Tag: anonymous

Who do you think they meant when they said allies were scattered in the outer rim? Do you think it’s possible that other remaining Resistance members were also scattered, like Snap? Perhaps old Rebellion friends like Wedge?

Obviously we can’t be certain right now, but I think it is likely that they were referring to other Resistance and/or New Republic members. We do know that NR forces, especially the starfighter squadrons, were spread pretty thin throughout the galaxy, so it’s entirely possible we will see a rallying of sorts in the next movie. Maybe that will include OT characters like Wedge, it’s certainly possible. In my opinion it would fit, but I don’t know if they will decide to tie the sequels back to the originals in such a blatant way. 

~ Jacen

May I ask, do you think there are any SpaceX type businesses in the Star Wars universe? Like say the new republic cut off the budget for militarized space craft and so some crazy genius billionaire is out there making his own? Do you think the NR has had to be at odds financially with engineering geniuses to keep tech out of FO hands?

A lot of engineering companies are completely private, and have no allegiance to any one government or organization, so in that way I suppose there would be. It’s a bit hard to compare them to SpaceX, because all the technology already exists and it isn’t really a thing to have governments directly involved in the design and production of spacecraft (the exception being Top Secret Death Weapons such as the Death Star, for which the Empire did have its own scientists and engineers, but the actual construction and the bits of technology that already existed would have been carried out by a private corporation under contract). A notable example would be Santhe/Sienar Technologies, who supplied military vessels to the Republic, the Trade Federation, the Empire, the New Republic (Legends) and the First Order. They would be the closest to a SpaceX sort of thing I can think of. I don’t think anyone would really go through financial effort to keep these companies from selling to rivals, it’s understood that they don’t usually have any one exclusive affiliation (though the New Republic did introduce arms restrictions that limited their abilities to sell to the First Order). 

Hope that helps! 

~ Jacen

What’s your opinion on Holdo as a leader? Not trying to stir things up, just asking from an experienced SW fan who is familiar with military order of the whole thing.

Well, I don’t want to be negative, but I really didn’t like her as a leader. Honestly, I found her character quite confusing, and maybe it’ll make more sense next time I watch the movie but I just didn’t get her. Her attitude and leadership style was completely incompatible with a small-scale, close-knit operation like the Resistance, and it kinda baffled me that she was treated as a good guy and given a Hero’s Death despite having such negative and patronizing interactions with our established protagonists. I saw her from the start as a parallel to the sort of leader you would find in the Empire or the First Order; someone who truly believed she was doing the right thing but went about it in a way that made it seem like more of a power trip than a legitimate attempt to do what was best for the Resistance. To be fair, I haven’t yet read the supplemental material involving her, so maybe I’m missing some big part of her character, but this is just what I thought of her in the movie. Really just an odd choice, in my opinion.

~ Jacen

What sort of role do you see for Rey on the Resistance base side of things? She’s been gone for a while; do you think it’ll be like ‘I’m endangering the mission, I shouldn’t have come here’ ala Luke where her still-there Force bond with Kylo will force her to exit the main base?

I’m actually undecided on this. I think it’s very up in the air right now whether she will end up on the light side/dark side Jedi/Sith side of the conflict, or the Resistance/First Order freedom/tyranny side. Maybe it’ll end up being a bit of both. However, I do believe that if she leaves the Resistance for a while to deal with Kylo, she won’t run off without telling anyone. It seems that someone has to address the spiritual side of the conflict and she would be the obvious candidate, but I don’t think it will be handled the same as Luke’s arc. Right now, everything is pointing to a drastic change in how Force-users are going to organize themselves and interact with the wider galaxy in the future, and I think Rey’s Force-related arc will be reflective of that. 

~ Jacen

You mentioned in a prior post that you feel Poe will be given a major promotion. Since his favorite ship was destroyed, do you feel Rian was setting him up to fly less? Or do you think he’ll still be a hands-on leader?

I think he will definitely remain a very hands-on leader, and I hope that it will be treated as a huge virtue of his, rather than them throwing him under the bus for it. I expect he’ll be getting a new ship at some point in the next movie; I can’t really see him being content with leading from behind, as it were. And with the Resistance in such a state of disarray, I can’t see anyone really complaining about it or trying to make him into more of a traditional military commander-type, either. I think (and hope) he will, at his core, stay a pilot and a friend to his squadmates. 

~ Jacen

How old do you think people were when they started training to be pilots in the New Republic Academy? 18 or younger? Trying to work out when Poe Dameron would have officially signed up as I know he’d been learning since he was 6. Thank you

Age requirements are a very difficult thing in the Star Wars universe, given all the different species with different rates of ageing. It seems that admission into military academies was based more on how much related schooling one had already completed, such as graduating from a military prep school or a planetary training academy. There isn’t much information on New Republic Academy students, but in Imperial academies there are instances of people (humans) joining anywhere between 15 and 30+ years of age. Poe may well have enrolled before he was 18, but there’s no way to tell for sure, at least not yet. 

~ Jacen

Are hyperspace maps a thing?

In a way, yes. A map of the galaxy is called a star-chart, a star map, or an astronav chart, and they are used for navigating a ship through both hyperspace and realspace. (No special map is needed to navigate hyperspace; each point in realspace has an associated point in the alternate dimension of hyperspace, and every object in realspace has an associated “shadow” in hyperspace, so they are linked.) When a ship jumps to hyperspace, a star-chart is used to calculate a route to the destination that ensures the ship doesn’t collide with a celestial body. This is called astrogation. 

~ Jacen