Bret Devereaux

Hmmm. I'm trying to think if there has been one (that tops RotJ) -- probably not? (You could argue for some anime but that feels like an entirely different genre of thing.)https://twitter.com/scottlynch78/status/1384658568767492100 …

Not necessarily superior, but the Battle of New Caprica from Battlestar Galactica, the Battle of Scarif from Rogue One, the Battle at Thoth Station from the Expanse, and the unnamed battle in S5E10 from the Expanse join the Battle of Endor on a short list of best on screen.

Endor may well be a in a class of its own in terms of how many moving parts it has while still being readable, but a few others match it in stakes and beat it in tactical complexity (Endor is great but it's also mostly just two lines of battle slugging it out).

OT Star Wars owes its aesthetic to WWII war films, wherein capital weapons' range massively dwarfs the ships tactical speed. I'd argue that they achieved the effect they were going for there, as a result. I should probably go back and re-watch it sometime, though.

SW is essentially Age of Fighting Sail for the capital ships plus WWII fighters

Fascinatingly, on watching the cleaned up cut of the Endor battle that @BretDevereaux linked in a different part of his thread, I don't think you actually see the capital ships exchange fire, despite people talking like they're doing so.

I think that's SFX limitations. They TALK as though they're exchanging fire but what we can see is restricted.

That makes sense. Drawing the shots on for anything other than fighter POV would have been a ton of work. Similarly, it occurs to me that Age of Sail close combat frames better on camera than the more widely-spaced action you get from large engagements with dreadnought designs.