Probably the most ass 'battle' in Star Wars

[@chrisreilly1290]

She reminds me of Anakin and how Ahsoka told Anakin that HE can make it to the Malevolence but the other pilots cannot. Hera is a great pilot but she's leading entire squadrons into battles she can win if they were all as skilled as her. She also doesn't do well with surprises. Perhaps she gets better after the Civil War at leading.

[@sumukhvmrsat6347]

No wonder they put her against the king of surprises Tactical overlord Thrawn

[@handlesaredumb9]

Plot armor and some BS Mary sue power they will give her will probably do the trick.

[@gamersniffles]

@@handlesaredumb9 fake bots (not you)

[@ericmorris3948]

She literally tried to send civilians out in the middle of a battle to serve as a distraction in Squadron's. She's in it for the career. I'm convinced she intended for Wedge to die here because she wanted Phoenix Squadron. She didn't Evan man all her cannons on the Ghost. Her game is she plays all humble, then surrounds herself with the political elite of the rebellion. So no she does not get better.

[@LakesideTrey]

@@handlesaredumb9Mary Sue? She literally gets her ass handed to her time and again.

[@TheWarmachine375]

Hera Syndulla: "We're gonna fly straight through the blockade!" Imperial Navy: *takes out several Rebel ships coming straight at them* Hera Syndulla: *surprised Pikachu face*

[@PaulGuy]

Star Wars has always had a weird inability to understand the complex tactic known as "Going Around".

[@Avery_96]

There is no going around no matter what the Imperial fleet will intercept them

[@aurorauplinks]

@@PaulGuy star wars exists on a 2d platform. the force is occupying all the reest of the space... and the camera crews :D

[@mrjtfang2]

@@Avery_96 ...Is this a serious counterpoint?

[@easternrebel1061]

​@Paul Guy star wars never really nailed the "war" part down from the very beginning if we are being honest. Now don't get me wrong I love me some good star wars media , and the books sometimes get it right, and some games as well, but with the movies and half the shows especially, there seems to be a Fundamental lack of knowledge regarding military structure, tactics, and how generally speaking a galaxy spanning empire would be a formidable for to fight, especially when half of your forces are ex-criminals, pirates, and untrained, undisciplined, and often not the brightest rabble, and only a few of the higher ups have any military or governmental experience, or adept in the use of the force, since you know order 66 and the following hunt by the inquisitors to exterminate the jedi leaving only a few alive. I realize it may sound like I'm not a fan , but while I ultimately understand it's meant to be a story of good versus evil, I feel it would really be better at conveying the gravity of the struggle against the empire if they tried to be more logical in their portrayal of the imperials as the formidable foe they were instead of making them into the laughing stock.

[@leoismaking]

Actually, I really liked that they often showed the Empire, and most especially Thrawn, as competent, capable, and dangerous on occasion. Hera, skilled though she may be, really should NOT ever outsmart Thrawn on a purely tactical level. As it was a kids show, the main cast sometimes felt untouchable. So watching them fail and other rebels get hurt or killed was a good way of somehow maintaining the feeling of danger. Also, it shows how desperate and overwhelmed the Rebellion was meant to be in this timeframe, in terms of simply not having the hardware or numbers available. They went in with what they had, cause its ALL they had or could risk.

[@robindowse7893]

I totally agree the rebellion was growing and at times they'd lose just as much as they had gained

[@_aullik]

Thankfully i looked through the comments as I was about to write basically the same. To add to your point: In Rebels Hera sucks as a tactician, she also lacks training. Not every main character needs to be OP in all aspects. People get promoted into positions where they do not belong for political reasons and unrelated reasons. Hera is a great leader so she became a General against little to no competition. She can however grow into that position given time and experience.

[@Roukle]

Now, if only they can make both sides competent at the same time, instead of just giving the competency stick to whichever side the plot needs to win today

[@jacktheflash8478]

@@Roukle a bit late for that shows over

[@jakobkiilerich3588]

This whole comment is useless, when you look at the fact that the Rebels cast never suffered a real defeat throughout all 4 seasons of the show

[@inductivegrunt94]

It's amazing how Hera became a General after these events even though she suffers from bad military leadership abilities and how many good soldiers, ship crews, and pilots she needlessly lost in her failed plans.

[@Hailthecloudslayer]

Well, when everyone is dead. Someone has to be general.

[@shaunw9092]

Concord Dawn too. The Mandalorian Protectors destroyed several A Wings and Hera was nearly KIA.

[@Terrivel119]

They made some random smuggler they just met a general. They’ll make anyone a general these days.

[@aurorauplinks]

its just like everything in this world. their werent any better women ready for promotion that could be spared from their current roles, and the men weren't an option if a woman was available for promotion

[@aurorauplinks]

@@Terrivel119 at least han new how to move through imperial blockades and get troops to important locations without getting caught... most of the time ;)

[@JKrow21]

I laughed at Hera using the Battle of Ryloth as "inspiration for her strategy"

[@why9541]

Begone bot

[@def3ndr887]

Most of the strike force was destroyed lmao

[@dinocyborg4169]

Hera took her strategy from the clone wars episode where ahsoka got most of her squadron killed flying straight at a separatist blockade over Ryloth.

[@shockwavessecretaccount2058]

@@dinocyborg4169😂

[@AnonymousSocialist09]

It’s a tradition then😂😂😂

[@evandealy3493]

Personally, I think the battles of rebels were kinda mid most of the time. We did have the occasional good battle like the base escape, but rebels could honestly have done without some of these space battles and it would have been a great show.

[@Aquade]

Rebels was just great value clone wars in every way

[@Hailthecloudslayer]

I’d agree. Rebels was actually mid most of the run anyway

[@thebaron2277]

Battle of Atalon was peak tho

[@calebbarnhouse496]

I think mid is more credit then rebels deserves, the problem is the ghost crew have to much plot armor, I'd the rebels took casualties and swapped out people it would have helped add stakes

[@Aquade]

@Caleb Barnhouse lack of stakes, diminished sense of scale, unsightly animation style

[@mmeppelink20]

"Some of her plans are downright ass" that made me laugh way too hard

[@AshanBhatoa]

Rebels does depict some neat Imperial victories. I'd say this does convey Hera's folly, which was strategic planning. In addition to the bold (too audacious) nature of Phoenix Cell.

[@rory8182]

Yeah, Hera was good at the meta layer stuff (overall organising people) and the micro layer stuff (doing stuff like 1 on 1 dogfighting) but the macro layer (planning the engagements) is not her strong suit

[@andrewheard3099]

Rebels always made the Imps look silly. I never felt like they were in danger. It was good to see the Empire come up on top in those two encounters.

[@kylejohnson6775]

And it made the heroes look silly half the time too. Depending on where the drama is, 6 stormtrooopers is either overwhelming and they have to run away, or it's barely a speedbump on their way to something else. Like when they're in the sewers and they're "cornered" by stormtroopers that they outnumber in a big open room with no cover. Everyone just misses for 2 minutes until the door opens in a dramatically timed fashion. But in other situations, Ezra takes out 4 stormtroopers all on his own in 10 seconds. Sometimes the fights were a parody of the star wars trope of everyone having bad aim, but played completely seriously

[@christopherpoet458]

The Imps made the Imps look silly. You don't need the rebels. Put Thrawn in a room of people and Thrawn looks normal, not like the genious he is supposed to be.

[@andrewheard3099]

@@christopherpoet458 I mean't the TV show not the actual Rebels.

[@christopherpoet458]

@@andrewheard3099 Yep. And the point still stands. 🤣

[@khandimahn9687]

Hera certainly had a problem when it came to taking an offensive stance against a blockade. I remember in the first case, I rolled my eyes in disbelief because I thought plot armor was going to carry her through. I was actually shocked when the stupid plan didn't work! I gained a little respect for Rebels. I also wondered "Hera, what the hell were you thinking???"

[@sethb3090]

Also it's hilarious that Hera is the only one who actually gets a kill in an A-Wing in their first few engagements. It's a good thing they had a silly number of extra starfighters and pilots somewhere.

[@obyone878]

@@sethb3090 I mean, in a galaxy of trillions, it would be easy to keep up pilots. Honestly, a lot of people underestimate how difficult it would be to lock down that much territory. The Empire was doomed from the start. There's no way to keep up with that many people and hidden enemies. Hell, they literally hide outside of the galaxy in a fleet at the end of Empire Strikes Back. In theory, they could just have manufacturing ships in deep space pumping out ships. Plus, there's the fact that ships are basically cars in Star Wars, so most people have at least seen a cockpit.

[@nathansheldahl]

The first example I get but the second one was a classic rebel raid that was beaten by Thrawn and anyone would look like fool facing him. They weren’t trying to reinforce Ezra but take out the TIE Defender factory and she did the best she could against a genius.

[@irregularassassin6380]

Yes, I don't think Hera knew how many TIEs Thrawn had in reinforcement planetside. You could argue that she could expect that many vehicles considering her target was a factory, but a factory can't produce pilots to fly those ships. Furthermore, Hera herself was really the only answer to the TIE Defender problem, so the Rebels did field their best asset against the Defenders they knew would be in the blockade. The failed raid on Lothal was a desperate gambit that nearly worked despite the odds being so long.

[@Ashguy733]

My biggest issue with Star Wars battles is logistics. Tactics are great, but logistics are what win wars. This show only makes me shake my head at how the Rebels lasted this long wasting resources that cannot be obtained back easily.

[@zays_mentos]

I'm always reminded of how the Kriegsmarine attempted to starve Britain in the War in the Atlantic by sending U-boat wolfpacks against British merchant shipping in order to confuse and overwhelm the warship escorts protecting them Which makes it all the more egregious why the Rebels would send a lone, unescorted merchant (not even any torpedo starfighters) against *three cruisers* especially after recently losing their former flagship, Phoenix Home

[@AAhmou]

The biggest waste of ressources was in Legends where the Rebellion decided it was a great idea to take a LucreHulk, fill it with X-wings and launch an attack on the Death Star. Since at the time they didn't know where to strike, and DS1 was being escorted by an ISD fleet, it went as well as you'd expect.

[@matthewcaughey8898]

@@AAhmou an old venator or 2 packed with starfighters then the venators are set to ram the Death Star. This ties up its weapons to kill the venators. Secondly it buys the fighters time and you can be sure the DS can’t get its drives going fast enough to avoid the big chunks of burning ship that it will impact with

[@nathanpierce7681]

@@AAhmou that summary sounds hilarious. if only because of amazingly dumb of a plan that is

[@willmorris8198]

In rebels they do have episodes where they address this though. There's an entire episode where they are critically low on fuel and have to raid a fuel depot. It's called "the call" and it's in season 2, I don't remember what number the episode is. Also, in TCW there's the season 3 episode "supply lines" where Bail Organa negotiates for supplies for republic soldiers on ryloth IIRC.

[@andrewrebholz]

I do think Filoni missed out on an opportunity to give Hera some more depth by exploring the difficulty she faces and lack of experience in taking on tactical command roles for the Rebellion. This recurring theme of Hera needing to put aside the focus on her own skills as a combat pilot and thinking like say Kallus or Thrawn in an engagement with vessels under her command would give some of her losses to the Empire more meaning beyond just the episode that they're in. It also gives semblance to Thrawn's idea of "knowing and thinking like your enemy." I don't think Hera would ever come to rival someone like Thrawn in the realm of grand naval doctrine and strategy but subtle changes like mentioned would build for fans of Hera a cool progression that the Spectre II we meet at the start of Rebels and the "General Syndulla" we hear about briefly over the intercoms in Yavin IV in a New Hope is a character that went through dozens of impactful strategic failures and pyrrhic victories alike in order to make her think less like a pilot and more like a tactician.

[@irregularassassin6380]

That's a great point. Thrawn was clearly very intrigued by the Spectres and explained his interest and methodology to several members. It would have been fantastic character growth for Hera to learn at the feet of her enemy, in a way. Thrawn could be beating them left and right, but with each victory, he is strengthening his foe. I imagine, had this happened, he would have been very pleased to see Hera's growth.

[@MedicAthlete24W]

That would mean Filoni would have to be able to competently write something that doesn’t annihilate canon or plot armor the hell out of a character so they don’t die

[@ambroserucker1056]

“It reminds me of the first Republic attempt to break the blockade of Ryloth, and maybe Hera was looking up at the sky and used that for inspiration” absolutely hilarious quote 😂😂😂

[@fazbrogaming7776]

I was watching the 2003 Clone Wars micro series and one thing that I thought was super cool was that in space battles you had thousands of ships all over the place, it was epic and made the battles look huge, why can’t we get something like that in TCW or Rebels? I think it would make Star Wars battles so much better.

[@DarthCindros]

I think purely because of budget and time. It would be quite expensive to make a massive space battle akin to what we see in the Battle of Coruscant in the Tartakovsky Clone Wars; the Battle of Lothal or the attempted invasion that we see in this video is probably the biggest space battle Rebels ever had. Plus, the Galactic Civil War is a fairly small-scale conflict compared to the Clone Wars, especially in its early days. The Alliance simply doesn't have the numbers to take on the Empire's significantly greater fleet size.

[@calebbarnhouse496]

​@@DarthCindros sure, but ultimately there are plenty or rebels total, so you could have a battle with hundreds of starfighters, but no capital ships of the rebel side, while the empire struggles to launch fighters due to how many starfighters are dropping bombs and shooting down ties trying to get out or hangers, it wouldn't necessarily make 100% sense, but its certainly more interesting then the small space battles with had tactics

[@insertcognomen]

size matters not. judge space battles by their size do you?

[@Dendricklystable]

They're CGI animated, meaning each ship needs to be rendered individually. 2D animation has the advantage that it's just changing the colours onscreen in a certain way. So a patch of empty space and a ship would take up the same amount of space, not the case in 3D animation

[@giathuanleviet4138]

The clone war is a war between 2 government, of course they gonna have thousands of warship in battle, the galactic civil war is just rebel cell vs a galactic empire, they simply cannot win the game with number

[@VERTEX7101]

Kalas was pretty smart here he used the rebels generosity against them and the rebels lost a valuable ship

[@shanehudson3995]

It doesn't hurt that the 5 Imperial ships are in tight formation, and instead of trying to reach any other point on the planet, the Rebels run head first into a wall.

[@benblue361]

​@@shanehudson3995 but then we wouldn't have lost any rebel ships....wait a minute! Hera IS A TRAITOR!! Only solution

[@michaelramon2411]

@@shanehudson3995 That's just a rule of Star Wars, like all the ships having to orient "upwards". Logically, no one has to follow it, but if they don't, the whole universe breaks.

[@shade8816]

​@@shanehudson3995​Well, there were other problems too. The blockade was guarding the most direct route the rebels needed to access the drop point on the planet. Yes, they could have gone around, but then the Imps just have to reposition, and now they have a clear line of site and can easily bombard the rebels while easily keeping up with their escape vectors. Thats also assuming that the Imps don't just readjust themselves to intercept the rebels before that happens. Its not like they can't move either. Thats also extra time and fuel that the rebels can't afford like the Empire. Yes. Charging the blockade without trying to clear a path for the Blockade Runner (who really failed at its name there) was a poor choice of tactics. Then again... do we *ever* see the Blockade Runners use their guns in Rebels? I swear the damn things are useless on screen. One gets overwhelmed by a single Tie Interceptor. A fighter that is not suppose to be good against star ships, and yet it wins after only a few passes?! I really like the Tie Interceptor, but still!

[@liaml.e.5964]

Hera reminds me of Zapp Brannigan at times: "I sent wave after wave of my own men at them until they reached their limit and shut down."

[@SorenNido]

One of the themes of the entire Rebels series is how the Rebel Alliance itself is built up and grows, perhaps Hera's failings are part of that growth? She starts off as just the pilot and small-time leader for her team, but as her team joins the greater Rebellion, she is suddenly put in a position where she's not longer just the pilot or just a small-time leader, she's now one of the commanding members of a large fleet, she now has hundreds of people under her command. Part of her growth is how she eventually transitions from the boss of a small independent team, to the leader of a large Rebel faction.

[@a_maverick_rowland21]

I agree on everything, this plan was complete shit. If it wasn’t for that b wing superlaser, I think they would’ve died

[@Hailthecloudslayer]

I’m a firm proponent of describing more things with the term “ass”. I’ll often describe the flying weather at my field as SEVERE Ass to describe thunderstorms and gusty winds. As opposed to “low” or “moderate” ass, respectively. :)

[@samlachance1]

I haven't even watched the video yet; it just showed up randomly in my queue. I saw the title and I was thinking "wait, KZbin lets you do that?" 😂

[@Hailthecloudslayer]

@@samlachance1 I was surprised too!

[@shinystarmiestudios4179]

Hera's facing Grand Admiral Thrawn, she didn't stand a chance because she isn't Thrawn.

[@mikefinn9574]

“Hera was probably looking up at the skies and used it as inspiration” 💀

[@tristanskywalker1998]

I think the point was that the rebels were really desperate at this point. The episode made it clear that their people on that planet NEEDED those supplies and needed them very soon.

[@Fulcrox]

thats exactly why you shoudlnt absolute suicide the ship with those supplies

[@Julian-pw5mv]

​@@Fulcrox as opposed to what? They didn't have anything else. The cr90 is the biggest ship they had. They also pretty much only had a-wings.

[@Fulcrox]

@@Julian-pw5mv better to use smaller ships to bypass the blockade than waste a whole Corvette for something completely imposible to pull

[@jfangm]

@@Julian-pw5mv Which is precisely why they should NOT have made such a risky attempt. Confederate blockade runners in the American Civil War did not run full steam into a line of Union warships hoping to break through. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade_runners_of_the_American_Civil_War

[@basedimperialism]

​@Julian As opposed to using basic tactics and strategies. Hell, if anything, load a few supplies into the A-wings and just bring the supplies piece-meal. Better than letting an entire corvette and its crew AND the supplies be blown to kingdom come.

[@furonguy42]

In all fairness with that first example, by season 2 episode 7, A-Wings are the only fighters they have access to. They didn’t acquire Y-Wings until the beginning of season 3. X-Wings didn’t appear until even later, though in that case, the series doesn’t show how or when exactly the Alliance procured X-Wings.

[@irregularassassin6380]

I thought the X-Wings came in with General Dodonna's cell, which wouldn't invalidate your point. We don't know how _he_ got them!

[@matthewcaughey8898]

The X-wing formally entered rebel service when the Incom corporation managed to avoid being nationalized by the empire. Incom had intended to sell the T-65 to the empire as a logical upgrade from the TIE deathballs. Unfortunately the T-65 didn’t mesh with the Tarkin doctrine that called for mass numbers of disposable death balls. The empire was attempting to prevent the alliance from getting the T-65 as it was precisely what the alliance needed in terms of fighters. The Y-wings were pulled out of boneyards and leftover junk from the clone wars as that’s where the Y-wing first saw action. The alliance removed the exterior armor and the rear gunner and locked the ion cannon forward. The Y was the only snub fighter to have the ion cannon initially. The A-wing was a modified stunt fighter vaguely based on the Jedi delta 7 fighter. It was fast with a pair of event horizon drive engines catch was it lacked astromech droid capability. This was a slight problem but they were really fast. Lastly was the B-wing. Conceived as a replacement for the truly antique Y-wing and built to carry a destroyers level of firepower in a snub fighter. It never fully replaced the Y-wing often serving beside it. Alliance never built enough B-wings as there were issues ( as often come up with a craft designed during a war). Maintenance was a PITA as it was often impossible to access the drive cluster in smaller ships and it was so big that it took up the space of 2 X-wings. Next was its lack of an astromech droid and it’s system that turned the ship around the cockpit. The B-wing stayed simply cause it could hork out an ungodly amount of firepower relative to its size which made it popular for the famous snub fighter hit n run tactics. They all had hyperdrives too which granted very good strategic level rang.

[@viperson9818]

I just find it interesting how Hera became a general. Rebel alliance probably wanted Kanan but he refused so they made Hera a leader. She just can’t command anything bigger then a single fighter squadron end of the day she’s a special forces operator trying to lead anything bigger and fail.

[@gabrielandradeferraz386]

she could do ok as a chief of staff kind of sbordinate officer, maybe even train squadrons, but boy I do would not want to have her as an actual C.O.

[@callum210]

Just thought of how I used to watch you years ago! Great to see you are doing great and that you're nearly at a million subs!

[@mrcyberslayer6095]

Kanan season 2:We can’t beat the blockade (the blockade has 3 light cruisers and 2 gozantis) Kanan season 4: We can make it (a blockade that has a half dozen star destroyers)

[@jeffreycarman2185]

If memory serves Hera and the rebels in the show Rebels were constantly using half measures and bad tactics and, if they ever succeeded, it was by some deus ex machina or dumb luck, and any “win” was _always_ accompanied by staggering losses. But I will have to go back and rewatch the series. Thanks for the video.

[@jackolantern147]

How bout a return to Legends? Specifically the Yuuzhang Vong war battle breakdown timeline.

[@ion_force]

Never thought this guy would describe a scenario as being "the most ass"

[@hisdudeness09]

He’s trying to boost those gen z numbers

[@alejandroelluxray5298]

For the blockade at Lothal, I think the better strategy would be this one I come up with: First, you send a bunch of fighter squadrons against the blockade, and while the X-Wings take down the fighters of the fleet, the Y-Wings would focus on disable the capital ships. After the big ships are disable, then you send bigger ships like frigates, cruisers and corvettes as well as additional fighters to reinforce the first wave of attackers so that they can take on the reserve and destroy the now vulnerable battleships

[@balintkovacs4089]

The whole problem with the Lothal space battle was that the Rebellion wasn't willing to commit significant forces after losing a good chunk of their still fledgeling fleet of line and capital ships at Atollon. Hera was working with what she was given, not what would've been ideal for the mission. That said, I think her biggest flaw of leadership is that she's so used to guerilla warfare against the Empire that conventional space battles simply fall outside her expertise. That doesn't make her a bad general per se, just good at another kind of generaling. Looking at an example from real history for the opposite outcome, Napoleon Bonaparte was great at conventional warfare but his otherwise groundbreaking methods can't be applied against guerilla fighters which is why he never managed to securely occupy Spain.

[@insertcognomen]

hera is just bad at breaking thru blockades...which they're not meant to be broken thru

[@gilbertohernandez2409]

The problem here however is that (if I remember the episode correctly) the goal of the rebels wasn’t to destroy the fleet and liberate the planet but instead to go through the blockade and take out valuable infrastructure (fuel depots, factories, research bases etc). Honestly, the Lothal attack seemed to have been a doomed mission from the start, considering the lack of support, forces, and intel Hera had compared to thrawn

[@captaincool3329]

2:50 The difference between these blockades is that the 3 Republic Venators initially outnumbered the CIS Lucrehulk, until the 6 Separatist frigates arrived- the Republic forces were outsmarted by strategic preparation and failed to withdraw when feasible, costing a Venator and about a third of their forces. Hera knew she was outnumbered and outgunned, but just blundered in anyway because she thought it was morally right, costing her a greater proportion of her task force which the resource-strapped Rebellion would find difficult to replace immediately.

[@TheWarmachine375]

2:50 If Thrawn had been around in the Clone Wars and met Anakin Skywalker early, he would have made a plan to deal with the Separatist blockade successfully.

[@Hello-bi1pm]

He literally was and met Anakin lol! That's what second canon Thrawn book is about.

[@GoldenMoonOfDeltaCommentaries]

I like to think since rebels takes place early on in the rebellions history her problem is that she's more use to just commanding the ghost witch leads to problems where she mainly to focussed on how her ship contributes to the battle and mainly tunnel visions on it when commanding Phoenix squadron, hopefully after the years of war she's gotten better at commanding large formations

[@mrcyberslayer6095]

Kanan in rebels season 2: we can’t beat that blockade (of 2 gozantis and 3 arquitans) Also him in rebels season 4: 14 ISD’s? A squad of xwings can get through

[@pensiveobserver2112]

After watching this, I reminded of Battle Breakdowns. I am sure there are not enough battles to break down lately in Star Wars media, but I sure do miss them. I do agree that one of Star Wars Rebels' weakest point was battles, very rarely being great.

[@ThatIcy777]

Early enough to say thanks for the consistent great content!

[@crazydudeofcrazyness]

As much as I love Star Wars Rebels it does seem like most of the secondary raising of conflicts is introduced through the incompetence of the military command of the rebels as opposed to great strategy by the rebels and greater strategy by the Empire. If it were the case that hera came up with competent plans but agent callus and Admiral Thrawn came up with better plans to thwart them and then we had to come up with a new plan it would have made for much more compelling storytelling overall

[@Necromancer4267]

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Ancient Sith and their knowledge, or lack thereof about the Star Forge! Ajunta Pall alludes quite heavily to the treasure of the Ancient Sith from his era to be the Star Forge, but I have yet to see this referenced anywhere else. I don't believe anyone other than the Rakatta, Revan, and Malak had anything to do with the Star Forge, or even had any knowledge whatsoever about its existence, and yet Pall seems to state otherwise and the Star Map is located within Naga Sadow's tomb, which couldn't have been a coincidence. Continuity error? Plot thread left unresolved? #askeck

[@taysontay2920]

The opening always gives me nostalgia! Eckharts is a great person who comes out with bangers.

[@DarthDesolous]

I’ve always wondered this ideal but since watching your video, I think that the rebel alliance had a lot of people with a lot of rage against the Empire. Willing to do anything to destroy it. But there was no one Central person with military strategy to manage all the anger and rage the rebellion had to the Empire. There’s no strategy in any of their Attempts. They only won the battle of Yavin by having plans to the death star. Anybody could read those plans and find a weakness. The only real true planned they had, that was half way worked was the battle of Endor. They were being commanded by General Nadine. I’m pretty sure he is a defector from the empire but I’m not for sure. That was the only sensible plan that they had during the whole Civil War conflict that is played on screen. It was by blind luck that they took down the shield generator by Chewbacca, coming during a walker and bluffing their way inside. If that wouldn’t of happened, the Empire would’ve won Darth Sidious still would’ve lost his life, but the Empire would still go on, and the rebel alliance would have been obliterated. I’m glad you made this video because I’ve been wondering this for years and years. Whether if it was luck or the will, the force made them prevail.

[@alexrogers1239]

6:15 Obviously Thrawn is her better, he is probably the best tactician in Star Wars canon. That’s what made Phoenix squadrons victory over the 7th fleet so impressive. Which is the story of the Rebellion, overcoming great odds.

[@bogustoast22none25]

A-Wings are support fighters, attacking and vanishing before the enemy can take a shot at them. In a formation like this, you need bulk for the A-Wing to excel, you need a heavier, beefier fighter that can keep the enemy pinned down while the A-Wings come in, take shots and down fighters, and leave, rinse, and repeat. If the enemy has time to acknowledge, and focus on the A-Wings, they are in trouble.

[@OllamhDrab]

The A-wings probably would have been better used taking a swoopy picket-passing course, draw off fire and attention, take a slash at the enemy fighter cover and hope they pursued. Thrawn wouldn't have fallen for it fully, but even he can only point a gun in one direction each at a time. It'd have been better than just lining up head on.

[@shraka]

@@OllamhDrab If the fighters don't divert that's better for the A-Wings - they can pick the TIE Fighters off because the T/F can't outrun the A-Wings. If you used X-Wings they'd have trouble catching back up after the first run - though this is using stats from the games, I dunno what the cannon speeds are (even though the top speed in space is always light speed so 'speed' is silly anyway).

[@jjacobeden793]

2:52 I love the part where It seems like she was probably looking up at the sky for inspiration

[@I3oo1ve]

Rebels wasn't exactly known for tactics

[@trilobite2500]

7:20 C'baoth is an absolute key character when it comes to Thrawn's war against the new republic. But it's sadly a very large possibility that they will just get rid of him and important stuff and characters like Mara Jade, Talon Karde, spaarti clones, kartana fleet, the noghri arc, Yisalamiris and so on.

[@VestedUTuber]

Even better idea for running a blockade: Pull hard normal or anti-normal the moment you jump in, then approach the planet from the poles. Blockades in Star Wars for some idiotic reason tend to only be deployed in a roughly 2D arrangement between jump points and the planet itself, with the plain of deployment being the planet's equatorial plain. This would force the blockade to do one of two things - either hold formation and take pot shots at range, or break formation and attempt to chase and risk not only getting outrun but also potentially leaving a hole in the net for further blockade runners to punch through.

[@unusualbydefault]

This is something sooo many shows get so wrong and it infuriates me: space battles on a 2d plane (as well as 2d ship designs with glaring weakspots, mostly aft of said designs). Also, hyperspace lanes and exits are a stupid concept to begin with, esp since it's established you CAN change the point of exit. Might as well drop out like some picoseconds earlier (which would translate to quite some distance) and do what you suggested: just drive around the "blockade". I mean, fucking MiB got it right: if you want to blockade a planet, you have to "blockade" it from all sides Man, playing Space Engineers really made me hate basically all scifi ship designs and battles, except for the expanse and some other rare exceptions. Honorable mentions tho: Starfury from Babylon 5 and Eta 2 Actis (I cant help but just love that design (rule of cool I guess). Even with advanced tech like dampening fields, gravitation generators and whatnot, there's little reason to NOT make symmetrical designs, if only for redundancy. When g-forces, propulsion, gravitation, exhaust etc are of no concern, the perfect design is a cube or rather a sphere, Borg style. One might argue you want to present as little as possible surface area to your enemy, thus flat/slim designs might offer benefits in this regard...but only as long as you're only fighting ONE enemy and can focus on pointing the flat/slim side towards them.

[@lordwisehammer]

On screen media always goes for clear theming over detailed strategic planning, the clone wars sometimes tried to show that kind of thing but they usually revolved around some kind of irregular factor rather than an actual strategy that would win a straight battle. I can't agree that this is the most "ass" battle when Exegol is just a mass of ships thrown at each other and the fact that the the main threat has such a combination of stupidly contrived vulnerabilities just makes worse than anything else by far.

[@firestar9360]

I would just like to say. The Arquitens cruisers had their ammo magazines hit hell of a lot in rebels.

[@michaelramon2411]

I personally liked having a battle where the Arquitens actually got to be effective. It's a good ship, but it tends to get overshadowed by star destroyers.

[@eliteofthe9136]

Ugh, resonance is just so perfect for your channel. NEVER CHANGE IT!

[@robertbarrows6687]

They probably could have beaten this blockade if they had two Nebulon-B Frigates to counter the Arquetenz.

[@rosalbafuda447]

I wonder how the war will be if it was the Lambda Resistance of Half-Life to take the part of the Rebellion and how they treat Luke when he come.

[@tristankawatsuma8962]

How about the times she was in charge in Squadrons? Good tactics or bad ones when she tries to defend the dockyards from Titan Squadron and in the final mission?

[@michaelramon2411]

I think she played a bad hand pretty well. She understood her strategic objective better than Titan Squadron did, and not only prioritized saving the Starhawk engineers (thus allowing the program to be rebuilt) but successfully lured the Imperials away from the dockyard and stalled them with the bait of the Starhawk prototype, preventing that facility from being completely destroyed. Thanks to an archetypal "crazy enough to work" Rebel maneuver at the end, the Empire probably even suffered more casualties overall, despite being less able to replenish its forces than the Republic.

[@opelasslo9592]

5:34 thrawn with his genius must realise in this moment that he is in a fictional story and is against the protagonist with that amaunt of bullshit happaning

[@garretking8842]

It’s crazy how much talk there is of the Thrawn trilogy, I have been reading it recently and it sparked a question #askeck, in Dark Force Rising, Luke mentions that the clones’ minds feel weird. Do you think the Jedi thought the same for the clones of Jango Fett during the war?

[@MrDanieleThiella]

I've watched sometime ago Star Wars Rebels, and in both the battles analized in this video I always asked myself: "why the Rebellion had to go Blockade Running?" My question is not motivated by not undestanding the episode or the battle, but out of pure logic, if there is an obstacle in your path, in both cases a deadly one, why try to force your way through it? Just get around! With that I don't mean circle around the Empire fleet, and try to get on the Planetary Surface, what I mean is, drop out of Hyperspace on the far side of the planet! By the time the Imperials realize what has happened the job has already been done, and any eventual attempt by the Empire to intercept will be far too slow and out of time, because Imperial Capital Starships, or better all Capital Starships of Star Wars are slow and sluggish, in contrast to small crafts like Tie Fighters, X-Wing, Y-Wing and most of all A-Wing.

[@DarkApostleNoek]

I wonder how would a strategy of attacking a Blockade would work if you are using ships close if not equal in power and numbers if you pick off the other ships one by one. Use overwhelming force to target the weakest ship and move up the list of ships #askeck

[@irregularassassin6380]

Forgive me if you know this, but I believe that strategy is referred to as "defeat in detail" where a smaller force defeats a larger (spread out) one by outnumbering/overpowering it one piece at a time. It is pretty effective, as far as I know, but I think it is not wholly applicable against a blockade. In a way, you _have_ to defeat a blockade in detail if your plan is to punch a hole, rather than simply speed by. As Eck explained, you must target the weakest link with everything you have and blast through. At that point, if you can squeeze through, you've achieved victory as your goal is to simply get past the blockade. However, "moving up the list of ships" changes the engagement from a blockade run to a siege (or an attempt to break a siege, depending on the context). In this context, you are attempting to eliminate the enemy. You will need more than simply blockade runners, and blockades, as depicted in both of Eck's examples, will probably be too tightly grouped to repeatedly single-out elements. In Eck's first example, had Hera ordered a wide swing to port, and attacked the Arquitens on Kallus' starboard flank, she might have defeated it, though it would have been a long-shot. If she then tired to attack the Gozanti beside it, she would be giving Kallus' flagship, and his third Arquitens time to maneuver into position to blast her attack group out of the sky. It would be much preferable to eliminate the first ship and speed by the other ships which would turn far too slowly to catch them.

[@imaginebrakr672]

I love your channel. I've seen almost every video you've made as far as I'm concerned your channel is the official starwars channel, a home for all starwars fans

[@Fulcrox]

In short, Hera has the command skill of Padawan Ashoka wich we know how ended for her pilots lmao

[@shaunbrender]

1:49 Why would fast escort starfighters be a bad thing? I know that the Thrawn trilogy tells us this, but how often would fast ships really have to move predictably and slowly in order to defend a ship? Looking at the real life role of interceptor aircraft, I don't see a tendency towards bulkier craft on the defensive at all. Obviously a starfighter in the Star Wars universe can take significantly more enemy fire than a modern plane, but they'll never be able to actually withstand substantial firepower. Though lacking shields and support systems on interceptors makes them problematic for protracted combat, there is no reason I can why they wouldn't be capable of short bursts of defensive combat. I am 100% fine with being proven wrong here. I haven't read the Thrawn trilogy, so I don't know exactly how this argument about starfighters is backed up.

[@michaelramon2411]

For the first battle, I suspect that Hera simply underestimated either the size of the blockade or its capabilities - she thought they had the speed to get by but didn't. For the second one, I think the Rebels felt they didn't have a choice - they HAD to press the attack or the situation would get even worse. If, at the Battle of Yavin, Tarkin had been sensible and the Rebels were immediately overwhelmed by hundreds of TIEs, would we call them idiots for rolling the dice in the only real option they had?

[@nathonso_edits]

Kind of nice to see the rebels fail sometimes tho, shows that the empire isn't completely incompetent as they can feel like sometimes in a kids show where the main characters are pretty untouchable

[@lightspeedvictory]

#askeck what warships, asides from dreadnoughts, did the Mon Cal have during the clone wars? Lore ship Versus video request: Resurgent vs. Starhawk Tie Striker vs. New Republic V-Wing World Devastator vs. Vong Worldship Tie Silencer vs. X-83 Twintail Tie Silencer vs. Tie Defender (legends version) Keldabe vs. ISD II MC90 vs. Nebula class star destroyer Nebula class vs. Pellaeon class Majestic class vs. Bothan Assault Cruiser EAWX: FOTR’s Mandator II portrayal vs. Subjugator Praetor vs. Subjugator EAWX: TR’s Mediator portrayal vs. Resurgent Starhawk vs. Bulwark MK III

[@sumukhvmrsat6347]

Bro u still here , keep it up 💝

[@a_person_of_all_time]

Am i the only one to enjoy parts in the Rebels where beloved villains kick the main characters asses? They make a dumb mistake, they instantly get punished

[@alpacawithouthat987]

I love that in all media. Main characters should get punished when they make a mistake so that the world is more believable

[@TheWarmachine375]

Why did the Rebels not think of arriving on the other side of the planet where there's no blockade in the way? It would be too late for the Imperial ships to turn around and respond anyway.

[@evandealy3493]

Hyperspace lanes don't really work that way. Eck has a great video on blockades.

[@mightheal]

@@evandealy3493 They tend to ignore simple ways to get around hyperspace lanes like dropping out early so you can do a in system jump to bypass the blockade.

[@calebbarnhouse496]

​@@mightheal the thing about that is that it will be detected, and it is risky, as there are often mines placed around the exits of hyperspace lanes in ways you aren't supposed to go

[@mightheal]

@@calebbarnhouse496 The Star Wars universe really doesn't use mines. In legends they've really only used them to set up ambushes with gravity wells.

[@calebbarnhouse496]

@@mightheal they are commonly deployed in space, they are just avoided to explain why your heros don't just go around

[@SchneeflockeMonsoon]

Hera is best at close management. Captaincy, not generalcy. She can command a small formation and do local tactics as part of a bigger plan or under orders, but strategize on her own? No, no she can’t do it. Especially because she’s a mother type. Thrawn is willing to spend lives (not waste them, but spend them if necessary), and that allows him to make pretty much any tactical call he needs. Hera will barely even risk any of her people, no matter how big her organization, which means her tactics are always going to be hindered unless she has the Force and/or supreme luck to pull her butt out of that.

[@gilmadreth680]

The problem is that Hera got confused. She thought she was in the Battlestar Galactia universe for a minute where "apply forehead directly to problem until the problem dies" is a perfectly viable strategy.

[@basedeltazero714]

It's a bit of a better plan when you're flying a heavily armed and armored battleship against carriers.

[@youraveragescotsman7119]

Hey, the Cylons are bringing fragile missile boats into a line fight with dedicated battleships. They nuked the Colonial fleets because they knew that, if they rallied, they'd end up getting pulverized by railgun fire because Cylon ships weren't made for prolonged fighting compared to their Colonial counterparts.

[@broann4138]

0:56 I love how all three of those unnamed officers you see here are actually voiced by the same actor

[@PaulGuy]

From my years playing the X-Wing games, they absolutely misused the A-wing in these shows. It's an interceptor and a strike craft in hit and runs. Using them in escorts roles is using them at a handicap. Their speed is their biggest asset.

[@VrillianChronicles]

I know this has nothing to do with the video, but, Eck, I wanted to say that I'm very glad you've retained the same outro all these years

[@florians9949]

Her plans are still not as dumb as when Kannan and Ezra crossed blade with Vader and somehow survived.

[@leoismaking]

I don't mind as long as it's made clear that Vader was never in danger. And he really, really wasn't.

[@commandplay]

I wish future Star Wars media show the Imperial Fleet use the Gozanti and the Arquitens cruisers more. They're far more effective at dealing with smaller threats and offer escort protection for the Imperial Star Destroyers.

[@timberwolfe1645]

Sorry. I'll NEVER understand how 3 ships can blocade an ENTIRE planet and of course how 3 SHIPS of food EQUALS supplies

[@camomurf5182]

The hyperspace lane has an exit point, so it's like putting three guys with handguns around a door. Also, three Arquitens are not insignificant. We're just used to giant ISD's flying around bombarding everything. XD

[@v22ospreysb]

​@@camomurf5182Yeah speak bro😅

[@shanehudson3995]

Honestly, Thrawn is a military genius only due to the fact that he's the only one that isn't an idiot. Clone Wars had even worse tactics.

[@PickleRick65]

Star Wars Rebels was ALL ASS. The best part of the show was when it went to commercial.

[@benkitowski6878]

Resonance for the intro and Outro is just classic ek ❤️‍🔥

[@A._.Neill26]

Her tactics include exclusively the "Let's smack them in the face really hard and see what happens"

[@sweetblue44]

Let’s not forget Lando shows up at whatever muster point the rebel fleet is at in ROTJ and suddenly he’s a General.

[@ryanp5790]

Knowing Disney, they’re going to make Herra have a girl boss moment and Thrawn, if he’s in it, will look incompetent in comparison to rebels. Let’s be real

[@noanswer1864]

She reminds me of the one pilot we have in our Edge of the Empire campaign, only dumber. Our crazy good pilot only wants to drag us to hell with them, at least. It'd be fine if said pilot didn't turn to the Dark Side Force users that make up his crew and say. "OK, now hit them with everything we have." One of us has discovered his willingness to fly us close enough to effect the enemy crew with powers, after the Lord Dantes spoke the line. "4th concussion missile outbound! This is getting expensive. I do hope I've hit something."

[@krefix222]

I am willing to bet that in the new show Hera is going to end up schooling thrawn several times because disney hates when women aren't the absolute best at everything.

[@Threelives229]

Yea. Hera's promotion to general felt kind of sudden and I didn't understand it. Granted her father, Cham Syndulla, was known as such a great general that Sabine said his battle tactics and strategies from during the Clone Wars were studied at the Imperial Academy. So that's something that could explain why she could be a good commander of ground forces but we've never actually seen her do it. And it's also a little weird considering that she's a pilot yet she's given a high-rank associated with army/infantry.

[@Kabayoth]

So, take a page out of the RAF manual when going up against F-14s. Divide your force in two coming out of hyperspace. Make the Imperials commit to one of those forces. Once they have, attack that force with the alternate force while the attacked units run out of range.

[@jeffreycarman2185]

1:38 those are, in my opinion, Arquitens-class light cruisers because they do not have the TIE launch tube in the gap in the front. They would also be sporting several more TIEs if they were command cruiser.

[@casbot71]

With the first blockade run, could a working plan be _to immediately run in the other direction as soon as emerging from Hyperspace?_ The Rebel ships are faster, so they could outrun the Arquitines (who would have to break from their positions if they wanted to pursue), and that just leaves the Ties to give pursuit. The A-Wings could fight the Ties out in clear space where they have the advantage, as well as jumping any Ties that try and set up strafing runs on the CR-90 or the Ghost (both very fast ships that can hold off Ties). Once the Ties are eliminated, they have two options. The first riskier option is to send the A-Wings in to do attack runs without the worry of screening Tie Fighters, but Arquitens have quad laser cannons. The second option is to just avoid the Blockade ships and go round the planet to a different landing zone.

[@christophernemeth421]

Going around would not work. The blockade ships are much closer to the planet, so they can counter any rebel move and maneuver into blocking position faster.

[@r0adrunner9]

battle breakdowns like this are really cool

[@toshironif]

This is a good example of much of the issues that I have with DIsney and their "disneyfication" of Star Wars. They pull stunts of improbable events & create plot armor for characters. Which they had previously act in illogical or flatly incompetent. You see that in their "Sequel Movies" as well. For example their "bombing run" that is a gross overstatement on the dreadnought. Seriously, who in their mind would think in the SW setting a bomber the size of a small freighter with the speed of a snail would be an acceptable response? It would work fine in a atmospheric situtation with COMPLETE AIR SUPREMACY. Therefore, way more of an idea the Empire under Palpatine would use...Even then you wouldn't, because that is still just asking for some enterprising opponent to shoot your comically big, shield-less & slow bombers out of the sky. The problem that I see is that Disney has corrupted the franchise and made it a reflection of their own twisted and "egotistical" philosophies rather than staying true to the setting or anything else.

[@BlocksaverMax]

I've also been re-watching Star Wars Rebels. It feels like everyone always re-watches these shows at the same time. We're intertwined in the force.

[@jesusmunera2855]

Nice video man. I want to share something is in my mind when I see SW blockaded, and is how cool could see a guardian from Halo universe showing up and disabling the empire tech and just vanishing. XD

[@liamzimmer5948]

Hera used the anakin tactic of leading and expecting others to follow. I'm glad she became a better tactician

[@Green_Lightning_Games]

That outro never fails to make me smile...😊

[@Kirbyman1223]

With a video like this thing needs to be classes on Star Wars lore, specifically ships and weapons

[@bagelbite99]

*smallest blockaid ever* let’s go through it instead of around

[@exquisitepuma7318]

Hera's kinda like Anakin (especially in the early parts of TCW). She has the skill to survive pretty much any situation but forgets that not everyone is as skilled as she is

[@ItsDaKoolaidDude]

Coming back to here, I gotta ask: What specific ships ranging from battleships to star-destroyers all the way to small strikecrafts and crusier/frigates had very *_long_* ranged weaponry? Like what would actually outrange an Arquitens that would force the ship to close distance because their own lasers can't hit as accurately as they're getting hit?

[@AbyssViber1028]

Nice outro! Got a quick laugh out of me.

[@bitze865]

"He is certainly her better" understatement of the century. He is everyones better, if his own bodyguard hadn't killed him he would have ended the Republic. Will, kinda depends on how much of out of still canon or gets reintroduced, but Thrawn against her ist like prime Mike tyson boxing against a toddler

[@williampassarelli7527]

I love it when Eck uses more common slang words, saying the Arquitens got merced made me laugh

[@ixon4330]

Love the dog at the end! I just watch your video to get to that part!

[@troyabraham7433]

I miss read the title expecting a 'most badass battle' video. Spit my coffee at 0:37