Admiral Holdo - A Toxic Leader

so i was taking a [ __ ] the other day when my thoughts inevitably turned as they often do to the last jedi you know the more i think about that movie the more i realize that it's basically a gold mine of bad writing providing an almost inexhaustible supply of terrible creative decisions that i can use to explore some of the more technical aspects of writing and in this case i thought it might be interesting to look at the subject of command and leadership see because this movie was written by someone with the mind of a child most of the characters think and behave like children as well including those in positions of command and authority that really ought to know better whether it's general hacks letting himself get provoked by jokes about his mum flying into our rage and screaming at subordinates or getting [ __ ] slapped by snoke or kylo ren losing his [ __ ] and destroying important equipment just because someone made fun of him or general leia given wildly conflicting orders and taking command only to give it up again there are things that you cannot solve by jumping in an x-wing and blowing something up five minutes later permission to jump into next week and blow something up permission granted looking back would you change anything in your script or do you stand by all your choices no stand by every choice none of the so-called authority figures in this film seem capable of even functioning like normal adults never mind commanding entire ships and armies but none of these characters are quite so utterly incompetent at their job as admiral haldo a character so horribly written and thoroughly unlikable that to this day i'm not entirely convinced that she isn't some kind of subtle piss take of kathleen kennedy and if so [ __ ] hats off to you ryan truly you have fooled us all but i suspect that's not the case and it's a real shame because i think holdo represents a genuine missed opportunity to create an interesting new character that we haven't really seen before in star wars not to mention a complex nuanced story arc that would stir up some discussions more sophisticated than you just don't like her because she's a strong woman now in order to explain just how far they went wrong with this character and her storyline i need to give you an example of where this kind of thing's been done much better and for that i'm going to take you all the way back to the summer of 1995 and the release of crimson tide crimson tide is a [ __ ] awesome thriller about the crew of a nuclear submarine who get caught up in a mutiny after they lose contact with the outside world they're out on patrol one day when they learn that a russian military base has been captured by insurgents who are planning to launch their nuclear missiles at the united states their mission is to hit the base first and prevent an attack that could kill millions of people and trigger world war iii but just as they're receiving a second message from their commanders they come under attack from an enemy sub which damages their communications and cuts off the message before they can read it now they're left with quite the dilemma do they delay their strike and try to re-establish communications in the hopes that this message was telling them to stand down or do they follow their existing orders and launch their missiles before the russian insurgents can hit america if they launch their strike and the bases back in russian hands the russians will take this as an act of war on the other hand if they do nothing and the insurgents launch their nukes at america then millions of innocent people are gonna die one way or another the clock's ticking and they have to make their decision the commander of the sub captain ramsay believes that they should follow their existing orders and hit the russians first ramsey's a veteran sub-commander with decades of experience under his belt he's a hard pragmatic kind of guy that demands a lot from his crew and expects subordinates to follow his orders without question on the other side of the argument is his exo commander hunter who's serving under ramsay's command for the first time hunter is more of an idealist who believes it's their duty to do everything they can to avoid launching their missiles he's better educated more compassionate and broad-minded than ramsey but he's also younger and less experienced and he's never been tested in combat before the fault lines in their relationship were beginning to show before this even kicked off as their differing command styles grated on each other but tensions quickly increase once they're cut off from the outside world eventually spilling over into open conflict when a frustrated ramsey breaks protocol by trying to force the situation hunter has no choice but to relieve him of command ramsay quickly responds by rallying men loyal to him and using them to wrestle command away from hunter with minutes left before the attacks due to start the crew has effectively been split into two armed factions each willing to fight and die for their respective cause it's a brilliant tense and perfectly paced bit of writing precisely because the central conflict is so well balanced between the two men neither one of them is strictly right or wrong in this situation one is following the letter of the law in a situation that demands strict adherence to the chain of commands while the other is willing to deviate from it in order to do what he sees as morally right each of them has a chance to argue his point of view and justify his perspective and who you ultimately agree with comes down to your own personal world view the point here is that the lack of a clearly defined right or wrong answer encourages the audience to ask interesting questions about what they would do in that situation the ambiguity of their conflict is precisely what makes it so interesting now consider the last jedi once again you have a ship cut off from the outside world an external threat looming over them and a ticking clock to ratchet up the tension and again the two most senior officers on board are in conflict with each other about how to handle the situation sounds familiar right wrong see the difference here is that the delicate balance of moral ambiguity that made crimson tides such an interesting story is entirely absent in the last jedi in this movie you've got a small fleet of rebel ships being pursued by the first order they lack the numbers and firepower to stand and fight and the first order's hyperspace tracker means they can't simply jump away their only option is to slowly retreat under enemy bombardment until eventually they exhaust their fuel at which point they'll be cut off and wiped out even worse general leia is out of action so admiral holdo assumes command relegating poe to a subordinate role now i could probably spend hours talking about how nonsensical this setup is from a logistical point of view in fact i [ __ ] have on efap multiple times but let's ignore those considerations for now and just focus on the characters clearly the crew are facing a serious threat here time is running out and their options are limited so we've got a high pressure situation a ticking clock and a last minute reshuffle amongst the ship's senior officers with an unfamiliar character now placed in charge just like in crimson tide this setup offers some interesting possibilities for interpersonal conflict for example wouldn't it be interesting if the relationship between poe and haldo started out relatively strong because they both recognized the importance of putting on a united front to help calm a panicky and demoralized crew only for them to gradually split apart as the pressure mounts and their differing perspectives see them clash more and more frequently perhaps the first order's ability to track them through hyperspace might lead to the false assumption that there's a spy on board further adding to the atmosphere of distrust and paranoia that gradually turns the two characters against each other these are all interesting possibilities that might have led to a decent storyline where neither character was strictly right or wrong but each was able to learn something from the other perhaps paul would learn to temper his impetuous nature and accept that he doesn't have to win every battle single-handed while holdo might realize that paul's initiative ingenuity and quick thinking are powerful assets in the right situation and by the end they develop a kind of mutual respect recognizing and accepting each other's strengths and perspectives of course none of that actually happened in the real movie because this film was all about breaking characters down in order to fit them into modes that they totally don't belong in in this case paul had to be portrayed as a dumb reckless arrogant flyboy that needs to be brought down a peg or two and taught to blindly trust authority figures even when their instructions make absolutely no sense and they do nothing to inspire confidence or trust the problems begin the moment holdu assumes command and immediately starts acting like a [ __ ] child instead of an experienced and mature commander she actively works against her subordinate berating him and personally insulting him in front of the entire bridge crew when all he did was ask a simple question about her intentions he wasn't challenging her authority or questioning her decisions he was simply asking her to make some but she doesn't and she won't tell him why and instead she deflects the conversation back at him as if they're a married couple bickering over who drank the last bottle of wine she makes it immediately obvious that she despises paul and everything he represents it's like a child who can't regulate their emotional responses and just blurts out whatever's in their [ __ ] head at any moments rather than recognizing the importance of working with paul in a time of crisis regardless of her personal feelings towards him she indulges in an emotional outburst that probably felt great at the time but ultimately sowed the seeds of a mutiny that could have gotten them all killed personal feelings and emotions are not something that should influence a commander's decision-making they're supposed to be better than that not only did this behavior clearly signal to poe that huldo wasn't willing to trust or cooperate with him on a personal level but her complete refusal to outline any kind of plan betrayed an inability to make decisions as a commander as well that's a pretty negative combination of elements in any leader let alone one in charge of a fleet standing on the brink of annihilation and well the result was pretty [ __ ] obvious paul was forced to take matters into his own hands again contrast this with captain ramsay from crimson side he makes a sincere effort to work with his exo to help the man understand the importance of following his lead and what's at stake if they fail to work as a team that means we don't question each other's motives in front of the crew it means we don't undermine each other it means in a missile drill they hear your voice right after mine without hesitation he clearly outlines his intentions and his reasons for doing it arguing his case forcefully before resorting to more extreme methods when hunter refuses to budge in short he demonstrates command authority maturity and an understanding of his subordinates holdo demonstrates the exact opposite she's overbearing petulant vindictive and secretive indulging in petty emotional attacks and treating legitimate questions as a challenge to her authority she doesn't inspire loyalty or respect because she shows none in return she sees only the worst in people and as a result she brings out the worst in them she is in effect a toxic leader and what's really weird is that the movie tries so [ __ ] hard to paint her as some kind of unsung hero it wants you to believe that she was right all along and that paul was the one who went wrong by failing to trust her the problem as i've already demonstrated is that she gave him absolutely no reason to see you might find this hard to believe but being a leader means more than just storming in and bellowing orders at people especially in the military yeah rank might give you authority over the men under your command but if you don't back this up with good decision making effective communication and actual leadership skills then you'll lose the respect pretty fast you'll have created a toxic environment where your own men see you as the enemy and that's exactly what holdo does at every step along the way poe's actions are entirely consistent with those of a rational reasonable person at first he tries to cooperate with holdo and requests to know her intentions so that he can offer his assistance stick to your post and follow my orders when that doesn't work he reluctantly allows his companions to pursue an alternate plan that offers a chance of success a slim one perhaps but it's better than nothing at all as the situation grows more desperate paul straight up begs holder to tell him what if anything she intends to do we had a fleet now we're down to one ship and you've told us nothing when she still refuses to tell him anything he's left with no choice but to relieve her of commands whether or not her secret plan ultimately proves successful is less relevant than the fact that she was by any standard of measure a terrible leader that never should have been put in a position of command in the first place it creates this weird narrative disconnect where the movie tries so hard to tell us that paul was wrong and halda was right while showing us the exact opposite the thing is humans are more sensitive to this kind of deception than you might think we can tell when we're being fed [ __ ] even if it takes a while for that realization to filter through but filter it does and like i say it's a real shame that ryan chose to go this way because i think if this conflict had been handled with a bit more subtlety and intelligence balancing the strengths and weaknesses of the two characters more evenly to create a smarter and more complex relationship then holdo could well have become a strong well-rounded interesting character that people might really have gotten behind instead of a [ __ ] purple-haired space karen anyway that's all i've got for today go away now

Channel: The Critical Drinker

Views: 2,024,101

Keywords:

Id: qD8FHKOFgCg

Length: 14min 2sec (842 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 30 2020

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[u/saltierthancats]

My beef with Holdo is that 100% of this character, from the design to dialogue to place in the narrative is specifically meant to entrap the audience (by way of Poe) so that the audience can be bludgeoned with an IRL-sociology lesson... and it's not even done well.

Props to Critical Drinker because as I was watching TLJ -- I was thinking ... oh it's Crimson Tide only stupid. got it.

[u/GonskyEdits]

The more I read threads on here, the more I realize how Poe vs Holdo was essentially the cinematic representation of eager lifelong Star Wars fans vs Lucasfilm CEO Kathy Kennedy. As Poe says, “I just want to know what’s going on” and “TELL US THAT THERE IS A PLAN.” But rather than play along, all Holdo can do is scold, emasculate, and belittle Poe for showing any sense of passion and eagerness for wanting to be clued in on the next move. “Stick to your post and follow my orders,” is essentially Kathy telling us, via the words of Rian Johnson, “Shut up and watch.” So basically TLJ was a Kathy Kennedy ego flex, in which Holdo represents her leading a charge of uncooperative UPFs (ultra-passionate fans -Mark Hamill).

[u/[deleted]]

Holdo doesn’t even look like a military leader but some fucking old woman in her art clothes. She would’ve been more cooler if she had armour that looked similar to the one senya from swtor wore