posted
Anyone else find it a little curious that (given the spoiler) it took the Empire some twenty years to build the Death Star, and only three years to get its replacement to operational status? I'm assuming that they wouldn't have the facilities and raw materials sitting around waiting to start constructing a new Death Star on a moment's notice; after all, given the fact that everyone in ANH seemed to accept the first one as the "ultimate weapon", why would you need to be building another one at all? Not to mention the fact that if I was as paranoid as the Emperor, I certainly wouldn't want a fleet of planet-killing weapons around that could conceivably be used to unseat me.
-------------------- The difference between genius and idiocy? Genius has its limits.
Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
Maybe there was a lot of trial and error with the first one?
"Try the big laser now!"
*BANG*
"Didn't work properly. And we've just destroyed the shipyards too. It'll take a year to repair them."
"Damnit, that's the 16th time that's happened!"
And so on, but in a much more amusing manner. Honest.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
The pre-empire had to feed all those construction workers: that cost alone wouldve been noticed if they built the Death Star any faster.
Whereas second Death Star had an unlimited supply of Ewok rations.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
How long had Palpatine been incharge by the time of ANH? Fully-fledged control of "The Empire" would have made it easier to build compared with having other distractions like... Jedi running around, Resistance factions, trying to take control of the Republic etc.
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
Except, as Woodside Kid pointed out, why would you bother building a second if the first was suppossed to be your "ULTIMATE WEAPON"?
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I'm starting to wonder why the emperor even built a death star at all. A single Star Destroyer can slag an entire planet within, what, three days? And the empire had a few thousand? I don't think the Death Star was intended as a strategic weapon so much as it was an expression of the emperor's paranoia. So long as he's on Coruscant, some admiral could fry him from orbit and for all his force powers he couldn't stop them. But on something like the Death Star, he's effectively unkillable. ESPECIALLY if he's on the second one with off-axis firing capability. Maybe that was the new tech that came along that convinced him to build a second.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Omega: I'm starting to wonder why the emperor even built a death star at all. A single Star Destroyer can slag an entire planet within, what, three days?
Sorry to go all anti-expanded universe, but...based on what?
I think it wasn't an expression of his paranoia. Rather, I think it showed his complete confidence and arrogance. He didn't need the Death Star. But he could build a weapon of unimaginable desructive power, so he was going to. To show that he was Just That Awesome.
Also, it meant that he would be as powerful technologically as he was with the Force, if that means anything.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Sorry to go all anti-expanded universe, but...based on what?
Well, the concept of BDZ is based on the EU, but analysis of TESB's asteroid field would, FYI, indicate absolutely massive firepower on ISDs. Thus it's likely they could quickly frag a planet, QED.
-SWC, Ph.D, KBE, 123
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I don't think the phrase "analysis of TESB's asteroid scene" can be said without Guardian 2000 charging in, sirens blazing.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
The Death Star was built to inspire fear in the systems controlled by the empire. sure a star destroyer may be able to frag an entire planet in the days. but the death star could come into the system, and people would be terrified of this gigantic battlestation that has the power to blast your planet into little bitty pieces in a fraction of a second. Also it would be invulnerable to planetary defenses, whereas an ISD might be taken out by a planetary turbolaser or Ion cannon as in ESB.
but the Death star was mostly built for it's value as a psychological weapon. Both to terrify people and remind them of the power of the Empire.
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
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