Literally the WORST planned battle in Star Wars History | Battle Breakdown 

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"worst commander in star wars history" I was about to mention any number of questionable commanders from either legends or canon until I heard she literally *tried to* ram an ISD into the planetary shield.

"Literally yeets itself through the command bridge of the star destroyer." Well eck that is one way to put it

"... the Suncrusher literally yeets itself through its command bridge..." On today's episode of "Things I never thought I would hear..."

*Sees title* Never saw me play Empire at War, huh?

No plan survives first contact with the enemy. Especially this one.

Is it just me or does Tarkin and Palpatine have an uh... _Unhealthy_ obsessions with superweapons?

And she wonders why she was passed up for promotion

Imagine following a warlord without a mustache! This post has been made by the Zsinj gang.

Imagine at the next super bowl they say “this game is brought to you by skill share”

Judging by what I've heard, my take on Natasi Daala is that, she probably was one of those people who are genuinely brilliant, but in a narrow, specialised field- in her case, Research and Development. Outside of that speciality, she was mediocre at best, and in the case we see here, absolutely hopeless at formulating and conducting a military campaign.

Daala most likely would make Thrawn laugh so hard! Imagine seeing him rolling over the floor with tears in his eyes and just laughing about her and Tarkin!

She’s literally only an admiral because Tarkin was her boyfriend.

Admiral Daala really be the Krell of the Empire. "Oh, we'll just charge straight at em with no backup plan and win."

Theory: Daala's incompetence actually made her another superweapon held at the maw installation: if she gets into a high enough command position, the faction she's working for will be significantly weakened.

"The Suncrusher literally YEETS itself though it's(the ISD's) command bridge" The fact that you said it in your normal calm voice made me laugh harder then I have in a while.

Her "friendship" with Tarkin is the only reason why she got so much influence.

T-Series tactical droid: watches this video. Also T-Series tactical droid:Finally, a worthy opponent, our battle will be legendary

Ive heard many stupid military plans before. But this just topped the list.

She really is a terrible at everything she does and how did she get elected to lead a government. Great video

Daala: **brilliant strategist** Also daala: **tries to attack corusant with 2 ISDs** Sumn don't add up herr

How the heck did daala (a former EMPIRE adminal and lover of tarkin] get leadership of the galactic alliance?

Let’s just throw rocks is the next strategy

I mean to be fair Daala wasn't as inept as suggested. When she attacked the 'colony' of a few hundred people it was to send a message. The colony in question was on Dantooine and the colony was made up of Ganatoris's people who sought shelter with the New Republic as part of a deal he made with Luke Skywalker when he joined his Jedi Academy. She wanted to send a message that aligning with the New Republic would be a death sentence. Also the attack on Mon Calamari was intended to cripple the New Republic shipyards. Daala sent on Star Destroyer in to draw out the defense fleet while hiding a second one behind the moon in a sensor blind spot. Once the defense fleet had engaged with the first star destroyer the second would micro-jump in and flank the fleet. Then the Star Destroyers would be able to decimate the shipyards until New Republic reinforcements could arrive. The only reason this plan failed was because of Admiral Ackbar. He had spent time as a slave of Tarkin and recognized a pattern to the attack. He took remote control of an unfinished Mon Cal Star Cruise that was under construction and rammed it into the hidden Star Destroyer at almost light speed. As for the attack on Coruscant, Daala had more of a plan than just crash into the planet. She had two Star Destroyers remaining and wanted to cause as much damage as possible. One of the Star Destroyers had suffered some battle damage and she decided to use this one as a giant hyperspace missile. It was staffed with a skeleton crew of loyalists who were prepared to die. The plan was simple, her undamaged Star Destroyer would lead the charge and draw off any defensive forces. The second Star Destroyer was to set at the edge of the system and once given the signal was to start accelerating towards the planet, and once it had achieved sufficient momentum it was to engage its hyperdrive (with the hyperdrive safeties disabled) and crash into the planets mass shadow in hyperspace. This would have caused massive destruction to the planet, and while never explicitly stated, it is unclear if the planetary shield would have been able to block something traveling through hyperspace. As for her loss of a Super Star Destroyer, that too is not completely Daala's fault. After unifying the Imperial Warlords she planned an attack on Yavin IV where the Jedi Academy was. She sent an Imperial Fleet under Gilad Pellaeon into the system first to soften up the defenses, after which she planned on jumping in with the Super Star Destroyer Knight Hammer. Before she was able to jump in system however, all the Jedi on Yavin IV were able to enter a Jedi Trance and used the Force to push Pellaeon's fleet out of the system. Daala arrived and was about to start bombing Yavin IV when Admiral Ackbar arrived in his new MC90 flagship. He started harassing the Knight Hammer and without her support fleet she was forced to try and engage the more mobile MC90. While occupied with Ackbar and Jedi (Callista Ming, if I remember correctly) was able to infiltrate the Knight Hammer and rigged a bunch of TIE Bombers to fire their bombs into the engine bays of the ship. With the engines crippled the Knight Hammer started to fall into the gas giant that Yavin IV orbited. Daala evacuated the ship and was picked up by Pellaeon's fleet that had just been able to re-enter the system with a hyperspace micro-jump. All that being said, Admiral Daala was not the tactical genius she was touted to be in the books. However, I do not feel that she was completely incompetent as a Commander.

Best thing she ever did was give away command to Pelleon

@2:23 Soooooo she slept her way to the top. Noice!

Yeah Daala really seems like a representation of an adherence to the Tarkin Doctrine in her tactics she thinks at Mon Cala or Dak in Legends that the sight of her Star Destroyers will break the will of the enemy and allow her to destroy the shipyards(From what I remember) She doesn't realize now that the Rebellion, now New Republic isn't as small and intimidated easily anymore by the presence of Imperial vessels. Its her arrogance and inability to properly assess the situation that is her downfall.

The Empire’s greatest weapon turned out to be their greatest failure, PRIDE.

Hearing her "brilliant" strategies I can't help but say: Bruh.

Heeey. This isn't Exegol!

"How bad of a leader was Admiral Daala?" Yeah, I'd be interested in that video.

Why does Dantooine always keep getting bombed? Also, it seems that Daala's isolation in the Maw must've caused her to lose her tactical genius.

Admiral Daala is like an in-universe version of Kathleen Kennedy. No real plan, just thinks she can succeed via inertia and guts or something.

I have a purely nostalgic love for Daala. The Jedi Academy trilogy were the first EU books I read and so I have a bias towards everything in those books. Also I find her ability to fail upwards to be very realistic and aspirational.

The only notable legends female imperial admiral, who sucks at her job, and got that Job by romancing a man in power... Hey Legends, What The Hell.

I think Daala was just suffering from a mental breakdown and wasn’t thinking straight. I mean in under a month she lost 3 ships, her facility, Tarkin, etc. Ngl I kind of feel bad for her.

I’m so glad you are back into battle breakdowns. This is my favorite series of yours

How come many times sith can force choke people through holograms while they are far away but they can't just force choke someone on the other side of the galaxy whenever

Daala: "Let's attack Coruscant with only 2 Star Destroyers." Crew member: "I don't know admiral. It sounds risky." Daala: "Don't worry I've got a foolproof plan." Crew member: "I've got a bad feeling about this."

Admiral Daala: I will be the poster child for the worst admiral in Star Wars history. Admiral Holdo: Hold my hairspray.

There's actually another female Admiral in Legends: Admiral Dodonna in KotOR.

Me : The empire's worst planning at endor and scarif Eck : NOOOOOOO!

Always loved your battle breakdowns Eck

Even when the number of star destroyers was uncertain and might have been really quite low, two star destroyers vs Coruscant seemed like a very poor idea.

Last time I was this early, snoke was plagiues. Can’t spell sorry Edit: this was not a spoiler for ROS

Daala: Attacks Mon Cala Admiral Ackbar: I’m gonna end this woman’s whole career

There's some implications in the novel Death Star that Dala /was/ a genius... At one point. In the novel, she was in an explosive decompression "accident", which led to brain damage. Tarkin thought it minor, but...

Thank You for still pumping out content Eckhartsladder...keep the videos coming cause we’re all watching!! Haha I hope you and your family are healthy and safe!!!🙏🏽

"Literally yeets itself" I think that's the best description of not the Suncrusher but Daala herself

#askeck Where did Palpatine’s hatred of none humans come from? If I’m misreading things, then y did he embrace humanocentrism? Video suggestion/request: X-83 Twintail vs. Tie Defender (Legends)

I think Daala had two problems, one in universe, one out of universe. In universe: All the (theoretical) knowledge and skill is useless if you get no opportunity to actually use them in a (somewhat) controlled environment so of course she'd make mistakes soemone like Pelleon wouldn't have made, thanks to his actual experience. Out of universe: The writer(s) clearly wanted her to be competent (or there wouldn't have been such an emphasis on her being a prodigy), but clearly failed themselves to come up with even remotely competent/intelligent ideas on what her plans are or why they failed. In short: Bad writing imho.

Lol Starting to think "I was always passed up for promotion because I'm a woman" is her way of coping with the fact that she sucks.

A very extremely great video as always EckhartsLadder.

Gee, I WONDER why they gave her a position as far out of the way as possible.

So, devil's advocate, Daala may have been a perfectly competent officer when she was a captain. However, I can see a number of factors for why she lost that competency by the time she gets in the story: 1. She was after all stuck in the Maw for some time, and without any battles or campaigns to fight and her time focused on developing super weapons, it's possible her skills could simply have atrophied from lack of use in favor of other ones. If she thought the Empire was gonna stay on top and thus superweapon development and not battlefield skills was what would get her her next promotion (and being out of communication, how could she know that wasn't the case?), that is a reasonable gamble to make, just didn't work out very well. 2. Being around super weapons for too long might have skewed her idea of what was effective. She was probably a Tarkin Doctrine devotee, and being in the Maw probably reinforced her focus on shock and awe tactics at the expense of other ideas. 3. Being stuck in the Maw also likely stagnated her knowledge of her enemy, and without updates, she probably fixated on her current knowledge of what the Rebels were, so when she reemerged from the Maw, she couldn't quickly adapt from thinking of them as easily frightened guerrilla fighters, even though their psychology had changed completely with the rise of the New Republic. 4. She may have just not been a versatile commander in general. She may have been a great commander during the rise of the Empire, when brute force and shock and awe were in line with her and the Empire's strengths, but by the time she got in the fight she was now way out of date and couldn't adapt to modern tactics. 5. Tarkin may have seen she, as an admiral, would be a better R&D leader than a battlefield leader, and tried to head off any future failures by putting her where she could do the most good. Great Star Destroyer captain, but bad battlefield admiral; overpromotion is a thing, after all. Not experiencing this failure may have then caused her to think, 'well I was a great commander as a captain, I should be great as an admiral too'. 6. She just got lazy and decided that, now that she was an admiral, she didn't need to improve any more. Since she seems to have a pretty decent ego, she might not have seen any risk to it (the old 'I can always get back into shape if I want to' argument). Not trying to excuse her clearly subpar performance, just want to give the character a bit more credit than 'she just slept her way to the top, no other redeeming qualities'. It's entirely possible she was both held back and given opportunities based on her sex.

The first of your videos I saw was the one about The machine who hated humanity AKA I have no mouth and I must scream, and it leaved me shocked for a few days, so whenever I hear your voice Igo trough a mini PTSD... Great video tho. Keep up the good work

Empire: Yup. We're useless without Thrawn.

"Litterally Yeets itself" I never thought I would hear that from EckhartsLadder. 3:40

The Empire must have used PCs because Daala couldn't use a Mac's Command keys without screwing up.

I just listened to the Death Star novel and Tarkin and Daala’s relationship was oddly wholesome and had me at a loss for words.

“Star crusher literally yeets itself across the command bridge” This is why Ecks is awesome when telling story

Sun crusher and Palpatine clone, two, worst things in post endor era legends.

Hey Daala, nice sun you have here....be a shame if someone "crushed" it

Love that she doesn't attempt to use any other super weapon at the Maw Installation. Not the Death Star prototype, not any prototype weapons, not trying to construct at least some ships. Nope she just Leroy Jenkins the galexy

3:39 "as the sun crusher literally yeeted itself through its command bridge" my favorite eck quote yet.

#AskEck *Attempt 738* Remember to do the Forerunners vs the Imperium of Man faction versus video.

Lmao was waiting for another battle breakdown, this video was nice!

In her decades of isolation from the Imperial high command, Daala forgot how to admiral...

Yeets through the command bridge 😂

IF I had to guess what Daala’s Imperial Academy teacher/mentor was, it’d be Ozzel who gave her the ‘Good Grades’ & such… Though I know I’m likely wrong, its still the Imperial Mind Set vs Thrawn’s…

I never thought I'd see the day when a man of culture like Eck uses the term *"yeet."*

Dog at the end is awesomely hilarious......

Me coming from Thrawns Revenge: Oh yeah Daala is a badass, she unified the warlords and managed to find a lost SSD an- Eck: *Tries to ram a Star Destroyer into Coruscant*

The question is though.. Is SHE bad (in canon), or is it simply the writer of the books / episodes / stories she's been in, that are terrible writers with no clue about military tactics?

Empire: "We have star destroyers!" Suncrusher: "YEEEET"

Daala was however the only one with the gall to summon all the Imperial Warlords together and demand their submission. Upon their refusal, she gassed them and simply took their assets as hers, reuniting the Empire. Arguably without her endorsement of Pellaeon, he would not have been able to later rise to be Imperial Head of State and bring an end to the First Galactic Civil War.

Dalah: were gonna invade corasants planetary shield The literal 2 isds she has: ............. Me: HOW IN THE NAME OF EVERYTHING DID YOU GET PROMOTED TO ADMERIAL

She would've been a perfect character for the last jedi

This was one of the first Star Wars books I remember reading. As a teen I LOVED THEM.

Thanks for the Skillshare

I'm still undecided if Kevin J. Anderson is so incompetent that he thought he was doing a good job writing Daala or if he's sexist and intended her as proof that women couldn't be effective military commanders. A competent writer would have given Daala a few wins against forces strong enough to be credible threat. Anderson had her always facing the movie heroes, the Suncrusher AFAIK the most overpowered superweapon in the franchise, Jedi students pulling never before seen levels of Force power out of their asses, or enemies so weak compared to her forces that they were a joke. I find it interesting that you failed to mention that one of the reasons she was posted to the Maw was that she suffered a brain injury in a rebel attack so Tarkin assigned her to a post unlikely to face combat rather then have her discharged or demoted. Also she is far from the only Legends female admiral. Hell she isn't even the only female Imperial admiral in Legends anymore though the one other female Imperial admiral I know of had her military record expunged after she turned renegade and became a pirate in the pre-Rebel Alliance Imperial era. Finally while I agree that her Coruscant attack plan was insane I think you are far too harsh regarding her Mon Calamari attack. The only reason that attack failed was because Ackbar, who as Tarkin's former slave was uniquely qualified to recognize her plan, happened to be in postition to assume command of the defense through a series of fluke events. That's not bad tactics that's just horrible luck.

people: why aren't there more woman brass in the empire? *shows then admiral daala* people: sexism, got to be sexism.

Eckharts ladder is an amazing RU-vidr

Actually, her tactics for the Battle of Mon Calamari are not bad. But they were devised by Tarkin. And since in Legends, Ackbar was a personal slave to Tarkin for quite some time before escaping and becoming an Admiral of the Rebel Alliance/ Commander-in-Chief of the New Republic, he immediatly realised the imperial Commander was using one of Tarkins battle schemes and countered it in a rather unorthodox way

And people say the empire were amazing...

Okay if she just attacked coruscant with her 4 star destroyers then it would be at least semi smarter. Though her attempt at getting the sum crusher was decent. Her kamikaze plan was decent.

Clearly her time at the Maw and not seeing any actual combat dulled her tactical ability.

In the DS version of Battlefront: Elite Squadron, we see X2 pierce Mustafar's planetary shield with a comandeered Executor class SSD, without even dying in the process. So it's not entirely impossible for Daala to get through the shield.

So tragic. She was so oppressed that she got bumped straight up to admiral. I don't think sexism is why she got passed up for promotions based on this video.

"Only female admiral in legends" What about Admiral Dodonna

Daala was said to be a reasonably competent tactician when it came to ground warfare, and a lot smarter than most of the men at Carida before the OT. Originally, she was written as failing against the New Republic because she was relying on outdated tactics. She never considered that the people who beat Tarkin a decade before might actually be smarter than her... until she'd pretty much lost everything. The 'Death Star' novel later explained things by having her suffer unspecified brain damage (and get sent back to the Maw Installation before she woke up, in order to hide the fact that Tarkin had called her away from her post to help investigate sabotage of the Death Star and its support ships). Best case scenario was the loss of a few days of memory. Worst case scenario was severe impairment.

3:39 “as the Suncrusher literally yeet’s itself into th...” wait hold on, Suncrusher literally WHAT ?

I’m the first and I love your vid I wanted another battle breakdown thanks

I know that they changed it later down the line, but why was the Empire sexist against women in early legends exactly? I mean, I get why they have the human superiority complex, but to cut your potential forces down even more just seems more stupid then the Empire normally is.

The first book in the series has a scene where they are repairing Couruscant, and I thought they said they didn't yet have planetary shields back. But even if they did, those shields were not on continuously. If a ship comes out of hyperspace close enough and doesn't slow down, it could conceivably get through before the shield is raised.

To be as fair as possible to Daala, she WAS written by Kevin J. Anderson, who somehow has a great reputation despite being the Admiral Daala of writing in other people's universes (see also: Darksaber (no, not the good one) and his foray into Dune.).

But by imperial standard she performed the attack adequately.. only a imperial naval education makes u that skilled..

What would have happened if UNSC had defeated he covenant forces and captured the forerunner fleet in Halo Wars instead of destroying the ships?. #askeck

IDK why I found "yeet itself through its command bridge" so hilarious XD

The amazed pause and goose honk censor @ 6:00 lolllllllll