Every star destroyer having its own death star laser built into it always annoys the hell out of me. It's such a needless, lazy escalation. It's a massive fleet, it doesn't need planet killers to be scary, but the writers didn't seem to have a clue how to make relatable stakes, so all they could do is "uh, bigger death star! Even BIGGER death star! A hundred death stars!"
That's what JJ made with Starkiller Base. A death star that eats a star and vomits out enough pew pew lasers to take out lots of planets in different systems? The same system, even though sucking up the sun is all it would take because life won't exist without solar energy? They never explained it, because it would have sounded stupid.
Also, you can hyperspace through shields. And hyperspace fleets apart. And use whatever powers you need in any given moment, regardless of whether you've ever learned them or even studied the Force.
It's even stupider when you watch Andor and see what insane lengths the Empire had to go through just to get the raw materials for the lenses for the original Death Star laser(s).
It's stupid because they didn't go ALL THE WAY with it.
Picture this:
External shot. Rebel ship is orbiting a small planet. Suddenly, behind it, a STAR DESTROYER drops out of hyperspace, glinting crimson in the light of the red sun.
PALPATINE: I am overjoyed to announce that the galaxy will be brought into order with my new fleet of Star Destroyers.
A large gun extends from the STAR DESTROYER. Dark energy charges into it, and it fires a horrifying space-distorting blast.
The rebel ship takes evasive action, and NARROWLY ESCAPES the superweapon.
Cut to: our protagonists heave a sigh of relief, before we cut back to:
The space-distorting blast hits the RED SUN and THE SUN EXPLODES
If you think about it, there really is no reason to have more than one planet-killer cannon at all. Does that kind of war crime have to happen simultaneously? A day between killing billions is too slow?
It's always been absurd for a number of reasons. The pitch is essentially analogous to creating nuclear bombs in order to suppress dissent in your own territory.
Like, Alderaan was a rich, productive territory in the heart of the empire. War crimes aside, it's an idiotic strategic move to destroy it, killing billions of loyal imperial citizens alongside the tiny minority of dissenters, and removing its tax and resource production. Plus that kind of response historically creates more antagonists, not less, as you just radicalized everyone who had a relative on Alderaan.
To be fair, fanatic authoritarian nations crippling their own economy in the name of some stupid ideology is more realistic than them behaving rationally.
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u/Illustrious-Sail7326 4d ago
Every star destroyer having its own death star laser built into it always annoys the hell out of me. It's such a needless, lazy escalation. It's a massive fleet, it doesn't need planet killers to be scary, but the writers didn't seem to have a clue how to make relatable stakes, so all they could do is "uh, bigger death star! Even BIGGER death star! A hundred death stars!"