Some have said the “Holdo Maneuver” a scene from The Last Jedi creates a huge plot hole in the Star Wars saga. But does it really? Certainly, it’s a scene that warrants some thought. Let’s discusss.
You know the scene. When faced with almost certain death, Admiral Holdo pointed her ship the Raddus toward Snoke’s ship Supremacy, and went into light speed. The maneuver sent the ship directly into the Supremacy, splitting it into two, sending shockwaves throughout the surrounding area and through the Star Wars fan community.
Probably one of the most detailed analyses so far on the Holdo Maneuver comes from The Ringer, where they provide a detailed account of the implications of what it means for Star Wars. From the article:
The more one studies this squabble—perhaps the most important facing Star Wars scholars in our time—the more unavoidable the conclusion that the Holdo maneuver, as one Stack Exchange commenter wrote, is a “plot hole the size of a Mega-class Star Dreadnought.”
But is it really a major plot hole? Admittedly they are actually quoting someone else, but the problem, one would argue, is that the existence of such an attack would make much of what happens in Star Wars pointless. Why didn’t Luke just ram his X-wing into the Death Star?
Well, a small ship like the X-wing wouldn’t do much damage. The X-wing would be destroyed, but the ship or Death Star that it attacked might have a small hole through it, but it would probably survive. For example, Kylo and Hux had no problems walking around the Supremacy after it split in two, so these ships have a large level of redundancy in terms of airtight chambers. Admittedly, the ship was going down, but there was time for a lot of people and other ships to get off of the Supremacy. So even a ship the size of Raddus didn’t immediately take down the Supremacy, nor all of the equipment and crew. I would say given what Luke did, and given that damage it caused in destroying the Death Star AND living to tell the tale, was way better than putting an X-wing sized tunnel through it. Same can be said about Lando’s attack on Death Star II. It would require losing a big ship, and it just doesn’t seem financially feasible for a ragtag group of Rebels to sacrifice all their big ships to ram them into the big ships of the well-funded Empire.
It actually isn’t that great of a strategy compared to what the Rebels and others have accomplished in the Star Wars galaxy. It was an act of last resort that saved the day in The Last Jedi, but may not always work that well, or even as well as countless other strategies.
As discussed by The Ringer, the Maneuver requires a human pilot to sacrifice themselves, so this is only makes sense as an act of desparation. There is canon material that describes safety protocols built in to the hyperdrive. These protocols prevent using the hyperdrive in a large gravity well, like a planet. Although Snoke’s ship the Supremacy isn’t large enough to cause this kind of gravity, I would suspect that similar safety protocols would prevent ramming into another ship–if only for the self-preservation of the ship and pilot. A person can overcome these safety-guards, but it would be difficult for a droid to do this. OK, sure it could be programmed to override these things, but it’s worse than that.
I claim that this type of attack couldn’t be achieved by a droid, and probably not by a typical pilot. This kind of tactic, of correctly aiming a ship so that it hits it during a jump to lightspeed may actually require a pilot that is strong with the Force. This kind of maneuver may be tantamount to Luke firing a proton torpedo into the Death Star’s exhaust vent. Just as Luke hit the target after turning off his targeting computer and used Force, a pilot doing the Holdo Maneuver may require a similar level of aiming. For example, consider the kind of distances involved here. First, you would need a large ship to do this, like the Raddus. Only a large ship could do this kind of damage. Second, consider how far away the Raddus was, and how precise the aim would need to be for a direct hit. As an illustration, when traveling a distance of 100 miles, an offset of one-tenth of one degree would result in a vertical change of 300 yards. Twice the length of a football field. I’m assuming here based on simple physics that a ship of this size would require some amount of “runway” to accelerate up to lightspeed. Maybe the acceleration to lightspeed is instantaneous in a galaxy far far away, but it looks like a gradual acceleration to me. Fast, but gradual.
So maybe you could say that this could be done from up close? Maybe. But getting a ship up close isn’t without problems either, as evidenced by things like TIE fighters and buzz droids and what not throughout the saga. I would still wonder if it could build up enough momentum from up close anyway.
It has been said that a ship traveling through hyperspace doesn’t have any physical contact, or limited physical contact. For example, Han Solo, Finn, and Chewie used this tactic to get through the Starkiller bases’ shields in The Force Awakens. That said, Han also said coming out of hyperspace too quickly and you could crash into a supernova. Likewise, clearly there is a point while building up to lightspeed where you could do some damage with a big ship. So it seems like you need to be not in hyperspace, but building up speed before it. It therefore needs to be very well timed to do some damage.
So given that this needs likely probably needs to be manually piloted, and given that this requires incredible precision, does Admiral Hold have the Force?
We actually touched on this point last week. Actress Laura Dern said herself
“But she was longing for peace, and a revolutionary in that way, and wanted to be trained by and led by Leia, who taught her everything she knew. She wanted to come up in the ranks to support Leia’s mission, but also had this otherworldly side that does involve the Force.”
From the article it is clear that this isn’t just “her opinion”, but is coming from discussions with writer/director Rian Johnson, producer Ram Bergman and Kathy Kennedy. So Admiral Holdo was taught by Leia? We know from the films going back to Empire that Leia had the Force, but it might even be the case that when Dern says that “Leia, who taught her everything she knew”, meant even teaching her about the Force? It certainly sounds like this is the kind of “otherworldly side that involves the Force” that Dern mentioned above.
So this isn’t a plothole in my mind because it isn’t a good strategy. It isn’t a feasible way to run a rebellion against the Empire, nor is it a good way to run a resistance against the First Order. You would run out of big ships way sooner than the opponent, and use up all your Force-users. It also goes without saying that if it was used all the time, it would make for a boring saga. Once is new and powerful, all the time doesn’t make for good Star Wars.
Brought to you by @davestrrr. Stay tuned to SpoiledBlueMilk for the best of Star Wars!