Rogue One Admiral Raddus Discussion Thread (and Fan Club)

I have revisited Raddus One: An Admiral Raddus Story a shameful amount of times and it continues to solidify why Admiral Raddus is seriously GOAT to me.

Here is the thing: The space battle which he commanded was not only arguably the best space battle in the series, thus far, but it also drastically altered a literally 40 year held view, which would prior have seemed immovable. While, I have always liked the Rebel Alliance and even really adored several individual members... and, of course, some of their ships are cool... and their musical cues have occasional moments of brilliance... I have ALWAYS favored the Empire during space battles. Always. Sure, I wore my X-Wing pilot Underoos like a freakin champ (technically a bedwetting champ, I suppose...) but seriously... TIE FIGHTERS! ... and the ridiculously amazing sound they make. AND STAR DESTROYERS! TIE pilot helmets and Vader overseeing a Navy and holycrapermegerd they have the IMPERIAL MARCH as their soundtrack for kicking the rebels' sphincters into submission. I appreciated the rebels' "underdog" status and it is always compelling to watch David get shots in on Goliath but... come on... look at their fleet and the music playing behind them as they slap the Alliance around... that is 40 straight years of rooting for the wrong side because they are just so terrifying and precise and awe-inspiring and marry me.

Until Rogue One.

Or, more precise, until the Rebel fleet jettison out of hyperspace and... suddenly... their music seems 1,000x more inspiring and... suddenly... there is a complete role reversal between the Alliance and the Imperial Navy. The bloke who announces their arrival may as well have been scripted to cry out "Holy ****! It's the Rebel Alliance!".

For the first time in my entire 40 year SW watching life, the Rebel Alliance seemed like a dread-inspiring nightmare for the Empire. And, it is glorious.

Previously, the Rebel fleet flying toward the Imperial Navy was met with "Good. Our first catch of the day" or "... and the end of your insignificant rebellion".
Suddenly, the reaction is "SIR! THOSE ARE REBEL SHIPS!!!" and "Close the shield aperture! NOW! NOW!"

Previously, the Empire fired the Death Star's superlaser into poor Rebel ships in order to demoralize them.
Suddenly, the Empire has to fire the Death Star's superlaser at THEMSELVES because their security complex has been so badly compromised.

Even the individual squadrons seemed to fly with a far more inspiring sense of awe-inspiring heroism.

Under Raddus' leadership, their theme music suddenly got me far more charged up than even the Imperial March.

Probably because the Imperials were not so much marching as screaming, rushing to close gates, bracing for impact and praying to Waru.

 

So far, "canon" is what we see on screen and we literally see nothing happen to him. So, nothing happened to him. He returned to being one with the Force until Luke called upon him in order to destroy the Death Star. Raddus only saw 2 seconds of the plans as they were received aboard the Profundity and he still memorized the entire technical readout in order to guide Luke's aim.

What we are less certain of is whether Raddus told Obi Wan Kenobi that a million voices had cried out but then were suddenly silenced.

 

The original Blu-ray cover was deemed too awesome to be released, as it would have put all other Blu-ray covers to shame: