If you were a Captain of an ISD at Endor, you'd have no incentive to bother destroying the rebels. Once the Emperor was killed, you knew the Empire would collapse so you'd bugger out back to base and see if you could negotiate a way out of the mess you suddenly found yourself in. In other words, you'd be in a much better position to bargain with the New Republic if you didn't massacre what was left of the rebels. Heck, you might end up with a commission in the New Republic navy. As soon as one ISD fled, the others would follow.

I am going to use mondern day as an example.

If the Predident (edit: or Battle Commander *For you Eyeless1 ) of the United States was assassinated, would the US then surrender to whomever did the assassination? More likely, the next in line in the Chain-of-Command would then be sworn in and the US would continue fighting. That is the whole point of having a Chain-of-Command.

It is a bit thin, but moral and lack thereof can do crazy things to a fighting force. There are numerous real-world accounts of a superior fighting force surrendering to a inferior one due to a complete loss of moral.

I agree that with the destrustion of a SSD, and witnessing the destrustion of the DS knowing that both the Emperor and Lord Vader were both on board at the time (not to mention the Zhan explaination) would be terribly demoralizing and even though, yes mathmatically the remaining forces of the Empire would most likely be able to mop up the rebellion, real world history as shown us that moral is a powerful thing.

The problem I had with the destruction of the Executor, was that even today ships have redundant control stations. A ship that size probably would have had dozens. Take out the bridge and control simply changes to a backup bridge and the ship keeps flying and fighting.

If you were a Captain of an ISD at Endor, you'd have no incentive to bother destroying the rebels. Once the Emperor was killed, you knew the Empire would collapse so you'd bugger out back to base and see if you could negotiate a way out of the mess you suddenly found yourself in. In other words, you'd be in a much better position to bargain with the New Republic if you didn't massacre what was left of the rebels. Heck, you might end up with a commission in the New Republic navy. As soon as one ISD fled, the others would follow.

This is a great reason. I dont know if any officers acctually defected, but thats definately what I would be thinking.

If you were a Captain of an ISD at Endor, you'd have no incentive to bother destroying the rebels. Once the Emperor was killed, you knew the Empire would collapse so you'd bugger out back to base and see if you could negotiate a way out of the mess you suddenly found yourself in. In other words, you'd be in a much better position to bargain with the New Republic if you didn't massacre what was left of the rebels. Heck, you might end up with a commission in the New Republic navy. As soon as one ISD fled, the others would follow.

I am going to use mondern day as an example.

If the Predident of the United States was assassinated, would the US then surrender to whomever did the assassination?

More likely, the next in line in the Chain-of-Command would then be sworn in and the US would continue fighting. That is the whole point of having a Chain-of-Command.

I think you're not thinking of the situation correctly. the President a) isnt going to be present on a battlefeild at all b) really doesnt have any control over how battles go. Thats the generals' job. If the emperor had been assassinated prior to Episode IV then sure, someone else probablly would have taken his place, like the Grand Moff Tarkin who had control of the death star...

But that wasnt the case. Again, I've spent the last 7 years as a US Marine. If your leader dies, and your guys are experienced they will know what to do and things will keep moving. But if they become so demoralized or if they are not well experienced then killing the leadership is a very effective way to stop anything from happening. Its happened before it real life wars all the time. If you can kill the guys in charge of the battle then everything hits the fan.

Which is what happened at the Battle of Endor. Palpatine gets killed, his human robots stop receiving his battle meditation but they keep fighting. Then the Executor with Adm. Piet, who was supposed to take command after Vader and Palpatine, gets destroyed before their very eyes. Seeing the Flagship of the Empire go down would have wracked morale for everybody. "If such a large ship could be destroyed by rebel scum then they could destroy us too!" That what many officers would have been thinking. Then the death star blows up. Their principle objective is now gone. Every officer would be asking each other what were they supposed to do now. The smartest thing to do was retreat and regroup. There was no more point in fighting...

If you were a Captain of an ISD at Endor, you'd have no incentive to bother destroying the rebels. Once the Emperor was killed, you knew the Empire would collapse so you'd bugger out back to base and see if you could negotiate a way out of the mess you suddenly found yourself in. In other words, you'd be in a much better position to bargain with the New Republic if you didn't massacre what was left of the rebels. Heck, you might end up with a commission in the New Republic navy. As soon as one ISD fled, the others would follow.

I am going to use mondern day as an example.

If the Predident of the United States was assassinated, would the US then surrender to whomever did the assassination?

More likely, the next in line in the Chain-of-Command would then be sworn in and the US would continue fighting. That is the whole point of having a Chain-of-Command.

I think you're not thinking of the situation correctly. the President a) isnt going to be present on a battlefeild at all b) really doesnt have any control over how battles go. Thats the generals' job. If the emperor had been assassinated prior to Episode IV then sure, someone else probablly would have taken his place, like the Grand Moff Tarkin who had control of the death star...

But that wasnt the case. Again, I've spent the last 7 years as a US Marine. If your leader dies, and your guys are experienced they will know what to do and things will keep moving. But if they become so demoralized or if they are not well experienced then killing the leadership is a very effective way to stop anything from happening. Its happened before it real life wars all the time. If you can kill the guys in charge of the battle then everything hits the fan.

Which is what happened at the Battle of Endor. Palpatine gets killed, his human robots stop receiving his battle meditation but they keep fighting. Then the Executor with Adm. Piet, who was supposed to take command after Vader and Palpatine, gets destroyed before their very eyes. Seeing the Flagship of the Empire go down would have wracked morale for everybody. "If such a large ship could be destroyed by rebel scum then they could destroy us too!" That what many officers would have been thinking. Then the death star blows up. Their principle objective is now gone. Every officer would be asking each other what were they supposed to do now. The smartest thing to do was retreat and regroup. There was no more point in fighting...

I agree and you repeated at length what I said later:

I agree that with the destrustion of a SSD, and witnessing the destrustion of the DS knowing that both the Emperor and Lord Vader were both on board at the time (not to mention the Zhan explaination) would be terribly demoralizing and even though, yes mathmatically the remaining forces of the Empire would most likely be able to mop up the rebellion, real world history as shown us that moral is a powerful thing.

I went back and edited in to include battle commander. I said President because in the Star Wars universe, Emperor Palpatine is the equivelant of the President, and he WAS actually present on the battlefield.

If the Predident of the United States was assassinated, would the US then surrender to whomever did the assassination? More likely, the next in line in the Chain-of-Command would then be sworn in and the US would continue fighting. That is the whole point of having a Chain-of-Command.

Except the empire likely did not have a clear order of succession like a modern democracy does. The emperor was a power hungry megalomaniac who probably truly thought he would live forever unless one of his minions assassinated him. Not only would he have not established a clear order if succession, he most likely would have encouraged in-fighting among his subordinates to ensure that none of them ever became powerful enough to challenge him. Under those circumstances the sudden, unexpected death of the emperor would have created a power vacuum that all the smartest and most powerful imperial leaders would have been looking to fill, so their best move would be to try and preserve the military might that was directly under their command in order to best set up their own bid for the throne.

I've spent the last 7 years as a US Marine.

Thank you for your service!

best way to get rid of a star destroyer?

next time you see one, turn off the DVD player = you win

Except the empire likely did not have a clear order of succession like a modern democracy does. The emperor was a power hungry megalomaniac who probably truly thought he would live forever unless one of his minions assassinated him. Not only would he have not established a clear order if succession, he most likely would have encouraged in-fighting among his subordinates to ensure that none of them ever became powerful enough to challenge him. Under those circumstances the sudden, unexpected death of the emperor would have created a power vacuum that all the smartest and most powerful imperial leaders would have been looking to fill, so their best move would be to try and preserve the military might that was directly under their command in order to best set up their own bid for the throne.

Which is why the philosophy of the Sith will only lead to destruction. Strength through Cooperation!

I guess my point is that, and this could just be the optimist/fighter in me, but even with the removal of the head of the beast, I am not the type to be throwing up my hands and saying "Well that's it. I'm done. I am not only gunna give up this battle [which they totally did lose and should retreat] but I'm gunna give up every battle after this one."

1,400...I'm sure of it!

Lets ask Mr Owl...

Lets ask Mr Owl...

One...Two...Three...Crunch

Three

Oh, wait, that was to get to the center of a tootsie pop. Nevermind.

Except the empire likely did not have a clear order of succession like a modern democracy does. The emperor was a power hungry megalomaniac who probably truly thought he would live forever unless one of his minions assassinated him.

The Emperor/Darth Sidius was the most powerful Sith Lord ever, as such he had powers that Jedi couldn't even dream of. Now if you really get into the EU it's almost sicking just how badass Sid actually is... I mean at one point he creates a black hole with the force...

But he had a number of clone bodies ready to go, and even if someone like Vader managed to take him out, he had plans to transfer his essence/soul/mind/whatever into a clone body. He wasn't at all really worried about losing grips on his empire, because he had plans in place if something were to happen to him. So there was no one who was going to step up and take over after he was gone.

In fact he made a point of playing the various Moffs and other high ranking people off each other, so none of them could team up against him.

The problem I had with the destruction of the Executor, was that even today ships have redundant control stations. A ship that size probably would have had dozens. Take out the bridge and control simply changes to a backup bridge and the ship keeps flying and fighting.

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere at some point that Arvel crashing in the SSD wasn't what actually caused it to crash. And that indeed control was transferred to a backup bridge. I think it had something to do with their engines/repulsor lifts being attacked and the gravity of the DS2 pulled it into orbit.

But I can't find that anymore, and the Wiki directly contradicts this (as does quite a bit of lore in terms of video games), so *shrug. Maybe at some point I'll find that reference again and fix the Wiki.

The problem I had with the destruction of the Executor, was that even today ships have redundant control stations. A ship that size probably would have had dozens. Take out the bridge and control simply changes to a backup bridge and the ship keeps flying and fighting.

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere at some point that Arvel crashing in the SSD wasn't what actually caused it to crash. And that indeed control was transferred to a backup bridge. I think it had something to do with their engines/repulsor lifts being attacked and the gravity of the DS2 pulled it into orbit.

But I can't find that anymore, and the Wiki directly contradicts this (as does quite a bit of lore in terms of video games), so *shrug. Maybe at some point I'll find that reference again and fix the Wiki.

the reason for the crashing was, that crashing is way more fun than a random explosion, in particular when there is already enough stuff exploding left and right.

One of the most interesting aspects of the EU stuff is, that they try to bring order into chaos and system into the force driven plot of the movies.

Avrel's crashing his a-wing was just the final straw. If you remember Admiral Ackbar had previously ordered all craft to concentrate their fire on the SSD. I assume that the combined focused might of the bulk of the Rebel fleet had something to do with its destruction.

With the death of the Emperor, the destruction of the death star and the loss of the flagship, completely stripped the Imperial Fleet of its command structure. The remaining Imperial forces were of sufficient strength to destroy the remaining rebel forces, but with no one to take command of the battle they had lost. What followed was a disorganized mess, where part of the forces tried to retreat, and other ships tried to press the attack. With no coordination the battle was lost for the Empire.

Except the empire likely did not have a clear order of succession like a modern democracy does. The emperor was a power hungry megalomaniac who probably truly thought he would live forever unless one of his minions assassinated him.

The Emperor/Darth Sidius was the most powerful Sith Lord ever, as such he had powers that Jedi couldn't even dream of. Now if you really get into the EU it's almost sicking just how badass Sid actually is... I mean at one point he creates a black hole with the force...

But he had a number of clone bodies ready to go, and even if someone like Vader managed to take him out, he had plans to transfer his essence/soul/mind/whatever into a clone body. He wasn't at all really worried about losing grips on his empire, because he had plans in place if something were to happen to him. So there was no one who was going to step up and take over after he was gone.

In fact he made a point of playing the various Moffs and other high ranking people off each other, so none of them could team up against him.

?? Which is exactly what I was saying.

?? Which is exactly what I was saying.

Yeah I was just expanding on what you said.