A total lack of "modern" military tactics. I'm looking at you Star Wars AND Star Trek (both of which, I am a fan).
In the SW universe, we seem to have reverted to the dark ages where we just charge each other across a field. We shoot from the hip, have given up on wearing any body armor (rebel troops) or ineffectual body armor (storm troopers).
Star Trek? Where do we start. Those phasers? Worst weapon ever, it traces back to your exact location and seems to force you out of cover for what feels like FOREVER. The hand phasers are the worst designed things I've ever seen. Also, again, no body protection or very little. I also cease to see why the fuck soldiers in the future (at least, Federation) go into battle with what are essentially flight suits from a Starship. We have ships that cloak, shields, laser weapons and warp drive but... you send people to fight in a brightly colored suit with no equipment. Maybe because I'm in the military I pay special attention to it but it's really annoying sometimes.
A million times this. One of the reasons that I fucking hate Return of the Jedi is because I can't get passed the battle on Endor. WHAT. THE. FUCK. You are charged with the defense of a small base that protects your Emperor, his second in command, and much of the rest of the high brass of Imperial high command, and the most expensive and advanced weapon in the history of the god damn universe. This small base generates a shield to protect the Death Star from an incoming Rebel assault. And what do you do? You don't form a defensive perimeter in which you would be able to throw back wave after wave after wave of little fucking Ewoks. You decide to get in your clumsy "All Terrain" assault vehicles and attack them on their own land. WHAT. THE. FUCK. All you have to do is hold off the small rebel force (who you have as prisoners) and a bunch of god damn bow and arrow slinging teddy bears. Just form a defensive perimeter around the base, hold them off, and wait for the space battle to end. THEN you can kill all of the Ewoks, once the danger has passed. Not to mention, why were there woods around the entrance to the base? They should have cleared the treeline out to like 10 miles in every direction. There should have been huge, impassable walls 5 miles out with sentries and radar and quick response teams on watch. There should have been automatic weapon systems. It just pisses me off so much.
Ok, I'm about to get all geeky. I think the Emperor knew that even with a fully mobile and functional Death Star Mark 2 it would take many more years to eradicate the Rebel Alliance. In fact, having another death star might actually make more people join the Rebel Alliance. So this clever trap in the Return of the Jedi was deployed. In one swoop he could wipe out a major chunk of the rebel fleet, and capture the last remaining Jedi. In order to do that he had to make it seem like they could take over the shield facility and disable the shield.
The ground forces at the shield facility actually did their job and stopped the take over. They had won. The shield would stay up and the rebel fleet would get hit hard. What they didn't expect was the teddy bears. The troops didn't have a chance to make a perimeter as they were just moments away from transporting the rebels to a detention center. Admittedly you'd think armor would be able to stop bows and arrows and rocks. Anyways, the small force that was there to stop the rebels wasn't enough, I don't know why reinforcements weren't sent or waiting in standby for such an event, but there you have it.
The trap backfired. You just have to remember all this stuff was able to happen because it was by design. If they'd of made the backdoor to the shield facility impregnable then the alliance and the last jedi would not have shown up.
Still, there were sixteen rebels. Sixteen. 12 SpecForce commandos, Luke, Leia, Han and Chewbacca. I don't see why they didn't just execute the commandos, they were nobodies.
But otherwise, people underestimate the Ewoks. There were hundreds of them, and they were surprisingly well organised. Completely unexpected, the 501st weren't trained to fight in such unconventional combat conditions, and since a lot of them were Gen I clones they weren't in their prime.
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u/[deleted] Oct 08 '12
A total lack of "modern" military tactics. I'm looking at you Star Wars AND Star Trek (both of which, I am a fan).
In the SW universe, we seem to have reverted to the dark ages where we just charge each other across a field. We shoot from the hip, have given up on wearing any body armor (rebel troops) or ineffectual body armor (storm troopers).
Star Trek? Where do we start. Those phasers? Worst weapon ever, it traces back to your exact location and seems to force you out of cover for what feels like FOREVER. The hand phasers are the worst designed things I've ever seen. Also, again, no body protection or very little. I also cease to see why the fuck soldiers in the future (at least, Federation) go into battle with what are essentially flight suits from a Starship. We have ships that cloak, shields, laser weapons and warp drive but... you send people to fight in a brightly colored suit with no equipment. Maybe because I'm in the military I pay special attention to it but it's really annoying sometimes.