there. even without that knowledge they could have figured out Holdo's intentions from the very beginning. all she could do is run to a nearby planet and scatter forces from there.

if they flew in a straight line towards a pre-designated planet the First Order could have simply diverted portions of their fleet to hyperspace to the nearest known planets and set up sweeps to uncover possible Rebel bases... or blow the planets up outright before they got there. then they would be forced to fly through overlapping fields of fire and the Rebellion would get wiped out in a single action. the fact that the First Order contented themselves with direct pursuit and nothing more isn't real impressive on their end either.

would announcing it to the entire fleet, as you suggested, give away the presumed secrecy of their mission? perhaps... if they sent the message out in a completely uncoded and unscrambled form... which would be a bit weird. most broadcasts are encrypted or coded in some way to make it difficult for other people to listen in.

but at that point, their situation was supposed to look utterly hopeless anyway. however, if they announced their intentions to go to a specific planet they could have convinced the First Order to send away interception forces at the planet that could have reduced the fleet following them and reducing their immediate danger.

if they were able to solve the tracking method problem then they could have hyper-spaced out to another location and been in the clear.

Holdo fails the test of leadership by most practical measurements. she didn't have to be a bumbling idiot... but unfortunately that's how she was written.

[Soubhagya]

If Holdo did not reveal her plan how were the transport ships fueled up for transport? How were people ready to leave? Cloaking transports means someone has done that job of cloaking too.

Those who needed to know the plan learnt it in the right time.

And she would have gotten away with her plan too, if it weren't for the pesky little Poe Dameron and his small band of mutineers.

[ClanAskani]

How many generals and admirals broadcast their battle plans to the entire corps/fleet?

Here's where the scope and feel of the Resistance doesn't match between TFA and TLJ. From what was presented in TFA (and related materials), the TFA is a small group of rebels. They aren't a highly structured military organization. Leia keeps being called by her first name without a title.

Holdo then comes in in TLJ and knows these volunteer rebels are freaked out and does nothing. Unless everything we know about the Resistance changed with TLJ, then these aren't professional, highly trained soldiers/pilots. There's no reason to think Holdo shouldn't tell them something to avoid them freaking out.

Holdo not telling Poe is fine. He's a lose cannon and just got smacked down by Leia. But Holdo not telling Lt Connix implies those on the bridge had no idea what the plan was.

[Sandfall]

I didn't like the Last Jedi but I liked Laura Dern as Holdo.

Her taking out the First Order fleet was pretty cool. I didn't like her interaction with Poe, she was a bit of a tool towards him.

I like Laura Dern, I hated Holdo. Her character made no sense. Holdo is the perfect example of what happens when misguided feminism goes so wrong.

Do you remember Umbrigde from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix? Holdo is a poorly created version of Umbridge.

[Soubhagya]

She is nowhere near the list of worst characters. When i see somebody like Jar Jar Binks, Star Wars has shown to me how low a franchise can fall to. That character is like Mr. Freeze from Batman and Robin. Only a kid can like him. (There can be exceptions but i am speaking in general terms).

As to annoying. She was annoying/frustrating as long as she was hiding her plan and looked like a double agent. But after that she redeemed herself by sacrificing herself for the rebels in one of the coolest moments in Star Wars. I like her.

It doesn't make sense to me why you'd keep your plan, or even backup plan, secret from everyone who could have a role in enabling or undermining it, but I like Laura Dern, so she only annoyed me a little.

That plan was not a secret to everyone. The people at the bridge knew the plan. Poe found out after looking at a monitor which showed that the transports were being prepared. Thus, people fueling the transport knew too.

[ChrisIII]

I'm kind of curious why Johnson didn't recut or reshoot parts of the film to actually have Holdo take over for Leia permanently, given Carrie's death in real life....I'm guessing it's in part so we get that final scene with Luke & her, and probably time and money concerns as well.

[Carabas]

Holdo is the perfect example of what happens when misguided feminism goes so wrong.

Between this and calling the Black Panther movie "race baiting" twice in one post today your posts are taking on a much more unpleasant character.

Oh, and I quite liked Holdo. Shame she was a one off.

[ChrisIII]

I'd say the Star Wars films have always had pretty strong female characters since film one. Leia, Padme (well, at least at first, ROTS cut back on her involvement and screen time), Rey, Jyn..although they didn't do that much, a lot of women Jedi too.in the canon EU,Ventress, Ashoka, Hera, Sabine, Sloane, Sana....and Aphra....


The old EU also had the very popular Mara Jade character.

[Sandfall]

I'd say the Star Wars films have always had pretty strong female characters since film one. Leia, Padme (well, at least at first, ROTS cut back on her involvement and screen time), Rey, Jyn..although they didn't do that much, a lot of women Jedi too.in the canon EU,Ventress, Ashoka, Hera, Sabine, Sloane, Sana....and Aphra....


The old EU also had the very popular Mara Jade character.

Padme was even better in attack of the clones. I know its fantasy but I kind of admired her fighting along with the jedis at the beginning of the clone wars as the only human with no special powers or lightsaber. I loved her strength as a politician and yes, romantic idealism in the movie. Holdo is just bad. she reminds me of this tom and jerry character called Mechano but the only diffidence is Mechano was a villian.

[Sandfall]

Between this and calling the Black Panther movie "race baiting" twice in one post today your posts are taking on a much more unpleasant character.

Oh, and I quite liked Holdo. Shame she was a one off.

I don't agree with you. it was not me that made black panther about race. it was Disney and the Media. Black Panther is a movie that will always be defined by race because that was the premise that was created for the movie.

As for Holdo, she was just a bad character and feminism done wrong. Leia was feminism done right in the original trilogy, Padme in the first two prequels also. Holdo was just created to talk down at Poe and have him whipped.