Though Holdo's hyperspace maneuver remains a topic of debate, Star Wars set up this impressive feat 10 years before The Last Jedi premiered.
The Clone Wars' Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi in front of The Last Jedi's Holdo Maneuver visual
SUMMARY
- The "Holdo Maneuver" in Star Wars: The Last Jedi was actually set up in canon 10 years before the movie premiered.
- Anakin Skywalker used a similar hyperspace attack tactic in "Star Wars: The Clone Wars."
- Both Holdo and Anakin's tactics show that ramming into something at lightspeed can be catastrophic.
The Star Wars franchise had already set up Star Wars: The Last Jedi’s contentious “Holdo Maneuver” in canon 10 years before the movie even premiered. Despite its visual grandiosity, the Holdo Maneuver scene in Star Wars: The Last Jedi is still a fierce point of debate.
Essentially, Vice-Admiral Holdo’s impressive tactics involved aiming the Resistance ship, the Raddus, at the First Order’s Supremacy ship, jumping to hyperspace and ramming into the enemy’s fleet before actually entering the hyperspace lane.
Most of the First Order’s ships were destroyed as a result, but some claim that Star Wars’ world-building and hyperspace logic were also wrecked in the process, as audiences began to question why other parties wouldn’t have used that same undeniably effective technique previously.
Since the release of The Last Jedi, Star Wars has been slowly developing how and why Holdo attempted this dangerous hyperspace maneuver and explaining why she seemed to have much more knowledge of hyperspace than her fellow Resistance compatriots.
One Star Wars comic, for instance, Star Wars #29 by Charles Soule and Ramon Rosanas, insinuates that Holdo had learned about unusual hyperspace travel from the Nihil, a band of marauders that terrorized the galaxy during the High Republic era and used dangerous hyperspace jumping techniques to do so.
But Holdo isn’t the only one who has used hyperspace as a weapon instead of as a means of travel. Who else would be impulsive enough to do so but Anakin Skywalker himself?
Anakin Skywalker Weaponized Hyperspace During The Clone Wars
In Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 1, episode 4 “Destroy Malevolence,” Anakin Skywalker sabotages a separatist ship, the Malevolence, by disrupting its navicomputer. As the ship’s hyperdrive had just been repaired, Anakin’s navigational modifications caused the Malevolence to jump to lightspeed while on a collision course with a moon.
The results were a massive flare of energy – strikingly similar to what is depicted in The Last Jedi – and a ship destroyed beyond repair. As noted by X (formerly Twitter) user Tommy, Anakin’s Clone Wars-era tactic is essentially the same idea that Holdo had in The Last Jedi.
Laura Dern as Holdo in Star Wars
Holdo’s drastic hyperspace gamble is a logical evolution of Anakin Skywalker’s impulsive hyperspace attack on the Separatists.
Both essentially knew that ramming into something – whether that be a Star Destroyer or a small moon – at lightspeed would result in catastrophic destruction. Anakin manipulated the ship’s navigational systems from afar, making his idea much safer, but Holdo essentially does the same thing.
She stays on board the Resistance’s flagship so that she can interfere with the ship’s automatic navigation system, allowing her to aim for the First Order’s fleet before jumping to hyperspace. Given Vice-Admiral Holdo was not the first to attempt such a feat, it becomes harder to argue that the Holdo Maneuver broke the franchise’s scientific logic.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi featured the controversial and risky Holdo Maneuver - but it was actually subtly set up in Star Wars Rebels season 4. Additionally, both Anakin and Holdo’s attempts at this tactic make it clear why other parties never attempted this plan – very little survives.
As a last-ditch attempt to defeat the enemy so that allies can find shelter, the plan has merit. Holdo may have had to sacrifice her life, essentially committing to a kamikaze attack, but at least she took part of the First Order down with her.
Why should organizations like the Empire or the First Order risk so many ships and resources when the Rebellion and the Resistance are relatively small in comparison? In any case, it seems that Star Wars: The Last Jedi’s Holdo Maneuver is more common than previously thought.
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