Krennic should've known Jyn was a girl
When Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) first pays his fated recruiting visit to Galen (Mads Mikkelsen) and Lyra Erso's (Valene Kane) rural hideaway, he makes a comment about the fact that the pair have a child together and to find "it"—no physical descriptions or gender mentions to aid her would-be captors in their search.
As much as we might like to think he's just being too woke to identify her by her gender, we're talking about the bad guy here. Plus, Galen only pretends Lyra's dead to fool Krennic, as though he might slip his daughter through the cracks without anyone noticing. But as Jyn's later flashback shows, Krennic has been in her presence before, when they were on a ship together and Galen was tucking her into bed with promises to always take care of her.
Lyra's death didn't need to happenWhen Jyn (Felicity Jones) returns home with news of the impending ship's arrival, both her parents are already two steps ahead, packing their stuff and phoning Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) to let him know they've got company. Saw tells them that they "know what to do," which entails Galen going out and pretending no one else is home while his wife and daughter scurry out to a hiding spot. But Lyra breaks the plan before it even begins and pulls a blaster on Krennic in a last-ditch attempt to keep him from taking Galen.
Was this part of their plan? There wasn't any chance of her single-handedly defeating Krennic and his crew, so aside from blind desperation, it's hard to understand what motivated Lyra—especially since she had to know she was dooming her daughter to a life without both of her parents. That cave bunker was surely big enough for two, and Jyn might've had a much better shot a life with at least her mother around. Lyra's death upped the emotional stakes, but there were plenty of more sensible ways to give Jyn reasons for hating the Empire.
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January 15, 2017