the lone ship flying in a straight line (like in a trench)
Hahaha, I’m almost willing to concede that you have a point (I don’t really care about this kind of stuff, I like TFA and it’s much more obvious about it) but this is ridiculous.
What’s ridiculous? Think about it a bit more Frink. I’m not saying that flying in a straight line equates to flying in a trench but why is he flying directly into the beam of this weapon about to fire? He can see parts of his ship are melting and at the rate witnessed you would not expect the ship to survive even reaching the weapon, yet he doesn’t move out of the beam to fly alongside it and still aim to crash into the centre of the weapon. He’s not weaving at all to avoid enemy fire from the walkers or TIEs (which is oddly and conveniently missing at this stage). For some odd reason he’s locked into this straight path directly towards the opening of the weapon, much like the exhaust port on the Death Star, so for all intensive purposes he might as well be traveling down a trench.
Totally unrealistic and lacking in sense? Absolutely. If the nearly impenetrable door is being melted hundreds of meters away, it is total idiocy to be in the beam for a long period of time close up. But I chalk that up to dramatic effect.
While it is possible they had the DS trench in mind, it is also possible they did not. There’s really nothing to argue except that it is possible. I think it is very different, and more akin to Randy Quaid flying into a spaceship or the Hulk flying into a portal. It’s a trope we see in many different movies.
I agree that at first I had attributed the scene to that same particular trope but after looking at it in a new light of realisation I am sure this is Luke’s final trench run recycled for this scene, or at least parts of it and the Falcon coming to the rescue out of no where. We just needed Rey to shout over the radio “You’re all clear Finn. Now let’s blow this thing and go home!” and there would be no doubt about it 😉