CT Was the Emperor's "trap" the only way the Second Death Star could ever be destroyed?

Short of another two-meter miracle shot, I don't see another way a fully-operational Death Star could ever be destroyed. It seemed like the Emperor, who had waited decades to form such a strong position, suddenly grew impatient and by revealing the plans and location of the Death Star, seemingly ruined his whole Empire.

 

The "two-meter shot" was made impossible with the 2nd Death Star - instead of big exhaust ports, it had thousands of microports.

It would have been pretty much impossible to destroy via external attack with Rebel resources - they would have had to somehow sabotage it.

 

"Your overconfidence is your weakness".

 

At least- that was the impression I got from material about the 2nd Death Star.

It could have been destroyed with another superweapon - but the Rebels aren't exactly in the business of building superweapons.

 

If it hadn't been for C-3PO and the Ewoks, I doubt that the Rebels would have succeeded in blowing up the shield generator, but since Palpatine didn't foresee this, that line pretty much sums it up.

 

Would a superweapon have destroyed it?

Palpatine had a plan in mind if the shield generator went down: destroy the Forest Moon. If he wasn't fussed by a planet exploding right next to the Death Star, he might expect it to stand up to any external threat.
He probably should have had the superstructure entry points blocked off though, or had some of his pilots test if was possible to navigate through that stuff.

 

If the shield generator went down, the destruction of the Forest Moon wouldn't have affected Lando and Wedge - they'd still have flown in and blown the thing up. So, except for Han, Leia, Chewie and the droids being blown to dust, everything else would've pretty much played out in the same way.

Blocking the superstructure points would've been a good idea, though.

 

Vader could have also just had the Executor grab the rebel strike team with the tractor beam instead of letting them land.
"Lead them to me. I will deal with them myself."
"Actually, let them all land, and I'll go down and find them. Or maybe they'll surrender after they're down there."

There's also the thing with the Emperor not allowing the whole Imperial fleet to attack just because he had an operational Death Star weapon.
I'm sure Luke would have been just as demoralized if he just used an `all of the above` strategy and smashed the alliance with everything available to him.

But this is why Empire Strikes Back is so glorious. It's writing had none of these problems until Lucas tinkered with it, and even then, they're tolerable ones.

 

If something can be built, it can be destroyed.

 

Well, in all fairness letting the strike team land on Endor was necessary. If he just took them all out or captured them instantly, the rest of the fleet would not have come. The point was to draw them all there and then blast them. That would not have happened if Han's team failed instantly.

Not letting the entire Imperial fleet attack, that is silly. But that's just Palpatine's overconfidence and desire to play with his enemies and his new weapon. Still, a stupid decision.

 

In the ANH Infinities comic, Yoda commandeers the first Death Star (Luke wasn't able to destroy it in this version of the tale), and crashes it onto the surface of Coruscant, obliterating both. I would assume the same could be done with the DSII, or just set its hyperspace coordinates into a black hole or a star.

 

Your faith in your friends is yours.

 

If the Death Star had been finished, the same weaknesses would have been eliminated. Course, said weakness could only be exploited because of a Jedi Padawan using the Force to make the shot. If Luke was killed or turned, that would be the end of it.