Starkiller Base. Superweapons in Star Wars (And fiction fantasy in general)

From what I can make out, it seems the new super weapon is a planet sized Death Star.. with a snow planet covering to make it go undetected by the rebels. Pretty smart move from The First Order.

Here is the planet starting to open up, or maybe this is a trench which is always there?



and this is the planet opened up.. or again maybe its like this by default.



What are your theories?

 

I agree also, please no more exhaust ports.

 

I wonder if its Hoth and they took out the ION Cannon to place in the weapon....

 

That thread is about superweapons in Star Wars and fantasy in general (its even the title) while this thread is specifically about the new Starkiller Base weapon. Not really a cloned topic

 

"Detail" right....

 

I do not know whether it has been raised in the other threads, but I cannot help thinking that the weapon of mass destruction on the official poster does not match the scenes of the Star Killer Base that we have seen in the trailers. They look like two different entities.

Poster:

Trailer:


I vaguely remember that there were some rumors a while ago about multiple weapons of destruction in the movie, a catapult and a sledgehammer. Could it be that the weapon in the poster is actually the rumored Sledgehammer weapon of the resistance?

Source of rumors: http://makingstarwars.net/2015/05/a-compiled-synopsis-of-star-wars-the-force-awakens/

 

Nah I think those are the both the Starkiller base. The poster just shows it fully deployed and ready to fire, while the screen cap you put up shows it just beginning to open up. I think we have yet to see the Catapult and the sledgehammer which I believe are the resistance wmd's.

 

The poster is a full shot a very large planet. The trailer is a shot of a very small part of the planet/superweapon infrastructure. Its not like during WW2 dogfight videos you could see the entire european coast...

 

On this week's episode of The Resistance Broadcast podcast, you guys posed the question whether Starkiller Base makes it to the end of TFA, and agreed that it won't.

But what if this is the twist that made J.J. and company willing to try out the super-weapon concept again? Maybe the assault on the super-weapon fails, and the Resistance are sent scrambling while the First Order is perfectly situated to terrorize the galaxy. I was skeptical of using the super-weapon concept again, but this might refresh it...

 

Well, according to the rumors, the super-weapon drew its power from the planet. While the rumors said that the super-weapon was destroyed, the planet itself wasn't. So the power source would still be there. In Episode 8, could there be battles between the First Order and the Resistance to determine who will control this planet? If the Resistance win control, will they be tempted to rebuild the super-weapon themselves, in order to use it against the First Order?

 

I agree with you in the sense that i would like to see the resistance fail to destroy the weapon in this movie,. Maybe they could damage it and postpone some destruction for the next movie but i really don't want to see another repeat of the Luke death star/Anakin droid control ship situation.
But as we already know, George liked his trilogies and character arcs to kind of echo each other so i'm pretty certain that the resistance is going to destroy it.

 

I think it was a great idea by the FIRST ORDER to hide the new DEATH STAR in side of a planet. Or that's what it looks like anyhow......

Very difficult to know at this point and lots of speculation for the coming weeks. Personally, I can't wait to find out about STARKILLER

 

I personally subscribe to the theory that whatever weapon is or isn't present in TFA is just a catalyst for a larger war. From everything that we've heard it seems to me that the Resistance is kind of it's own thing, kind of like how in the EU the character Garm Bell Ibliss had his own army and fleet and personal war with the Empire. So with Leia biding her time, building her forces over time because she knows that there is something out there, she's kind of off doing her own thing. Meanwhile, whatever the new government is called (maybe the New Republic?) finds it politically inexpedient to be visibly making preparations to go on an offensive to handle the First Order, but in secret is both funneling the Resistance goods and supplies while also bolstering their own forces. But when the whole thing blows up at Starkiller base, it turns out the First Order is more powerful than originally thought, or maybe has a powerful ally. I kinda see all this as mirroring the U.S. and NATO's current relations with China, Russia and the Middle East situation right now.

All wild explanations here, but it's what I personally see with the puzzle pieces at hand.

Edit: Wanted to add to my wild speculation that while Kylo Ren seems to be the defacto leader of the First Order, his master is actually the leader of whatever larger force is out there (maybe not larger, but controlling, kind of how the sith weren't a large organization, just had resources all over the place).

 

I really hope this is the last gasp for this type of weapon. It makes sense that the Empyreal remnants, still in possession of the blueprints, would improve the tech and give it one last go. But after the FO and Starkiller are gone there better not be another planet/solar system destroying weapon.

 

If the rumors are true that Han dies at the end of the movie, the failure to destroy Starkiller Base would make for the same kind of double blow to our heroes that we had at the end of TESB (Luke's defeat and recognition, Han frozen in carbonite), with Rey and Finn being our glimmers of hope...

 

Is it odd that I have been picturing Starkiller base as a planet version of Centerpoint Station?

 

Death star had to have a few thousand innocents, at least.

 

I think we have our answer...

It's a planet-sized Nerf Launcher!