Quote Originally Posted by VoxRationis View Post
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I see these suggestions that the bombers are, in fact, repurposed minelayers or anti-surface bombers. I think the minelayer explanation makes more sense because the Resistance would have little reason to invest any resources in a vehicle that only carpet-bombs surface targets with gravity bombs. Nonetheless, I think we can't credit the movie for thinking like this because no one ever mentions it. Poe gets in trouble for pressing the attack with the bombers, even though it was absolutely the right thing to do. They would never get a better opportunity to use them because the bomber design is so terrible that even in an optimal use case (a single capital ship, outside the range of its fellows' supporting fire, has had its surface cannons disabled and has delayed launching its fighters, preventing them from establishing a screen far enough in advance of the ship), they suffer 100% casualties and very nearly fail the mission. If the idea was that these "bombers" were non-combat vehicles being used outside of their intended purpose, likely at Poe's urging, a) blaming Poe would make more sense, and b) Leia or someone else would mention it: "That minelayer squadron could have kept a First Order flotilla stuck in port for a month if you hadn't rammed them headfirst into the enemy." But such a thing is never said, and every character seems to agree that this frontal attack on capital ships is what the bombers are supposed to be doing, but that this wasn't the time to be doing it. I can only conclude that the writers prioritized getting the cinematic shots they wanted (of rank on rank of bombs plunging out of the open belly of a spacecraft) over actually thinking whether the spacecraft in those shots made sense.
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My working theory is no one knows what the ships are for. They found them, or had them donated, or stole them, and decided to load them up with bombs. Maybe they think they *are* supposed to be bombers, and the poor performance simply proves Poe used them poorly in their minds. These are basically the last single pilot ships they have, all we can conclude is they did not save the best for last.