Why Star Destroyer Captains were highly Incompetent

[@thestanleys3657]

Chosen for loyalty rather than ability

[@st-6837]

Would you rather have a person that control a ship that powerful not loyal to you though?

[@josemengelez6947]

@@st-6837 Exactly, that's how you get a Moff Kalast situation.

[@Psub950]

​@@josemengelez6947a what situation?

[@thestanleys3657]

@@st-6837 id rather have capable commanders with a small chance of rebeling than incompetent sycophants who fail 99% of the time.

[@brucebehner4142]

​@@thestanleys3657 they didn't fail 99% of the time, the empire was so powerful, they rarely failed, we only saw the times they didnt.

[@dangerbeans9639]

The Rebellion: everyone working towards a common goal. The Empire: everyone working towards their own self interests. The Rebellion even took advantage of this by attacking targets in one Moff's territory, then moving to another Moff's territory.

[@przemekkozlowski7835]

In Andor, Luthen has been hiding a series of military tech thefts by making sure that each theft happened in a different ISB jurisdiction. The senior ISB officers refused to cooperate with each other so they failed to notice a pattern of rebel activity that should have been obvious.

[@matthewwiles1974]

"How many assholes does it take the run a Star Destroyer?" "That implies that any of them are capable of running one in the first place."

[@jellojiei6061]

@@dangerbeans9639 the Empire State control. The rebellion, individuals making their own decisions.

[@papapalps2415]

​@@przemekkozlowski7835...Of course, in that exact same show you are clumsily trying to reference, the ISB DOES actually end up noticing the pattern, then comes extremely close to tracking down the Rebels in question despite the incredible difficulty therein.

[@bostonrailfan2427]

@@papapalps2415and fails. again and again. and was never able to outflank or outthink the rebels due to their own internal bureaucracy working against them

[@isaackim7675]

“How many a*holes do we have on this Star Destroyer, anyhow?” The Deck Crew, “YO!” Vader, “I knew it. I’m surrounded by a*holes.”

[@isaackim7675]

@@Davidice2005 It totally got me with the cousin whose eyes are crossed

[@operationangel7940]

“Keep firing, a*holes!!!”

[@chrisheitstuman6360]

@isaackim7675 "I said across her nose not up it!" in all honesty the empire could have used a few more gunners like him.

[@kdusel1991]

​@@isaackim7675 sorry sir! He's my cousin!

[@isaackim7675]

@@kdusel1991 And who are you?

[@g.williams2047]

I think a big part of the problem is that there just aren’t 100k people who have risen up the ranks fast enough to be noticed and put in charge of an ISD that have the required skill set. There’s also the issue of many officers being promoted beyond their competence level, to where they sit at the captain position. It’s a real problem with managers in our own world, a lot of them were promoted to a manager role because they were competent at their individual job but don’t have the ability to effectively lead, resulting in them getting stuck in the chain of command and continuing to do poorly as a manager.

[@SlappyTheElf]

Called the peter principle where individuals are promoted to the point that they can no longer properly cope with

[@thorpeaaron1110]

I wouldn't consider getting force choked by Darth Vader on a daily basis a privilege exactly.

[@GenerationTech]

hehe

[@isaackim7675]

It’s an occupational hazard

[@thorpeaaron1110]

​​@@isaackim7675They really should make that disclaimer when being promoted to captain on a Star Destroyer.

[@isaackim7675]

@@thorpeaaron1110they should’ve added it to their recruitment videos

[@thorpeaaron1110]

​@@isaackim7675Valid point.

[@Yacovo]

An important thing to remember is that benefit of an act of corruption for the individual is always dwarfed by the cost to the institution. Cheating on a test helps advance a graduate's career, but lessens the capability of the position they will inevitably occupy. Skimming some fuel or spare parts to enrich a captain a few thousand credits could cost the navy millions of credits by reducing the capability of the ship they captain. Thanks for the video.

[@johanmetreus1268]

For further details, watch Perun's video "How corruption destroys armies".

[@GGBlaster]

This toxic power structure may have actually served Palpatine in very useful ways. By getting everyone stuck in a Galaxy-wide game of dog-eat-dog, he lowers the chances of a group of officers cooperating and banding together against him.

[@ronjon7942]

That makes sense.

[@jeshonloonskin4176]

And yet it is that very game he created that got him killed

[@karanhdream]

This kind of dynamic is common in dictatorship but it can't go on forever. Think of the third reich for example, eventually the snake will bite its own tail and everything falls apart..

[@Eric6761]

​ Sidious even admitted he screwed up with the empire admitting people like Tarkin to comand the death star

[@blackbird4046]

Shortly before Vader killed him, he said Ozzel was "clumsy/stupid". If Ozzel wasn't a Rebel spy, the novel "Choices of One" make him look like one because of how he messed up in "The Empire Strikes Back": > telling Vader that those weren't likely to be Rebels: in "Choices of One", then-Captain Thrawn told Vader that the Rebels had taken cold-weather gear from an Imperial supply cache. > dropping the fleet too close and getting spotted, resulting in the Imperial ground assault because the Rebels had raised their shield.

[@ZoeMalDoran]

As Mara Jade said to Lord Vader in Allegiance; "I don't know if he's a traitor, a fool, or just easily led, but he needs watching". Hence Vader putting him on the Executor for convenient choking

[@TheHumanRanger]

@@ZoeMalDoran Maybe Vader just had a choking fetish, it started with Padme after all lol

[@A350Airways]

A secret Rebel sympathizer, and some atrocities that got him to act as such...

[@christianburnett236]

Lmao! "Hes as clumsy as he is stupid!" Loyalty to Palpatine or Vader not knowing your end with Palpatine or Darth Vader waiting for you to screw up choices choices...

[@TarsonTalon]

"I fear not the competent enemy, but the incompetent ally..." -Napoleon Bonaparte This is because you can do something about the enemy, but not an idiot ally. Fortunately, Darth Vader has no such weakness...

[@Acekhan201]

Now I NEED a SW: Visions short feathuring a rebel Toyota Helix with an E-Web Heavy Blaster strapped to the back, probably on Jabiim!

[@purplfedora800]

The Rebels could've easily won the Battle of Hoth if they had Toyota Hilux's with E-Webs and anti-tank weapons in the back. Those AT-ATs wouldn't have been able to hit the trucks easily, and they could quickly close the distance, allowing shots to be taken at the AT-ATs' joints.

[@bostonrailfan2427]

aren’t the snow speeders a version of that?

[@captiannemo1587]

Generation Tech is knocking it out of the park the last two weeks

[@jakedavidheilemann1208]

Yeah and he hasn’t stopped yet

[@arwinaBlu_Kat]

I learned from the thrawn novels that a lot of these positions were given to people from the powerful families they came from. Which it made it even more impressive thrawn was able to get to grand admiral considering he had no friends or family. Eli vanto also came from wild space and was a yokel and was quite brilliant himself but would have stayed a supply officer if it wasn’t for thrawn.

[@wanderingaceminecraftandmo8034]

Frankly I think maybe it was because Vader recruited him and from what I recall, Thrawn's intelligent tactics gained Vader's respect and that was why he chose to recruit Thrawn.

[@arwinaBlu_Kat]

@@wanderingaceminecraftandmo8034 vader had no part in recruiting thrawn. Thrawn was exiled from his people and the empire picked him up. They were so impressed with him and brought him before palps. Thrawn dropped Anakin’s name, because they knew each other and palps was impressed based on what Anakin told him. Thrawn went to royal with Eli and worked his way up. Vader and thrawn went on a mission together and respected each other but that’s about it.

[@collecter343]

Helps when the Emperor smooths over the career path that would have screwed Thrawn over several times. From there Thrawn was able to display how good he was and made it so no one could adequately control him that wasn't Palps.

[@rodniegsm1575]

Its like in the old days during the vitorian area. The higher portion were given to lan from wealthy and aristocratic families. Who had no experience at all and got thete man killed

[@_Morph1ne_]

Crazy to think that all of this lore about imperial incompetence had to be entirely manufactured after the movies came out just to explain how the empire didn’t completely massacre the rebellion in seconds.

[@Acekhan201]

There's plenty of details from the beginning that hint at the general incompetence in the Imperial ranks. He'll, even Tarkin isn't really that smart and he makes most imperial officers look like bricks.

[@Dakarai_Knight]

I mean the empire is based on real life authoritarian regimes. Almost all authoritarian regime militaries fall victim to cronyism and corruption as loyalty and power are more important than service. To maintain the loyalty of a military to oppress one's own people requires loyalty. These individuals are often psycophants, selfish, power hungry. The military becomes a cut throat race for power when the only way a leader can maintain control is political favors and riches.

[@SpottedHares]

@@Acekhan201it was less to do with their incompetency, but the extreme lengths the empire went to have seemingly only blithering morons, if you can’t even accidentally get half competent people then theirs something wrong.

[@lukedalton]

@@SpottedHares competent people tend to be ambitious and in a dictatorship the main goal of the one in charge is to keep power so we have plenty of RL example where loyalty with abundant dose of corruption, nepotism and cronism is main reason someone get so hign in the chain of command even if a complete idiot.

[@TheHumanRanger]

I wouldn't be so sure. I have experienced plenty of incompetence by my coworkers and my so-called superiors in the last 30 years. I can count on one hand the number of lead hands and supervisors that I have respect for today. We have plenty of real world examples of things that happened that never should have happened. Remember the cause of 9 1 1 was the fact that the Squadron of F-16s sent to intercept the two planes that were obviously off their Flight Plan, the F-16 squadrons were sent back *three* times. Also the surface to air missiles that are set up in strategic locations across New York strangely didn't work as well. A recent example is with the Trump shooting. Typically there are more than one countersniper squad that are set up in high-profile situations like this, at least that's what my military friends said. Why was there not a group of secret service and /or police on every rooftop? And even after the police were warned that there was a strange man on top of a roof, why did the police not communicate that to the counter snipers who had a much better tactical advantage? why did they try to climb up the ladder to the building at a massive tactical disadvantage? why did it take them so long to approach the building? and also why was there not a helicopter surveying the area? We have plenty of real world examples of people screwing up either by accident or on purpose. Remember the director of The Secret Service just stepped down to prevent herself from getting fired. *** the director of The Secret Service screwed up*** I think what Alan says here is more than plausible!

[@shadushio9682]

To be fair, it's rare that anyone in a position of power isn't an a**clown. Unfortunately.

[@moblinmajorgeneral]

In this situation, by this point in his reign, Sidious was the whole a** circus

[@angelhare8374]

​@moblinmajorgeneral the republic will be reorganized into the first a** clown empire

[@theislandsurvivor3410]

It'll be interesting to analyze the Flag Officer(Admiralty) Corps as well.

[@skyden24195]

Two things come to mind from watching this video, first the fact of a ship's captain, or in this case, a fleet commander, that being Admiral Ozzel, having the sole authority to deploy ground troops from the SDs under his command. This is seen when, during the discovery of Echo Base on Hoth, Darth Vader orders General Veers to prepare his men. Despite the order being given right in front of Admiral Ozzel, the general still, after Vader departs, turns to Admiral Ozzel and request permission to proceed as instructed by Vader. This leads to the second thing of mind, Captain turned Admiral Piet. A very competent and cunning individual himself. His decision to bring the report of the Hoth scouting probe droid to Admiral Ozzel while Vader was present was part of Piet's strategy to expose Ozzel as the incompetent officer that he was, much to Vader's satisfaction as Vader already suspected Ozzel of being either a traitor or completely incompetent. Vader also recognized Piet's proficiency as a naval officer and so would immediately promote Piet to admiral upon "dismissing" Admiral Ozzel for being "clumsy and stupid." Furthermore, the loss of the "Executor" during the Battle of Endor was not necessarily Admiral Piet's fault, it was the fault of the arrogant Emperor Palpatine who had ordered Piet to not engage with the Rebel Alliance capital ships, only to keep them from escaping. This would backfire as the Imperials did not believe that the rebels would choose to purposely engage the Imperial fleet at point-blank range, which, although the rebel capital ships wouldn't last long against the Star Destroyers, they would last longer than they would against the Death Star, and they would take a few Star Destroyers with them; this would include the "Executor."

[@sirboomsalot4902]

I also noticed that there are a lot of similarities between the culture of the Imperial military and the Imperial *Japanese* military. I’m sure that was a huge inspiration

[@skyden24195]

I can see that. It's also a contributor to why Japanese soldiers treated POWs with such disdain and cruelty.

[@sirboomsalot4902]

@@skyden24195 Yep. The Japanese military was basically getting beat up by the guys above you and beating the crap out of the guys below you. The lowest of the low were the Korean conscripts, who also happened to be the ones who usually guarded the POW camps, which was made up of the one group they could beat up on.

[@clefsan]

At least the Star Wars Imperial Navy and Ground Forces were not occasionally actively sabotaging each other's efforts or assassinating each other's leadership, right? 🤔😇

[@jasonhall8658]

Or even how Putin maintains power in Russia. Or Hitler in Nazi Germany. Its a good thing for Hermann Goering that there wasn't a Vader in the Nazis ranks, cause I believe he would have been one of the first ones choked out.

[@skyden24195]

@@jasonhall8658 "You have failed me for the last time, Reichsmarschall Goering!" 😄

[@taylorstillman7932]

This is the one area where Resistance showed another side of the SW universe. I know, I know... Resistance is nobody's choice for praise of any sort, but Tam's experience in the first order was a cool insight into the inner workings of their military structure and academy life.

[@robertthompson2601]

i have always enjoyed the guy at 11:37 where he sees the Kendall Ozzel fall down he looks up seed who it is and was like NOT MY PROBLEM.

[@Celestial_Reach]

I love the pic of the toyota with a missle launcher in the back lol

[@piercelindenberg6842]

Konstantine got out of trouble with Vader for the tractor beam thing by blaming the officer at the tractor beam controls.

[@ShadowGhost0117]

Good thing he was dealing with Vader in that case. I remember in Legends one of Thrawn’s subordinates tried the exact same thing. Didn’t end well for the officer, heck the operator that the officer blamed ended up getting promoted because he was honest.

[@Internetmensch88]

I really appreciate Thrawns Leadership in Legends after ROJ. He really brings the best out of his men! Even when they fail sometimes he shows them how to act better next time instead of murdering them like Vader 😂

[@charles2703]

He once killed a new boot because he was trained wrong

[@greyclaa]

Allen traveled back to Alderaan? Swweeet!

[@isaackim7675]

It looks more like Lothal

[@Skye_Writer]

@@isaackim7675 to be technical about it...the look of Lothal was taken from Ralph McQuarrie that was put in the "Alderaan" section of The Illustrated Star Wars Universe back in 1995. The spiders are from the Dagobah art, but the rest of it -- the white spires of the city, the tall conical mounds, the the open plains of grass -- it was all part of Alderaan for nearly 20 years until Filoni filched it to use for Lothal.

[@isaackim7675]

@@Skye_Writer The background looks like the Lothal Capital City

[@violetlight1548]

As long as he leaves before it blows up

[@GenerationTech]

I recommend you check out these videos for a better understanding of this one: Why Gozanti Class captains were nuts: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ppa1o6l7e7N4kJo Scout Trooper mentality explained: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hmrdlJiwopiNpZo

[@myysterio2]

It really is amazing given how many thousands of years star wars history covers, how crazy fast the empire managed to completely restructure the entire republic

[@andrewgreeb916]

Well when you own the banks, and are literally the Senate you can make a lot of changes

[@luisemoralesfalcon4716]

Because questioning Vader can lead to death, as well failing.

[@skyden24195]

Not to mention having a lack of faith in the Force, which Vader will find disturbing. (edit: word change)

[@luisemoralesfalcon4716]

@@skyden24195 correct.

[@lordMartiya]

Ozzel is a poor example: Darth Vader handpicked most officers under his command and had a poor tolerance for incompetence, the very fact Ozzel survived THREE YEARS under him, and was even forgiven an unspecified number of failures (Vader stated Ozzel had failed him for the LAST time before executing him, indicating he had failed him at least once before), means he was actually hypercompetent at whatever he was SUPPOSED to do for Vader (most likely logistics, administrative work, and/or the day-to-day running of the core group of Death Squadron). It was combat that he sucked at... And when he actually tried that out over Hoth, his failure was enough Vader decided to kill him and pass his responsabilities to Piett, who could not only do those but was next in list for becoming a Grand Admiral.

[@skyden24195]

You are correct, but I did want to give you an fyi, just in case you were unaware; after the loss of the Death Star over Yavin IV, Emperor Palpatine would give certain imperial commanders authority over Vader as Palpatine viewed Vadar as the only responsible commander to survive the Death Star's destruction. The first commander to be given this authority would be Grand General Tagge, the imperial officer who had voiced his opinion of the rebels being much more of a threat than perceived during the onscreen conference shown in "A New Hope." (i.e., Tagge was the one who says, "Until this station is fully operational, we are vulnerable. The rebels are much better equipped and more dangerous than you realize.") Tagge would leave the Death Star before the Battle of Yavin and then subsequently be put into a position of authority over Vader. I'm not at all saying that Ozzel had authority over Vader, just pointing out one of the reasons an officer such as Ozzel would be placed within Vader's command structure by the emperor as Palpatine was keen to keep a watchful eye and tighter leash on Vader due to his perceived failings during the Battle of Yavin and a few other lesser-known failings. (All this info comes mostly from the "Darth Vader" comic book series.)

[@lordMartiya]

@@skyden24195 I know all of that... But Kendal Ozzel is still a bad example, as Vader could have executed him on a whim.

[@recoil53]

Ozzel failed Vader for the last time by jumping out of hyperspace too early in the attack on Hoth, giving the Rebels time to prepare. The previous time was dismissing the report of the destroyed drone on Hoth. He was discussing it with Piett when Vader walked over. Against Ozzel's wishes Piett told Vader, Vader said this was it, and Ozzel tried to convince Vader it was just settlers. Vader orders the fleet to Hoth anyways and Ozzel gives Piett a dirty look. Two failures in one movie.

[@lordMartiya]

@@recoil53 The one with the probe was a logical conclusion unless one had the Force. Would explain why Vader forgave that one. Though if THAT is the only failure Vader forgave before, it means Ozzel had three years of PERFECT WORK. Dammit, I really WANT to consider Ozzel completely useless, but the fact he survived so long forces me to give him some credit...

[@recoil53]

@@lordMartiya I agree that Ozzel came to a reasonable conclusion about the probe. I question his judgment in arguing with Vader about it.

[@viix3815]

"What one should not fear is a competent enemy, but an incompetent ally" -Napoleon...Probably.

[@tortenschachtel9498]

That Toyota Hilux caught me off guard. Well played.

[@gooddog2001]

The rear of the star destroyer's rear has no blaster cannons on it. So, the rear is unguarded. Y-wings with ion cannons can shut it down.

[@jasonjacobson4990]

Thanks Allen. Always interesting. As is the direct correlation to our political appointees. Very interesting how they both attract the same kind of people.

[@CATDRL2]

I love the Toyota Hi-Lux.

[@KManXPressTheU]

Admiral Ozzel proved how Expendable and Replaceable They are... " YOU are in command now, ADMIRAL Piet!"

[@bryanfrazier4648]

Hello Alan, I have another suggestion for a topic. The ship that was designed to replace the Z-95 but lost out to the X-Wing. Namely the NovaSword, built by Subpro and flown by Durge ;)

[@Alpha_Digamma]

I have to say I kind of miss the pre Disney times. Back when an ISD dropping out of hyperspace was treated as a serious threat. Always.

[@thomasheyart7033]

Nice shot of the USS Wisconsin in the background

[@dagothur5595]

R2 had ptsd from getting his ass kicked from yoda.

[@Celestial_Reach]

The only captian i remember that was competent was faro, and she had to be trained by thrawn. Rey Sloan was a good admiral, but as a captian she left alot lacking. Tho she learned fast and that should be commended

[@afunkymonke]

If I was a captain of a Star Destroyer, I would simply not be incompetent. I don't even care how much more effective other ships can be, I've always loved the look of the big steel doritos. Nothing like making a huge fleet of them in Empire at War and watching the mayhem unfold.

[@no-nonseplayer6612]

until yeo hear hopurrr comi g form recently landed shutle or oyu see blie skinned grand admira lwit hred eyes and youre light greta oh ohsit now it is time to shit my pants and get new imprial naval mandated pants thnak you wery much

[@sirboomsalot4902]

I’ve always wondered if there is a major cultural different between the Imperial Army and the Navy. We haven’t seen a lot of the Army, but from little we have seen (especially in Andor) the Army seems a lot more, chill I guess? Or at least just different.

[@Alexandragon1]

Thx for the video!

[@DeclanOReilly]

Most of the first generation star destroyer captains were former republic officers from the clone wars, until retirements and promotion started raising up the first of the imperial generation officer corp. Its well been guessed that the Death Stars peer opponent was not rebels, but imperial warlords who wanted to start up their own little fiefdoms.

[@Darth-vade123]

The most incompetent like ozzle hace rich families making it nearly impossible to get rid of them but Vader he does the job most imperial Captains Commodores and Admirals are competent

[@przemekkozlowski7835]

Many Expanded Universe books state that the only real way to rise in the Imperial military on talent alone was to serve under Vader. It could be bad for your lifespan but he promoted on merit and did not care about the imperial politics.

[@krispalermo8133]

@@przemekkozlowski7835 Vader also had a .. soft .. touch, if you perform well and all you really wanted was a safe out of a way desk job. He set you up with a safe desk job with promotion, pay raise, and stock options and you could raise a family. Where if Vader's other operatives needed those skills could make use of them. Bounty hunters that survived working for Vader were paid so well, many were set for life after a few jobs. Any time Vader was in a sector and called for .. aid. It just meant that Vader was kind enough to share the excitement with others. In legends when it came out the Luke & Leia were his children, who never had anything boring going on with their lives. When Jedi Skywalker called for aid or just heard to be in the area, bounty hunters and imperials jump to see what is going down. As for the few or many of Vader's secret listening outposts, .. they were set up for the officers to raise families. Children and spouse are just another hostage to lever an officer to high performance ratings. During Luke's Yavin Joung Jedi Academy teenage novels of the Solo twins. They learned about many of their grandfathers bases and had side adventures with the base personal teenagers. Very low power barely noticeable force users with hopes their children had more potential. Birth and raised within a Darkside nexus. ( How do I hide these people from the Emperor ?) All of this is after that fact of the OT and they were never canon by G.Lucas. But on a shadow military secret society viewpoint. It does make sense. Build a very Large extended family to run the business.

[@schwarzerritter5724]

@@przemekkozlowski7835 Does that mean Ozzel was pushed on Vader by someone?

[@g.williams2047]

Yes.

[@Darth-vade123]

​@@schwarzerritter5724Yes he was put as the Executor fleet Admiral as he isn't capable of command his rich family is the only reason he wasn't a light cruiser Captain

[@janklobener435]

I didn't know the leather guy from the Village People commandeered a Star Destroyer

[@jonskowitz]

Christ, can you even imagine train scheduling and interior logistics being key skills in winning a battle?! And yet, as described these would be necessities

[@TheWarmachine375]

It's really jarring to see Star Destroyers not opening fire at the small squads of X-Wings and Y-Wings led by Hera Syndulla at Lothal. They just stand by and watch TIE Fighters fight the Rebels by themselves.

[@imposteramogus5161]

Well most of their weapons are turbolasers, and Thrawn really doesn't want to risk causing damage to his own fleet.

[@JrielCel]

​@@imposteramogus5161 Indeed, but there are positions and strategies that could give the star destroyers way to fire back, while supporting the other ships to cover it's weaknesses, his tactic has been depicted in the comics, showcasing his ability to maximize fleet capabilities.

[@imposteramogus5161]

@@JrielCel Well yes, but in the episode, the star destroyers were basically over one another. Their only escorts were a few arquitens and gozantis. Now if only Thrawn had more defenders and/or lancers, then it'll be a different story.

[@JrielCel]

@@imposteramogus5161 I guess that makes sense, but a hardly believe his crew are that incompetent, as in the comics he insures his crew are well educated and skilled, as he usually does teach someone like Paleon and Vanto, so the Tie squadron should have done more damage before being shot down, the plot armors can sometimes be obvious, as Thrawn has been nerfed in the shows including his crew

[@imposteramogus5161]

@@JrielCel fr bro, plot armor for the rebels in the shows is so annoying. Plus he keeps getting dragged down by his other officers, for every Palleon and Vanto, you have 10 different versions of Constantine and Ozzel for instance.

[@michanowacki2306]

5:03 "He was blue"

[@TheHipsterGamer]

Sir do you know why I pulled you over?

[@Korben-c5x]

@@TheHipsterGamerNo

[@OrionInSpace]

Has it ever been detailed if any of the captains for star destroyers at the Battle of Yavin were good? They had the Death Star on their side and still couldn’t get it done.😂

[@sundragon7703]

Considering there were 25,000 ISDs. Pretty sure the fans have not seen all the "flavors" of ISD captains.

[@lukedalton]

in reality in term on overall numbers for the imperial armed forces, the entire officer complement of all the ISD put together represent a minuscule part of it and basically to become part of this very small club you need to fit some very stringent criteria and who you know and loyalty to Palpatine represent number 1 and 2 with 3 being ruthlesness, 4 corruption, 5 luck and 6 competence so yes we have more or less seen all the flavors of ISD captains wild card and exception included

[@CameronHuff]

Considering that George Lucas based the Star Destroyers and Rebel ships around aircraft carrier combat in WW2, it's not a surprise how they are setup.

[@papapalps2415]

This isn't a thing, no.

[@bostonrailfan2427]

@@papapalps2415he himself said the fighter battles were based on WWII battles, especially the first movie. the Millennium Falcon’s cockpit is modeled directly after the nose of a B-29 bomber

[@papapalps2415]

@@bostonrailfan2427 Wow, neat. That's almost relevant to CAPTIAL SHIP COMBAT. Go away, small child.

[@NomicFin]

The way the Imperial military was run is actually highly realistic. If you look at pretty much any real-world dictatorship, it becomes clear that dictators don't want actually competent military leaders. Competent military leaders are a potential threat to your position; they might one day decide "hey, why am I taking orders from this guy when I have a literal army?" (or in this case a starship with enough firepower to level a city from the orbit). A dictaror rather wants people who are just competent enough to do their day-to-day job without it becoming a massive dumpster-fire while being incompetent enough that if they would rebel they wouldn't pose a real threat, and also fully aware that they wouldn't last a day in their position in an actually meritocratic system so they have vested interest in keeping you in charge. Combine with institutional corruption and you end up with a military whose command staff mostly consists of stooges and yes-men who got their position through bootlicking or bribery.

[@emilspegel9677]

Exactly this

[@bigsarge2085]

Oh, captain, my captain!

[@vic5015]

Palpatine valued loyalty and ruthless ambition over ability and competence.

[@metalmadness5851]

Piett, I'd rate as competent but unprepared for his role. He always followed orders to the best of his ability. I always assumed the Executor only crashed into the Death Star II because Piett had parked it over entrance the rebels used to enter it. Add on that his ship was completely surrounded and getting hammered by the majority of the rebel fleet, and his crew's inability to freely fire to defend themselves without risking friendly fire, and I'm not sure any other commander would have performed better. Captain Needa also came off as very competent, but just had the ultimate misfortune of being responsible for catching the Millennium Falcon. Points for him that he didn't run from his failure and offered himself to Vader to spare his crew from the Sith lord's wrath.

[@schwarzerritter5724]

"that could eclipse even the Empire State Building." I see what you did there.

[@Mark-in8ju]

Void, Annihilation, and Underwater are the best recent Cosmic Horror films. What do you guess the daily life of a Cultist is like? How could a Cultist enhance their career/life goals with whatever magic they had discovered?

[@kunis2299]

The bane trilogy is amazing. Going from a cortosis miner to a freaking sith lord. Is incredible. Definitely worth the read. Wish it was canon.

[@dane3038]

It is "Canon". A corporation cannot declare a story invalid no matter what it says on a legal document. That's not how stories work. I point this out because I've noticed that people seem to subconsciously crave the validation of Big Corporations. I've even noticed communist doing it. And not doing that should be their one virtue.

[@rosesareredbutzerglingssti9290]

Huh... Darth Bane was the creator of the Rule of Two and once we still don't know how was Bane's life in Disney's canon, you can say that book is canon. At least for now.

[@chrisheitstuman6360]

If you pump out 25,000 of them, they are no longer the "battleship" of a fleet. Especially with so many "super" star destroyers classes, let alone "super" star destroyers and other larger seige weapons. It's like insisting that the Fletcher class destroyer is actually a battleship and all ships bigger are just "super" destroyers. Why captains are morons, as a catchall, is there wasn't time to build competency when you just need sheer numbers, and you are only drawing from a single species, so you are limiting your meritocracy pool. Pre-clone Wars there were few combat ship captains and then just 20 years later the Empire literally had need of millions of captains. You can't make a meritocracy, competent core in a basically peacetime navy with experiance and sorting out how things really work and what doesn't and integrating lessons learned in the metaphorical and literal vacuum.

[@AlexandervonBelow]

Maybe the most striking display of Imperial arrogance was maybe Captain Elk in Andor, when he completely underestimated Luthan in Episode 11

[@papapalps2415]

....What.....what, exactly, was the patrol cutter supposed to do, pray tell? How, exactly, was he supposed to predict this random ship he stopped actually was stupidly heavily modified, up to and including a (albeit hilariously impractical) literal cutting laser on each side? The cutter did what was standard protocol, and when Luthen did the only thing he really could, the cutter responded appropriately. As usual; Andor makes a habit of actually being nuanced, something utterly, completely, and totally beyond the mental faculties of a non-insignificant number of modern coom-sumers. It doesn't just blanketly depict TEH STOOPDIZ IMPS, nor does it show them as being omni-competemt or unstoppable.

[@imdefender]

To this day the Toyota Hilux remains the best vehicle the empire ever fielded

[@MadisonAtteberry]

For the battle of Hoth, I think the that whole operation was batched the moment the Rebels discovered the probe droid, the moment that went offline, that should have told everyone in Death squadron that the Rebels were aware of that they were found out and it was probably for the best they exited hyperspace early as you don't know what the enemy would be prepared for.

[@Hypercube2017]

I can't tell if Palpatine made the empire like this because he wanted it weak, or because the dark side made him more myopic than a blind mole.

[@papapalps2415]

Or perhaps none if that is true, and nuance does, actually, much to the utter shock of drooling randoms everywhere, exist? Just a thought. Perhaps, just maybe, it's possible there's more to something in life than that the bad guys are TEEH STOOPDIZZ, and the people you personally like (Republic or clones or whatever you get off to) are TEHE SMORTZ.

[@TitusSmith-i6r]

I 🧡💛 Generation Tech

[@violetlight1548]

Alan, could you give us a citation link for the Star Destroyer's internal rail system? I need this for my worldbuilding! Thanks! (though I'm still going to have one of my characters running on to an SSD bridge just to say -- "the ship's too long. If I had walked, the fic would be over." :P )

[@ComfortsSpecter]

Incredible Vibe I Love how fiction can reflect so many Incredible lessons from Reality Though Star Wars wasn’t exactly planned out the best to allow this It’s portrayal of Nepotistic Ultrauthoritarianism is quite Wonderful Great work My Man

[@rustyschackleford4762]

This channel loves the republic. This channel loves democracy.

[@rusharnmal7425]

A thing I don't like about Disney Star Wars is how easy and often the Rebels take out Stat Destroyers. If it was as easy as it was shown in rogue one and rebels, them the empire would have never been able to maintain control over the known galaxy for as long as ot did. In many of the displayed scenes in Disney Star Wars play out exactly opposite to how you would expect it to. Any Corvette, frigate, or cruiser that gets in line of sight and in range of the turbo weapons of an ISD should be destroyed in seconds. The anti capital ship fire power is that overwhelming on an ISD. Instead we effectively have Rebel ships teleporting about the battle field as of distance or time doesn't exist or having high powered ECM because the imperial gunners can't hit a quarter to half a kilometer sized enemy ship at point blank range. I mean if we count Rebels and the battle of Scarff the think thats six star destroyers down. If such small groups can get kill rates that high, how did the impire make it even five years.

[@evilds3261]

Thesis: The Imperial Navy was often led by incompetent high-ranking officers due to Palpatine prioritizing loyalty over aptitude. This is due to the Emperor's fear of losing his power, and a desire to use internal competition to prevent others from being able to challenge his authority.

[@baahcusegamer4530]

They fly so close together and keep hitting each other during combat. Talk about gross incompetence.

[@DarknessGuard]

Ironically, truly intelligent people would see the issues with the empire and not support it unless their greed took over their intelligence.

[@GenerationTech]

We kind of talk about this aspect in our next video, sometimes the systems are just too strong to fight.

[@cw7legionofpewrights596]

0:31 wait till it flys over Florida or the Midwest 😂😂😂

[@clefsan]

I'd say in most engagements the Empire had firepower and/or tech-superiority (for example Interdictor ships) over the Rebels. So Imperial commanders needed to be incompetent to make rebel successes happen in a believable way from a storytelling perspective. So one could say that imperial incompetence served as a form of plot armor for the rebels whenever it was necessary for them to pull off a win against huge odds. Also, the number of incompetent officers we are shown in stories is vanishingly small compared to the total number of Star Destroyer command positions. So I do not think we have enough data to draw the conclusion that a large number of their Officer Corps were idiots. Another point from an in-universe perspective: While Palpatine demanded complete obedience from his people and certainly admired ambition and ruthlessness in those who were trying to earn important positions under him, he also despised incompetent subordinates. Therefore I refuse to believe the "system" you described - that would actively lead to a preference for promoting incompetent officer candidates - was created by him on purpose. It's more lilkely that the system had simply not gone so bad yet that he felt a need to step in and clean it up, because, on average, he was still getting decent results from his military. So it'd be more a result of negligence or lack of care on Palpatine's part, not his intention to actively make it so.

[@captainbejo3513]

Tbh that Toyota with a mounted M2 is brutal.

[@nickvinsable3798]

Clarification: its not “Toyota”, its “Toy-Yoda” P.S. its more of a suggestion for later scripts 😏…

[@justincameron9661]

Join the dolphin empire! We have tuna cookies

[@ninjamasterbuilder8675]

Imperial officer: the rebels faith in their small ships and fighters is their weakness Rebel Starfighters: your over confidence in your star destroyer is your weakness

[@Mralien401337]

another thing that is often missed is that an ISD really does only one job well and is very heavily reliant on other ships in the navy to cover for its weaknesses. So a competent ISD captain who wanted to defect or go rogue could be swarmed by bombers. If he harbored any such plans he would need the cooperation of other imperial captains who would then need the cooperation of their own crews. Much higher chance of any such rebellions to get discovered

[@devonphillips3854]

Within the Imperial Navy there are the Revenge class carrier battle groups the only reason we never hear about them in Star Wars is because Old Navy High command and Emperor's Inner Circle in the any Emperors himself knows where they are deployed at all times and the Revenge class carrier one of the most advanced Star Destroyers in the Imperial Navy

[@JMPT]

Very Nice

[@thefadingcrow6426]

I remember audibly gasping at Constantine moving out of position against Thrawn's orders. It was that mind boggling.

[@brianmoyachiuz905]

Tarkin is the king of clowns

[@atlascormac6273]

Where have i heard of people being hired for ideology instead of merit before??

[@aznsbd]

The Empire could have definitely been run a lot better. The Emperor's Narcissism is to blame. Great leaders make sure the best people are in place and make sure that the operation can be run without him. The only thing the Emperor wanted was an empire of loyal slaves. He never even planned for the Empire after him because he planned to run it himself in perpetuity.

[@thomasdonlin5456]

I’d love to have heard Vader lift Scar’s line from “The Lion King”, “I’m surrounded by idiots.”

[@MarksmansBeast2]

well when the writers want the bad guy to loose this stuff happens a lot in reality the rebels would have NEVER won but this is a fantasy kids movie after all

[@patricknakasone9376]

A Venator that gets into a turbo laser fight with an ISD deserves to lose. Thier strike strength is based on thier fighter strike craft.

[@christianburnett236]

Atleast wullf yularen seemed to have Thrawn's back!

[@MischiefWaffles]

Gotta realize there were 20k of these ships that means they would have to find 20k plus officers to be the best of the best to fly these so u can see why a lot were not the best fit just due to not enough best of the best officers

[@emilspegel9677]

Which is really not much of an achievement in a galaxy of trillions...

[@vancancavhcangivemeusername]

wait so you’re telling me this video isn’t a euphemism for the nypd

[@TheHipsterGamer]

That thumbnail looks like Josiah Trelawny from Red Dead 2

[@vadersnipes378]

Toyota Hilux FTW

[@RedXlV]

Honestly, the Gozanti is pretty much the Toyota Hilux of the Empire.

[@goldiefox7128]

Please do rebel captains of mon calamari cruisers :D

[@ai-aniverse]

raise your hand if you are still working through the documentary...

[@Dankdalorde]

I always wondered if ISDs strictly tasted like cheese or had some pepperoni

[@kratosboy5557]

“I’m blue” -Alien Smurf

[@SomeTheorist9090]

I don't know if that's exactly what happened. It's closer in my mind to how the Navy or Army would work. You become officers because you have a skill set that's important and you have an education. From there you get your commission and most people stay in the lower ranks of the officer corps. By the time one has moved up to a Captain or Colonel (you've been in about 22 years). You've commanded all types of troops and your career will plateau. Of those that have made it that far... only a handful will make it to General. 0.4% (of all officers) So, its not that they're incompetent. They have plateaued and just stopped caring. I know it sounds the same but it's not. It's akin to your last 15 mins on a shift. You know you're going home soon so you check out. Some officers after 22 years of service and then 6 years thinking you might get a promotion to General. Then knowing you're not for 1-2 years before you end your commission. We are seeing this set of people.

[@Portfelio]

Plagueis: I'mma ignore the sith structure cause it's toxic. Sidious: *cranks dial to 11*

[@regionalflyer]

I love how Piett is the only competent and honorable officer depicted in the original trilogy.

[@futurezeus952]

I wish they showed hans time in the empire in the solo movie

[@JizzMasterTheZeroth]

Indeed. If only someone had commanded the people unable to hit anything more competently...

[@leonardoespino9780]

The isd represents what the empire was. It was this big and powerful thing that on its surface carries this aura of invincibility not by intelligence but by sheer size. But when poked around and put to the test, it was brittle, poorly led and easy to destroy