ST Starkiller Base Discussion Thread

Well I guess we'll see the Starkiller again in IX!

 

Given this film's marketing, I wouldn't be surprised if that was the intent.

 

I actually would've loved if Hosnian Prime was actually coruscant! Not only would that have MUCH more impact for us story-wise, it would've also gone a ways to explaining why we (presumably) wouldn't be seeing Coruscant anymore all of a sudden.

 

While it WOULD have more of an impact, I like Coruscant too much to wish for that to happen.

 

Is this one of those "Lucasfilm hates the Prequel Trilogy! Even though tons of their work references it" conspiracy theories? Because I really don't buy into those.

 

Fair enough. I would actually love to see Coruscant at some point in VIII or IX, even briefly. But If we don't, (which I'm assuming we won't), having it be Coruscant that was destroyed in TFA would've been an emotional "sendoff."

 

Well, uh, actually, see, after the Empire fell, the New Republic needed a strong capital with all the communications and bureaucracy assets to run the galaxy, so they had to use Coruscant cuz that was the only place that had everything they needed, but it had a bad reputation as capital of the Empire, so, they renamed it, ummm, Hosnian Prime? Yeah, that's it, sure...

 

Then why the ludicrous amount of focus on "DA PRAKTIKAL EFFEKTZ, GUYZ!"?

 

The biggest issue with Hosnian Prime is that I fail to see what differentiates it from Coruscant. I imagine Abrams and Kasdan didn't want to destroy Coruscant out of respect to Lucas, but perhaps doing so would have underlined how the destruction of a centralized system of government would throw the galaxy in chaos. Granted, that is the ostensible result of Starkiller Base destroying Hosnian Prime, but the film fails to communicate that.

 

I hate SKB in general, but I'm fine with the switch from Coruscant to Hosnian Prime. Saves Coruscant for future stories, and I think Hosnian Prime serves it's purpose well enough.

But I was never one of those people who wanted to see Alderaan in the prequels. I didn't care that we had no real reason to care about Alderaan when it was blown up. It was blown up, and that's bad, and that was enough.

Hosnian Prime was blown up, and that's bad, and that was enough, for me.

 

I thought it was a great idea. Forget a space station, why not just use an entire planet? Not only is it more dramatic, it's more badass. If that didn't work, Snoke could have outsourced to Davros or the Crypt of Shuwa... *shudders*

 

Bland idea and even poorer execution for me. I pretty much felt no sense of dramatic tension when the Starkiller destroys an entire system of planets, and the battle to take down Starkiller was equally perfunctory.

 

I took it as intentional. Death Star, bigger Death Star, now even bigger than that Starkiller Base. It's as if to signify that no matter how many of them are destroyed there will just be a bigger one until they can end it once and for all.

 

"There's always a bigger Death Star."

 

Personally, if *I* were in Hux's place, "Starkiller Base" would have been just that: a base and nothing more. BUT...create the illusion that it's a planet-destroyer. Make it the Star Wars Galaxy's largest womp rat trap.

The true superweapon would have been a top-notch fleet of 13 matte-black Super Star Destroyers. Each SSD would be formidable enough on its own, but together, they could draw energy from each other. Twelve would position themselves in a circular formation in high orbit around the planet they wish to destroy, while the thirteenth would be the "focus" that harnesses all of that energy together and blasts the planet. After each strike, the 13 destroyers retreat.
While this attack is happening, Starkiller Base goes through a big laser light show, a real Christmas in the Stars, minus the weird Wookiee porn.

Everyone suspects the base, but has no idea that it's really my fleet. The Resistance comes in their quaint little planes with their quaint little droids and tries to blow it up....only they waste their bombs. After we wait and watch them make a few futile attempts at trying to blow up this "superweapon", we strike with a thousand TIE-Advance Interceptors (think Vader's TIE-Advanced but with greater maneuverability and actual shields). A thousand TIEs vs. the Resistance's best fleet.....we'd defeat them in sheer numbers.

Then, I'd go use it against Snoke. Because seriously, what has Snoke actually done for us, but dictate orders from his intergalactic La-Z-Boy?

 

Which is kind of weird, given that Vader himself seemed to have a low opinion of the Death Star in the first movie.
"Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed...."

 

This fits the story quite well then considering it was he who had the potential to be stronger than not only any Jedi, but have power over the force itself.

The technological terror was insignificant next to the power of the force.

 

Giant Super weapon destroys things in an age where every big action movie has giant things destroying stuff...

Uh huh....

 

1) They should have just revealed Starkiller Base was the original prototype Death Star.
Palpatine literally ordered it built out of Ilum as a sign of just how much he despised the Jedi by turning one of their most visited worlds into a maker of Charnel House worlds in its wake!

2) Would have preferred it not be blown up so it could be revisited in episode 9 but that part wasn't as essential as explaining why it was different from the previous Death Stars!

3) As for New Hosnian they should have made it clear the Republic Senate was rife with First Order Loyalists so destroying the current capital wasn't a case of showing how nasty they are but an elaborate ploy to bring their Senators into the position to seize power turning the New Republic into a new Galactic Empire without causing the massive amounts of carnage had they tried this through pure force alone.

Maybe they should try and make an animated movie out of the Bloodlines novel to explain this?

 

Absolutely bad, probably the worst idea of all in SW franchise. Absolutely lame (i.e. breaking all laws of physics (yep, dont even start to compare it with DS)) concept, meaningless for the story (basically filler and cheap *evil station #3*) tool that met it end in equally lame way. Everything about it is bad.

 

SKB made perfect sense, as its primary objective was to destroy the Republic army and Senate... which it did.

Both DS 1 and DS 2 did nothing to hurt the rebels. Both DS were complete strategic failures.

SKB, on the other hand, was a sucess, even though it was destroyed.

If I were Snoke, I would build another one.

 

Oh dear god, imagine the fanbase's reaction

 

The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be... unnatural

 

Well anyways, I voted like, and I still do like SKB and enjoyed it. But let's bring up the ANH/TFA comparison. I'll give this to the anti-SKB folks:

ANH's plot revolved around the Death Star. It begins with fleeing with the plans, it's then R2 taking the message from Leia to Obi-Wan, getting Leia out of the Death Star, and delivering the plans to destroy the space station

Poe giving BB-8 the piece of the map is a good parallel to Leia giving R2 the plans - but it's completely unrelated to TFA's laser firing big metal ball. And in that vein - like I said, the Death Star is the driving plot of ANH, the macguffin even. You can take SKB out of TFA entirely and have the plot remain relatively the same. A First Order fleet razes the Hosnian System. Same result. They're stationed on some ordinary snowy forest planet. Same result
Take the Death Star out of ANH and.... well, we're going where, exactly?

Tl;dr version: If you try to remove the Death Star, you'd have to rework so much that you don't even recognize it as the same movie anymore. Take SKB out of TFA, and you could just change a few tiny details and have the same exact story told

So therein lies the primary difference and probably biggest divide among the fans, from my observations