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

Agreed! For starters they obviously had some prisoners. They had a detention block after all, those guys where blown up as well.
But all that angle was overlooked. The original Star Wars was more black and white. And I'm hoping for a more "grey" Star Wars this time around.
Times have changed I think, and I feel this approach would be more fitting. I also think it's just more interesting. We have some hints at the fact that this is their new approach. Now we have Stormtrooper who has been humanized (Finn). It's the first time we are actually getting to see a stormtrooper's face and we are going to be able to empathize with him. They are going to get us to understand that not all stormtroopers are bad. It's their circumstances that have brought them to this point in life. I'm really hopeful that this is indeed the approach they are going to have this time around.
It's my understanding that this was George Lucas's wish for this new trilogy.

 

Just some wild thoughts on my part...

Maybe its one of those ancient super weapons Yoda mentioned in the Clone wars legacy episode?

Perhaps so much time has gone by that gravity pulled debris towards it and it only looks like a planet but is an artificial world?

Maybe its something like BPM 37093, which is about 50 light years from Earth and made up of crystalized carbon. Its the largest diamond yet discovered in our galaxy.
Maybe it is something like that, but at its core is a giant Kyber Crystal instead and in ancient times it was made into a weapon. The first Order could of rediscovered it, or learned of its existence during Palpatine's secret mission Beyond the Rim. Or perhaps Snoke or others discovered something out there that can now make it operational?

I like the idea that it is an artificial object that just looks like a planet.


Another thought: the scene in the trailer where we see the red glow and all the evergreen trees being destroyed- maybe that's just Starkiller's engines firing up after an eon and its destroying the surface 'shell' that has accumulated

 

some good thoughts here

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolpi...-cost-to-build-the-death-star-from-star-wars/

 

I would like to believe it's just a space station with a force field or artificial atmosphere (as a natural deflector shield), but if that is the "starkiller" then what good would be a "Starkiller Base" on a planet be good for (a mobile base of operations has undeniable strategic advantages)?

But when I see that the Falcon actually flies inside the rocket engine of a Super Star Destroyer (what are the chances of survival?) I probably have to realize that anything is possible in Episode VII.

 

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/11/13/star-wars-starkiller-base-general-hux

 

So I'm trying to speculate as to why JJ Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan would bring back yet another Death Star. It just seems so 'been there done that'. I'm wondering if they have a new spin on it to make it more interesting other than 'yeah, but this one's way more powerful than the last two'. Is it possible that Starkiller Base (aka Death Star 3) Is a weapon of the New Republic? Like maybe the Republic wants to protect themselves from the First Order which has been steadily growing and becoming more and more a threat. And maybe there's a faction within the New Republic who don't want to see such a heinous weapon being built again even if it is purportedly for good. Maybe they even split off from the New Republic and become The Resistance. Maybe the First Order tries to take Starkiller Base as their own and that could be what the line "That weapon is mine." from the Kylo Ren toy means. And what if they DO take it and it's up to the Resistance to destroy it?

 

IMHO that would be totally out of character for what the Alliance to Restore the Republic stood for. Especially for somebody like Leia, "the Queen of Alderaan" (according to Gary Kurtz and an original premise for ROJ).

 

Right. Which is why she would split from the New Republic and form/join The Resistance. It's a classic moral dilemma. Do you drop the nuke in hopes of avoiding further bloodshed or do you take another path? After all, this trilogy is rumored to have more of a moral dilemma than the other two had.

 

While I like your idea, I think it would be too much of a rehash of The Death Star.

 

Yeah

 

in my mind.. anyone clever enough to build a weapon that could blow up a planet (or in this case multiple planets at the same time) would know never to do that. the actual consequences of doing such a thing could affect entire galaxies.

same applies to nukes in real life.. yet people do make such things which is so sad.

obviously we're talking about films though, and to have the ultimate good ending... you gotta face the ultimate bad ending.
upping the death star idea is a logical direction to go i suppose and starkiller didn't really bother me.

i always liked the idea of Darth Nihilus from kotor 2.. he devastated planets by absorbing all the force energy from it.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Darth_Nihilus

just an idea.. but it would be different from what we've seen before.