Okay, so Luke comes along at the last minute, he’s the newest pilot in the fleet, and the leadership don’t know his abilities. There’s even a scene where one of the commanders asks if he can handle the X-wing.
So why is he Red 5? There’s at least a Red 6 - shouldn’t Luke be the highest number as the last entry?
Also, related question, when they are setting up for Death Star trench runs at the end, why is Luke selected for the final run and not one of the other remaining pilots? Because he could fly Beggar’s Canyon? How would that matter to anyone? Is that where Biggs did some persuading prior to the mission?
I don’t know that the numbers are necessarily assigned in order of seniority. It’s equally odd that a ragtag rebellion would have a fully functioning X-Wing just sitting around ready for Luke to hop into it. I think those two facts counteract each other; the number (for data and tracking purposes) is assigned to the ship, and the regular pilot of Red 5 wasn’t around that day. I figure he was probably best man at his brother’s wedding, or something.
Plus, there were probably other pilots who joined at the same time that he did. Maybe they judged that the guy who became Red 6 had a little less experience, or maybe the assignment of numbers to recruits of equal seniority was arbitrary.
Everyone they had was selected for that run. But most didn’t survive (due, presumably, to not using the Force).
I think pilots get attached to their callsigns, so they gave Luke an open callsign, rather than reshuffle the existing ones for seniority or some other ranking.
In the novelization of the 1977 movie (officially written by Goerge Lucas, but most likely ghost-written by Alan Dean Foster), the X-wing fighters are blue squadron, not red squadron. Luke’s call sign is Blue Five.
The most likely reason: It was originally going to be Blue Five, but the special effects shots were done against blue screens, and with blue decals on their wings it was impossible to film the X-wing fighters in such a way that you didn’t see the background (stars, death star surface, etc.) showing through the decals. So, they had to change it to another color, and they chose red.
When they do they roll call, why don’t they do it in order? Shouldn’t they go “Red One Standing by”. Red Two, standing by." "red three, sta… you get the idea. Easier to check them off if they broadcast in order. Is someone back at rebel base keeping a checklist?
If you folks hope to be Star Wars Fanboi Rebels, you need to practice your needlessly-complex rationales for every detail of the (non-prequel) films.
What many people who’ve never flown an X-Wing don’t realize, is that each craft has a custom tape player smack dab in the middle of the dashboard. This is the work of Anzelmo Pedrazti, the “Beatmaster of Spøldng 4”. Every time he installed a tape deck, he crafted a custom brushed-titanium face plate, with a decal designed by his art student girlfriend Matzi Sztark. She was fond of using a different color on each plate (often, colors that hadn’t been invented yet – keep in mind, “A long time ago…”). Well, it was inevitable that the X-Wings whose colors were close to each other on the color wheel would pal around together. Pretty soon, the “reddish” craft formed a squadron, and were revered as one of the most effective, albeit a bit rogue-ish one.
Now, as to the designation Red Five… Lucas thought it sounded cool. No, no, that can’t be it… it’s actually predicated on the fact that as a squadron lines up, the most crucial positions are taken by the prime numbers that wouldn’t be used in a good cribbage hand. So Red Two is the most critical X-Wing, and Red Five, being paired up with Red Ten in cribbage, is a minor position. Perfect for a farm boy who never actually grew anything…
(…once Pedrin Gaul* was done using it)
*reference to actual fanboi “needlessly-complex rationale for every detail”… look him up.
They probably had extra X-wings. It’s probably easier to build an X-wing than to train a pilot. Any time a pilot is out with an injury, there’s an open X-wing. Plus, they may have extras so they can rotate them. If a ship gets shot, but the pilot manages to bring it back to base, they want another ship for him to hop into. Luke used one of the stand-by ships.
Given that the Rebels got the designs from some defectors from Incom (the original manufacturer, which was “Imperialized”) I think it’s safe to say they’re not getting them from the original factory anymore. They have more secret facilities or backdoor sources like the Mon Calamari orthose guys building B-Wings in Rebels.
In the SW universe, X-Wings are made by a corporation called Incom. A spaceship isn’t something you just slap together. They have to be made somewhere; the SW galaxy is a really big place, big enough to hide a factory, especially given that it’s made pretty clear that the outer rim of the galaxy is not especially well controlled by the governing power of the day.
Somewhat accidentally, the fact the Empire uses the TIE fighter and the Rebels use the much bigger, heavier, hyperspace-capable X-Wing kinda makes sense. The Empire doesn’t really desperately need big starfighters when they’re everywhere. Conversely, the Rebels’ limited numbers means a hyperspace-capable fighter is a logical weapon. In Star Wars, hyperspace is usually untraceable and a total escape, so having hyperspace fighters means the Rebels can jump somewhere lightly defended, blow it to smithereens, and jump away to safety.
The thing is, that makes it even more illogical that they stuck Luke in one. They don’t have a zillion fighters. I know Luke is supposedly a good pilot but, seriously, they’ve NEVER met this guy before, ever. Not one person on Yavin has known him for longer than two days. Who the fuck is he? Never mind the “not enough pilots” excuse; he could be an Imperial agent for all anyone knows. It would make far more sense to simply have no one at all fly Red 5; if Luke’s working for Darth Vader he could screw up the attack before it gets to the Death Star at all. It would be like some kid showing up at an airfield in southern England in August 1940 saying “I was a good pilot back home” and they give him a Spitfire without even looking into who he is.
I mean, the movie still works, largely because they zip past this so quickly and as the viewer, since you know Luke’s a good guy, you don’t think much about it.
One of the leaders of the Rebellion had the hots for him.
Also, Biggs vouches for him.
Also, I think we’re overlooking the fact that if Luke* really wanted* to pilot an X-Wing, people were probably going to let him for … mysterious reasons waves hand Probably unconsciously. Probably.
Incom also made the T-16 Skyhopper, which Luke flew back on Tatooine and used to kill womprats. Its cockpit layout was similar enough to the X-wing that it was an easy fit for Luke. Remember that model spaceship Luke was playing with when he was talking to C-3PO? That was a Skyhopper.
There was also a deleted scene where Red Leader claims to have met his father once (one wonders if that was before or after his father murdered a bunch of children and put on the black suit–probably before. Maybe).
The question I always had was why was Luke given command of that final trench run. It’s not just that everybody they had left made that attack–Red Leader explicitly puts Luke in charge. Wedge even starts calling him “Boss.” Really? The new guy?
The only logical explanation is that Luke’s ability to bulls-eye womp rats is just that impressive.
