ST What Would You Do To Replace Starkiller Base?

And orbiting Death Star moons.

 

Y'all need to think big! NuDethStarr will be the size of the galaxy!

 

And this time, have some hand rails. I did not expect them to replicate that aspect from the OT...

FO should not need to replace the weapon... There should now be a power vacuum where FO and criminal elements are taking charge. Would be interesting to see if the Hutts rise up in 8 along with others to make things much more difficult to find help or the good guys have to make some unhealthy alliances.

 

If Disney believes that's the path to profitably for movie 10, then yes, we will watch the good guys lose. It'll be just like the PT. Almost rhymes in a way.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't put money on that bet.

 

Even the first page of this thread has better ideas than the blatant DS ripoff. I like the metaphor with light and darkness, though. But, to provide an alternative that is more creative than DS3, why not have a quite big fleet with some new, very big ships and, floating through space nearby, some kind of lenses (in some kind of pole or ring, for example) that are carried through space by remote control, tractor beams or people aboard the vehicles that carry the lenses. The new big ships would defend themselves with TIE fighters swarming from them while doing what they can do best: Fire at the lenses which combine the firepower of the ships and direct them towards planets. So instead of a DS a fleet with lenses that is more mobile and thus more dangerous than the stationary DS.

Funny, had a similar idea some days ago: What if the SO could steer a black hole and navigate it right into a star system? But then I thought: As frightening as this is, does this fit in SW, or does it come off too Sci fi like something from Babylon 5 or something?

 

Please excuse the double post, a noob error. Wish I could delete this unnecessary post.

 

They could have come up with a super powerful small weapon in a ship that has to get in close to strike.

 

Just have SKB be just a base. No super weapon. Basically the FO still needs to be in hiding as they gather strength to be bale to take on the NR at some point.

The resistance has to find them before they get too strong.

The third act would be the FO launching a deadly strike against the NR capital and simultaneously the Ben,Finn,Rey and Han adventure on SKB.

This movie would have the NR capital destroyed but the SKB also being damaged.

Now the Resistance needs to find Luke, if he's even still alive. They don't know.

 

I forgot too, I really liked the World Devastators from Dark Empire. The only problem is those used a master control signal like the Separatist droid ships.

 

Of course the attack on SKB has elements of both SW and Jedi, but in addition you have the whole countdown thing going on like they had on Yavin. This could have been cut out, basically remove the fact that SKB is going to destroy the resistance base.

So for me they could keep the resistance attack on SKB, but they are doing it to destroy the weapon after it was used to destroy the republic earlier in the film. Whilst at the same time they are going in there to retrieve Rey.

 

Anything but a giant planet destroying ball that can be blown up by X-Wings,Please

 

I would have replaced the Battle at Starkiller Base with a "Battle of Hosnian Prime" wherein the First Order reveals its military might and enormous fleet (with the Finalizer being its flagship). The planet could be left in ruins and the senate destroyed, and all on-the-ground events i.e., Rey's interrogation, escape, Han and Kylo's confrontation/Finn + Rey v. Kylo could have occurred on Finalizer. It would have also made sense that Finn knew his way around that ship as he was stationed there and we previously saw him aboard it. Furthermore, it would make sense that post Poe's rescue he informed Leia et al about the new fleet and danger, as opposed to a one-off line from a pilot who "followed" the FO to SKB.

SKB was really my only "real" grievance with the film, but it certainly didn't ruin it for me.

 

I was ok with Starkiller Base but found it innecessary to destroy it and the entire planet.

I didn't really like that it had to "eat" an entire star to obtain energy, I thought it could be just as impressive had it gotten its power from the star without eliminating the star.

I thought Poe and the X-Wings could've just disabled the station to the point it was inoperable and had to be abandoned. Perhaps it could've been reused as a base of operations or rearmed as a weapon down the line. Destroying the whole planet seemed like overkill and redundant.


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Have a Starkiller fleet instead of an entire planetary super weapon.

The SKB would still exist but not the weapon. Instead, they would covertly be building a fleet.

This fleet hops out of hyperspace and has a killer strike mentality. They are a quick strike force. They cannot stay for long though and have a knock down drag out battle. Not ready for that yet.

So they strike fear in a section of the new republic.

But it's so quick and the destruction is so complete, the New Republic government doesn't completely believe it is a fanatical offshoot of the Empire.

But Leia senses that's who and what is behind it. She resigns her commission in the Senate and becomes a full time leader of the Resistance by the middle of the film.

This culminates in a strike against Hosnian Prime where the NR government finally does respond to a First Order feigned attack on Takadona. They hit Hosnian Prime instead and take out the capital with high yield nukes.

The finale of the film would be an attack against SKB. The Resistance destroys the base but the fleet escapes to fight another day.

 

I know it was a debunked rumour, but a Republic superweapon (justified as a deterrent against a growing Imperial resurgence) seems like a such a missed opportunity to me.

It would be tangible evidence that a new Republic actually existed and made a mark on the galaxy (something which TFA refused to acknowledge) and raise some interesting moral questions for the film to deal with. It would provide a much more logical explanation for the existence The Resistance, as a force made up of Civil War veterans and Leia in particular would of course be in huge opposition to this thing.

A finale where an underdog First Order exploits a weakness in the superweapon, the resistance fleet fighting to prevent the loss of thousands of innocent lives while heroes on the ground try to covertly stop it being fired? That's probably dumb, but something like that. And maybe it's not as fun, but a Star Wars film where they're trying to STOP something blowing up might be nice.

 

Hmmm, it will be interesting to keep Starkiller as what it's name is - a physical BASE where the FO stations their impressively massive fleet, including several orbiting Star Destroyers and thousands of TIE Fighters... And send them out on a devastating mission via Hyperdrive to wipe out the New Republic government on Hosnian Prime, without the enemy ever knowing when the FO will attack... Now that's the ultimate type of sneak attack, I must say!

All this while keeping the main planet virtually intact, save for massive destruction of the Hosnian cities and millions of citizens (including most of the Senate members) killed, with the remainder either in hiding or captured by the FO.

So there's actually no need for the SKB to physically destroy FIVE planets but just use this primitive, yet more "environmentally-friendly" way to control what used to be the seat of the Republic and turn the tide in the FO's favor!


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There's one problem, for me. Not one idea proposed in this thread, IMO, is as visually interesting as a living planet with a star-eating superweapon built into it. I'm sure there are some concepts that could be more interesting, from a visual perspective, but I haven't heard one yet.

 

I saw TFA again today and you know the only thing I think would have been better with StarKiller base is that it should not have been destroyed. Simply disabling the weapon as discussed in the resistance briefing would have been better and the constant fear of it being rebuilt. Its kind of like the FO need a home world that is defendable as we are left thinking they have nothing.

 

BLASPHEMER!!!

 

I get the impression (from only the movie, I haven't read the book or any other non-movie related media) that SKB was always intended to be a non-permanent device, lasting just long enough to eliminate the Republic's limited military capacity. When Huxley reports to Gollum Snookums that the storage cells have ruptured, no one seems surprised by it.

Also, the planet is icy in a way that doesn't seem natural (although the trees are conifers normally found in cold-weather environs), I wonder if the first blast had been charged by partially reducing the sun in that system, thus lowering the planet's incoming warmth. The second shot depleted the sun entirely and thus rendered SKB useless.

They only really seemed to need two shots from it anyway, one to wipe out the seat of government and the other to wipe out the resistance, thereby clearing the way for them to move in and take over.

I wonder if the Finalizer is the only SSD they have? In the first image of SKB, I counted 5 regular SDs in orbit, so the FO does have a fleet of regular SDs. Given the poor state of military readiness in the Republic, one SD per rebellious planet should be enough to maintain order, with a few Finalizer-class SSDs on call for the more pestiferous places.

That said, the idea of one Super Gun is an old Nazi-era invention, so SKB isn't that far-fetched.

 

not replace it at all. it was unique enough. just wish it wouldnt have been destroyed till episode 9 because it was so damn cool

 

I find the biggest plot hole in the movie to be that neither the Republic or the Resistance knew about the Starkiller base before it fired. That thing would have needed massive resources and taken decades to build. The DS1 and DS2 were built faster but they were built not by a Remnant of the Empire but by the Empire in its prime and they were much smaller and they were public knowledge.

I would therefore make SKB be an an ancient doomsday device, built by a long-forgotten civilization thousands of years ago. The First Order would have somehow discovered its existence and made it operational in secret.
The "Base" would consist of buildings on the surface in key places.

But as a Doomsday Device, it was never meant to be used more than once. It would draw its energy from the core of its own planet, destroying it in the process. Instead of sucking its own star, it would be a weapon to destroy a star over a hyperspace distance.
Instead of firing and then being attacked by the Resistance, I would make it so that the Resistance would find out about it (from Finn) and launch an attack right away ... but the Resistance would fail to destroy the base before the weapon fires on the Sun of the Hosnian system turning it into a supernova.

 

Very interesting thread. I agree with much of what was written above. As a WMD, the Starkiller Base was unnecessary. The First Order didn't need a huge weapon like this (nor could they afford one).

I like some of the ideas others already put forth. A FO strike force sent to Hosnian Prime to destroy the New Republic leadership would be a great visual, and it would make sense to the viewing audience. It would be like a terrorist cell attacking a seat of government. Picture FO operatives bursting into the Senate Chambers while the Chancellor is addressing them, detonating a bomb to create a huge power vacuum and mass chaos and terror in the NR.

I also like the idea of a race to Luke being the climax. Throughout the movie, we know that both sides have some info about where Luke is hiding. Maybe they both find the missing piece at the same time and set out to capture/rescue Luke (FO from Kylo penetrating Rey's mind, NR from Artoo suddenly waking up). The two opposing fleets arrive and a massive space battle ensues. There would be real tension here, because you could easily see either side securing Luke first. During the battle, Leia's force sensitivity alerts her to Rey's presence on one of the ships. She calls Han and Finn (who is a gunner, and is explained to have had that duty on the FO ships when not detached for ground missions, rather than being a janitor...) on the Falcon and they go to try to rescue Rey, face Kylo, and Han sacrifices himself to save the others so they could get to Luke first.

During that showdown, Kylo is injured, but he races off after Rey anyway. Rey pilots the Falcon to near Luke's location on the planet, she and Finn survive a firefight with FO troops and a lightsaber duel with Kylo that is interrupted when Luke appears. Luke and Kylo stand there, facing each other in a silence that is filled with meaning, until a nearby explosion from a crashing TIE breaks the spell and pushes Kylo away. Rey and Finn just barely manage to get Luke away into the Falcon, off the planet, and into hyperspace, a half step ahead of the FO's TIEs.

All the main character development story points are preserved. We get cool visuals. We get a story that makes sense (how could anyone build a planet weapon in secret, how could the FO afford it, how does SKB work does it really destroy the star it is orbiting, how does the weapon aim if it's built into a planet, etc). We know that the FO survives mostly intact, having only lost a few ships rather than their entire base and most of their troops, so they will still be the bad guys in the next movie. And we avoid having a huge and deadly weapon that is treated as a joke by the characters and filmmakers. Wins all around.

 

SKB is the classic "Push this button, blow this up, and the good guys win". It simplifies the story. It's the nuke James Bond has to cut the red wire to deactivate.

I would have pulled the scale of the conflict right back. Made the First Order much smaller. Made their Star Destroyer their most precious weapon and a battle ensurs around that. Then we can build to bigger things later.

Personally, I think that side of things was not what interested Kasdan. The movie isn't about the actual star wars.