CT Why did Ackbar bow his head after the Executor crashed into Death Star II?

I always took it as a sign of relief.

 

Relief, tinged with regret - not just over the death of the A-Wing pilot, but the thousands of Imperial soldiers dying partly at his own hands. The Alliance were fighting a war to free the galaxy from a dictatorship, not simply destroy the Imperial forces and take over.

 

He would probably prefer we'd address him as either his name or his actual race. These sound like racial slurs.

 

I had the theory that when the bridge was taken out there was a loss of command and the engines had been hit by a barrage of Ion cannon fire causing the SSD to into the DSII.

 

I think one of the engines may have been visibly trailing fire during the drop.

 

Come to think of it, he probably just needs to get into a tank of salt water pronto. He breathes with gills, of course, and he's losing oxygen fast.

 

While not impossible, keep in mind how many engines the Executor had. One engine trailing fire would not be enough to cause such a problem.

My theory (when I'm not finding plot holes lol) is that the loss of the primary command (even if they had secondary command) caused enough chaos that there was no way to coordinate everyone on board. Especially with the Death Star's artificial gravity.

If there was a way to coordinate, I am positive that someone would have reversed course and stopped the thing from crashing.

 

In the novelization there's a reference to the ship having guidance difficulties, as well as it taking a lot of damage (it removes Green Leader's ramming of the bridge though):

"They did it," Ackbar whispered.
He rushed over to the comlink and shouted into the multifrequency war channel. "All fighters commence attack on the Death Star's main reactor. The deflector shield is down. Repeat. The deflector shield is down!"
Lando's voice was the next one heard. "I see it. We're on our way. Red group! Gold group! Blue Squad! All fighters follow me!" That's my man, Han. Now it's my turn.
The Falcon plunged to the surface of the Death Star, followed by hordes of Rebel fighters, followed by a still-massing but disorganized array of Imperial TIE fighters—while three Rebel Star Cruisers headed for the huge Imperial Super Star Destroyer, Vader's flagship, which seemed to be having difficulties with its guidance system.


Ackbar stared wild-eyed out the observation window. He was looking down onto the deck of the Super Star Destroyer; only miles away. Fires burst over the entire stern, and the Imperial warship was listing badly to starboard.
"We've knocked out their forward shields," Ackbar said into the comlink. "Fire at the bridge."
Green Leader's group swooped in low, from bottomside, up from the Death Star,
"Glad to help out, Home-one," called Green Leader.
"Firing proton torpedoes," Green Wing advised.
The bridge was hit, with kaleidoscopic results. A rapid chain reaction got set off, from power station to power station along the middle third of the huge Destroyer, producing a dazzling rainbow of explosions that buckled the ship at right angles, and started it spinning like a pinwheel toward the Death Star.
The first bridge explosion took Green Leader with it; the subsequent uncontrolled joyride snagged ten more fighters, two cruisers, and an ordnance vessel. By the time the whole exothermic conglomerate finally crashed into the side of the Death Star, the impact was momentous enough to actually jolt the battle station, setting off internal explosions and thunderings all through its network of reactors, munitions, and halls.
For the first time, the Death Star rocked. The collision with the exploding Destroyer was only the beginning, leading to various systems breakdowns, which led to reactor meltdowns, which led to personnel panic, abandonment of posts, further malfunctions, and general chaos.

 

That version is really weird, to be honest. The ship in the films was a lot more intact, which we can see.

Plus they lost bridge deflector shields in the film, not the forward shields. The forward shields would be kilometres of shield generators (most likely). I would understand if they lost the bridge shields, then lost the forward shields after someone destroyed the bridge. But that never seems to happen.

So...while I like the alternate viewpoint, it's a little bit too different.

 

While one could have the bridge shield and forward shield be synonymous, I agree that the two are pretty different. "Spinning like a pinwheel" is something of an overstatement - and I never saw any other ships get snagged.

 

Funnily enough, it would have made more sense to me if it had happened like the novelization.

 

I've seen a lot of people insist that the bridge shield was not taken down by that A-wing torpedo attack hitting a dome - but by those three Mon Cal cruisers - or even the entire Rebel Fleet "concentrating all fire".

Still, both the oldcanon and newcanon assigned a shielding function to the domes.

 

It does make me wonder why they couldn't have a smaller shield dome somewhere else. It doesn't make sense that they would be so prominent.

KDY really is in trouble for that one too, lol.

 

I agree. It always struck me as a sign of relief seeing that massive ship out of the fight at a time where the battle hadn't been going particularly well.

 

I believe the politically correct term for the Mon Calamari is "Aquatic-Americans."

 

His head is full of sea water. /thread

 

This is how I've always seen it.

 

Moments after the shot cuts away, salt water gushes out of his ears along with several small mollusks.

 

Definitely. I knew that when I saw it as a first grader. I felt he'd fought the Empire so long and was finally seeing something like that. It amazes me how there's always someone who will misinterpret anything.
Related to that, that crash of the Executor was almost the most awesome moment for me in the movie. I saw it going down and expected to see a series of major explosions as it crumpled into the Death Star but just got one big fireball. I'm an OOT kind of person, but considering the changes done to the movies, I would have expected that to have been something updated.

 

I've always understood it that those shield generators are so massive and sensitive that they needed to be as far away as possible from other shipboard electronics. Smaller ships could get away with internal shield generators, but not Star Destroyers.

 

I'd say it was a cathartic adrenaline release, like when you finish an exam. You have a moment to breathe and recover.

 

I haven't listened to the RotJ radio drama. How is it portrayed in that?

 

People will take a fish-man over this haircut any day:



Actually the answer to this is obvious: Ackbar was a double agent working for the Empire! Think about it. He's constantly negative throughout the whole battle & actively trying to safeguard the Empire. As soon as the shield was found to still be up he orders a retreat! As soon as the Death Star fires one shot he orders a retreat! When Lando suggests they take on some Star Destroyers he disagrees! Then he gets all depressed & mopey when he sees a bunch of his comrades die on the Super Star Destroyer. Then do we see him laughing & partying on Endor after the Death Star was destroyed? No, he was probably off crying somewhere behind a tree.

Damned dirty Imperial agent I say! Was probably Palpatine's pet gold fish as a kid. Curse you evil fish man!

 

I agree that it was relief, but also what the cost of this war was

 

Don't make fun of Madine' s hair. Who gives a fishman a rank of Admiral anyway?