That would be more accurate if we were describing larger scale ships like Star Destroyers. Fighters and bombers, both in Star Wars AND reality rely on their speed and maneuverability more than durability to keep them out of the scrap heap.
The Resistance Bombers are really the first time in Star Wars where we see bombers that aren’t really that fast. Y-Wings, while slower than the X-Wing, were still fairly quick. Separatist HYENA Bombers, and TIE Bombers were pretty much the same. These new Sequel-era bombers are more akin to the Flying Fortresses that saw combat during WWII than bombers we’ve seen previously. There were not fast, and while they had defensive capabilities such as turrets, they required fighter escorts.
The same can be said for these Resistance Bombers. They were able to carry large payloads of explosives, but not really do much good on their own. The Resistance Fighter escort failed pretty early on due to the sheer number of TIE F/O fighters headed for them, so of course most of them got ripped to shreds. They probably would have all been destroyed if Poe hadn’t managed to take out the turrets on the Dreadnought.
Now, one might question why ships that carry such payloads wouldn’t have shielding equipped, but that would probably be down to power management. Gotta focus on those engines and turrets, not to mention bomb release. Probably not much left for a shield generator of any sort.
No you don’t, but it sends a message to the rest of the galaxy.
“Hey, look, we just killed Leia Organa and her band of rebels. We destroyed their base, their fleet, and all their leadership. You cannot stop us, so just lay yourselves down and be our doormats. The First Order is supreme.”
I would argue that their overcofidence causes them to make stupid mistakes, which in turn can make them look incompetent. Now, of course a few overconfident mistakes does not mean they’re 100% incompetent, but you only have to be overconfident and let your guard down once to let a proton torpedo slip through your exhaust port and blow you and your fuzzy slippers up.
The First Order has the exact same bravado that lost the Empire both Death Stars, and control of the galaxy thirty years before. They control a vast army, and a few intelligent military minds, some even left over from the Imperial Era. However, they didn’t learn from the mistakes of the past. Intimidation can be a great tool, but you have to be smart enough to know when to use it and when to just wipe out an insignificant opposing military force as fast as possible for the sake of efficiency. That can almost be an even greater show of intimidation than your slow-moving almost impenetrable walkers.
We can argue back and forth about this all day long. Anyone can say what they want about the First Order and Resistance military tactics seen in The Last Jedi. Call them sound, call them completely insane, it doesn’t matter. What’s become clear to me in the months since this film’s release is the allegories that the First Order and the Resistance represent. The First Order is those who can’t learn from the past, while the Resistance is those who remember the past, honor it, but pursue a new path toward the future. Disney has packaged these in familiar yet new designs to get the message across. Granted, the message hasn’t come across… perfectly. But these new themes are worthy of being explored, and some criticisms toward events in these new films just don’t hold any weight because that thing you may be complaining about is the entire point.
We’ll start with our new Empire. The First Order does not learn from the past. They’re repeating the exact same mistakes that the Empire made, and this means that can sometimes come off as incompetent. Snoke was the biggest problem about the First Order (and I’m not talking about from a narrative standpoint here, although him not having a backstory doesn’t matter in the long run for the story being told in this trilogy, at least as far as I can tell thus far). Snoke talked a big game about rebuilding the Empire but doing it right this time, yet went on and on about wanting his own Vader. If he should’ve learned anything from Palpatine’s Empire, it’s that the Dark Side always betrays itself. Say goodbye to your torso, ask Maul where to get some replacement legs also, Snoke wasn’t nearly as powerful as anyone is led to believe. He’s got some flashy tricks, but at the end of the day he’s stuck in a chair most of the time and dies when getting sliced in half, if he was any sort of powerful he’d have survived getting sliced in half like Maul did, but anyway….
This mentality obviously progresses down into the generals, officers, and rank and file, where no one really learns from their mistakes. If they had, Starkiller would’ve been a base of operations, and nothing more, certainly not a system killer. Ironically, in Snoke’s failure and death, he’s created the tool that could (potentially) see a new Empire take hold of the galaxy in Kylo Ren.
This is pure speculation, but if Ren actually learns from Snoke’s failures (and his own on Crait), and he weeds out the nostalgic among the high ranking officers of the First Order, it could be a system of oppression that could exist for generations, possibly even after his passing (unless he figures out some sort of Force thing to extend his life). He already accomplished what Vader could not by surpassing his master and taking sole control. He is the Supreme Leader, and the possibilities for what he could do are endless.
While Kylo Ren (hopefully, again, we don’t know how IX will turn out) learned lessons and will chart a new course of action, the Resistance leaders have done the same. Finn and Rose (no matter if you agree on the execution of the sentiment, I for one didn’t like it) learned how to fight for each other. Poe learned how to be a true leader and not just a hero. This is obviously something he’s struggled with for a long time from what we’ve seen in Resistance and Episode VIII. Finally, Rey learned about the mistakes that the Jedi of old made, and she has the sacred texts. She can use the wisdom to grow a new Jedi Order not patterned after the original, and follow a path closer to that of Kanan Jarrus and Ahsoka Tano. They were by far some of the best defenders of the light, yet threw out the Jedi Code in many instances.
Episode VIII might not have been perfect, but it enhanced the ideas presented in Episode VII and sets the stage for a very exciting conclusion later this year.
And some of the points from both of you aren’t very good since you haven’t provided evidence beyond your say so. Copy/Paste clips from the film with timestamps to prove your points, please. Both of your are just saying “you’re wrong” without posting why beyond opinions in most cases.
The whole evacuation of D’Qar is a big one, for instance. There’s lines of dialogue to support both your cases.
