Was the Ep.3 Death Star a prototype or was i the same one used in "A New Hope"?

Do remember GL was joking when he talked about disputes.

As said- style over substance. GL was acknowledging that it made little sense for the first one to take so long to build, but the effect of having it at the end of ROTS was more important than the logic.

i dont think the reason lucas gave was that bad. they might have had the designs but actually getting something that massive to work would still take alot of tweaking. plus the emperor wasnt all powerful at the end of ep 3. he was the most powerful man in the galaxy but he still had to please the senitors to stop a massive uprising against him. hed have to hide its construction as well, so getting supplys would be a problem if you didnt want people to notice they were gone. towards the end he could do what he wanted becuase hed solidified his power enough.

It's not unplausible. But the point is he was saying it as an amusement, not a proclamation of truth. The truth is that the logic doesn't matter- fiul the blank yourself.

Originally posted by freefly
"Little does Luke know that the Galactic Empire has secretly begun construction on a new armored space station even more powerful than the first dreaded Death Star" - frm the opening crawl

So they could'nt have built two at once 20 years ago. Right?

yes, i never thought about that.

however, my answer is the only logical answer other then that they continued to scrap prototypes every 3 years or so then construct a new one. that would mean that they would have built about 6 prototypes before the final one was constructed.

GL did say that it was due to money and union disputes, but he said it jokingly because he knew this was a continuity error, he didnt seem to care too much though.

In Battlefront II one of the clones says that the second one is way bigger than the first one...

So there were a total of 3 Death Stars during Palpatine's reign then.

im preety sure that its the same death star

Moff Tarkin is in ROTS and in a new hope so its prolly the same one

Originally posted by Gryn Jabar
Where is that pic from?

As for the death star in ROTS, it's probably the same, but Lucas wanted to put as much references and transition stuff in it apperantly.
It would be far-fetched to conclude that it was just some prototype just because the one from ROTJ was pretty quickly build.

But if you really want to go into it, you just have to presume that the first death star just was a bit harder to create and that there were a bunch of errors and perfecting to be done or something.

it has been said that the empire had the battle station nearly complete but held on on final constructions until palps gave control to the regional governors to keep everyone in line. you have to remember there is still the senate that palps has to go through and a major battle station could cause him problems. so they most likely had it set up like a supet station and held off to finish making it a battle station until the last remnants of the old republic were finally gone.

i believe i read that in another threat somewhere

Listen to the DVD commentary. Lucas said it's THE Death Star, and that he was pushing limits by putting it at the end of ROTS, but he wanted it there anyways because it's a symbol of the Empire.