#cobalt squadron

[brehatano]

Paige and Rose’s desperate parents had managed to smuggle their children out of Otomok as refugees. Wearing filtered goggles because their eyes hadn’t yet adjusted to the bright sunlight of an inner planet, with no clothes except those they’d traveled in, when Rose and Paige had met General Leia Organa for the first time, Paige had told her, “Our planet’s being murdered.” Leia had answered seriously, “I understand."

Star Wars, The Last Jedi: Cobalt Squadron by Elizabeth E. Stein

[lj-writes]

Yet more ways Holdo was an awful leader

Here are snippets from the TLJ novelization discussing Rose’s development of the baffler, a device that hides energy signatures to make ships harder to detect, and its role in Holdo’s plan with the transports.

The novelization follows up from Cobalt Squadron by Elizabeth Wein, the book that goes into much more detail about Rose and Paige’s time with the titular bomber squadron and how Rose used the baffler in action. In Rose’s last conversation with Paige, it is revealed that Rose has been tapped to help other mechanics adapt the technology she built so it can be deployed across the Resistance.

This is the reason Rose and Paige were separated and why Rose, who was previously the flight engineer on the bomber Cobalt Hammer, was not on board with Paige when it was destroyed in the dreadnought run. Actually I’m not sure why Rose couldn’t still board Cobalt Hammer. She wasn’t replaced as Hammer’s flight engineer as far as I can tell. Did they not need a flight engineer for the bombing run?

I’m calling bullshit on Rose no longer being needed on the Ninka after the techs learned from her. If Rose was not needed on Hammer anyway, why couldn’t she stay on Ninka to help adapt the technology? In Cobalt Squadron Rose and the entire team of bomber flight engineers were forever sweating to get the baffler, a very new and finicky technology, working right under intensive conditions. The bugs were getting ironed out during Cobalt Squadron, but it doesn’t seem plausible that everything was ready to go within a few hours on adapting this new tech outside its original setting. New and untried tech doesn’t... work like that. There’s always something to trip you up.

So instead of staying on to help the deployment of the technology she built, Rose is transferred back to the Raddus where she is just in time to witness her sister’s death and where she has so little to do that she’s relegated to “doing droidwork.”

Let me get this straight, they’re so busy that they didn’t have a job for an experienced mechanic? How does that even make sense? And then, of course, there’s the setup for Rose and Finn’s meet-electrocute where they insult her skills still farther by handing her a taser and the order to stun deserters.

Remember, this order HAS to have come from Holdo or someone under her command because the Raddus’s senior officers are dead, Leia is in a coma, and Holdo has taken over.

To summarize so far: Holdo requested Rose come aboard the Ninka to teach her techs the baffler technology, then decides that a few hours in hyperspace are more than enough to figure out and adapt this new tech and its creator is no longer necessary. Holdo then takes command of the Raddus but doesn’t do shit to make use of Rose again because evidently there’s no point in making sure the baffler technology runs perfectly, guided by the person who made it.

I mean, why would Holdo want Rose to supervise the technology she built? It’s not like Holdo was using the baffler for any vital plan that was central to saving the Resistance or anything-

OH FOR FUCK’S SAKE. Holdo used Rose’s baffler tech for the shuttles that the entire surviving Resistance’s LIVES depended on. And yet the inventor of that technology, who was on THAT VERY SHIP, was never called to help fine-tune the technology and didn’t even KNOW of the plan, so that she inadvertently worked at cross-purposes with it.

WHY would Holdo not tap Rose to make sure the bafflers would work correctly? Rose knew that tech inside out. She had supervised and taught engineers to deploy the baffler technology. She got anxiety from the possibility that the tech might not work correctly and cost lives, and worked like hell to make sure it worked. You leave someone like that out of your plan? Leaving this precious resource untapped just so you can keep your cards close to your chest for no fucking reason?

Holdo stans have defended her refusal to tell Poe or anyone about the plan, saying she didn’t owe anyone an explanation. Sure seems like shitty leadership, but let’s say for the sake of argument that she didn’t have to tell them. What’s the reason for leaving out Rose, the technician who invented the technology the whole plan depended on? Does this look like the actions of a leader who cares about maximizing the chances of success and giving everyone the best chance at survival?

No, Holdo shows a consistent pattern of keeping secrets to the detriment of the mission, sowing fear and distrust among her crew, not even caring enough to tap the right person to make sure the crucial piece of technology for her plan is foolproof. Again, the baffler was a new technology that had been adapted out of its original setting within a day ago. The person who knew it better than anyone was right on board the ship Holdo commanded, but Holdo didn’t give a shit.

Holdo should have been all over Rose’s ass to make sure nothing could go wrong with the bafflers. She should have been inspiring and reassuring her crew by letting them know exactly what she was going to do and putting all their efforts behind it, giving them hope that they would survive and light the spark of resistance across the galaxy. Instead she turned people against her by demanding they take her on faith alone, and set adrift without a sense of purpose or control some of her best people ended up unknowingly sabotaging her plan.

People whose names she didn’t even know, by the way.

Rose’s history with the baffler and Holdo is yet more confirmation that Holdo didn’t actually care about the mission. She cared about gaining a sense of power by disempowering people in her command, and she cared about her false sheen of modesty. This is terrible leadership on every level, and the narrative of TLJ is disingenuous in demanding that we see her as a heroic figure who was right about everything.

[reyfinndameron]

Paige and Rose by @ynabeat

[o-0-o-0-o-0-o]

tico sisters

[antifa-hulk]

"Paige and Rose’s desperate parents had managed to smuggle their children out of Otomok as refugees. Wearing filtered goggles because their eyes hadn’t yet adjusted to the bright sunlight of an inner planet, with no clothes except those they’d traveled in, when Rose and Paige had met General Leia Organa for the first time, Paige had told her, “Our planet’s being murdered.” Leia had answered seriously, “I understand."

-Star Wars, The Last Jedi: Cobalt Squadron, by Elizabeth E. Stein

[gffa]

--Star Wars: The Last Jedi-Cobalt Squadron by Elizabeth Wein

[starwarstheorist]

The lovely Paige Tico, gunner for the resistance and member of Cobalt Squadron.

[kirstyofjakku]

“Being afraid is like wearing my medallion. It’s part of me. I forget about it sometimes. But even when I’m not thinking about it, it’s still there.”

- Rose Tico, Cobalt Squadron