Look at the round side turrets. They are round like the Death Star, and they have the same laser, but scaled down. When the turrets fire, they also combine multiple green beams into one with the same structure as the Death Star. I doubt that this is coincidence. So far I can think of two reasons for this: The only difference is that the laser dish on the Death Star in concave, while its convex on the turret. 1. The Death Star has already been in planning, and some double-sides engineers were amused by the thought of putting a "warning" in front of the republics faces. 2. The Death Star is just, unimaginatively, a scaled up LAAT turret. Very creative. What do you guys think?
I would guess that Lucas wanted to drop a hint that the basic tech of combining beams is not superweapon-ish rare, but widespread.
Here's a better image showing the turret on a pod on the outside of the ship. Looks concave to me. I always felt it was a just a nod to the Death Star, showing that its weapon started out small. Don't really think it has any real significance. It just connects the Republic technology to that of the Empire. Like Clone troopers were the prototype Stormtroopers, that gun was the prototype Death Star weapon. Not much else to it.
Yes, BUT... the Republican gunship and its weapons are of "Republic" design - while the Death Star itself is supposedly of Geonosian origin (i.e. the Separatists). Suffice to say I really liked that in The Clone Wars these "minature Death Stars" were mostly removed from the gunship's hulls.
Hmm, good point. It skipped my mind. Well, then I guess the Death Star must be an amalgam of both technologies. Sidious manipulated both sides, therefore he must have already been orchestrating the merging of the best Republican and Separatist technology in secret and from behind the scenes as usual.
The Geonosians made the designs, but perhaps they took the laser from the gunship during the Death Star's construction, which happened after the Republic had become the Empire.
