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I find it hard to believe that it took about 20 years to build the "ANH" Death Star and it took like 3 yrs, give or take, to built the 2nd Death Star.

It had to have been a 20 yr constrution or a new Death Star after the ep.3 prototype because Tarkin says to Leia aboard the Death Star "Princess Leia, before your execution, i would like you to be my guest at a ceremony, that would make this battlestation operation." Meaning this is it initial use. He also makes this clear when he says: no star system will dare oppose the emperor now. Keyword "now". and when he says "not after we demonstrate the power of this station"

unless the Ep.3 Death Star was completed a short while after the clone wars, but why would the Empire wait more than a decade to only test it much less use it...

The Ep.3 DVD may cover this topic, i'll have to see.

I find it hard to believe that it took 20 years, but it WOULD take longer for it to be constructed than the second one. Still, there was supposed to be a prototype stuck inside a like star cluster or something like that. (if you believe EU) my guess would be its the same one, except it looks so far along, so i'll say its the prototype that gets mentioned.

My guess, this project was at the prototype stage, and they were always going to build more once they figured out more engineering and refining. The ANH Death Star could only fire once every 24 hours, while the ROTJ Death Star could fire and recharge every few minutes. So, there must has been decades of experiments and deveopment to make each one better and more powerful.

Are you sure construction on the 2nd didn't start before the destruction of the first?

They built two deathstars at once, takes about two decades to make. They completed one and were nearly finished with the other (but focused more on the completion of one during an imperative time, that is the events in Episode IV).

When the first was destroyed, completion of the second was underway (it was nearly done).

i agree with diamond but here's what lucas said (with a obvious wink to Clerks and Kevin Smith)-it was supply and design problems along with union desputes.

Works for me.

Style over substance.

Yeah, technology advances fairly quick in the Star Wars universe doesn't it? And to think that the original ROTJ featured two half-way completed death stars above Coruscant (or actually still Had Abbadon)

I think it took so long to complete the Death Star, cuz Geonosians designed it. Any one who uses a fukking spear against laser guns isn't fit to design a battle-station.

or maybe cuz its the size of a little moon?

heres what i think is the deal with the 20 year time span it takes to build the first death star and the time it took to build the second one.

the only logical answer to this problem is that it takes about 20 years to build a death star. the empire started to build the first one, then shortly after they started constructing the second one. (so in ANH there would be another uncompleted death star somewhere in the galaxy)

its the only logical answer to this problem. that the empire had intended to have 2 death stars. not just one at a time.

i think it would make more sense to have one death star per system in order to rule with adequate threat and efficiancy

Originally posted by overlord
Yeah, technology advances fairly quick in the Star Wars universe doesn't it? And to think that the original ROTJ featured two half-way completed death stars above Coruscant (or actually still Had Abbadon)
Where is that pic from?

Originally posted by Darth Jello
i think it would make more sense to have one death star per system in order to rule with adequate threat and efficiancy

Thats alot of Death Stars the Empire would go bankrupt.

Isn't a system a planet? Like the Naboo system or the Hoth system. And aren't there thousands of planets maybe close to a million planets?

it wouldn't make sense. Unless your talking about sectors, which is the equivalent of a solar system, like Hutt space or Bothan space or individual sections of the outter rim.

Originally posted by FistOfThe North
Isn't a system a planet? Like the Naboo system or the Hoth system. And aren't there thousands of planets maybe close to a million planets?

Not necessarily. Echo Base was located on the 6th planet of the Hoth system. Systems can be made up of more than one planet. Look at the Yavin system. The gas giant Yavin and the Yavin moon. I'm sure there are more.

Personally I think it was the Empire's plan all along to have multiple Death Stars running around to keep the galaxy in line. Think about it, if you only have one then it's not as much of a threat as if you have 20 or so policing the galaxy. I think the Death Star from Episode III was the first of three we actually see, the second being in Episode IV, and the third being in Episode VI.

The Empire made a prototype Death Star, which was hidden in the Maw.

That may have been just a skeletal platform to hold the superlaser for which the scientists encountered problems on.

Then the DSI, whose construction began right after the Empire's birth, was finished after 20 years, that length may have been due to technical difficulties because such a project hadn't been attempted by the known galaxy, including the superlaser problem.

With the DSII, all the kinks had been unravelled with the first DS, so completion time is greatly reduced due to the fact that it had all been done before.

Plus there was apparently three miniature Death Stars orbiting Imperial City, but they were supposedly dismantled by the Empire after the Emperor's death.

Originally posted by ((The_Anomaly))
heres what i think is the deal with the 20 year time span it takes to build the first death star and the time it took to build the second one.

the only logical answer to this problem is that it takes about 20 years to build a death star. the empire started to build the first one, then shortly after they started constructing the second one. (so in ANH there would be another uncompleted death star somewhere in the galaxy)

its the only logical answer to this problem. that the empire had intended to have 2 death stars. not just one at a time.

"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?

right

Didnt GL already mention in the ROTS DVD that it was because of disputes and money

I think I remember reading in the RTOJ book that the ROTJ Death Star was twice as big as the ANH Death Star.

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?
It's concept art from the original rough draft of ROTJ. I'll make a good thread about it when I have time, too bad you got yourself banned though.

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.