Death Star?

[The Doctor]

I'm deeply confused. At the end of RotS, we see the Death Star about half finished constuction. How then, did it take 20 years to complete?

 

Sorry if this has been answered already. I didn't see an answer anywhere.

[The Source]

I'm deeply confused. At the end of RotS, we see the Death Star about half finished constuction. How then, did it take 20 years to complete?

 

Sorry if this has been answered already. I didn't see an answer anywhere.

 

Hehehe... There are two Death Stars. Episode IV's Death Star was destroyed by Luke. Episode VI's Death Star was destroyed by the Rebels. In Episode IV, that version was complete. In Episode VI, that Death Star was new and underconstruction!

 

To make you more confused: Episode III's Death Star is Episode IV's... Hehehe...

 

 

Also, it was about 16 to 18 years in timeline between Episode III and Episode IV...

[The Doctor]

I know. I was asking how the death star at the end of Ep III was almost complete 20 years before ANH if they are the same one.

[The Source]

I know. I was asking how the death star at the end of Ep III was almost complete 20 years before ANH if they are the same one.

 

??? In Episode II, the Death Star was in blue print form... Therefore, one could conclude they started construction in between Episode II and III.

 

It didn't take 20 years to complete. If there is four years in between Episode II and III, and they are 50% done, then it took eight years to build...Aproximate guess...

[The Doctor]

At the end of RotS, we see the Death Star almost finished. If it's the same one as in ANH, how can it take 20 years to finish. It only became fully operational in ANH.

Read my posts more carefully, please.

[The Source]

At the end of RotS, we see the Death Star almost finished. If it's the same one as in ANH, how can it take 20 years to finish. It only became fully operational in ANH.

Read my posts more carefully, please.

 

Actually, you crossed Episode IV with Episode VI... In Episode VI, there were comments made about Death Star II.

[The Doctor]

Have you seen RotS? I will try to type in simple words:

At the end of the THIRD movie (in chronological order, not order of production), we see the Death Star almost fully built. It is the same on as in the FOURTH movie.

In the FOURTH movie, we are told that the Death Star has just reached completion.

How did it take 20 years (the gap between the THIRD and FOURTH movies) to finish construction.

The Death Star was built to be a weapon. The laser wasn't a "refit".

[Jeff]

How did it take 20 years (the gap between the THIRD and FOURTH movies) to finish construction.

It's really big?

[The Doctor]

It was 3/4 of the way finished in RotS. It couldn't have been hidden for 60 years to get to that point. It shouldn't have taken 20 years.

[Jeff]

I don't think it was 75% done in RotS. Maybe 50%...

[The Doctor]

Still, it shouldn't have taken that long to finish. If you're right and it was 50% done, then did it take 20 years to get it half way finished? It doesn't make sense.

[Jeff]

Well I'm sure the frame was the easiest part to get built. It probably got more complicated after that.

[coupes.]

It's far from being completed in RotS...

 

So it's very plausible it would have taken 10, 15 or even 20 more years to finish.

[Tanesh]

If you include the EU, perhaps it's the prototype mentioned in the "Jedi Academy" trilogy? If I remember correctly, it was only the "skeleton" with the laser.

Or they encountered some unexpected difficulties (sabotage?) during the construction ...

[Kurgan]

It's fine and dandy if it took 20 years to build. Hey, the thing's huge!

 

But then how do they explain why they can build a much BIGGER deathstar in a much shorter period (less than a year, between ESB and ROTJ)??

[Tanesh]

But then how do they explain why they can build a much BIGGER deathstar in a much shorter period (less than a year, between ESB and ROTJ)??

And that's why I think it could be a prototype (for testing the laser or something like that). Hey, there's almost always a prototype before you build the final product.

[Sabretooth]

I have this theory, but whoever forwards it to Lucas will get eternally flamed and scarred.

 

There might have been another trilogy between Ep3 and 4, where someone destroyed the DS. Another one was built and that too was boomed. Then the third was made and to cover up the whole issue, the Empire pretended that it's the first one.

 

Possible...

[Kurgan]

Only question is, why did they need to build the prototype so huge?

 

Continually blowing up the thing sounds corny, like just the sort of thing you'd see in some cheesy EU storyline.

[TK-8252]

I'd say it's pretty safe to assume that politics got in the way during construction. The "Rebel" Senators put up a fight in the Senate, petition to stop construction, do whatever they can to delay progress, you get the idea.

 

Then with the second Death Star, there's no one to slow them down anymore, with the Senate dissolved and all. So it only takes a few years.

[MachineCult]

There was 25% of Death Star in ROTS at most, you don't remember it very well Doctor.

[The Doctor]

I'm sorry, but that pic above is not the one I'm thinking of. I'm thinking of the one where Vader and Sidious are looking out through the bridge window at the Death Star. In that scene, the Death Star was at least 50% complete.

[MachineCult]

Nope, the Death Star looks even less complete in ROTS than the above picture. It was in the earliest stages of construction, it was merely a frame.

 

http://www.theforce.net/swtc/Pix/dvd/rots~/GW3.jpg

[Samurai DD]

Taking the EU into account, there are 3 Death Stars. The prototype frame with a crappy laser, it was made in a secret base by slave wookies and was smaller (I suppose that's the Ep. III one), the Ep. IV one, and finally the Ep. VI one, that was faster to build cause they already knew how and made it once.

 

Even if it is only the prototype at the end of RotS, or the frame of the final one, I'd say it's 15% done, maximum. It's only the frame, and I could bet the laser isn't operational.

[guybroom]

has anyone watched the dvd commentary yet? lucas says in it that it is kinda odd that it takes so long, but there are supply problems and union strikes and stuff like that. He was probably just joking, but it take straight from the mouth of george lucas himself.

 

also, i think that after you build one you know how its done, so it is plausable that the DS2 could have been built in only a few years. But i do like the idea of the prototype.

 

Hmmm, one last theory is that if anyone's played KOTOR2, then they will know that

 

the citadel station nearly falls out of orbit because of a lack of fuel.

perhaps if the rebels made the fuel shortages, then the DS could have the same problem and they need to rebuild.

 

It's kinda unlikly, but its a possibility. I bet there will be EU all over the place about why it took so long.

[Kurgan]

This definately changes the old EU explanation that it was built with slave labor (if not Wookiee slaves, then slaves from that prison planet that was destroyed as a "test" of the weapon's power after it was built). It's not like slave workers have much collective bargaining power, after all!

 

Personally I think Lucas just really wanted to put the Death Star into the prequels (he couldn't help himself in AOTC) but didn't really think the implications for the rest of the saga through. Oh well. We're stuck with it now.