What would of Happened if the mighty and brave Captain Kenda had made it back to the edge of the shield with Capa and continued the mission ?
Of course he would of been able to tell fantastic tales of what he saw but i also wonder, would he have been able to defeat the vicious and savage Pinbacker before he wreaked havoc aboard the Icarus 2 Ultimately ending any chance of its crew launching the payload safely and returning to earths orbit in an efficient and speedy manner ?
I wouldn't call him brave by any means. Not for his "sacrifice" anyway. Had they begun working on the furthest spot, working their way away from the light, it might have been successful. But instead you have martyr Kaneda taking his time and simply awaits death for a good while before it actually comes.
This wasn't a beautiful scene of a brave man sacrificing himself for the good of the crew. Seemed like more of a selfish man who might not be able to deal with what's ahead.
We've met before, haven't we?
I think Kaneda was brave and self-sacrificing. He made critical decisions rapidly; there was no time to think of another solution to the heat shield problem. And his self-sacrifice was especially apparent when he made Capa go back, thus saving Capa's life - and the mission. Kaneda was very clear-headed.
But as for whether he could have dealt with Pinbacker, why would he be any more capable than the rest of the crew? None of them knew what they were dealing with until it was too late. Speaking of which, I blame that on Capa. If he'd only taken a few seconds to speak to the others before he went into the observation room - just a quick, "Hey, guys, we've got a stowaway" - the whole plot would have changed.
Kaneda was a HORRIBLE ship's captain! His decisions (or rather, his lack of them) ended up costing the lives of everyone and nearly resulted in the mission's failure.
Think about it for a minute. He makes an ill-informed choice to turn over the decision to reroute Icarus 2. That single abdication of responsibility led to all the other catastrophic events. The only person who seem to have any common sense in that moment was Mace, who argued (correctly) that intercepting the Icarus 1 was not their mission but rather saving humanity. And what does freaking Kaneda do? He listens to the counsel of the most unstable person on the ship, the freaking ship psychologist and defers the decision to the ship's physicist. I liked the character of Capa but he should have never been placed in that predicament. Yet again, it all goes back to Kaneda for basically being a fool.