[karajorma]

Presumably when they caught up to her there, like they caught up to her when they arrived at Tatooine.

Imperial cruisers are explicitly described as fast in ANH, it's entirely possible (and supported on screen) that they are faster than a corvette.  Tatooine makes a far better hail mary than "our people have no weapons" Alderaan.

And yet having been captured by the empire and now knowing that her own planet is now definitely a suspect for where she was taking the plans, Leia sends a message saying "Go straight to Alderaan. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200". Even though now it's not a single cruiser chasing her and the entire Imperial fleet has been alerted? Leia's plan makes some sense if she thought she could bluff her way into claiming to be a simple consular ship that has been misidentified as a rebel. It doesn't work if the Empire have tracked her ship all the way from the battle to Tatooine.

And you still haven't answered why Leia is even at the battle in the first place. That blockade runner wasn't helping in the battle at all so why was it even there? Why wasn't Leia already on her important mission to get Kenobi already?

[Scotty]

I can't recall the exact text of the conversation right off the top of my head and would likely have to rewatch it in order to be completely sure, but I know that there was conversation to that topic during the movie.  The decision to the Tantive IV to get Kenobi, and the decision that Captain Antilles' ship would be the one to carry the plans to Alderaan are made at the same time, presumably because Bail Organa is (perhaps rightfully) paranoid and doesn't have a large pool of trustworthy couriers.  It was definitely a manpower shortage reason.

[karajorma]

The conversation happened on Yavin.

So the only reason to bring Tantive IV along was cause they expected to lose the entire rest of the fleet.

[Scotty]

...which they pretty much did.

[Phantom Hoover]

The Tantive IV was after all a blockade runner, exactly the ship to bring if you expected to exfiltrate some data.

[Det. Bullock]

Presumably when they caught up to her there, like they caught up to her when they arrived at Tatooine.

Imperial cruisers are explicitly described as fast in ANH, it's entirely possible (and supported on screen) that they are faster than a corvette.  Tatooine makes a far better hail mary than "our people have no weapons" Alderaan.

And yet having been captured by the empire and now knowing that her own planet is now definitely a suspect for where she was taking the plans, Leia sends a message saying "Go straight to Alderaan. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200". Even though now it's not a single cruiser chasing her and the entire Imperial fleet has been alerted? Leia's plan makes some sense if she thought she could bluff her way into claiming to be a simple consular ship that has been misidentified as a rebel. It doesn't work if the Empire have tracked her ship all the way from the battle to Tatooine.

And you still haven't answered why Leia is even at the battle in the first place. That blockade runner wasn't helping in the battle at all so why was it even there? Why wasn't Leia already on her important mission to get Kenobi already?

Well, she probably gambled on the ship not having been identified.
Since people in the story group love to put in stuff from the old Totally Games spacesims in (I mean, we got a Tie Defender in Rebels, that's incredibly nerdy even for a Star Wars fan), it makes me wonder if something like the sensor ID process in X-wing Alliance and X-wing would be canon.

[BlueFlames]

The heat from the guns warms the vacuum tubes in the targeting computers, so that we can ID what we're shooting at.

Storm troopers stopped getting promoted into engineering roles, following that design decision.

[karajorma]

Well, she probably gambled on the ship not having been identified.

That only makes sense if we assume she wasn't running to Tatooine because she was trying to avoid Vader i.e what appeared to be the case before this film came out.

[Det. Bullock]

Well, she probably gambled on the ship not having been identified.

That only makes sense if we assume she wasn't running to Tatooine because she was trying to avoid Vader i.e what appeared to be the case before this film came out.

But she also had to recover the Jedi on Tatooine because daddy said so if I remember correctly.

[LaineyBugsDaddy]

"General Kenobi. Years ago, you served my father in the Clone Wars. Now he begs you to help him in his struggle against the Empire. I regret that I am unable to present my father's request to you in person, but my ship has fallen under attack and I'm afraid my mission to bring you to Alderaan has failed. I have placed information vital to the survival of the Rebellion into the memory systems of this R2 unit. My father will know how to retrieve it. You must see this droid safely delivered to him on Alderaan. This is our most desperate hour. Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope."

[karajorma]

That speech only helps my point that in ANH Leia's original mission was to get Kenobi and the plans fell into her lap later once she was already on-route.

Well, she probably gambled on the ship not having been identified.

That only makes sense if we assume she wasn't running to Tatooine because she was trying to avoid Vader i.e what appeared to be the case before this film came out.

But she also had to recover the Jedi on Tatooine because daddy said so if I remember correctly.

Which brings me back to my original point. Stopping off to pick up Kenobi was a massive, massive risk which nearly cost the rebellion its entire existence. Yeah it worked out well in the end but why would anyone sane do it? Why not deliver the plans first? Why was picking up Kenobi so important that it was worth the risk?

In ANH the reason why she continues the mission makes sense, the transmissions were intercepted once she was already near Tatooine and she continued trying to get Kenobi cause it was the only way to save the plans once the Empire started chasing her. But with the addition of Rogue One it now seems that she decided even at the battle to head to Tatooine, and that simply doesn't make sense to me.

[Det. Bullock]

That speech only helps my point that in ANH Leia's original mission was to get Kenobi and the plans fell into her lap later once she was already on-route.

Well, she probably gambled on the ship not having been identified.

That only makes sense if we assume she wasn't running to Tatooine because she was trying to avoid Vader i.e what appeared to be the case before this film came out.

But she also had to recover the Jedi on Tatooine because daddy said so if I remember correctly.

Which brings me back to my original point. Stopping off to pick up Kenobi was a massive, massive risk which nearly cost the rebellion its entire existence. Yeah it worked out well in the end but why would anyone sane do it? Why not deliver the plans first? Why was picking up Kenobi so important that it was worth the risk?

In ANH the reason why she continues the mission makes sense, the transmissions were intercepted once she was already near Tatooine and she continued trying to get Kenobi cause it was the only way to save the plans once the Empire started chasing her. But with the addition of Rogue One it now seems that she decided even at the battle to head to Tatooine, and that simply doesn't make sense to me.

Because she was already ordered to do it?

[karajorma]

Either the orders were given without knowing that her ship would end up carrying plans that meant the success or doom of the rebellion or they were given knowing that fact.

One way or the other, someone has made a moronic decision.

[Det. Bullock]

Either the orders were given without knowing that her ship would end up carrying plans that meant the success or doom of the rebellion or they were given knowing that fact.

One way or the other, someone has made a moronic decision.

Or they were desperate enough because half the rebellion was going "f*ck this sh*t I'm outta here!" the moment they knew of the Death Star and they needed a Jedi General to rally them in the shortest time possible?

[karajorma]

In which case they should have sent someone to pick up Kenobi straight away! Instead they wait until after the battle and lead Vader directly to him and Luke!

[Det. Bullock]

In which case they should have sent someone to pick up Kenobi straight away! Instead they wait until after the battle and lead Vader directly to him and Luke!

Things happened rather fast and I wouldn't be surprised that very few people other than Leia, Mon Mothma and Bail knew about the Jedi on Tatooine.

[karajorma]

But they discuss the issue and then bizarrely don't actually send Leia off on the mission they literally just talked about! Does that not seem strange to you?


My entire point is that Leia and Tantive IV were obviously crowbarred into that scene at the end even though it would have worked just as well had the rebels transmitted the information to her somewhere near Tatooine instead.

[Scourge of Ages]

One more point: why in the name of the force did neither of those big scary star destroyers fire a single turbolaser at the rebel fleet? Even the bulk of the TIE Fighters were launched by the station itself!

And who decides, "Hey let's see if we can punch through this shield that's strong enough to protect a whole planet with fighter-launched torpedoes"?

And Saw, buddy. Just make a backup copy of the message that you can give to Jin. Just throw it at her in the worst case scenario where she needs to leave in a hurry.

So, three points I guess.

[Phantom Hoover]

You know, I don't remember getting much sense of capitals trading fire in the original trilogy space battles either.

[karajorma]

You can actually see the star destroyers firing at the fleet. Whether they're putting out the kind of fire they are capable of is another matter.

I agree with PH that they didn't fire that much in the OT either.