All Things Star Wars

[Ordnael]

I wonder which gave the idea for "B-Wing literally drops bombs in space over an enemy capital ship"...like what happened?did Kennedy never saw proton torpedoes being fired against the death star!?

 

[r16]

tie Bomber . Designed for The Star Wars or A New Hope or Episode IV , next to TIE Boarding Craft which was to attack Tantive IV , before it was decided it would look cooler if the captured rebel ship was tractored into the Star Destroyer hangar . Once you have a mile long ship , you flaunt it .

you know , the uber cool Darth Vader image was developed for the moment he would cross between that TIE and Tantive IV , in space .

tie Bombers dropped bombs in both Empire Strikes Back and the Return of the Jedi . It like goes there is so much mass that you will have unjammable targeting when you make that close to drop . TlE Bombers are shielded . B-Wings also from Episode VI . There is nothing in them for the woke thing . To blame Kennedy and whatever .

 

[r16]

oh , just remembered . SF-17 "Starfortress" is not a B-Wing . Johnson could not keep to no new designs edict of Abrams so he put that in like as a joke or whatever . B-17 was evocative when Star Wars first came out , makes little sense to later generations . No , it is not Mega 100 either .

 

[EvaDK]

To me, the laughable bit about the TLJ bombers, is how slow they are.

Their size doesn't matter, there's no air resistance in the vacuum of space. They should be as fast as X-Wings and perhaps less maneuverable.

But then the scene wouldn't be as intense as it is, so 'movie reasons'.

 

[Samson]

But then the scene wouldn't be as intense as it is, so 'movie reasons'.

I do not buy it. They choose the scale for the conflict, make the distances and speeds bigger in proportion and nothing else needs change, except the scale of the CGI. It should be possible to make the scale believable and the action intense.

 

[r16]

it is 101% feasible to make that scene with slow bombers . Shields' influence . That they just arrived and couldn't accelarate , being slow to pick up speed . Any Clone Wars veteran would have launched interceptors as soon as the bombers arrived . As the captain of the doomed ship tried to . It is that jumping on the bay doors to open them to drop the bombs .

 

[EvaDK]

it is 101% feasible to make that scene with slow bombers . Shields' influence .

We've seen plenty of examples from the films themselves, illustrating that's now how shields work in the STAR WARS universe. Just before the Resistance bombers arrive, we literally watch Poe Dameron pilot his X-Wing super fast only feet above the dreadnoughts hull and blast away its turrets with no issue.

 

[Patine]

I do not buy it. They choose the scale for the conflict, make the distances and speeds bigger in proportion and nothing else needs change, except the scale of the CGI. It should be possible to make the scale believable and the action intense.

it is 101% feasible to make that scene with slow bombers . Shields' influence . That they just arrived and couldn't accelarate , being slow to pick up speed . Any Clone Wars veteran would have launched interceptors as soon as the bombers arrived . As the captain of the doomed ship tried to . It is that jumping on the bay doors to open them to drop the bombs .

We've seen plenty of examples from the films themselves, illustrating that's now how shields work in the STAR WARS universe. Just before the Resistance bombers arrive, we literally watch Poe Dameron pilot his X-Wing super fast only feet above the dreadnoughts hull and blast away its turrets with no issue.

The genre of Star Wars is space opera - like Lensmen, the Foundation, Dune, several galactic imperial war mangas/animes, and, technically, though a more extreme example, Warhammer 40K, among others. One very noted feature of this genre that consistently comes up is that, despite taking place in the stars in a futuristic-style setting of grand scope, with the trappings of high technology well beyond what we have in the RW, working fast and loose with physics and other scientific laws is an iconic convention to the genre defining it's internal rules and expectations, not inherent flaws violating those rules. Fans of the space opera genre looking for that form of entertainment do not nitpick slips in scientific laws - they nitpick other things more relevant and germane to said genre.

 

[r16]

one can not properly discuss Star Wars here , even mentioning why is a crime . With that in mind , one can notice the Story Board told the CGI crew to add extra engines and stuff . The Overdrive Thruster in addition to the T-70's turbo impellers . One can debate to the end of time that Rian Johnson made this himself , like the one about Rose inventing Space Stealth for the first time in the 25 000 years of interstellar travel or not . Take care in challenging in stuff people are now suspected of knowing a bit or two about .

 

[Gorbles]

To me, the laughable bit about the TLJ bombers, is how slow they are.

Their size doesn't matter, there's no air resistance in the vacuum of space. They should be as fast as X-Wings and perhaps less maneuverable.

But then the scene wouldn't be as intense as it is, so 'movie reasons'.

Y'all should go and play Star Wars: Battlefront and tell them not to make the bombers slower and fighter craft faster.

But, ahem, yes, TLJ. It's TLJ's fault.

 

[r16]

the movie that Democratizes the Force . Without the extra engine Poe is many , many , many times superior to Luke in piloting skills . Anyone going to answer writing something about Luke ?

 

[EvaDK]

The genre of Star Wars is space opera - like Lensmen, the Foundation, Dune, several galactic imperial war mangas/animes, and, technically, though a more extreme example, Warhammer 40K, among others. One very noted feature of this genre that consistently comes up is that, despite taking place in the stars in a futuristic-style setting of grand scope, with the trappings of high technology well beyond what we have in the RW, working fast and loose with physics and other scientific laws is an iconic convention to the genre defining it's internal rules and expectations, not inherent flaws violating those rules. Fans of the space opera genre looking for that form of entertainment do not nitpick slips in scientific laws - they nitpick other things more relevant and germane to said genre.

Oh, It's not about whether this is space opera, or how real science applies to these films. It's about internal logic and consistency within its own universe. The only reason these slow bombers are a thing, is so Rian Johnson can show us an intense and prolonged sequence with Rose's sisters sacrifice. The bombers HAVE to be excessively slow, so Rian can tell that story the way he wants to. If they were fast (like all other ships the Resistance uses - consistency), the scene would be over in 30 seconds. And Rian couldn't have his 'moment' with the character.

And yes, this is absolutely nitpicking. But that's what we do as fans - nitpick.

 

[r16]

it has been fixed . ı think about for 6 years or so . Don't you like it ?

 

[JohannaK]

Oh, It's not about whether this is space opera, or how real science applies to these films. It's about internal logic and consistency within its own universe. The only reason these slow bombers are a thing, is so Rian Johnson can show us an intense and prolonged sequence with Rose's sisters sacrifice. The bombers HAVE to be excessively slow, so Rian can tell that story the way he wants to. If they were fast (like all other ships the Resistance uses - consistency), the scene would be over in 30 seconds. And Rian couldn't have his 'moment' with the character.

And yes, this is absolutely nitpicking. But that's what we do as fans - nitpick.

Yes! Exactly, the movies work

 

[Laurana Kanan]

 

[Clubber Lang]

Free Andor...

Disney+ is making Andor free to stream on YouTube, and now you have no excuse not to watch the best Star Wars show​

Fire up your podracer engines

If you haven't seen Andor, one of the best Disney+ Star Wars TV shows, then you no longer have an excuse, as the first three episodes have been made available to stream for free.

The episodes were released on the Disney+ YouTube account (March 11) and have already amassed thousands of views, with the first episode, titled 'Kassa' clocking up 100,000 watches at the time of writing.

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'Exploding Coffins' -

Exploring and Examining The Last Jedi: The Resistance Bombers; A Mega Post covering flaws and observations about everyone's least favorite bomber.​

*turns on record player*

*finds mood music*

Hello there, ladies and gents! My alias is Jade and today I will be taking a deep dive into the *breath* MG dash 100 Starfortress SF dash 17 Bomber, also known as the Resistance Bomber, or, as I like to call them, the Exploding Coffins.

Before I break down the problems with this hunk a' junk, allow me to give you loads of background info. I intend for this post to be the post people come to when discussing the Resistance Bomber and it's many issues. I will be discussing the bomber, its flaws, and the flaws in how it was used in The Last Jedi.

So, without further adoo, let's get going.

PART #1

General Description.



MG-100 Starfortress SF-17 Bomber

So let's cover all the bases about this thing.

The Resistance Bomber was manufactured by Slayn & Korpil, (Remember that name for later because it's gonna be important.) for the New Republic to use during the later stages of the Galactic Civil War. Following the New Republic's disarmament, the ship was retired and was mostly used by civillians or mining companies. It's roughly the height of an AT-AT walker, was equipped with hyperdrive and shielding, and was armed with two ball turrets, and 6 laser cannons. It held a crew of 1 pilot, 1 bombardier, 1 engineer, and 2 gunners. It also contained a maximum of 1,048 proton bombs.

Here are some lovely cross sections for reference later:



The Exploding Coffin in all its janky glory.

A cleaner look at the Exploding Coffin.

The bombs were loaded into the bomb bay, which detached from the main fuselage for easier storage.

The modular bombing magazine, called the "clip" by the bomber's crew, would drop the bombs through sequenced electromagnetic plates in the clip, which propelled the bombs to "drop" in microgravity environments. The bombs would then be drawn magnetically to their targets. The assembly could be programmed to drop specific sections of the payload in sequence, but the most common configuration was "deploy all." To drop the ship's payload, the bombardier on the flight deck monitored a concentrated sensor feed. The system calculated the optimum time for release, and at a given prompt, or at the discretion of the bombardier, the control button on a wireless remote triggered the release of the payload. A magnetic seal retained the atmosphere when the bomb bay doors were open.

These bombers were slow and ungainly, and the pilots were instructed to "fly in a tight formation so as to provide overlapping fields of defensive fire."

So, now comes the fun part.

Part #2

These Things Are Stupid.

Ok, so firstly lemme just give ya the scene where these bombers have a starring role.

33 seconds in and we encounter the first glaring issue:

Durability.

Now, apparently these things are shielded, but I took note of how many shots it took for the shields to fail and for the bomber to get hit. 3. 3 hits is all it took to break the shields on these things. For comparison, look at how many hits, oh I dunno, a ship of comparable size, before it became practically invincible, takes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_OSeRxhGOY

I counted 15 confirmed hits on the Millenium Falcon, possibly more, and it was still working fine.

So, while yes, these bomber have deflector shields, they are pitifully weak.

Additionally, I thought these things were heavily armored? Why is it that when passing debris hits these things, they explode? These ships are heavily armored supposedly and should be able to take hits from debris, I mean if a Jedi Interceptor can handle this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZq53GloUhw&t=58 (Sidenote, how much more tense and action packed is this opening battle compared to what we got in TLJ?) why can't those heavily armored bombers deal with debris? I mean, that is the whole point of armor, isn't it? So, we have now established that these things are pitifully weak for a bomber, a ship class that should be heavily armored.

Oh yeah, also these things lack a blue magnetic field around the bottom to keep the air in. So... that's a big problem that everyone just kinda forgot.

Okay, now lemme move onto their second glaring issue.

Speed:

These things are painfully, unbearably, SLOW. They're even slower than some capital ships, such as Corellain Corvettes. I mean just look at those Blockade Runners go! They're zipping along! Meanwhile, these bombers are chugging along at a snails pace. This incredibly low speed presents two glaring issues.

1.) They're easily hit by starfighters. I mean, they're basically sitting ducks! They're moving so slow even the most incompetent of pilots could hit them enough to blow them up(because, as explained above, this things are basically made of cardboard)!

2.) They're easily hit by turrets. Ya know, those turbolasers, the ones found on every Star Destroyer? Setting aside the stupidity that the Dreadnought's turrets cannot hit fighters, which is their entire purpose, let's suppose that they did do their job and were not incapacitated by poor writing. How hard do you think it would be for those turrets to hit the basically frozen bombers? Piece of cake, like shooting explosive whales in space! There's not a chance they'd miss.

So, the low speed makes these things easy to hit by both fighters and turrets and they're going to explode upon basically even slight damage. These things are big, slow, and fragile. They are just the absolute worst. Moving on to...

Firepower:

Oh boy.

So, as mentioned above and on Wookiepedia, these things have two gunner manned turrets and six medium laser cannons. Now, I want you to go scroll back up and look and see where most of the guns are.

Go on, I'll wait.

....

Ya back? Okay, so most of them are on the back of the ship right, specifically the ball turrets? Now, the ball turrets can cover the back and sides of the ship pretty well, but these things are hilariously under defended from the front. All the cannons that can move are in the back! The cannons in the front are fixed and can only shoot straight ahead! It's sad how easily a fighter could come in low from the front and get a couple of shots in and blow a bomber. Just like that. Okay, so these things are bad at defending themselves too...

Let's look at the most often criticized flaw in these things.

The Boom Balls:

Ok, so the bombs. There's 1,084 of them. Seems like overkill to me, but what do I know. Time to address everything thrown at these things.

"The bombs work because of gravity!" First off, there's no gravity in space. The bombs at the bottom have no time to achieve terminal velocity, so they'd just kinda float and then get hit by other bombs from the top of the rack that do have enough momentum to move and then they'd explode. The Dreadnought is nowhere near massive enough to attract the bombs due to gravity. And finally, they are beyond the planet's gravitational influence so the planet has no gravitational play here. So no, gravity ain't the reason.

The actual canon reason is thus:

The bombs are electromagnetically propelled downward by the tracks and then the bombs, which are magnetic, are drawn to their targets.

That one little description is heavily laden with flaws.

The electromagnetic propulsion thing is fine. That makes sense. However, why are the bombs at the bottom dropping with such speed? They have very little runway to get propelled by the rail and once again we run into the above problem with bombs piling up and exploding.

Now, lets just assume that didn't happen, let's say they half loaded the clipazine of bombs to give time for the bombs to be propelled along. So, the bombs are magnetic. First off, why wouldn't the bombs stick to themselves, causing yet another pileup and explosion?

Ignoring that, why wouldn't the bombs be attracted to the bomber, hitting it and blowing it up?

The main issue here isn't the way the bombs drop, it's the bombs themselves. Well, actually the whole method is stupid, but the magnetic bombs thing is just more stupid.

So, now for...

Part #3

Designers, why?

Member that company I mentioned earlier, the ones that designed these absolutely horrible ships? Remember their name? Nah, of course you don't. I said it all the way up there. They're Slayn & Korpil. Guess what? They've actually designed and manufactured other ships! Now, I bet you're wondering, I wonder what other atrocities this company has made if they made this thing? Well lemme show you!

The V-19 Torrent Starfighter!

The Beloved B Wing!

That's right, the same folks who made that poorly designed atrocity made the V-19, used heavily during the Clone Wars until it was mostly phased out in favor of the ARC fighter, and the beloved B-Wing!

Now you're probably thinking, like I was: HOW?

How did ship designers so previously competent churn out the mess that is the Resistance Bomber?

Bad writing and a director who really wanted his WWII reference in his movie, that's how.

Part #4

Strategery is Hard.

This part is gonna be a long one.

So let's examine the Resistance's strategy, shall we? Oh, wait, what's this?

"The Resistance didn't really have a plan! They just threw what they had at their enemies!"

No. Just no. Poe very clearly planned this out with Leia. He had an extra booster constructed just for this mission. This was not a last ditch effort. They knew the First Order was coming and the Rebelsistance had plenty of time to make a plan, so don't gimme this bantha poodoo that they had no plan. They had one, it's just a really dumb plan.

Anyways, let's examine their strategy, shall we?

First off, we're just going to ignore the First Order's incompetence. If they weren't absolute idiots, this fight would have been over even before it started. Great Video showing better strategy for the First Order. Sooo... assuming a stupid enemy...

Okay, bring the bombers in. How long they were waiting there and why they just poofed onto the scene, I don't know. They just materialized outta the blue.

Okay, bombers keep that tight formation. But... why? These things are big, slow, and fragile and apparently a danger to themselves. Why not keep them separate and have your ships defend them separately? Or, better yet, why don't you not use all of your bombers at once. Bring them in as needed. Bring one in, defend it heavily and if it fails, bring in another.

Also, the movie just kind of ignores that these things have hyperdrives at all. It seems like the movie would have these things putt putt along back to the Raddus at a snail's pace and get blown up. Also, if these bombers were to succeed, how would they get away before their target would explode taking them with it? Honestly, these bombers have to get ridiculously close to be effective..

Okey dokey. As a self described Strategist of these Star Wars, lemme lay down some much more effective and less stupid strategies.

#1.) Don't even use the bombers.

Just send in the X-Wings and A-Wings underneath the Dreadnought where there are literally no defenses and have them blow up the cannons with missles. Bam. Battle over, Resistance escapes, Dreadnought's now useless, and these awful bombers never need to exist.

Okay fine, I'll actually use the infernal contraptions...

#2.) Jump In, Jump Out.

Have the bombers hyperspace jump in right over the target, prime and drop their cargo, and jump out. Boom. One and done.

#3.) The Lore Breaker

Just hyperspace ram one of these things into the Dreadnought. Who cares about space battles anymore when you can just end it with the Holdo Maneuver?!

Now onto my personal favorite part...

Part #5

Why not Y-Wings?

So, little hypothetical here: how much do you think 8,672 proton bombs costs? Because the Rebelsistance had enough for that many bombs AND 8 of these useless bombers. Explain to me why they couldn't have afforded and used Y-Wings.

They clearly can get ahold of them in Episode IX, when their forces are significantly reduced, in comparison to where they were in TFA. So what's stopping them other than bad writing and forced events?

"But Y-Wings are so old!" They have clearly redesigned the Y-Wing during the New Republic era, so no. And even if the Y-Wings were too rickety, what about good ole' B-Wings? They were a brand spanking new design!

"But B-Wings would've been expensive because they were new!" About as expensive as these bombers, which were designed and used in the same period as B-Wings. Soo.. yeahh... that doesn't make sense.

"But if they used Y-Wings the battle wouldn't have happened and Poe wouldn't have had his arc!!"

And here, at last, we come to the real reason these god forsaken abominations of design exist.

Rian Johnson wanted to have the bombers in as a reference to B-17 Fortress Bombers in WWII, which were vastly superior to these pathetic imitations. See for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQRZ0ODUUzQ

The only reason why the bomber is the way it is is for the homage, and because Rian wanted that shot of the bombs around Paige. A pretty shot and an homage are the reasons for these things existing. There ya go.

So I'm done yammering, but here are some resources I used that you might also like:

The part of MauLer's Critique that examines the Bombers.

Robothead's Video on the Bombers

Eckhart Ladder's video on the Bombers

 

[Birdjaguar]

Moderator Action: Off topic posts removed.

 

[Clubber Lang]

In theaters May 22, 2026...

-------------------

​

All Star Wars Video Games Currently Confirmed To Be in Development in 2025​

• Star Wars Jedi 3
• Star Wars Eclipse
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake
• Amy Hennig's Star Wars game
• Star Wars strategy game from Bit Reactor and Respawn

The first Star Wars Jedi game proved to be an instant success, and its sequel, Jedi: Survivor, enjoyed equal popularity and praise. Thus, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that Respawn is tripling down on this action-adventure series, confirming that a threequel is indeed in development. Not much is currently known about the venture at this time, and it will likely remain that way for a while: Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was only released in 2023, and series' lead Stig Asmussen left Respawn shortly thereafter, so the franchise may need some extra time to get its ducks in a row.





Things are even hazier when it comes to Star Wars Eclipse and the remake of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Eclipse is coming from Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human developer Quantic Dream and will be set during the High Republic Era, centuries before the Skywalker Saga begins. It can be expected to retain the choice-based, interactive-movie nature of previous Quantic Dream projects, though virtually nothing else has been revealed about the game at this stage. It was announced in 2021 with a cinematic trailer, but it's mostly been crickets since then. Quantic Dream has also been buffeted by allegations of workplace misconduct in recent years, and rumors of Eclipse's development troubles have abounded as well.





The Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake is also up in the air. In 2022, shortly after its reveal during a Fall 2021 PlayStation showcase, Bloomberg reported that the KOTOR remake was indefinitely delayed. Aspyr was originally charged with the project, but it was transferred to Saber Interactive when the former was absorbed by Embracer Group, making the game's status even more confusing. However, Saber has repeatedly confirmed that it is still in development, even though no concrete details have been illuminated.





Then there are the two untitled Star Wars games, one coming from Bit Reactor and the other from Skydance New Media, helmed by Uncharted writer and director Amy Hennig. Bit Reactor, a studio composed of Sid Meier's Civilization and XCOM veterans, is working with Respawn to create a tactics/strategy game in the Star Wars universe, but little else has been revealed about the project. However, the game will reportedly be featured at the Star Wars Celebration event this April. The Skydance Star Wars game is similarly obfuscated, but it is confirmed to be an action-adventure title, and Hennig's involvement suggests it will be a story-driven blockbuster, hopefully sharing DNA with the writer's best work.

-------------------------

Some upcoming comic covers -

Tides of Terror, a page -

 

[Laurana Kanan]

 

[Clubber Lang]

Armed polar bear Saw faction guerillas and Storm Troopers with bazookas!*
*(Range Troopers, smart rockets)

(Poster)
Merro and Karn have stepped up thier wardrobe game for this season, dressed to the nines in thier Imperial best

Wonder what surprises will show up in Luthen's antiques store this time.
(S1)

https://www.starwars.com/news/andor-luthens-gallery-easter-eggs

R1 order -

Star Wars: Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel -
(This prequel prepped me well, finished it just in the nick of time before i had hit the pictures to watch R1, gave me an extra lense).

Star Wars: Reign of the Empire: The Mask of Fear
(Got it on the go, couple of chapters in...Mon Mothma, dear o'dear ..The Emperor is going to make mince-meat out of her...she had already soiled herself after doing a lil time in the joint for bad mouthing him).
I like how all the characters (Audio-Book) pronounce 'Em-Perr-Rah' just like Tarkin did in NH.

Star Wars: Rebel Rising
(Jyn learns the ropes and rolls with Saw's merry band and the events leading up to her being banged up in the back of a Imperial paddy-wagon in R1)

Andor

Rogue One: Recon – A Star Wars 360 Experience

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story official novelization
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Comic Adaption