Super Star Destroyers, Executor Command Ships, Star Dreadnaughts and Bears Oh My!

Where shall I begin? There has been countless topics spent debating the size and the classification of that big ship that Vader uses in ESB and ROTJ, and these usually heated debates have become even worse with the introduction of the Inside the Classic Trilogy Worlds. Now, the following few paragraphs are my opinion on the hotly debated flagship of Lord Darth Vader, MY OPINION and not the hardline and absolute answer; I will explain why I consider Vader?s ship to be a 18 kilometer Super-class Star Destroyer.

1. The Classification Of Vader's Flagship In the Movies and Their Novelizations: Time To Load The Canon

The Executor made its debut in the Empire Strikes Back, which in the movie script itself (I glanced at one in Chapters) is referred to as a "Star Destroyer", one larger and more massive than the other Imperial Star Destroyers. Likewise, in the novelization, which is if not considered g canon is the closest c canon can come to g canon, refers to Vader's flagship as a Star Destroyer, as demonstrated in the following quotes:

"The mammoth Imperial Star Destroyer occupied a position of deadly prominence in the Emperor's fleet. The sleekly elongated ship was larger and even more ominous than the five wedge-shaped Imperial Star Destroyers guarding it." (41)

"Supreme confidence reigned in the heart of every crewmember in this Imperial death squadron, especially among the personnel on the monstrous Star Destroyer." (42)

?Inside the largest of the six Star Destroyers? (45)

Several other mentions of Vader?s flagship being a Star Destroyer, and my personal favorite, ?Admiral Piett approached Vader, who stood on the bridge of this, the greatest of all Star Destroyers, and stared out the windows? (207)

Keep in mind all of the preceding quotes were from Imperial point of views, not those of the heroes or other Rebels. I will come back to this.

In the Return of the Jedi novelization, once again if not g canon then highest of c canon,
Emperor Palpatine arrives in a ship which is referred to as a ?Super Star Destroyer? (55), once again from an Imperial perspective.

When the Rebel heroes arrive at Endor in their stolen shuttle, Vader, Piett and Controller Jhoff are on a Super Star Destroyer (79), yet in the next few paragraphs Han mentions how there are many command ships; yet, the ship that Luke and Hand and the rest are staring at is emphasized as being a Super Star Destroyer, implying that the SSD is serving as a command ship by directing traffic and the other ships over Endor, rather command ship being the official title of the ship. ?Construction on the Death Star proceeded. Traffic in the area was thick with transport ships, TIE fighters and equipment shuttles. Periodically the Super Star Destroyer orbited the area, surveying progress on the space station from every angle.
The bridge of the Star Destroyer was a hive of activity. Messengers ran back and forth along a string of controllers studying their tracking screens, monitoring ingress and egress of vehicles through the deflector shield. Codes were sent and received, orders given, diagrams plotted. It was an operation involving a thousand scurrying ships, and everything was proceeding with maximum efficiency, until Controller Jhoff made contact with a shuttle of the Lambda class approaching the shield from Sector Seven. (78-79). Thus I consider that the Super Star Destroyer Executor was serving as a command ship by directing the traffic of ships around the Death Star II, rather than command ship being its naval classification.

Later in the novelization, from an Imperial perspective, we have the ?flagship Super Star Destroyer? (144), and from Ackbar?s perspective, ?He was looking down onto the deck of Super Star Destroyer; only miles away.? (171-2)

From the movies themselves, the flagship of Vader in ESB and RoJ is referred to as a Star Destroyer (By Vader, by Leia, by Ackbar and by Lando), as a Super Star Destroyer (By Ackbar), and as a command ship (Han and Darth Sidious?Oops I mean Emperor Palpatine).

As for Palpatine calling the E

 

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Oh yeah, you want actual facts and or opinions here, sorry I forgot. Here's how big it is, it's freaking big! That's all we need to know!

 

Those movie books were written a loooong time ago, when EU terminology began and ended with what little they knew.

And just why should this Inside the Worlds of the Original Trilogy anomaly take precedence over two EGVVs and countless comics and books?

 

Here's how big it is, it's freaking big! That's all we need to know!

Agreed.

 

I've always been an advocate of Super Star Destroyer being a term that refers to all the Large Star Destroyer related command ships. eg. Executor Class, Eclipse, soveriegn, vengeance and possibly Giels SSD what ever that was called.

In other words the command ship at Endor was the Executor Class - Super Star Destroyer: Executor

Just my opinion of course

Another question is what is the Executor called - is it Executor pronounced 'Ecks ee cue tor' (meaning one who kills) or 'Egg zek you tor' (meaning one who commands). When I first read TTT I read it as one who kills but many sources seem to have it as one who commands - any opinions on this or am I just wrong

 

Also, it could be Executor as in one who accomplishes a specific task. Such as "execute my command". Not as impressive as the other two, especially for a ship such as that, but still a possibility.

Anyway, it is much more fun to describe the Lady Ex qualitatively than quantitatively, by which I mean that calling it a huge thingermajig to me is much more enjoyable than calling it a 17.6km Command Ship or somesuch descriptor.

 

"Another question is what is the Executor called - is it Executor pronounced 'Ecks ee cue tor' (meaning one who kills) or 'Egg zek you tor' (meaning one who commands). When I first read TTT I read it as one who kills but many sources seem to have it as one who commands - any opinions on this or am I just wrong"

It would be pronounced 'Egg zek you tor'. 'Ecks ee cue tor' isn't actually a word. An Executioner is one who kills.

 

In my mind, the Super-class Star Destroyer is now the one of the Lusankya, the Iron Fist, the Knight Hammer: all the ones that are still 8km long

Though the idea of Vader commissioning an entire new class of ship of which he has the only example appeals to me.

 

I've always been an advocate of Super Star Destroyer being a term that refers to all the Large Star Destroyer related command ships. eg. Executor Class, Eclipse, soveriegn, vengeance and possibly Giels SSD what ever that was called.

In other words the command ship at Endor was the Executor Class - Super Star Destroyer: Executor

Same here, especially since they flat out call the Avenger in DE a Super Star Destroyer and its structure is markedly different from ships of the Executer class.

And finally, which sounds cooler:

Shuper shtar distryer*shlobber*

or

Executer class Star Destroyer, biatch.

 

Super Star Destroyer would be suitable to describe a series of starships bearing the familiar angular profile, not to describe the classification of the starship.

 

Watch out, this thread may become ground zero to quite a heated debate...

*runs and hides*

 

I prefer the Star Wars-style term 'Super Star Destroyer' to the Earth-naval-style Executor-class Star Dreadnaught (which I can't, can you?, imagine being spoken in a Star Wars film). TIEDefenderPilot's point that the screenplay and novelization call it a kind of Star Destroyer is a good one, though I can believe *someone* in the Empire calls it the latter name, and don't particularly mind it seeing print.

Does anyone think, given that Episode IV drafts refer to starfighter-size 'stardestroyers' and that the scripts call the Executor a Star Destroyer too, that George Lucas actually meant 'destroyer' here to refer to the Earth naval term? It seems vanishingly unlikely to me. It isn't the EU's job -- or Lucas Licensing's usual policy -- to not just supplement but outright substitute a different meaning (and inferences based on it like Star Cruisers which we've somehow never seen in movies or EU).

 

Some volcanoes never stay dead...

 

Um, the "SSD" in Dark Empire was the Allegiance, and it's the Executor, not Executer. There is no such word as Executer, it's a common misconception from the word execute; one who executes would be a executioner.

 

And just why should this Inside the Worlds of the Original Trilogy anomaly take precedence over two EGVVs and countless comics and books?

Because unlike the EGVVs and countless comics and books, (which cut and pasted 17 years of West End Games incorrect stats) the "Inside the Worlds of the Star Wars Trilogy" is a properly researched book, considered "definitive" by LFL, just like the other properly and professionally researched DK books on Star Wars.

The Star Dreadnaught nomenclature for the Executor
(funny, that name doesn't appear in any of the movies, the novelizations....) is officially sanctioned by LFL. If it wasn't, it wouldn't be in the book. QED.

 

Yet Super Star Destroyer has been in dozens of books sanctioned by LFL; funny that, no?

 

While I don't tend to lose blood vessels like some others over new designations, you might also notice LFL and the SW continuity in general let the stain of the 8km Executor last for a decade, then shamelessly did a compromise change which they again accepted without a thought. That's only the most prominent of many other WEG errors which was allowed to live for far too long.

 

So, perhaps in this case, the Class is "Executor-class (Super) Star Destroyer" and the Type is "Star Dreadnought"?

As I said before, maybe star destroyer denotes a series of starships that bare the similar features. Like the iPod has several models but all the same name.

 

Um, the "SSD" in Dark Empire was the Allegiance, and it's the Executor, not Executer. There is no such word as Executer, it's a common misconception from the word execute; one who executes would be a executioner.

Ooo, looks like I made a few booboos. My bad, because of my spelling errors and lack of name recolection my entire arguement about the class of the Executor is rendered null and void. I guess I have to concede the arguement now and go on calling the Executor a Super-class Star Destroyer, however moronic and nonsensical that sounds.



Or not. Address the points, don't nitpick the spelling errors.

 

Well.....

Perhaps the Executor was originally classified a Super Star Destroyer as Ackbar called it in RotJ. Then, it was changed to Executor-class Super Star Destroyer when the Eclipse-class Super Star Destroyer and Sovereign-class Super Star Destroyer were brought into service.

As for the SSD's size, I'd say 8 kilometers long. No reason for it other than I think anything more would be silly, and take away from the sheer waste brought about by the Eclipse and Sovereign.

 

As for the SSD's size, I'd say 8 kilometers long. No reason for it other than I think anything more would be silly, and take away from the sheer waste brought about by the Eclipse and Sovereign.

1) Why would anything more be particularly silly?
2) Even with a 11 mile long Executor, the Eclipse and Sovereign still would use up more material due to their sheer bulk.
3) Why do your ideas of "silliness" and "waste" override the canon size? Or even the latest EU size?