History WhatAnIdiot / StarWars

'''Instead:''' He pushes his luck by asking him to speak to the Emperor as a favor, which naturally pisses Vader off more than he already was. Honestly, he's lucky he didn't fatally choke on his aspirations.

'''You'd Expect:''' Him to remember he is not a military strategist and might not have the knowledge to create an external vulnerability that can be believably targeted by an enemy fleet. Thus, him to stick to what he knows and concoct a weakness based on the Death Star's internal workings. Being in in charge of kyber energy crystal system that fuels the superlaser leaves Galen with many opportunities to sabotage the weapon, so he could rig the system to overload and blow up when it tries to fire its superlaser, for instance.\\

'''Instead:''' He grabs a open, unarmored speeder bike and, accompanied by two light starfighters, heads to the hangar where his ship is located, which happens to at the other side of a ''kilometers-wide open field'' relatively nearby to where the Clone Army is wreaking havoc. As a result, he attracts the attention of their forces and is chased by Anakin and Obi-Wan, and eventually, Yoda.

'''Instead:''' Windu does an unnecessarily huge dramatic wind-up for about five seconds, pausing long enough for Anakin to even shout “I need him!”, providing Anakin plenty of time to interfere. Guess exactly what happens.

'''You'd Expect:''' Windu to just quickly stab Palpatine before Anakin can do anything or even just complain more. No need to waste any time considering what’s at stake.\\

* Mace Windu decides to kill Palpatine on the spot despite Anakin’s protests. The future of the entire galaxy rests on this successful kill and Windu knows that Anakin can be dangerously unpredictable (he’s even discussed his lack of trust in Anakin with other characters multiple times), meaning that he of all people should know that there is no room for error here and that time is of the essence if he wants to do this before Anakin messes anything up.
'''You'd Expect:''' Windu to just quickly stab Palpatine before Anakin can do anything or even just complain more. No need to waste any time considering what’s at stake.

'''You'd Expect:''' Being an experienced Force user and duelist who has already suffered from the same technique, he would stop shooting lightning. There are many techniques, like Force telekinesis, which he can use to recover the advantage.\\
'''Instead:''' He just keeps and keeps trying, allowing Rey to send the totality of his humongous power at Sidious, which effectively kills Sidious.

'''Instead:''' They dump her in Jakku, a desert scavenger world, directly in the hands of a petty merchant like Unkar Plutt. As a result, she lives a in a miserable, abused state for 15 years.

* Rey's parents want to hide her five-year-old daughter from her grandfather.\\

'''Instead:''' They dump her in Jakku, a desert scavenger world, directly in the hands of a petty merchant like Unkar Plutt. As a result, she lives a in a miserable, abused state for 20 years.

'''Instead:''' He and the masters decide to make the arrest alone, without any surveillance, support, warning or register whatsoever, and judging for the three Jedi's attitude and skill, without being prepared for severe resistance from Palpatine. They also don't bother giving out any alert to the Jedi stationed across the galaxy about the Chancellor's possible ties with the Sith. The results end up being disastrous for everyone; three of the four Jedi Masters die ''within seconds'', Anakin's intervention leads to Windu's death and the failure of the mission, and Palpatine capitalizes on the clumsiness of the incident to play it like the Jedi tried to murder the chancellor. On top of that, the truth dies with Windu, leaving every Jedi in the galaxy off-guard for Order 66.

'''You'd Expect:''' Windu to remain serene and try to calm Anakin down, as the latter is visibly flustered and could commit a mistake fatal for both of them. The master could propose cutting Palpatine's limbs off and taking him into custody: Palpatine would be rendered unable to use a lightsaber and severely impaired to use the Force in an offensive way while awaiting trial, and in the outlandish case he'd be found innocent despite they have now irrefutable proofs he's a Sith Lord, they have the technology to replace his limbs. Even if Anakin had his own reasons to be nervous, it would have greatly placated his moral scruples about the execution.\\
'''Instead:''' Windu rudely ignores Anakin, forgetting he's still a significantly dangerous Jedi who is openly unsure of his alignment at the situation, and instead moves in dramatically for the kill, which drives Anakin to act reflexively to stop what he sees as a murder. His reaction ends up making Windu lose his arm and his lightsaber, which leaves him open to be killed by Palpatine.

'''Or:''' Threaten to kill or expose him if he doesn't provide at the moment some substantial evidence that they can find soon the power. In case he doesn't, to gut him like a fish on the spot.\\

'''Instead''': He leaves Anakin to a ''painful death'', assuming that it would be left to the will of the Force. However, Anakin survives, is rebuilt into a dark cyborg and becomes Sidious's powerful attack dog during the next 20 years of their reign over the galaxy, and Obi-Wan [[DoomedByCanon and has to deal with the consequences.]]

'''Instead:''' [[HystericalWoman Idiotically]], after sending Jyn to the bunker, Lyra comes out and shoots Krennic with a blaster. Not being a trained shooter, she only hits his shoulder, and being in plain sight, the Death Troopers promptly gun her down. The result, therefore, is Lyra losing her life absolutely for nothing.\\

'''You'd Expect:''' Even if Finn and Rose are out of water in the place, they should be smart enough to guess they are not going to start well their mission in Canto Bight by getting in trouble with the local law enforcement. Thus, they should try to find out where they can leave their ship without breaking any law. In the case they have no way to do so, one of them should keep the ship in the planet's orbit while the other enters the casino and contacts the Master Codebreaker so they can extract him.\\

'''You'd Expect:''' Them not to trust his claim, due the sheer improbability that they happened to be imprisoned next to a man with exactly the unusual type and level of skills they are looking for. Even if he shows to be able to hack a cell door lock system, it is still a relatively common skill in the galaxy (heck, R2 does it every film) and doesn't mean he is necessarily qualified for the job they need him to do. Thus, after escaping, they should use their stolen yatch to return to Canto Bight (hopefully this time without parking on a forbidden zone) and sneak into the casino to meet the Master Codebreaker. If DJ wants some payment for helping them up to this point, the codebreaker looks like a healthy man and could surely afford to pay him as a favor to Maz, remembering to tell DJ to keep his mouth shut about what little he knows by this point.\\

'''Even Worse:''' Rose and DJ have somewhat of a free pass because they are presumably unfamiliar with First Order equipment (not to mention DJ might secretly not give a crap about being captured, as he has vital info he could use for bargain), but Finn is a former First Order stormtrooper himself. He should be the least probable of the three to believe such ruse was going to work.

* Rey's parents want to hide her five-yeard-old daughter from her grandfather.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Them to seek a densely populated planet, preferently with a human population, so the girl can grow unnoticed.\\

'''You'd Expect:''' To keep this a secret. He should communicate with the First Order discreetly about it and not to make public the knowledge of his fleet until it has already deployed and spread through the Galaxy.\\
'''Instead:''' He sends a transmission to all the Galaxy gloating about it, all while the fleet is still stationed in Exegol, a plent whose atmosphere renders them stupidly vulnerable by difficulting their takeoff and usage of shields. As a result, the Resistance and their subsequent reinforcements receive an excellent chance to defeat them.

'''Instead:''' Unable to keep his big mouth closed for five more seconds, he (guess what) gloats about his brilliant plan to transfer his own mind and all the other Sith into Rey. Naturally, she refrains to do so, ruining the plan. Ya think he would have learned after his last death.
* Palpatine and Rey are having their ultimate showdown. The Sith lord throws Force Lightning at her, only for her to start directing it back at him thanks to her two lightsabers.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Being an experimented Force user and duelist who has already suffered by the same technique, him to stop shooting lightning. There are many techniques, like Force telekinesis, which he can use to recover the advantage.\\

'''Instead:''' They dump her in Jakku, a desert scavenger world, directly in the hands of a petty merchant like Unkar Plutt. As a result, she lives a in a miser, abused state for 20 years.

'''You'd Expect:''' Him not to tell her, and just let Rey butcher him thinking she is just finishing a DarkLordOLifeSupport. Boom, Rey possessed, TheBadGuyWins.\\
'''Instead:''' Unable to keep his big mouth closed for five more seconds, he (guess what) gloats about his brilliant plan to transfer his own mind and all the other Sith into Rey. Naturally, she refrains to do so, ruining the plan.

'''Worse Still:''' Krennic later executes the rest of his board of engineers out of spite, even after learning it was Galen (surprise, surprise) the one that betrayed the Empire. This ensures the Empire has no access anymore to the Death Star think tank, making any future attempt to revise the designs much more difficult.

'''Even Worse:''' Leia of all people should have a lot of reasons not to immediately trust Finn's and Poe's great escape, given that she was part herself of a similar Imperial scheme in order to find the Rebel base in Yavin IV.

'''Instead:''' The Resistance sends Chewbacca chaperoning ''Rey'', a random Force sensitive girl whom they barely know, who has no relation to Luke, and whose personality and experience don't make her exactly the best person to bring a bitter old man out of his shell. As a result, as shown in the next film, Rey's presence is met with skepticism by Luke, creates a big deal of conflict between both (not only due to her utter lack of psychology, but also because her pleads for Luke to train her, and her absurdly high Force levels only revive Luke's worst fears), and actually foils things when Luke had improbably decided to help (as it turns out that Snoke was using Rey's and Kylo Ren's minds to manipulate each other, which scares and enrages Luke upon discovering it). At the end, it's ultimately more due to Yoda's timely intervention that Luke eventually returns to battle, after a long string of drama that could have probably been avoided.

'''Instead:''' He sits idly by while the ship's pilot comes too close, mocks his higher-up, and starts clearing out the dreadnought's surface cannons, and then complains they ''should'' have given the order to scramble the fighters "five bloody minutes ago" as if he wasn't the one in command who should have given it himself. (The ExpandedUniverse reveals this one is not on the captain, but on Hux, who overrode him on deploying fighters in an attempt to give the Resistance a lesson. "WhatAnIdiot" perfectly summed up Captain Canady's own opinion on Hux regarding that.)\\

* The First Order has found the route of the Resistance fleet thanks to a special tracker in Snoke's flagship, the ''Supremacy''. Now the rebel ships's speed and gas tank are the only things that impede them from falling in the First Order's clutches, as it happens that they are still slightly faster than the ''Supremacy''.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Snoke to order the many Star Destroyers that follow his flagship to speed up and catch the Resistance fleet. In the improbable case the rebels are still too fast, Snoke to order them to jump to hyperspace to a faraway point and return to intercept the Resistance fleet from any other direction in a pincer movement. If not, order any other First Order space force in the galaxy to do the same.\\
'''Instead:''' Snoke keeps deliberately playing cat and mouse by chasing them at the ''Supremacy'''s cruising speed, which barely keeps up with the ''Raddus'', apparently expecting to catch them by attrition alone. As a result, the Resistance has time to reach Crait and execute a plan to save them (well, most of them, as it turns out).

'''Instead:''' Finn empties a paper bin and drops it on top of BB-8 to make it resemble a MSE-6 repair droid. Naturally, BB-8's resultant camouflage is flimsy at the best, as it even hits a random Stormtrooper in his way for being unable to see clearly. As a result, a First Order astromech notices it and sees through the disguise, alerting the First Order on them.\\

'''Instead:''' For some fathomless reason, Vice-Admiral Holdo decides she has to do it herself, despite this means the Resistance will lose one of their best tacticians in their direst times with all it entails. Her futile sacrifice will be also yet another blow to General Organa, who has just lost her husband at the hands of their corrupted son.\\

'''You'd Expect:''' Them to execute anything except a frontal attack. The ski speeders are few, unarmored and only lightly armed, while the First Order is employing a Veers Formation with all their AT-AT, AT-M6, AT-ST and air support fighters pointing all their humongous firepower forward, which effectively turns the Resistance forces into sitting ducks. Moreover, unlike the slow bombers from the film's beginning, the V-4X-D are actually pretty fast and could believably perform some agile flanking maneuvers to distract their enemies and avoid their artillery.\\

'''Instead:''' They somehow scorn her for her criminal activities (overlooking the little fact that she committed those crimes ''against the Empire'', the very enemy of the Rebellion) and for being the daughter of an Imperial scientist (now overlooking that she is obviously estranged from him since childhood and that she was a Partisan for many years, meaning she could hardly share any possible Imperial allegiance), and turn this into the standard reply against Jyn every time she opens her mouth. Naturally, any possible rapport between Jyn and the Rebels is killed right there. While she never betrays them outright, the bad relationship among them leads to the Rebellion's inaction during the film's third act.

'''Instead''': He only plays a recording, leaving Jyn with no solid evidence to back her claims up. The Rebel Alliance laughs in her face, [[GeneralRipper Draven]] still wants Galen dead. Despite Cassian disobeying Draven's order, Galen does end up dead because the Rebel forces on Eadu don't have any orders to extract or at least spare him, and Jyn has to rely on a ragtag bunch to fulfill her father's wish.
* Speaking of the devil, Alliance General Davits Draven wishes to kill Erso because he is a prominent Imperial scientist. He has been informed by Cassian Andor that he is held in an Imperial facility in Eadu.\\

'''Instead:''' He orders Cassian to go assassinate Erso personally, despite he is just a single agent with little to no support, facing the perspective of storming an Imperial base guarded by an entire garrison, and currently accompanied by Jyn, the supposedly unreliable criminal who happens to be Galen's own daughter and to believe they are out to rescue him. Predictably, although Cassian receives a shockingly convenient chance to snipe Galen down outside, it soon becomes a messy battle by a combination of Cassian's doubts in the heat of the moment and Jyn's inopportune intervention, and the chance is lost. For their part, only after the Rebellion lose contact with Cassian they realize it would be better to send a starfighter squad instead.

'''You'd Expect:''' Him to take a hefty escort with him, if anything because he doesn't know how many attackers are there nor what weapons they have. Krennic is just an executive with a background in architecture, not a trained soldier, so this measure should be a given for him if he really wants to get personally involved in a shootout.\\
'''You'd Also Expect:''' Him to order a nearby TIE to destroy the antenna on top of the tower just in case, as it is likely the Rebels will try to use it to transmit the stolen plans to their fleet above. While there is already an orbital shield that impedes any communication attempt, the presence of a space battle directly on top of it is a threat to its functionality, so it would be better to make it sure the signals don't leave Scarif in any way.\\
'''Instead:''' Krennic takes with him ''two'' guards, apparently trusting more on his own blaster than anything else, and gives no more orders at all. He is lucky that the intruders are two as well, but they happen to be much better shooters, with the result that his escorts are killed and one of the Rebels manages to flee. Also, the orbital shield ends up destroyed, now with the consequence that the Rebels are able to transmit the plans.

'''You'd Expect:''' The Rebel fleet to try to receive it in as many ships as they can, so they could obtain many copies of the plans. Although they have momentarily the advantage in the battle, Imperial reinforcements are probably already on the way and the Rebels could be scattered and pursued in any moment. In that case, having multiple ships loaded with the plans would increase the chances for some of them to reach Yavin IV and deliver the precious item.\\
'''Instead:''' Aparently, only the cruiser ''Profundity'' had their communication system open at the time of the battle, because it is the only Rebel ship that receives it. Fatidically, it also happens to be the fleet's flagship, which ensures the Imperial reinforcements led by Darth Vader's ''Devastator'' all fall on it on short notice, while several other minor Alliance ships manage to pull out safely but pointlessly. The crew of the ''Profundity'' has just enough time to move the plans to their only docked ship, the corvette in repair ''Tantive IV'', and send it away desperately before being destroyed. As a consequence, the fruits of the entire Battle of Scarif and the labors of Galen Erso and Rogue One end up in a single, damaged ship, which the ''Devastator'' sets to chase.

'''Even Worse:''' Tarkin eventually captures the ship and the plans, but he forgets all about the implications of the Battle of Scarif, believing that the Rebels were pursuing a ghost and that the Death Star is invulnerable just as it is. He prefers to let the intact plans escape as a bait for the Rebel Alliance, not realizing that, if the Rebels really had a way to capitalize on them, he has just advanced decisively their plans.

'''Also:''' He would walk Han out of the cantina and conduct their conversation in an alley or any other nearby lonely place. The cantina is dimly lit and very crowded, and it is unclear that Han is alone there in the first place, so there is a very real risk than an ally of his (or an enemy of Greedo) notices Han is being held in gunpoint and comes to do the same with Greedo from behind.\\

'''You'd Expect:''' The other wingman, knowing that Vader has a clear shot at Luke, to stay put and let Vader finish the job. Better yet, he should let Han shoot him down so that he can have Vader buy time.\\
'''Instead:''' The wingman clumsily attempts to protect Vader by flying over him, but ends up hitting Vader's fighter instead, causing Vader to lose control and veer off the Death Star trench wildly. The wingman ultimately ends up hitting the side of the trench and blows up, killing him. This clears Luke of any possible hostiles in the trench run, allowing him to launch the proton torpedoes into the exhaust port and thus destroy the Death Star.

* Captain Needa aboard the Star Destroyer ''Avenger'' encounters the Millennium Falcon and is attempting to capture it.\\

'''You'd Think:''' Needa, who says out aloud that the Falcon is too small to have a working cloaking device, would think that it's hiding on a blind spot or something of the sort, and in any case tell Vader that he's still in pursuit in order to save face. Star Destroyers like the ''Avenger'' have a squadron of TIE Fighters on board, and Needa could order his fighters to inspect all the blind spots around his ship to make sure the Falcon isn't hiding on his own hull.\\

'''You'd Expect:''' The bunker's commander to refuse the request, given that all they need to do is hold the bunker. If the Rebels' and Ewoks' attack genuinely has failed then they won't be able to get reinforcements, given that the Rebels can't land reinforcements due to the shield still being up, so the best thing for the Imperials to do is reinforce their position.\\

* The Resistance have just destroyed the stabilizer in Starkiller Base, not only rendered the weapon completely useless but the planet is literally falling apart as a result.\\
'''You'd expect:''' Colonel Datoo to do the sensible thing like everyone else and make a run for it.\\

'''You'd Expect:''' Leia to go herself with Chewbacca in the ''Millennium Falcon''. The next film proves there are officers in the Resistance who should be able to take command for a short time, so she doesn't have to worry about abandoning her underlings. Besides, it's known that Luke exiled himself out of depression for his failures, which means that, by all reason, sending out people who know him well and used to have a strong bond with him is the Resistance's best option to convince Luke to return. Finally, a wise leading general like Leia should surely know a bit about how to instigate some moral back to someone someone who has lost the will to fight.\\
'''Instead:''' The Resistance sends Chewbacca chaperoning ''Rey'', a random Force sensitive girl whom they barely know, who has no relation to Luke, and whose personality and experience don't make her exactly the best person to bring a bitter old man out of his shell. As a result, as shown in the next film, Rey's presence is met with skepticism by Luke, creates a big deal of conflict between both (not only due to her lack of psychology, but also because her pleads for Luke to train her and her absurdly high Force levels only revive Luke's worst fears), and actually foils things when Luke had improbably decided to help (as it turns out that Snoke was using Rey's and Kylo Ren's minds to manipulate each other, which scares and enrages Luke upon discovering it). At the end, it's ultimately more due to Yoda's timely intervention that Luke eventually returns to battle, after a long string of drama that could have probably been avoided.

'''You'd Expect:''' Nute Gunray would fill the Jedis' room with poison gas, seal the doors, and leave the Jedi trapped in the room for several hours until they were good and dead. Eventually, someone could go into the room and dispose of the corpses.\\
'''Instead:''' After pumping said gas into the Jedis' room, Gunray waits a full ten seconds before ordering his Battle Droids to open the door themselves and "destroy what's left of them." Who knew that opening the door after such a short amount of time would provide an easy escape route for two armed Jedi?

'''For Added Stupidity:''' Maul uses the architecture to his advantage, while they don't seem to even consider trying to do the same. Force pushing him out of the catwalks seems a pretty intuitive option to try in order to soften him up (or downright finish him by DisneyVillainDeath given the depth of some of the nearby falls), particularly because, as said above, it would be improbable that Maul could block them both at it. However, for some undiscernible reason, they prefer to attack him with lightsaber slashes and nothing more.

'''You'd Expect:''' Count Dooku to get aboard the ship and leave with them. His solar sailer is manned by at least one droid, so it is safer for him call it, order it to take off towards one of the Separatist battleships on orbit, and recover his ship from there later.\\

'''Worse Still:''' Krennic later executes the rest of his board of engineers out of spite, even after learning it was Galen (surprise, surprise) the one that betrayed the Empire. This ensures the Empire has no access anymore to the Death Star think tank, making any future attempt to revise the designs very difficult, if not impossible.

'''Instead:''' He designs a thermal exhaust port in the Death Star's hull that leads directly to an intentionally fragile reactor, creating a way for enemy proton torpedoes to blow the battle station up inside out. This forces the Alliance to directly attack the Death Star directly with its small starfighter fleet, which is not in position to absorb important losses like those it would surely receive in such a near-suicide mission. Even worse, the port in question takes shape of a relatively small blowhole, making it so difficult to hit that only a Force sensitive managed to score after several veteran pilots died trying.\\

'''Instead:''' They somehow scorn her for her criminal activities (overlooking the little fact that she committed those crimes ''against the Empire'', the very enemy of the Rebellion) and for being the daughter of an Imperial scientist (now overlooking that she is obviously estranged from him since childhood and that she was a Partisan for many years, meaning she could hardly share any possible Imperial sympathy Galen might have), and turn this into the standard reply against Jyn every time she opens her mouth. Naturally, any possible rapport between Jyn and the Rebels is killed right there, and while she never betrays them outright, the bad relationship among them leads to the Rebellion’s inaction during the film's third act.

* Speaking of the devil, the Rebellion wishes to Kill Erso because he is a prominent Imperial scientist. They have been informed by Cassian Andor that he is held in an Imperial facility in Eadu.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Them to send a starfighter squad from the start and bomb the facility to pieces, the only safe way to ensure Erso dies without leaving too many traces the Empire can find. By doing so, they will take out some other Imperial scientists and officers as well.\\
'''Instead:''' They order Cassian to go assassinate Erso personally, despite he is just a single agent with little to no support, facing the perspective of storming an Imperial base guarded by an entire garrison, and currently accompanied by Jyn, the supposedly unreliable criminal who happens to be Galen's own daughter and to believe they are out to rescue him. Predictably, although Cassian receives a shockingly convenient chance to snipe Galen down outside, it soon becomes a messy battle by a combination of Cassian's doubts in the heat of the moment and Jyn's inopportune intervention, and the chance is lost. For their part, only after the Rebellion lose contact with Cassian they realize it would be better to send a starfighter squad instead, which is finally enough to complete the mission.

'''You'd Expect:''' Them to at least believe Cassian, not only because this is what they ordered him to investigate in the first place, but also because he’s still a veteran Rebel captain that witnessed its attack himself. If they fear Cassian might be hallucinating things, all they need to do is checking out K-2SO's memory, as he was present in Jedha too and saw the superlaser scorching the planet, or just trying to contact Jedha City by radio to see if it still exists. With that certainty, they can now ponder what to do with the Death Star and its mighty power: to leave it free to allow the Emperor bully entire systems into submission, or to take any chance to destroy it in order to leave a spark of hope for those who oppose the Empire.\\
'''Instead:''' The Rebel council [[HeadInTheSandManagement elects not to believe the inform]], with General Davits Draven himself suddenly turning skeptical about it despite he is precisely Cassian's superior (as well as the one who seemed convinced the most of the existence of the superweapon) and Senator Vasp Vaspar bringing again the absurd logic they cannot trust Jyn because she is a criminal and an Imperial's daughter. The possibility of having tangible proofs of it in K-2SO or Jedha is never brought up, neither by Jyn nor by the council, and the topic remains unproven by the end of the session, ultimately fueling the Rebellion's already existent internal divisions and moving it not to act. As a result, Cassian and Jyn are left to start an unsanctioned mission with a cadre of volunteers.\\
'''Even Worse:''' Admiral Raddus eventually makes up for it by sending the Alliance fleet to back the Rogue Squad during the Battle of Scarif, but by then it's too late to devise any plan or strategy with them, and all the fleet can do is initiate a direct space-and-land brawl to buy Cassian and Jyn time to finish their ploy. As a result, even although the Rebellion achieves an improbable success by escaping with the plans, roughly half of its fleet ends up destroyed (and Raddus himself killed) in a stunt that could have been avoided with a proper coordination.

'''You'd Also Expect:''' Him to order a nearby TIE to destroy the antenna on top of the tower just in case, as it is likely the Rebels intend to use it to transmit the stolen plans to their fleet above. While there is an orbital shield that impedes any communication attempt, the presence of a space battle on top of it directly threatens its functionality, so it is better to make it sure the signals don't leave Scarif in any way.\\
'''Instead:''' Krennic takes with him ''two'' guards, apparently trusting more on his own blaster than anything else, and gives no more orders at all. He is lucky that the intruders are two as well, but they happen to be much better shooters, with the result that his escorts are killed and one of the Rebels manages to flee. Also, the orbital shield ends up destroyed, with the consequence that the Rebels are able to transmit the plans away.
* Just as Jyn is about to transfer the Death Star plans to the rebels, Krennic manages to intercept her and has her at gun-point. He's implied to vaguely recognize this rebel girl though, both from when she was a child, and from seeing her briefly on Eadu.\\

'''Instead:''' Aparently, only the cruiser ''Profundity'' had their communication system open at the time of the battle, because it is the only Rebel ship that receives it. Fatidically, it also happens to be the fleet's flagship, which ensures the Imperial reinforcements led by Darth Vader's ''Devastator'' all fall on it on short notice, while several other minor Alliance ships manage to pull out safely but pointlessly. The crew of the ''Profundity'' has just enough time to move the plans to their only docked ship, the corvette in repair ''Tantive IV'', and send it away desperately before being destroyed. As a consequence, the goal of the entire Battle of Scarif and the labors of Galen Erso and the Rogue One ends up in a single, damaged ship, which the ''Devastator'' sets to chase.

'''You'd Expect:''' Him to fire the superlaser on the Rebel fleet to wipe it out, which should ensure they don't escape with the Death Star plans regardless of whether their land forces manage to transmit them or not. After the battle is concluded, Tarkin should also initiate an investigation to discover how could have the Rebels have capitalized on the plans. Arranging for a team of loyal engineers to immediately revise the designs (either the re-captured ones or any duplicate the Empire can find), find all possible weaknesses and refit the station to correct them should be a priority.\\

'''Even Worse:''' Tarkin eventually captures the ship and the plans, but he forgets all about the implications of the Battle of Scarif, believing that the Rebels were pursuing a ghost and that the Death Star is invulnerable just as it is. He prefers to let the intact plans escape as a bait for the Rebel Alliance, not realizing that, if the Rebels really had a way to capitalize on them, he has just help their own plans to advance.

* Tarkin learns about the Battle of Scarif and realizes that the Alliance is trying to obtain the plans of the Death Star. He orders the Death Star and its surrounding fleet to travel to the planet.\\
'''You'd Expect:'''

'''Instead:''' [[HystericalWoman Idiotically]], after sending Jyn to the bunker, Lyra comes out and shoots Krennic with a blaster. Not being a trained shooter, she only hits his shoulder, and being in plain sight, the Death Troopers promptly gun her down. The result, therefore, is Lyra losing her life absolutely for nothing.

'''Even Worse:''' Admiral Raddus eventually makes up for it by sending the Alliance fleet to back the Rogue Squad during the Battle of Scarif, but by then it's too late to devise any plan or strategy with them, and all the fleet can do is initiate a direct space brawl to buy Cassian and Jyn time to finish their ploy. As a result, even although the Rebellion achieves an improbable success by escaping with the plans, roughly half of its fleet ends up destroyed (and Raddus himself killed) in a stunt that could have been avoided with a proper coordination of the operation.

'''You'd Expect:''' That Krennic would shoot her, then ask her who she is as she bleeds out, securing a complete victory for the Empire as with her and Galen dead, any weaknesses regarding the Death Star plans will be lost forever.\\
'''Instead:''' He holds her at gunpoint and wastes time gloating to her about her failure long enough that Cassian manages to shoot him, allowing the two to activate the antenna and successfully transmit the Death Star plans to the rebels, dooming the Empire to their eventual downfall.

* Krennic is being slowly usurped by Tarkin, so he goes to Darth Vader to ask for his help. Not the brightest idea, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Vader is clearly displeased by this intrusion but does not indicate Krennic has been demoted or taken off the project. Krennic then wonders aloud if he's still in charge.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' He'd take Lord Vader's silence as a "yes", thank him for his time and get out of there.\\
'''Instead:''' He pushes his luck by asking him to speak to the Emperor as a favor, which naturally pisses Vader off more than he already was. Honestly, he's lucky he didn't fatally choke on his aspirations.

'''Instead''': He only plays a recording, leaving Jyn with no solid evidence to back her claims up. The Rebel Alliance laughs in her face, [[GeneralRipper Draven]] still wants Galen dead. Despite Cassian disobeying Draven's order, Galen does end up dead because the Rebel forces on Eadu don't have any orders to extract or at least spare him, and Jyn has to rely on a ragtag bunch and Raddus.

* Finn and Rose arrive to the planet Cantonica in a Resistance ship. Upon landing on a Canto Bight beach, a stuffy alien, Slowen Lo, screams to them that they are not allowed to leave their ship there.\\

* The entire event of Padmé's pregnancy. [[AsYouKnow As it has been reminded numerous times, Jedi are not allowed to have relationships or get married]] (certainly not to Senators). This is the whole reason Anakin and Padmé have kept their marriage secret. Now Padmé has just discovered she's pregnant.\\

'''You'd Expect:''' Them to raise the twins together in a safe planet like Alderaan and have Obi-Wan train them in the Force since their childhood. They have no real reason to separate the twins, as there are millions and millions of humans in the galaxy and the Empire doesn't know Padme gave birth specifically to a boy and a girl (it actually doesn't know she gave birth, period), so nothing about it is going to lead Vader to them. Also, by doing so, they are providing the best life possible for them and ensuring no clueless innocents like Owen and Beru are being needlessly endangered. Training them from childhood would increase exponentially their chances to survive and their usefulness to the Rebel Alliance, and would allow Obi-Wan and Yoda to avoid the mistake committed by training Anakin when he was too old and angsty.\\
'''Alternatively:''' If raising them in separate planets is really indispensable, they have a lot of options to keep them safe that way. An influential politician like Organa could not only adopt one of the twins himself, but also have some other family of his trust adopt the other and bring him up in another system, preferently one discreet like Alderaan but not a wasteland like Tatooine. Obi-Wan could still train both by seasons, possibly trading it with Yoda in Dagobah, and still have time to train himself to become one with the Force.\\
'''Instead:''' Organa adopts Leia and raises her in Alderaan, while Kenobi takes Luke to Tatooine and basically forces Owen and Beru to adopt him (without even changing his surname from his father's). Understandably, the latter action creates a great measure of distrust in Owen, who actively opposes Luke from having nothing to do with his legacy through his life, fearing he could become another Vader. None of the Skywalkers receives any word of the Force until certain events drive Luke to become a Jedi at his twenties and with his own emotional baggage, thus taking a much greater risk with him than they had taken with Anakin (and Yoda of all people has the nerve to ''complain'' about this). Even worse, despite not having Leia trained, Organa still has her involved with the Rebellion anyways, which puts her in the Empire's sights without any of what would be her best resources against it.
* A large number of Jedi Knights have been wiped out and the newly christened Empire sets about exterminating the survivors.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Yoda and Obi-Wan would try and make contact with other Jedi survivors, regroup in a secret location, gather up as many Force sensitive individuals as they could find, and start training a new Jedi Order in secret. They may not have the numbers and resources they had beforce, but it's absolutely critical to preserve the knowledge of the Order by passing it on.\\
'''Instead:''' They both go into exile as self imposed punishment. While it's noble of them to admit their failures, this is of little help to the rest of the galaxy. Palpatine is largely unopposed and secures the Empire very quickly. Meanwhile, the other Jedi are hunted down by Vader and the Sith Inquisitors leaving the remnants of the Jedi Order to wither and die. By the time Obi-Wan and Yoda decide to finally train Luke, he's literally the last Jedi left and the Order nearly goes extinct.

'''You'd Expect:''' Leia to go herself with Chewbacca in the ''Millennium Falcon''. The next film proves there are officers in the Resistance who should be able to take command for a short time, so she doesn't have to worry about abandoning her underlings. Besides, it's known that Luke exiled himself out of depression for his failures, which means that, by all reason, sending out people who know him well and used to have a strong bond with him are the Resistance's best asset to convince Luke to return. Finally, a wise leading general like Leia should surely know a bit about how to give some moral back to someone someone who has lost the will to fight.\\
'''Instead:''' The Resistance sends Chewbacca chaperoning ''Rey'', a random Force sensitive girl whom they barely know, who has no relation to Luke, and whose personality and experience don't look the best to bring a bitter old man out of his shell. As a result, as shown in the next film, Rey's presence is met with skepticism by Luke, creates a big deal of conflict between both (not only due to her lack of tact, but also because her pleads for Luke to train him and her absurd Force levels only revive Luke's worst fears), and actually foils things when Luke had improbably decided to help (as it turns out that Snoke was using Rey's and Kylo Ren's minds to manipulate each other, which scares and enrages Luke upon discovering it). At the end, it's ultimately more due to Yoda's timely intervention that Luke eventually returns to battle, after a long string of drama that could have probably been avoided.

'''You'd Expect:''' Snoke to order the many Star Destroyers that follow his flagship to speed up and catch the Resistance fleet. In the improbable case the rebels are still too fast, Snoke to order any other First Order space force in the galaxy to intercept the Resistance fleet from any other direction in a pincer movement.\\

'''You'd Expect:''' Yoda to use the Force to quickly pull/push Anakin and Obi-Wan out of the way of the metal pillar before turning his attention back to Count Dooku. Alternatively, give the pillar a shove so it lands harmlessly to one side.\\

* A large number of Jedi Knights have been wiped out and the newly christened Empire sets about exterminating the survivors.
'''You'd Expect:''' Yoda and Obi-Wan would try and make contact with other Jedi survivors, regroup in a secret location, gather up as many Force sensitive individuals as they could find, and start training a new Jedi Order in secret. They may not have the numbers and resources they had beforce, but it's absolutely critical to preserve the knowledge of the Order by passing it on.