So if all went to plan...

the Battle of Endor would've been a quick hit-and-run, right? When the fleet left hyperspace and entered Endor, the fighter groups were well on their way towards the DSII, before Lando told them to turn around. They also foresaw some support ships, but still thought the DSII was 'relatively' unprotected, as far as fleet support goes. The Rebels brought capital ships to draw fire from the starfighters, but why did they bring the whole fleet like Palpatine wanted them to? This complicated the retreat and drew the whole fleet in a do-or-die situation.

 

They thought they were catching Palps with his pants down. They thought the Death Star superlaser wasn't active and that the only protection was the SSD in orbit.

The armada would take care of the SSD and the starfighters the Death Star.

Palps had his fleet in place so that they could keep the armada boxed in and the superlaser would just grind them up.

Basically he wanted to draw out the destruction of the Rebellion to hurl Luke to the dark side. He also wanted to gloat in that Sithy way he has.

 

I see the trap thing, but I just never understood why the Rebels threw all their marbles in with no contingency plan. I guess they felt that if they didn't destroy the DSII now, whatever ships they had left would be useless anyway.

 

Plus, Luke kinda threw a wrench into the plan by going on board the DS, instead of staying with the ground troops on Endor, and helping to blow up the shield generator. He could have Force-sensed an ambush easily. In the grand scheme of the battle, he'd have been more effective on the ground than if he went up to the DS with dear-old dad. Vader would very probably have been killed in the space battle, as would the Emperor, and a lot LESS Rebel pilots.

Even if his leaving didn't hurt the Rebels on Endor, he'd have been blown up on DSII.

 

Staying planetside (moonside?) of Endor WOULD have really hurt the Rebel's plans. Instead of concentrating on the battle like any compatant leader would have, ole Palps let himself get distrated by the Skywalker Family Drama playing out in front of him. If he wasn't trying to impress/depress Luke, he would have shoot down the big ships first and moved down. The whole battle was there to presade Luke to join the Empire. It, you could say, failed even worse then Palpatine ever imigined it would.

 

Palpatine must have foreseen Luke coming on board the Death Star, but his overconfidence didn't see Vader as the one who actually killed him, and not Luke(even though he was a factor). Interesting.

 

Keep in mind I am referring to the Alliance's plan. They assumed Han & co. would have the shield down, and it'd be a quick matter of sending the snub fighters into the DSII as soon as they entered. What I just wonder is why the Alliance sent so many support ships if they thought that. They played right into Palpatine's hands.

 

Why? Because the script to the movie was HIGHLY classified (only Mon Mothma and Ackbar had access to it) and they knew if they didn't bring everything, they would lose.

The script was also how Red Leader (ANH) knew to make Luke in charge of the last Attack Run.