.Mac. said:

I can understand what you mean Muddy, how it seems like the Rebel troops were still hopelessly plugging away at the end and dying for no reason... but for me that IS what works perfectly from a visual storytelling standpoint... it emphasizes how outmatched the Rebels were to the Imperials and yet they desperately did ANYTHING they could to try to stop/delay the behemoth walkers...

We'll have to agree to disagree then. I totally get that the battle is supposed to feel hopeless. It's supposed to end in defeat for the rebs, but as it stands now the battle isn't hopeless......it's pointless. As a commander you don't send your troops out to certain death if there is absolutely zero to be gained from it (you hold them back to fight another day when you might actually have an effect). They're sent out as a delaying action....but none occurs. If they could have slowed them down even a little then there might have been SOME point in sending them out.....but the walkers are completely unaffected by the ground troops and get within range of the shield generator in exactly the same amount of time they would have had there not been ANY ground troops. I think the film fails on this visual level in that it showed a very one sided battle. We have all kinds of shots of ground troops firing away....but they've nothing to shoot at, as their weapons are completely ineffectual (something they'd have discovered VERY early on in the fight, and a point which is driven home when Luke says that even the snowspeeder's weapons are not strong enough).

And having enemy ground troops would actually have enhanced the hopelessness of the battle.....take out as many of them as you like, those lumbering behemoths towering above them are still coming at you and there's nothing you can do about it. You've done the best you can do, and yet you're still going to fail.