Lit A Poor Tribute to a Legend: The Admiral Ackbar

Considering his distaste for pirates and smugglers, it is only fitting that one of the - at the time of DN - new Victory-IIIs, which are supposed to be pirate-hunters after all, is named after Ackbar.

However I'm probably talking to myself when I say, that the Calamari-Admiral should call himself lucky, if even a simple customs-corvette is named after him.

- at the battle of Endor he lead the Rebel-fleet into a trap. It was Lando, who suggested to directly engage the Star Destroyers and to give the ground-team more time.
- Coruscant Ackbar conquered, because Ysanne Isard wanted him to conquer it.
- Zsinj was defeated by Han Solo and a bunch of Hapans.
- Bilbringi was another trap Ackbar walked into. This time it was Talon Karrde's smuggler-alliance and the blade of the Noghri Rukh, that saved the day for the NR.
- DarkEmpire. What did Ackbar do during DarkEmpire, aside from losing the core, because his fleet was totally out of place?
- during JAT he did perform well against Daala, who is ... well, Daala.

Aside from his questionable successes as a battlefield-commander, his work as Secretary/Minister of Defense is dubious, too. Not only did it take him more than a decade to recongnize, that there might be some use to battlecruisers and dreadnoughts, no, most new ship-designs introduced during his term were quickly replaced with the next overrated design.

Which brings me to my last point:
Sien Sovv and Borsk Fey'lay had to fight the first stages of the YV-war with the NRDF left to them by Ackbar. Consequently they are blamed for the bad course the war takes under their leadership.
But who is the one, who gets all the credit and praise, when the NR finally manages to get back on the street to victory? A comeback only possible with recruitment and arming-up started by Sovv and Fey'ley? Ackbar!

It would actually be funny, if it weren't so sad.

 

Let's not forget Ackbar outfought and defeated an Imperial Grand Admiral. They don't just give that position away you know.


Jello paid a massive bribe for his.

 

GrandAdmiralJello

Well done. I have debated my fellow Fleet Junkie Fteik on this issue numerous times over the years. No need to spill additional ink on the subject.

--Adm. Nick

 

And there is the Thrawn Pincer tactic....

 

According to TTT the Imperial Grand Admirals were the greatest military geniuses Palpatine could find. As we later learned, that was either hyperbole of the highest order or Palpatine hasn't been searching very hard.

And my actual point isn't that Ackbar is ineffectual, but that he is overrated.

 

"Make no mistake, the Mon Calamari saved the galaxy. Their cruisers protected our fleet at the Battle of Endor, allowing the starfighters to penetrate the second Death Star's core. Without Admiral Ackbar and his people, we would all be the Emperor's slaves."
―Mon Mothma[src]

 

Back before I lost interest in the future of the EU, I did have a line of post-Legacy GA (or would it be GFT?) warships planned out according to a naming scheme:

• CR280 Corvettes: Officially assigned hull numbers only, but typically named by their crews and informally recognized by those names. Fits their adaptability and "wolf-pack" tactics.
• Calrissian-class Frigates: Distinguished military figures, befitting their role as squadron flagships and carrier escorts.
• Dac-class Fleet Carriers: Major naval battles, befitting their role in launching strikes throughout entire sectors.
• Indomitable-class Battlecruisers: Distinguished historical warships or virtues, befitting their typical operations as lone wolves or heavy battlegroups.
• Ackbar-class Star Defenders: Distinguished military leaders and politicians, befitting a command ship for an entire regional fleet.
• New Hope-class Star Dreadnoughts: New Hope and Alliance were two names I felt fit the bill for a class of 2-4 "one-ship fleets;" something that invokes a Big Damn Heroes moment whenever it shows up.

I do agree that we could stand to see some better naming conventions - I was a bit disappointed that the lone surviving full-size Mon Cal Star Defender after the YV war shared its name with a real-world ship most famous for the crew chucking their officers overboard so they could go get drunk and chase grass skirts in Tahiti.

 

Yeah, that's something I wish I had emphasized in my feedback. I had written a piece a while back about conjecturing Rendili's comeback in the NR days leading to proliferation of new VSDs in the DNT - notice that the Chiss(!) also have their own versions of VSDs in the trilogy.

 

I so need a frowning Admiral Harrsk smiley :/

 

Well Harrsk would certainly have made a better Procurator of Justice then Hethrir. Though he apparently was one of the first to hook back up with Palpatine once he came back.

 

Right then, let's toss a coin:

Heads: Your planet gets lightly bombed
Tails: Base Delta Zero.

 

Rendili has a long history of naval starship construction for galactic governments, so it would be cool if they came back into prominence under the New Republic and continued to be successful under the Galactic Alliance.

--Adm. Nick

 

The NEGVV does state that Rendili is "constantly researching new designs and technologies" in the NR era, and selling to both the NR and Imperial Remnant, for whatever that's worth.