What would have been a better plot than yet another planet killer?

After destroying the Sith and bringing balance to the Force, a new enemy emerges from a different Galaxy. An enemy that is so terrifying they are actually devoid of the Force. The Yuuzhon Vong, etc, etc. Maybe, I don't know anymore.

 

Personally, I think they should've kept Starkiller around for all three films. It got destroyed too early in the trilogy. I would also like more of a backstory of this super-weapon.

 

If there has to be an another one, it has to be more than 1. Like, idk, 200 of them. Yeah I know that sounds ridiculous, but if you think about it, destroying the base looked kinda easy compared to the first two deathstars.

The attack on the first deathstar was actually kinda pathetic. Pilots were dying left and right, and the first bombing was a failure. It was thanks to Luke for using the Force that managed to destroy it. The second deathstar attack required an entire Rebel army (and espionage) to defeat it. And guess what, it ALMOST failed.

The attack on Starkiller actually went pretty well for a small group. If Han didn't talk to his son (which I'm glad he did for story sake), there would be no casualties on the ground side (there still will be casualties on the air though). So, I'm thinking there might be a large number of these monstrosities, which if you were to attack them, you might destroy a few of them, but not enough to save alot of systems from annihilation.

Also, noticed that Snoke didn't really care that much when Starkiller got destroyed. In fact, he looked rather calm about it, which for a powerful Sithlord (assuming he is one), is kinda unusual. Other Sith would throw a fit and just choke Hux to death. So, I'm going to guess that he has something more dangerous up in his sleeve.

 

I was thinking about some kind of a mind control device that will "convert" people to fight for the first order.. would it be too weird for a SW universe ?

 

"NUB NUB AKBAR"

 

For me, I would have loved to see that the First Order was not just a more advanced Empire clone, but a fleet formed from the struggling remains of the Empire. There is a saying that says that there is not a more dangerous man than the one that has nothing to loose and for me it would have been briliant to see the First Order acting in desperate ways to gain their victories. Having nothing to loose and seeing Tie Fighter Pilots slam their ships against Resistance ships just to assure victory or seeing them take great risks that the Resistance would not dare do would have been awesome. Having the First Order gain victories with lesser craft and troops due to the fact that they had a tactical genious a la Thrawn would have been way better than seeing a highly advanced fleet just pop out of nowhere just to destroy the New Republic basically off screen. Hey guys here we are! We have better ships and gear than the Empire and we just popped out of nowhere to kick your butts! Oh and not only that but our supreme leader just popped out of nowhere as well! Yay!!! I know so many people that were against the story idea about the Yuuzhan Vong just popping out of nowhere from unknown space and yet what we got in TFA was even less credible. A whole non-Empire related army that just cloned everything their predecessor had and made it better to the point of just creating a gargantuan planet killing weapon that put the Death Star to shame is just laughable. What did the Empire do after ROTJ? Go bankrupt and sell all their tactical data and blueprints in the flea market? Did Snoke just happen to be at the flea market at that same time and he bought everthing they were selling?

 

Haven't read any of the replies in this thread, so forgive me if it has already been mentioned.
In response to the question, my answer would be --

The Force Awakens didn't need the Starkiller Base storyline. It could have spent that time on the real story: The search for Luke Skywalker.
It would free up time to make a more believable transition between comatose R2 and wakey wakey R2; it could have given us a better understanding of how and why Luke Skywalker is a myth, and showed us through Finn and Rey's dialogue and reactions how their knowledge of Luke is different (kind of like how Finn thought Han was a general and Rey thinks of him as a smuggler); with no Starkiller Base, there would be more time to give us perhaps a glimpse or two more into the relationship of Han and Leia after Jedi; we could have been given a little more on Lor San Tekka and his connection to Leia; and we could have been given a more streamlined Poe Dameron story. I would keep the final scenes intact, however, as I love the fact we only barely get Luke Makes the anticipation for VIII so much sweeter (though, admittedly, it may set up some unrealistic expectations as well).

Right, so with the Starkiller Base plotline gone, we would still need to have key events like Ben/Han and Ben/Rey/Finn happen, but instead of another base we could've had something else; just a First Order headquarters, for example; or a fleet of destroyers orbiting a planet; it doesn't really matter.

My suggestions would obviously make for a film with a slower pace perhaps (as I want to shove in some exposition), but at the same time it's not impossible to convey info through dialogue during an action sequence. In the end I feel, even though I finally settled on "I think I love it" when I saw it for the seventh time last night, that The Force Awakens should have had a stronger focus on "The Search for Skywalker" as that's the most intriguing part of the story. I'd add some tension too, even if only for the benefit of the characters - "Most think he's dead", so that you couldn't be 100% sure toward the end of the film if Luke is actually alive.

 

I would have liked to see World Devastators...

 

What's that ?

 

From Dark Horse Comics Dark Empire series.

 

At least they would have been green .

 

Secret Sith Army of Dark Force users or maybe technology that can give Storm Troopers connection to the force. Technology that can give a Powerful Sith mind control on planet wide basis from far away, or ability to clone Force sensitives in mass.

--- Double Post Merged, May 1, 2016, Original Post Date: May 1, 2016 ---

Secret Sith Army of Dark Force users or maybe technology that can give Storm Troopers connection to the force. Technology that can give a Powerful Sith mind control on planet wide basis from far away, or ability to clone Force sensitives in mass.

 

YES YES YES OH HELL'S TO THE YES

 

The First Order built a space weapon which actually managed to accomplish the objective for which it had been built : the destruction of the Republic. Hux tells Snoke "the collapse of the planet has begun" which means the First Order anticipated the instability of the core and knew that activating the weapon once or twice was all they could get out of it. It's a good weapon and really not that important to the plot. What is important to the story is that starkiller functions as an evil castle from which our protagonist must escape and which is at the same time besieged by the resistance. That's act three ")

 

That would mean the first order has enough resources at their disposal that an entire planet of a super weapon would be considered a trivial loss

Which would make the First Order seem even more nonchalant about losing assets then the Empire, which had seemingly infinite resources because it was the government at the time. Where the hell is the First Order getting all of these resources?

A Star Forge?



Which honestly would have been better in my opinion. The shattered and broken Empire are trying to recoup their loses. They find a Star Forge and star pumping out starships left and right and rebrand themselves the First Order.

It would honestly make sense as to why their equipment has actually improved rather then faltered. Besides the plot hole of, where the crap did they find a Star Forge.

Eh, I don't know, same place they found Snoke?

Come to think of it...both are kinda similar actually. Sun forge builds an army, while Starkiller blows up entire sectors, but they both eat Suns in order to function and power themselves.

Does the First Order have a Star Forge?

 

The only problem is that the Empire has never faced total defeat but was cajolled into a treaty relationship with the New Republic. The imperial remnant reorganized it's military and decided to prioritize quality over quantity. You don't need a starforge to do that. As for the starkiller base, again an effective decision. You don't have to built an entire support infrastructure in the shape of a moon sized space station if you can cut corners by building a hyperspace weapon into a small planet which by itself, even though they knew it wouldn't last a lot of shots, did manage to complete the objective it had been built for: to hit the new republic by destroying its seat of government. In fact starkiller is the only superweapon ever in Star Wars which managed to do what it was built for. It was never meant to shoot at the Resistance Outpost at D'Qar