So a situation arose and I think I know the answer but just want to double check.

A corvette with Dodonnas Pride attacks a Gladiator.

The attack rolls 1 accuracy, 1 hit and 1 blue critical.

Following the Attack Resolution, at step 4 the defender may spend defense tokens. The accuracy had targeted the Evade, so the gladiator is left with only brace and redirect. But knowing that the corvette has Dodonnas Pride, its likely that in step 5 the attacker will resolve that blue critical and deal one faceup damage card then cancel all attack dice, in which case neither Redirect or Brace will do any good.

Question:

If a defense token is spent in step 4 of an attack resolution, then ends up doing nothing in step 5 due to circumstances, is it still considered spent? I would say Yes, following RAW closely there is nothing suggesting otherwise. Maybe simulating the ship miscalculating the defensive measures needed.

But just to make sure im not missing anything I want to ask here.

Yes. It would be spent. The Blue Crit result would happen after tokens must be declared. At least according to: https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/181567-do-you-have-questions-about-attacking-defense-tokens-and-critical-hits-read-this-first/

I personally would not declare the tokens certainly not the brace if I have enough shields. My opponent might (unlikely but....) deal the two damage instead of resolving the critical effect. It also depends if I'm looking at more attacks on that ship. You'd want to declare them if your opponent not using Dodonna's Pride still has you looking at a face-up damage card via the default critical effect. Declaring one/both would force your opponent to cancel the other die and resolve the Dodonna's Pride critical effect.

Yes.

This helps make Dodonna's Pride a semi-useful card.