CT What if: The Empire never Built the Death Star

I think the title speaks for itself. What if the Empire never built the Death Star?

Some may believe that the Death Star was what ruined everything, as they destroyed a peaceful world, which would have shock and horrified even some of the Empire's most stout supporters, and certainly was a final straw (or about 2 billion final straws) for almost any planet whose loyalty was iffy.

That probably wouldn't have mattered... except Yavin happened. You nuke an innocent place, then lose your nukes, bad things happen. Those worlds who were on the fence, now have their final straw, and need not fear the Death Star. It would only have galvanized their new reason to leave that the Empire showed it could be beat, by a few Starfighters.

Without the Death Star, they would have vast resources for other military constructions, and the Rebels would never have had the all important victory, nor the Empire have had the catastrophic PR hit that Alderaan likely caused. Of course it was the Death Star Plans going to Alderaan, and being caught, that allowed the Empire to find the rebel base to begin with.

 

I think that for a long time, the Galactic Civil War would be at a stalemate, with the rebels being too poorly equipped to successfully invade Coruscant, and the Empire being unable to find the rebel base for years, unless they searched the entire Outer Rim. Luke certainly never would have joined the Rebellion, and Leia never would have been captured or contacted Obi Wan.
The Empire would still have the military advantage, and without the events of the original trilogy, probably have either discovered the rebel base, or lured the rebels into open combat. Obi Wan may see that the Alliance is losing and try to recruit Luke anyway, possibly telling him the whole truth with no other choice, but by then, it could be too late for Luke to do anything. Without the Death Star, Vader wouldn't have encountered Luke and would have remained under Sidious' command for many years to come.
The Death Star is truly what holds the saga and characters together.

 

There's a reason Tagge called the Death Star "Tarkin's folley." The Empire would have been better off building Star Destroyers instead and with Luke and Obi-Wan staying on Tatooine where they won't cause the Empire any trouble.

 

So do you think it's Tarkin fault the Empire lost the war?

 

I think that may be a simplified view on it. Tarkin wasn't the creator of the Death Star, nor was he the force driving the Empire's acquisition of it. If anything, the Emperor was the driving force behind it, and he merely put Tarkin in charge. So I would say it was in fact the Emperor whose decisions (especially a second Death Star) cost the Empire it's war.

 

Interestingly, it seems that in 1977 Tarkin was intended to be the creator of and driving force behind the Death Star. In the shooting script, Tagge says, "I think the construction of this station has more to do with Governor Tarkin’s bid for recognition than any prudent military strategy."

 

I believe it. Of course, currently, it seems our Grand Moff didn't need this for his recognition, as he appears to have been on Palpatines good side since the Clone Wars. If I remember correctly, Tarkin was already well known for his campaigns against Pirates before the Clone Wars, a task he was quite good at.

I think it is interesting to consider, how many Star Destroyers worth of Credit, Supplies, and Personnel went into the Death Star?

 

I thought ROTJ showed a half-assed ending to the war. If Palpatine just stayed at home and not played helpless bait, the galactic civil war could have continued on to TFA's time. Zahn's thrawn trilogy had
to explain away somehow how half-assed the fleet of remaining star destroyers just gave up because Palpatine supposedly had some "battle force sense". The tongue in cheek about the Ewoks clearly showed what Zahn thought about then. The original saga outline Kurtz referred to had only the emperor appearing in ep. IX with the story leaving Luke for the "other" after EP. V, re: some female force user.

 

The point of the Death Star was to enforce Imperial rule. Palpatine understood that which is why it was built in the first place. The fact that during the twenty years between ROTS, RO and ANH, the Empire was having to battle a rebellion that was making things difficult for the Empire, was proof of that conclusion on the Sith's part.

 

The rebellion was not a mahor threat until the Galaxy was shocked into their arms by Alderaan, and the DS' destruction showed them they could win.

That was wjem the rebellion took off.

 

Funny to see this thread now, as I've just started reading Marvel's Darth Vader, in which Tagge gripes about this. I found one fan's estimation of the number of destroyers that could've been built with the labor and materials that went into the Death Star here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/theydidthemath/comments/57ae4r (Spoiler: it's quite a lot.)

The Death Star was valuable as a means of intimidation, but it was vastly overpowered for almost any type of military action. A group of star destroyers carrying out orbital bombardment on a planet could easily kill all life on the surface. Vaporizing the whole damn world serves no purpose.

 

Agreed very much so. If anything, the destruction of planets only gave the other Planets a VERY good excuse to ditch once the Death Star was destroyed.


I wanted to take a moment also to point out to people; this is not a question of if the Death Star led to the Empire's destruction. It is a question of what an alternate Timeline without the Death Star would look like.

 

We know from Rogue One that planet-wide defence shields exist.

 

Even though I'm an old EU fan, I was previously unaware of this. It's horrifying. The Empire may have done this more often without a Death Star. If you hold to the EU, Palpatine and Thrawn wanted this massive military buildup to prepare for the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, and just imagine the Death Stars being used against the living ships of the Vong. As far as the despotism of the Empire goes, we've already explained that the Death Star was meant to be used only once or a few times initially and then further utilized as an intimidation weapon afterward (a la the Tarkin Doctrine).

Had the Death Star not been built, the superweapon would not have been utilized to destroy Alderaan. That act and the Rebellion's destruction of the weapon were two important reasons that more soldiers joined the Alliance. I think the Empire either would have finished off the Alliance in a decade, or it would have been stalemate.

 

True, but we also know that

Spoiler

their infrastructure is relatively easy to destroy.

 

The Imperial Senate likely wouldn't have been disbanded, either, still giving people the illusion of democracy.

 

That's true. I think the Senate would still have existed after had not the DS been built. They would have never approved it's construction right under their noses.

 

It may have had some very far reaching effects because the emperor was planning the death star all the way back in the prequels, so it probably would have changed around a lot of his thinking

 

I used to agree with you. However, careful examination of the Rebel Fleet here: http://boards.theforce.net/threads/analysis-alliance-fighter-losses-at-battle-of-endor.50041652/

Revealed that the Rebels likely had more than 20 Mon Cal cruisers at Endor, so it was a much fairer fight then I had originally thought without the DS2.

Plus, if you take into account the loss of the Emperor's battle meld, the loss of command and control facilities and naval leadership when the DS2 and Executor went down, the shock on the Imperial forces at having seen the Executor, DS2, and Emperor destroyed. It's no longer inconceivable to me that the remaining Imperial forces after the DS2 was destroyed weren't an effective fighting force and couldn't finish off the Rebel fleet.

 

Some of that was due to Special Edition material - and possibly 2004 Special Edition changes too.

So people concluding in 1983 that the Rebel surviving fleet was pretty small, made sense at the time.