59 minutes ago, Alpha17 said:

No, her second line is "The data brought to us by the Bothan Spies." The "Many Bothans died" line is much later, and is to add gravity to the situation/show why they think its valid. There's a distinct reason why the Bothans were depicted as spies.

That said, spying doesn't necessarily have to be James Bond-esque infiltration of enemy facilities or a mole placed in their ranks. The Bothans are frequently depicted as being expert slicers (hackers) and SIGINT is a huge deal with modern technology; no reason why the Empire wouldn't have just as many problems with that. Also, the EU's depiction of the Bothans were that they had multiple clans and houses vying for power in a Machiavellian/Byzantine power struggle. As open fighting was prohibited, they used information as their weapon, and thus it is fitting that these houses would have access to spying networks made up of both Bothan and non-Bothan members.

I admit that I forgot that line. That does bring up a point though, that an entire culture in science-fiction (or space fantasy) being developed solely off one defining characteristic is annoying.

That being said.. here is the thing about Star Wars.. it seems they don't have linked technology like we do. How often do we see a droid have to interact with a terminal? Even in Rebels, they had to physically go to a location to enter a dataspike to “hack” or slice a comms tower.

Why on earth would the Empire not put a sanction on the Bothans then? If wookies can be enslaved, surely bothans could too?

1 hour ago, That Blasted Samophlange said:

I admit that I forgot that line. That does bring up a point though, that an entire culture in science-fiction (or space fantasy) being developed solely off one defining characteristic is annoying.

That being said.. here is the thing about Star Wars.. it seems they don't have linked technology like we do. How often do we see a droid have to interact with a terminal? Even in Rebels, they had to physically go to a location to enter a dataspike to “hack” or slice a comms tower.

Why on earth would the Empire not put a sanction on the Bothans then? If wookies can be enslaved, surely bothans could too?

Well in legends after loosing a fleet non hardwired computer access was limited

1 hour ago, That Blasted Samophlange said:

I admit that I forgot that line. That does bring up a point though, that an entire culture in science-fiction (or space fantasy) being developed solely off one defining characteristic is annoying.

That being said.. here is the thing about Star Wars.. it seems they don't have linked technology like we do. How often do we see a droid have to interact with a terminal? Even in Rebels, they had to physically go to a location to enter a dataspike to “hack” or slice a comms tower.

Why on earth would the Empire not put a sanction on the Bothans then? If wookies can be enslaved, surely bothans could too?

Who says they weren't? Being enslaved would be ample reason for the clans to unite and oppose the Emperor, bringing their resources to bear. I don't really feel like looking it up, but that sounds about right for what happened to bring at least some of the Bothans on board, and what happened to others in retaliation.

And yes, an entire species of slicers would be annoying; good thing the EU's Bothans were everything from warriors to slicers to politicians. And that's only the ones we see, which are almost certainly NOT the average, run of the mill Joe Sixpack Bothan working his 9-5. Having a culture that values weaponized information is perfectly reasonable. Having an entire species have one culture would be the bigger deal, but hey, who's to say there isn't a planet or subculture of hippy Bothans that don't play the political game?

As for the droids interacting with a terminal, that's actually proof of a linked system, just not a completely wireless one. Artoo regularly controls the systems of the entire ship he plugs into, be it a civilian system or the Death Star. A skilled slicer could likely do the same. I'm sure there are limits to what one can accomplish across the Holonet, but infiltrating a data spike (aka, USB thumbdrive) into an Imperial computer system could be used to allow for remote access for the slicer. A droid or non-Bothan could easily be used to introduce this data spike, even unknowingly.

7 minutes ago, Alpha17 said:

As for the droids interacting with a terminal, that's actually proof of a linked system, just not a completely wireless one. Artoo regularly controls the systems of the entire ship he plugs into, be it a civilian system or the Death Star. A skilled slicer could likely do the same. I'm sure there are limits to what one can accomplish across the Holonet, but infiltrating a data spike (aka, USB thumbdrive) into an Imperial computer system could be used to allow for remote access for the slicer. A droid or non-Bothan could easily be used to introduce this data spike, even unknowingly.

Yeah. I tend to think the "real" internet in Star Wars is mostly hardwired. For security reasons, among others. You get wireless holo dramas or whatever but, linking your thermostats and stuff to a wireless network seems suicidal with what maldroids could accomplish.

To everyone in this thread complaining about the whole "One Species, One Job" thing:

Ewoks are apparently expert slicers in new canon.

Make of that what you will.

1 hour ago, That Blasted Samophlange said:

I admit that I forgot that line. That does bring up a point though, that an entire culture in science-fiction (or space fantasy) being developed solely off one defining characteristic is annoying.

That being said.. here is the thing about Star Wars.. it seems they don't have linked technology like we do. How often do we see a droid have to interact with a terminal? Even in Rebels, they had to physically go to a location to enter a dataspike to “hack” or slice a comms tower.

Why on earth would the Empire not put a sanction on the Bothans then? If wookies can be enslaved, surely bothans could too?

I agree about the "entire species is one career," which is why I have appreciated how much Twi'leks have been fleshed out more, to show more non-dancer female Twi'leks.

There is a history of slaves working as spies and spies posing as slaves. Why should the Imperial Officer mind too much what the cowering, simpering, spineless servant from the local populace sees? Clearly they don't have a spine or they would have died rather than be enslaved. Xenophobia could also lead to perceiving the alien as too simple minded to be possible able to hide anything, especially when combined with the false Imperial sense of superiority.

Something to remember is that Star Wars technology is based on what was thought is possible by 1970s standards. That said, even today important information of a secure nature is protected by what is called an "air gap," where the secure network is not attached to an unsecure network such as the holonet. So in order to access secure information, you first need to access the physical location where the network exists. Enslaved servants might have access to such a location under supervision, since they work cheap, can be held in a secure location at all times, and can be threatened with death should information leak. We aren't told WHY the Bothans died, the old EU had them as a commando team much like Rogue One. In the new canon, it is equally likely that a group of Bothans were killed for stealing the information.

10 minutes ago, Indy_com said:

To everyone in this thread complaining about the whole "One Species, One Job" thing:

Ewoks are apparently expert slicers in new canon.

Make of that what you will.

What's the source out of curiosity? I know in canon they were offered as emotional support companions.

42 minutes ago, Caimheul1313 said:

What's the source out of curiosity? I know in canon they were offered as emotional support companions. 

From the novel Last Shot.

53 minutes ago, Indy_com said:

Ewoks are apparently expert slicers in new canon.

Not all ewoks.. ONE Ewok.

54 minutes ago, That Blasted Samophlange said:

Not all ewoks.. ONE Ewok.

This is the point.

Disney seem to be trying to move away from all members of a species doing identical things.

The Ewok slicer is an example of this.

On 3/22/2019 at 12:04 PM, Caimheul1313 said:

We aren't told WHY the Bothans died, the old EU had them as a commando team much like Rogue One.

Nope, in the old canon they were fighter pilots. They got killed by the freighter carrying the plans as they tried to capture it. I think the only survivors on the Rebel side were Luke and the Outrider. This was in Shadows of the Empire.

On 3/22/2019 at 1:43 PM, Indy_com said:

This is the point.

Disney seem to be trying to move away from all members of a species doing identical things.

The Ewok slicer is an example of this.

I was confused as you used ewoks in plural, which to me implied you were saying ALL ewoks are expert slicers.

On 3/22/2019 at 12:43 PM, Indy_com said:

This is the point.

Disney seem to be trying to move away from all members of a species doing identical things.

The Ewok slicer is an example of this.

I mean, the EU had an Ewok pilot, as well as Ewoks as part of elite commando teams, so Ewoks in odd places have been done before.

11 hours ago, arnoldrew said:

Nope, in the old canon they were fighter pilots. They got killed by the freighter carrying the plans as they tried to capture it. I think the only survivors on the Rebel side were Luke and the Outrider. This was in Shadows of the Empire.

Forgot about the pilots. There were also Bothans in the strike team and safehouse who were killed, if I'm reading the wookiepedia page right.