Well, the Empire, apparently.
Warp Drive vs Hyperdrive: Star Trek and Star Wars comparative speeds (WOIN)
Well, the Empire, apparently.
With respect, no. There's nothing in the movies that really suggests this was a need.
A want? Of a person who is pretty much defined to be Evil? Yes. But did the Empire need that as a whole? Goodness no! They could have wiped the civilization off the face of Alderaan with the other hardware at hand, without that massive expenditure. The Death Star was, pretty clearly, a really a bad move for the Empire. The construction of the Death Star focused the Rebellion to the point of being effective, and roping in the only individuals who could precipitate the destruction of the Empire (Luke and Leia).
This is one of the reasons Star Wars is often classed as "science fantasy".
Now, if you want to reframe it so it works as actual science fiction. It was not a person or people who needed the planet destroyed. It was, instead, a reaction of the Force to maintain a sort of homeostasis in the galaxy. To analogize - the Galaxy ran a bit of a fever for a while.
Fear will keep the local systems in line. It was designed as a weapon of terror. Utility wasn't it's purpose; psychology was.
Or, that's the party line rationalization, anyway. I don't think I believe it. It makes a great fantasy, but the Death Star makes no actual strategic sense.
You see, in order to reach his position, Palpatine has to be a master manipulator. That means he must be thoroughly cognizant of human reactions - the man who made himself Emperor would not be surprised that the Death Star would have the exact opposite effect - rather than keep anyone in line, it inflamed and galvanized the Rebellion against him. Moreoever, the man must have been a consummate administrator, and would know that the construction of such a station would take so much in resources that the rest of the fleet would suffer. Let's face it - if they hadn't put so much into a Death Star, they could have had a conventional fleet so large that no Rebel uprising would have stood a chance against it. Instead, he created a thing that didn't perform as advertised, and left him vulnerable. The man who was a genius suddenly must be an idiot to do this.
I think the more reasonable picture is that, in order to re-balance, the Force had essentially driven Palpatine insane - he'd begun to believe his own press releases and propaganda - so that he would over-extend, and be brought down. The Force had *told* people this was going to happen - Skywalker had been prophesied. This was not so much predicting an indeterminate future, as the form of awareness Force users have of what the Force will naturally do. Not so much prophecy as weather prediction
Nobody ever says the Empire got everything right. They lost the war, remember?
I think there is a question as to whether the Empire took *anything* right, when you look at it. How much of what happened was just sheer momentum from The Old Republic?
And this is pretty sensible. The leader of the Empire was a Sith Lord. These are people dedicated to harnessing hate for power, right?
Does that sound like anyone who will be competent at *running* anything?
Star Wars Sith Lords = The Boondocks Hateocracy
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