It’s my head canon that Sidious always intended for there to be 2 Death Stars. The first would be captained by Tarkin and serve as purely military installation. The second would serve as his moving Capitol and power base. Mutually assured destruction would always be on the table in case Tarkin, or another commander decided to rebel and use the first Death Star against him
@@fsmith45 tarkin was completely loyal to palpatine. The only reason why tarkin was allowed to control the first death star was because of that loyalty.
@@traviskey5695 That and he was given the weaker of the two Death Stars. It takes hours to recharge DS1. DS2 only takes a few minutes to recharge. It wouldn’t be much of a contest
the sheer size of the project needed whole new technologies, a lot of design flaws and technical problems were corrected, so the first Death Star was more of a prototype and the second was what they originally wanted
A few simple, easily understood reasons 👇 1. When developing a prototype vehicle or project, of course its gonna take many years to fully assemble and be ready like say Americas - F35 program E. G. 2. The Death Star Mark II was a massively upgraded version of the original prototype - Star dust - and it didn't take nearly half as long BECAUSE the blueprints from the original were already available from the completion of the first. Again - Same with the F35 which can now easily be built in a few months or less 3. In the case of the Death Star Mark II The only things that were changed or upgraded were - Size, weak spots, firing accuracy and timing intervals That doesn't factor in, Palpatine wanting it built immediately following the destruction of the first
@@mararamitchpeace Correcting design flaws from the original This time there was no Galen Erso to sabotage the design basis from the inside out either. The emoticons you chose fit Well 😅
I assumed that the second was built more quickly because they already had learned a lot from the construction of the first one. That way the engineers didn’t make as many mistakes and had fewer setbacks
Palpy actually had a 2 for 1 coupon at Home Depot when building the original, and was able to stash a bunch of spare parts in his back yard under a tarp next to the fire pit and compost heap.
I always imagined they started building the second Death Star while still building the first. That way they still had some of the same materials between both projects. For instance, seems the empire struggled to acquire Kyber crystals in the early days.
There were 3.5 years between the battles of Yavin and Hoth, then 1.5 years to the battle of Endor. This gives the Empire roughly 5 years to build the second Death Star, not 2
The *'Legends'* anthology book "Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina" hinted that there were already plans to make a second Death Star even before 0BBY. The two ladies posing as the Tonnika sisters were sent to ambush a massive focusing crystal, the packaging for which was labeled, 'DSM2'. So they'd apparently already gotten started by then.
I thought in the books it stated he started Constructing the 2nd Death Star halfway through the 1st one because he was also Starting Construction on Star Killer Base around the time of the OG Trilogy
He actually had three being built in 3 different locations of the galaxy, even had the 3rd one being built in a secret location in Hutt space and overseen by the Hutt elders
I always figured the first was mostly a prototype, and frame and base structure of the second was mostly built at the same time. The first was primarily to test the weapons function and once it was proven that the kyber laser worked, they then went to work on the big one. Also, the senate was no longer an issue during construction of the second Death Star.
I think the 2nd death star probably began its construction while the 1st one is still midway through completion, but because the 1st still had series of technical difficulties with its kyber laser canon, neither death star could be finished. And at the time before EP4, Palpatine's major focus was probably on finishing DS-1 while DS-2 was still in its early stage. DS-2 probably only had a shell back then and doesn't have anything filled in yet. The reason is because Palpatine wants to see how DS-1 performs on all aspects in order to decide what improvements are required for DS-2. With the major technical difficulties being solved by Galen Erso and having learned the failure from Battle of Yavin, Palpatine had full knowledge of how to improve DS-2 in order to make it a far more invincible than DS-1. And with the Senate disolved in EP4, Palpatine no longer has any obstacles and is able to gather the needed resources much more quickly.
Apart from the major delays when it comes to build the first ones and the secracy of its build I also like to imagine that the emperor had place building orders for the hard to consctruct parts of the second death star even before the battle of Yavin. The galaxy is a vast place and its likely that he wanted more battlestations to control it. Thus its also natural to make the follow ons larger and more capable in terms of carring troops and secondary weapons than the original ones whom could be read as an experimental prototype for a larger fleet. The second one could also fire much more often than the first one so its possible that they took a lot of the learning experiences with the first one into building the second one. J.
06:16 - Oh, I adored that special effect from 2016's Rogue One! Peter Cushing (Grand Moff Tarkin) He died in 1996, but 20 years later was brought back to life! Oh and Carrie Fisher was also reconstructed with CGI being her much younger self from the original trilogy! 😁👌 RIP those 2 😔
Yet another fantastic video! I have been following you for more then 7 years. As a Star Wars fan for nearly 40 years since I saw empire in the Theaters as a 5 year old kid I have adored this franchise. Thank you for doing what you do.
Your explanation of why the first Death Star took so long, is very much in line with mine. With the Senate, Palpatine couldn't spend too much too quickly. But with the second, he had that nice fat check from GIECO after the untimely destruction of the first. Insurance is very important! That's my theory, and I'm sticking to it.
as someone else pointed out, I always figured they had more than one death star at a time. with all the setbacks the original had, they probably had more than one prototype of the original and most likely salvaged the unfinished death star(s) to start on the larger second death star. obviously the "improved" parts from the original death star could be debated as being new, to not leave the core as vulnerable as the original, but there is also the possibility that one of the Empire's engineers saw the vulnerability before the original was used and might have used the new design in the second death star before the first one was even blown up. of course its speculation at this point unless Disney adds that bit of information into their shows or maybe there's a book out there that covers that xD Either way, I think Sidious originally intended to use both death stars simultaneously before the events at the end of EP 4
I always assumed it was just easier to build a second one as you have already done it once. This is true in the real world, often a first type of ship takes years to build but subsequent ships of the same design can be built in a fraction of the time.
The main reason they built it so fast as they started building it immediately after they started the first one and their goal was to build dozens if not hundreds of them so they can control all the star systems
As well as the first death Star will have a bunch of engineering challenges to figure out... Like most big construction projects or mass producing of big construction projects the first always takes the longest and cost the most. When the second death star comes around you already learned all the lessons from the first. Which dramatically lowers time of production
It’s also a lot easier to do things the second time around than the first. But I like what you said about how with no Imperial Senate, it basically put the plans into overdrive.
If I remember correctly, a smaller sub plot of the novel “Shadows of the Empire”, was that Palpatine wanted to use Prince Sheezors shipping fleet. This way to help move materials for the empire to cover up the fact that they were building the second death Star.
This was of great help concerning the second Death Star and rapid construction. This just goes to show you just how much faster things can be accomplished WITHOUT politicians. Also, I like to point out that Sidious, dispite hating the Jedi, had the same weakness, hubris. The Jedi foolishly believed the Sith had been extinct for a millennium, and Sidious enjoyed watching Darth Vader and Luke trying to kill each other that he couldn't sense what was happening on Endor.
This view makes a lot of sense. The two Death star plot is deep to understanding the whole Skywalker saga. What irks me a bit is the recapitulation of the planet killing "planet" in the sequels. For me that trivializes Lucas' visionary story ... (so many suggestions for a sequel rewrite are possible.)
Why would Starkiller Base trivialize Lucas' visionary story? It would make far more sense to build a big laser into a planet instead of building a big laser and then effectively building a planet around it as the two Death Stars did. The only part of the weapon that actually mattered was the laser, the rest was just armor built around to protect it, something you don't need if you build the laser into a planet. Besides, George Lucas was a credit stealing hack who had barely anything to do with the "visionary story" of Star Wars anyway. Nearly everyone else involved had far more to do with what the OT and thus Star Wars became than George Lucas ever actually did. Lucas just was the one who ended up getting all the credit for it.
Of the original trilogy, I saw Return of the Jedi first so when I learned the first movie also had a Death Star in it, I thought the one we see in RotJ was the one from A New Hope being repaired because the Rebellion had only succeeded in incapacitating it
Rather than 2 perfect shots two take out two, it took a couple to take out one. Makes the battle station seem more menacing. These big bases being destroyed in one movie. Kinda weakens the concept. The total destruction once and for all after a shot almost destroyed it. Years later after they recovered from the battle years before. They come back and finish it off. Its like ever since palpatine won the doctrine became, "for ultimate power, one needs a huge planet gun." Starkiller base... really just a cool cinematic location for han solo to die on.. on lets have a terrible snowy battle where the inexperienced wins against the ex jedi apprentice with years of force training by one of the greatest jedi masters, Luke Skywalker... his uncle. Like he was so powerful, luke tried to kill him in his sleep...
Does' everyone realize that Director Krennic, while looking up at the death star in Rogue One, that Grand Moff Tarkin SHOT HIM IN THE FACE by the death star?
0:17 yet... Darth Vader dissmissed it asserting to Admiral Motti "Don’t be too proud of this technological terror you’ve constructed, the ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force." Maybe he was bothered that it was weighting on him for the lost blueprints, or plainly didn't believe in its usefulness. Speaking a bit of legends and making this last point even worse; if true, then he was not aware Sidius was "preparing" the galaxy for the Vong.
I recall seeing a Ralph McQuarrie concept painting for Return of the Jedi, which clearly depicts both the 1st & 2nd Death Stars being constructed along side one another, with the og being obviously much further along + wasn’t there a Jedi Academy novel that featured the ‘skeletal’ prototype of the Death Star, very similar to how it appeared at the end of Revenge of the Sith.
Not joking; I was JUST wondering this yesterday and was going to find somewhere to inquire about it. Then this pops up on my feed. Makes sense to me. Thank you.
I think it is important to know the second one was not finished when it was destroyed. The cannon or whatever you call it was operations but the rest appeared to be quite a ways from completion.
There are indications in at least 1 legends book that super laser components were being stockpiled even before the first Death Star was destroyed, so I think there were always plans for a second Death Star, and it took much less time to build in part because it it was being built from stockpiled parts, and not completely from scratch.
my friends and I chatted about this at one point, and we had figured that they had already started construction on the second one before the 1st was completed. We figured that it'd probably take a bit of time, but, you could still get quite a bit done once the first was finishing up, plus, the amount of time between 4 and 6, would be more than enough to, at the very least, make it functional
Yes, I had always wondered about this, but I don't recall ever learning exactly when construction of each Death Star really began. "I have heard rumors of abandoned Death Star prototypes before construction of a true first Death Star began, and the countless lives lost in failed experiments and to the rage of frustrated imperial tyrant-generals, but as to hard evidence whether these were really true or the wild daydreams of drunken treasure hunters, I have, alas, made little progress." - an anonymous New Republic scholar.
i always assumed that the second death star was already under construction ...if not simultaneously, then on a staggered schedule ..there may have been secret death stars that never got completed .....hmmm possibly some good canon fodder for a book ?
Two years? The calendar starts at the Battle of Yavin and RotJ was set in 4 ABY (After the Battle of Yavin). Aside from that, one thing that I still don't get is why they didn't realize it was a trap the moment they dropped out of hyperspace and saw the glaring absence of space traffic around the station. Since it was obviously being assembled using materials from elsewhere, there should have been a *huge* fleet of ships swarming around it. That there weren't any should have been an immediate tipoff that all traffic had been cleared out for some reason. Such as the Empire having set a trap.
i also suspect a large part of the death star II was already built by the destruction of the Death star I which could be a contributing factor then when the first was destroyed completing the 2nd one would also have been a factor. also, it wouldnt suprise me that engineer Galen Erso would have activly delayed the construction through designing a fatly system then activly redesign systems to fix the faults to delay the construction of the Deathstar I for almost a decade since he was recruited because he worked on kyber based power systems for the Death star when it was being covertly built by the republic prior to order 66. if i remember he tried to quit 3 years after order 66 and then brought back in 2 years later because the development ground to a halt then was forced to work on it again for the next 10 years. realistically he may have made the work harder then it needed to be and take longer than it should in order to buy time for the schematics for the Deathstar to be smuggled out to the rebellion and the rebellion to destroy the Deathstar I DeathstarII didnt have Galen Erso to work on it and introduce delays to the project
I've heard several explanations on other channels, but this one makes the most sense. Having to deal with the Senate would slow things down considerably.
I believe construction started on DS2 as they were working on DS1. DS1 was the test-type and there were probably DS3 and DS4 parts being made before New Hope.
Probably had the second one already in progress. Plus it wasn't finished. At least a good 5-10 years left of construction on the second one. Plus they likely used some of the wreckage from the first one for materials. Plus the first one was a test bed where they had to design it all untested before.
I doubt wreckage from the first death star would have been very useful. Each and every component of the first Death star would have been subjected to a massive explosion and have been exposed to the radation of the Yavin Star and magnetic field of the gas giant Yavin 4. Explosions damage and destroy things, radition and magnetic field can change the properties of materials to the point of rendering them unsuable. You don't want brittle armour plating for example. Anything more complex than a sheet of metal would have to be thoroughly tested and most likely be refurbished before it could be used again - and they'd still not be as good as they would have been when they were new. Besides: Production of new things can often be broken down into tasks that don't require skill - or even sentience - to be done. Repairing things that don't work as they should requires more skill and knowledge and people with those skills would be scarce. Which begs the question: Is sifting through irradiated rubble to find and refurbish equipment wouldn't be as good as it used to be really the best way to use them?
@@MrAranton Raw materials. Resmelting. nothing should have been radioactive enough on the death star to make it unusable, it was powered by kyber. Plus, space fantasy, not science fiction. They make up the rules. Basically a big field of debris that could be used. Didn't say that it would be reused as is. Said materials. Raw materials. Easier to resmelt the existing huge amount of metal than to mine more. Especially with such a huge amount of it in the vicinity.
My question is why Palpatine didn't just strap a warp drive to a 5lb rock. Seriously, that's all it take to blow up a planet the speed of light is very fast, so when you accelerate something faster than that it doesn't need to be big to blow up a planet. Edit: I forgot to mention it would literally be faster than the death star laser since lasers move at light speed, not faster than light.
I think their research on kyber crystals was a major contributor as well. It's like the uranium in atomic bombs making the first batch took years, but after they figured out the refinement process they produced it in mass quantities.
This explains alot. Indeed it now makes more sense why the second Death Star was being done more quickly. Thought not fully completed, the second one I think could have been even more deadly than the first once it wss finished
Good explanation, between the knowledge from the first one and more absolute galactic control it makes sense. Of course, building a second version of your massively flawed first battle station and ending up with the second one destroyed is just... hilarious.
Point of fact: the second Death Star was built destroyed FOUR years after the first, not two. Construction on the second was technically ongoing during the Battle of Endor.
The second Death Star was *operational* but *not* complete. I seems reasonable to assume that the 80/20 rule could apply: they could complete the critical parts (such as the superlaser) quickly but the last 20% of construction could take 80% of the time. I also imagined that work on Death Star 2.0 was already underway while the first Death Star was nearing completion.
being a force user he could sense nearby threats or shifts in the force that make him believe he would need to do things a certain way, Palpatine had the most power but Vader was the strongest
Thanks for answering this burning question for me; it’s been on my mind for a good while. I always thought Palpatine had a backup Death Star just in case the first one was destroyed.
This is just like the construction of the Bizmark and Tirpitz. They were built almost simultaneously. One was started first, and finished first, but were built at the same time.
Personally, I always just assumed that the second Death Star had started construction before the first had been completed. Even for such a superweapon, having more that one aids in power projection across an area the size of the galaxy. So I'd also somewhat expected that somewhere out there was the early frame of a third just waiting.
I think the fact that it was operational, but not complete was also an important factor. If we took an aircraft carrier under construction, with only it's landing deck complete, and used a tug to drag it to a war zone, used auxiliary ships to provide radar and crew quarters, it could be considered "operational" and serve its function. The DS2 was likely in a similar state, the weapons system worked, but it had to rely on a shield from a planet, it probably couldn't move on its own power, and everything not related to the main battery was likely also unfinished. Not only that, while its superlaser did work, there's no reason to think it was at full power. The DS1 was able to devistate Jeda with just a single reactor laser, so for the DS2 to be operational in an anti-rebel fleet capacity and anti-Endor-rebel-team capacity all it needed was one or two reactors online.
I could be very far off because it's been a minute but if I remember right in Legends materials construction had started on the 2nd Death Star (also 3rd, 4th and more) while to first was still under construction which explained part of the speed in which DS #2 was being constructed. Also I seem to remember that there were to be several Death Stars about to really have things on lock down
@@jameslauder3984 nah bruh Trump did more good for america then he will ever get credit for and you blinded by Sleepy Joe biden like the rest if the sheeple
I had assumed that they began construction on the second one while the first was still under construction. But this explanation makes more sense. I think it was a mistake in A New Hope to make such a small deal out of the senate being dissolved when the impact of that was really pretty massive.
What I'm about to put forth may be more in line with "Legends" but I'd like to add somethings that could even help this crazy "built in only 2 years" theory. Military production/construction projects, especially of extreme large scale battle platforms, such as battleships, aircraft carriers, aircraft, etc. are typically built in pairs for various reasons. It was/is not uncommon for a new design of (say) a battleship to enter service no more than a year or two before its "sister ship," (this also being the standard practice of bygone ocean-liners.) That being said, according to "Legends," construction of the second Death Star began not long after the construction start of the first Death Star. The first Death Star was more or less the "prototype," the second Death Star being constructed on a more massive scale thanks to the information being gained as the first was built. Of course, while the first DS was constructed under extreme secrecy, the work on the second was simultaneously being slowly constructed just behind the first with just as much if not more secrecy. It's doubtful that even Gaylon Erso was aware of a second DS. Of course, if you add in the factors described within this video, then the second DS seeming to *almost* being completed in 2 years can make a lot more sense.
So for the first one, he basically had to build the equivalent to a super aircraft carrier, using government money without them, knowing what you were doing
All these comments are great, but even younger me assumed they were already working on it prior to the destruction of the original Death Star. After watching the prequel trilogy it confirmed that Palpatine always had back up plans and plans amongst plans. So it’s quite possible that ten years prior to the Yavin battle the second station was starting construction. Anyway I digress, thanks for video and have a great day.
It's an interesting take. I can see how the process outlined in this video makes sense. But for my money, my assumption has always been that the two Death Stars where built concurrently. In my own head-canon, the DS2 was began shortly after the DS1 and was not yet complete by 2ABY because it was so much bigger.
I always assumed the 2nd Death star was the first death star but wasn't completely destroyed! A bit like a planet where half of its size missing... They never made it clear in the original films this was a completely new death star!
It was also like a third again bigger. The whole thing never sat right with me, I always figured it was lazy writing and I’m a huge fan of the original trilogy! This helps me accept it a little more.
Of course they made it bigger! The Empire were stupid enough to make a massive planet destroying superweapon instead of tens of thousands of much more useful Star Destroyers instead. The Empire clearly only care about raw size and power over actual effectiveness.
He didn't want the empire to be seen as an easy pushover, so he immediately sought after a much better and more powerful 1 For him it was a personal matter as the - All Mighty emperor of the galaxy - 👑
I always figured that the first one didnt completely blow up and that they were able to salvage some of the superstructure. After the second one exploded, bits of it were all over Endor and likely out in space as well, so this would make some sense.
I always felt like the intention was to have a fleet of death stars. A single one would help maintain control of the Galaxy but it still would take a while to move it around between systems. Having two or three of them in addition to the imperial Starfleet would have been devastating. So I think that they started the construction on the second one about 10 years after they started the first one. They didn't openly construct the second one because the rebellion didn't know about it. Until the Bothan spies clued them in on it.
Another reason the Death Star got finished so rapidly: The emperor already had the blueprints, from Skarif, as to how the first battle station was built. So rebuilding it was a piece of cake.
I always assume they were being built nearly simultaneously.. you have to think that the first death star is going to have a whole bunch of new engineering issues. You take your hard lessons from the first death star and you use it to make the second one which will always be faster an production
This is an excellent explanation. I had never though about this! Do you think technology may have changed over the course of the building of the Death Star?
The difficult thing to reconcile is that they could construct a larger Death Star in less time, yet still have it be hidden so well that the Emperor would have to _allow_ the Bothan spies to find out about it, rather than have it stick out like a sore thumb. That speaks to a truly frightening logistics network. Which makes me wonder why the first Death Star was such a secret. The Senate had some tight purse strings.
But the whole "the first Death Star took almost 20 years" is just a Lucas retcon. If one just goes by ANH (really, just "Star Wars") we have no idea how long it took. The notion that it took 20 years is just so Lucas could force feed us Death Start stuff in the prequels.
It stands to reason that the first and second one were in construction at the same time. The first, being the prototype, probably began construction a year or so before the second, and was being used as a 'test bed' to figure things out like weak points, and reactor systems, and so on. The first incorporates all manner of things, like open exhaust ports, that the second doesn't have, simply because it's seen as just a test run to make sure everything works together; while those designs are taken and refined and used on the second one that's already under construction. I wager they knew about the failings of the exhaust port early on, but it was largely dismissed. Even so, once they moved to the second one, those problems were corrected. This actually isn't that uncommon with weapon construction. Try things out with a fully working prototype, and then apply that to the production model.
I just always assumed they started building them both at the same time but because the second one was bigger it took longer to build and when the first death star was destroyed they had to rush to get the second one operational.
It’s my head canon that Sidious always intended for there to be 2 Death Stars. The first would be captained by Tarkin and serve as purely military installation. The second would serve as his moving Capitol and power base. Mutually assured destruction would always be on the table in case Tarkin, or another commander decided to rebel and use the first Death Star against him
I like this, except if Tarkin decided to use his Death Star to destroy the second one, then Palpatine wouldn’t be able to use it against him
@@fsmith45 tarkin was completely loyal to palpatine. The only reason why tarkin was allowed to control the first death star was because of that loyalty.
@@traviskey5695 That and he was given the weaker of the two Death Stars. It takes hours to recharge DS1. DS2 only takes a few minutes to recharge. It wouldn’t be much of a contest
the sheer size of the project needed whole new technologies, a lot of design flaws and technical problems were corrected, so the first Death Star was more of a prototype and the second was what they originally wanted
My thoughts exactly
A few simple, easily understood reasons 👇
1. When developing a prototype vehicle or project, of course its gonna take many years to fully assemble and be ready like say Americas - F35 program E. G.
2. The Death Star Mark II was a massively upgraded version of the original prototype - Star dust - and it didn't take nearly half as long BECAUSE the blueprints from the original were already available from the completion of the first.
Again - Same with the F35 which can now easily be built in a few months or less
3. In the case of the
Death Star Mark II The only things that were changed or upgraded were - Size, weak spots, firing accuracy and timing intervals
That doesn't factor in, Palpatine wanting it built immediately following the destruction of the first
This time he wasn't building from scratch, he was building from experience 🧑🎓
one thing that you failed to consider, logistics and resources.
@@mararamitchpeace Correcting design flaws from the original
This time there was no Galen Erso to sabotage the design basis from the inside out either.
The emoticons you chose fit Well 😅
@@The_Zilli Well even if I did, they were summed up in this video anyway
The first had wookie slaves, this 1 had robots/droids
With prototypes you got to work out the bugs and constantly tweak the design to get it to work properly.
I assumed that the second was built more quickly because they already had learned a lot from the construction of the first one. That way the engineers didn’t make as many mistakes and had fewer setbacks
securing resources (building material and personnel. shipping/processing logistics would have been improved on as well.
Exactly what I thought!
Palpy actually had a 2 for 1 coupon at Home Depot when building the original, and was able to stash a bunch of spare parts in his back yard under a tarp next to the fire pit and compost heap.
I think many Ewoks were used as worker Slaves
I always imagined they started building the second Death Star while still building the first. That way they still had some of the same materials between both projects. For instance, seems the empire struggled to acquire Kyber crystals in the early days.
There were 3.5 years between the battles of Yavin and Hoth, then 1.5 years to the battle of Endor. This gives the Empire roughly 5 years to build the second Death Star, not 2
i checked and return of the Jedi is A post to happen nearly four years after A new hope
Actually it’s only 3+1 but that’s about it
@@harrambou9468 well 3 + 1 is four so i am technically right
@@chrisclack4258, 🤣🤣🤣
@@chrisclack4258 (in obi wan voice) “well from a certain point of view”
The *'Legends'* anthology book "Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina" hinted that there were already plans to make a second Death Star even before 0BBY. The two ladies posing as the Tonnika sisters were sent to ambush a massive focusing crystal, the packaging for which was labeled, 'DSM2'. So they'd apparently already gotten started by then.
I thought in the books it stated he started Constructing the 2nd Death Star halfway through the 1st one because he was also Starting Construction on Star Killer Base around the time of the OG Trilogy
Oh I thought the starkiller base thing was just from the sequels? It's based on the legends books?
@@asiridesigns5344 nah its not in legends afaik
He actually had three being built in 3 different locations of the galaxy, even had the 3rd one being built in a secret location in Hutt space and overseen by the Hutt elders
And star killer base didn't exist in the OT
Exactly. They were built in parallel.
I always figured the first was mostly a prototype, and frame and base structure of the second was mostly built at the same time.
The first was primarily to test the weapons function and once it was proven that the kyber laser worked, they then went to work on the big one. Also, the senate was no longer an issue during construction of the second Death Star.
I think the 2nd death star probably began its construction while the 1st one is still midway through completion, but because the 1st still had series of technical difficulties with its kyber laser canon, neither death star could be finished. And at the time before EP4, Palpatine's major focus was probably on finishing DS-1 while DS-2 was still in its early stage. DS-2 probably only had a shell back then and doesn't have anything filled in yet. The reason is because Palpatine wants to see how DS-1 performs on all aspects in order to decide what improvements are required for DS-2. With the major technical difficulties being solved by Galen Erso and having learned the failure from Battle of Yavin, Palpatine had full knowledge of how to improve DS-2 in order to make it a far more invincible than DS-1. And with the Senate disolved in EP4, Palpatine no longer has any obstacles and is able to gather the needed resources much more quickly.
I had always assumed that a second Death Star was planned and started even as the first one was built.
Same here
Yea why does there need to be just one.
"Why build one when you can build two at twice the price?"
@@johnl6176 I'm here to say exactly that
@@johnl6176twice the pride, double the fall
Apart from the major delays when it comes to build the first ones and the secracy of its build I also like to imagine that the emperor had place building orders for the hard to consctruct parts of the second death star even before the battle of Yavin. The galaxy is a vast place and its likely that he wanted more battlestations to control it. Thus its also natural to make the follow ons larger and more capable in terms of carring troops and secondary weapons than the original ones whom could be read as an experimental prototype for a larger fleet. The second one could also fire much more often than the first one so its possible that they took a lot of the learning experiences with the first one into building the second one. J.
06:16 - Oh, I adored that special effect from 2016's Rogue One!
Peter Cushing (Grand Moff Tarkin)
He died in 1996, but 20 years later was brought back to life!
Oh and Carrie Fisher was also reconstructed with CGI being her much younger self from the original trilogy! 😁👌
RIP those 2 😔
Thought the Carrie one was pretty uncanny valley. Weird little "Hopffe"
Peter Cushing’s CGI was refined, and looked much more realistic in the sequel to Rouge One.
@@michaeldemarco9950 hm? Sequel?
@@HallyVee , “A New Hope”.
@@michaeldemarco9950 interesting, jokes don't usually get better when you have to lead someone to them by the nose ;-)
Yet another fantastic video! I have been following you for more then 7 years. As a Star Wars fan for nearly 40 years since I saw empire in the Theaters as a 5 year old kid I have adored this franchise. Thank you for doing what you do.
Your explanation of why the first Death Star took so long, is very much in line with mine. With the Senate, Palpatine couldn't spend too much too quickly. But with the second, he had that nice fat check from GIECO after the untimely destruction of the first. Insurance is very important!
That's my theory, and I'm sticking to it.
as someone else pointed out, I always figured they had more than one death star at a time. with all the setbacks the original had, they probably had more than one prototype of the original and most likely salvaged the unfinished death star(s) to start on the larger second death star. obviously the "improved" parts from the original death star could be debated as being new, to not leave the core as vulnerable as the original, but there is also the possibility that one of the Empire's engineers saw the vulnerability before the original was used and might have used the new design in the second death star before the first one was even blown up. of course its speculation at this point unless Disney adds that bit of information into their shows or maybe there's a book out there that covers that xD Either way, I think Sidious originally intended to use both death stars simultaneously before the events at the end of EP 4
I always assumed it was just easier to build a second one as you have already done it once. This is true in the real world, often a first type of ship takes years to build but subsequent ships of the same design can be built in a fraction of the time.
The main reason they built it so fast as they started building it immediately after they started the first one and their goal was to build dozens if not hundreds of them so they can control all the star systems
As well as the first death Star will have a bunch of engineering challenges to figure out... Like most big construction projects or mass producing of big construction projects the first always takes the longest and cost the most. When the second death star comes around you already learned all the lessons from the first. Which dramatically lowers time of production
It’s also a lot easier to do things the second time around than the first. But I like what you said about how with no Imperial Senate, it basically put the plans into overdrive.
My dad always thought it was because they had more of an idea on what they were doing; they had the experience of making Death Star 1 already
If I remember correctly, a smaller sub plot of the novel “Shadows of the Empire”, was that Palpatine wanted to use Prince Sheezors shipping fleet. This way to help move materials for the empire to cover up the fact that they were building the second death Star.
This was of great help concerning the second Death Star and rapid construction. This just goes to show you just how much faster things can be accomplished WITHOUT politicians. Also, I like to point out that Sidious, dispite hating the Jedi, had the same weakness, hubris. The Jedi foolishly believed the Sith had been extinct for a millennium, and Sidious enjoyed watching Darth Vader and Luke trying to kill each other that he couldn't sense what was happening on Endor.
This view makes a lot of sense. The two Death star plot is deep to understanding the whole Skywalker saga. What irks me a bit is the recapitulation of the planet killing "planet" in the sequels. For me that trivializes Lucas' visionary story ... (so many suggestions for a sequel rewrite are possible.)
Why would Starkiller Base trivialize Lucas' visionary story? It would make far more sense to build a big laser into a planet instead of building a big laser and then effectively building a planet around it as the two Death Stars did. The only part of the weapon that actually mattered was the laser, the rest was just armor built around to protect it, something you don't need if you build the laser into a planet.
Besides, George Lucas was a credit stealing hack who had barely anything to do with the "visionary story" of Star Wars anyway. Nearly everyone else involved had far more to do with what the OT and thus Star Wars became than George Lucas ever actually did. Lucas just was the one who ended up getting all the credit for it.
He had a ATM with Infinite Credits.
UNLIMITED CREDITS
Of the original trilogy, I saw Return of the Jedi first so when I learned the first movie also had a Death Star in it, I thought the one we see in RotJ was the one from A New Hope being repaired because the Rebellion had only succeeded in incapacitating it
Thats more badass tbh
Rather than 2 perfect shots two take out two, it took a couple to take out one. Makes the battle station seem more menacing. These big bases being destroyed in one movie. Kinda weakens the concept. The total destruction once and for all after a shot almost destroyed it. Years later after they recovered from the battle years before. They come back and finish it off.
Its like ever since palpatine won the doctrine became, "for ultimate power, one needs a huge planet gun."
Starkiller base... really just a cool cinematic location for han solo to die on.. on lets have a terrible snowy battle where the inexperienced wins against the ex jedi apprentice with years of force training by one of the greatest jedi masters, Luke Skywalker... his uncle. Like he was so powerful, luke tried to kill him in his sleep...
I always thought the same too.
Does' everyone realize that Director Krennic, while looking up at the death star in Rogue One,
that Grand Moff Tarkin SHOT HIM IN THE FACE by the death star?
I always figured they were already building the second one while the first was being built.
I was wondering but this makes sense now.
0:17 yet... Darth Vader dissmissed it asserting to Admiral Motti "Don’t be too proud of this technological terror you’ve constructed, the ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force." Maybe he was bothered that it was weighting on him for the lost blueprints, or plainly didn't believe in its usefulness. Speaking a bit of legends and making this last point even worse; if true, then he was not aware Sidius was "preparing" the galaxy for the Vong.
I recall seeing a Ralph McQuarrie concept painting for Return of the Jedi, which clearly depicts both the 1st & 2nd Death Stars being constructed along side one another, with the og being obviously much further along + wasn’t there a Jedi Academy novel that featured the ‘skeletal’ prototype of the Death Star, very similar to how it appeared at the end of Revenge of the Sith.
Not joking; I was JUST wondering this yesterday and was going to find somewhere to inquire about it. Then this pops up on my feed. Makes sense to me. Thank you.
I think it is important to know the second one was not finished when it was destroyed. The cannon or whatever you call it was operations but the rest appeared to be quite a ways from completion.
They used Ewoks to build the 2nd Death Star out of wood, it was simply painted to look metallic.
Ha!
There are indications in at least 1 legends book that super laser components were being stockpiled even before the first Death Star was destroyed, so I think there were always plans for a second Death Star, and it took much less time to build in part because it it was being built from stockpiled parts, and not completely from scratch.
"Why build one when you can build _two_ for twice the cost."
my friends and I chatted about this at one point, and we had figured that they had already started construction on the second one before the 1st was completed. We figured that it'd probably take a bit of time, but, you could still get quite a bit done once the first was finishing up, plus, the amount of time between 4 and 6, would be more than enough to, at the very least, make it functional
Yes, I had always wondered about this, but I don't recall ever learning exactly when construction of each Death Star really began.
"I have heard rumors of abandoned Death Star prototypes before construction of a true first Death Star began, and the countless lives lost in failed experiments and to the rage of frustrated imperial tyrant-generals, but as to hard evidence whether these were really true or the wild daydreams of drunken treasure hunters, I have, alas, made little progress." - an anonymous New Republic scholar.
Revenge of the Sith did show right at the end literally just before the credits the Death Star just starting to be built.
i always assumed that the second death star was already under construction ...if not simultaneously, then on a staggered schedule
..there may have been secret death stars that never got completed .....hmmm possibly some good canon fodder for a book ?
It always made me wonder how they completed the 2nd death star so quickly.
Building them almost simultaneously. The first death star gives you lessons learned to speed up production on the second
Two years? The calendar starts at the Battle of Yavin and RotJ was set in 4 ABY (After the Battle of Yavin).
Aside from that, one thing that I still don't get is why they didn't realize it was a trap the moment they dropped out of hyperspace and saw the glaring absence of space traffic around the station. Since it was obviously being assembled using materials from elsewhere, there should have been a *huge* fleet of ships swarming around it. That there weren't any should have been an immediate tipoff that all traffic had been cleared out for some reason. Such as the Empire having set a trap.
Your channel is excellent. Keep up the good work. Best wishes from India.
Always wondered and was just on my mind the other day. Thanks
My assumption was the Second was already in development and in Canon; Starkiller base was already in Production in of itself.
Makes way more sense that they had multiple death stars under construction at the same time
i also suspect a large part of the death star II was already built by the destruction of the Death star I which could be a contributing factor then when the first was destroyed completing the 2nd one would also have been a factor. also, it wouldnt suprise me that engineer Galen Erso would have activly delayed the construction through designing a fatly system then activly redesign systems to fix the faults to delay the construction of the Deathstar I for almost a decade since he was recruited because he worked on kyber based power systems for the Death star when it was being covertly built by the republic prior to order 66. if i remember he tried to quit 3 years after order 66 and then brought back in 2 years later because the development ground to a halt then was forced to work on it again for the next 10 years. realistically he may have made the work harder then it needed to be and take longer than it should in order to buy time for the schematics for the Deathstar to be smuggled out to the rebellion and the rebellion to destroy the Deathstar I
DeathstarII didnt have Galen Erso to work on it and introduce delays to the project
I've heard several explanations on other channels, but this one makes the most sense. Having to deal with the Senate would slow things down considerably.
Plus he was probably building it “in the wings” during the Clone Wars, considering Episode 2 confirmed they had the plans all the way back then.
I believe construction started on DS2 as they were working on DS1. DS1 was the test-type and there were probably DS3 and DS4 parts being made before New Hope.
Probably had the second one already in progress. Plus it wasn't finished. At least a good 5-10 years left of construction on the second one. Plus they likely used some of the wreckage from the first one for materials. Plus the first one was a test bed where they had to design it all untested before.
I doubt wreckage from the first death star would have been very useful. Each and every component of the first Death star would have been subjected to a massive explosion and have been exposed to the radation of the Yavin Star and magnetic field of the gas giant Yavin 4. Explosions damage and destroy things, radition and magnetic field can change the properties of materials to the point of rendering them unsuable. You don't want brittle armour plating for example. Anything more complex than a sheet of metal would have to be thoroughly tested and most likely be refurbished before it could be used again - and they'd still not be as good as they would have been when they were new. Besides: Production of new things can often be broken down into tasks that don't require skill - or even sentience - to be done. Repairing things that don't work as they should requires more skill and knowledge and people with those skills would be scarce. Which begs the question: Is sifting through irradiated rubble to find and refurbish equipment wouldn't be as good as it used to be really the best way to use them?
@@MrAranton Raw materials. Resmelting.
nothing should have been radioactive enough on the death star to make it unusable, it was powered by kyber. Plus, space fantasy, not science fiction. They make up the rules. Basically a big field of debris that could be used. Didn't say that it would be reused as is. Said materials. Raw materials. Easier to resmelt the existing huge amount of metal than to mine more. Especially with such a huge amount of it in the vicinity.
My question is why Palpatine didn't just strap a warp drive to a 5lb rock. Seriously, that's all it take to blow up a planet the speed of light is very fast, so when you accelerate something faster than that it doesn't need to be big to blow up a planet.
Edit: I forgot to mention it would literally be faster than the death star laser since lasers move at light speed, not faster than light.
Funny, just asked this in the Andor Fans page. Thanks for addressing this!
I always assumed they had just started building number 2 while the first one was finishing. But your theory makes allot of sense.
I think their research on kyber crystals was a major contributor as well. It's like the uranium in atomic bombs making the first batch took years, but after they figured out the refinement process they produced it in mass quantities.
This explains alot. Indeed it now makes more sense why the second Death Star was being done more quickly. Thought not fully completed, the second one I think could have been even more deadly than the first once it wss finished
Good explanation, between the knowledge from the first one and more absolute galactic control it makes sense. Of course, building a second version of your massively flawed first battle station and ending up with the second one destroyed is just... hilarious.
Point of fact: the second Death Star was built destroyed FOUR years after the first, not two. Construction on the second was technically ongoing during the Battle of Endor.
I think ESB was 2-3 ABY, to make the timeline work better.
Loved the video but I had never thought about the second deathstar
The second Death Star was *operational* but *not* complete. I seems reasonable to assume that the 80/20 rule could apply: they could complete the critical parts (such as the superlaser) quickly but the last 20% of construction could take 80% of the time. I also imagined that work on Death Star 2.0 was already underway while the first Death Star was nearing completion.
being a force user he could sense nearby threats or shifts in the force that make him believe he would need to do things a certain way, Palpatine had the most power but Vader was the strongest
I would love a breakdown of deathstar vs mass shadow generator. Which one was more effective and why. I think that would be pretty interesting
Thanks for answering this burning question for me; it’s been on my mind for a good while. I always thought Palpatine had a backup Death Star just in case the first one was destroyed.
This is just like the construction of the Bizmark and Tirpitz.
They were built almost simultaneously. One was started first, and finished first, but were built at the same time.
@@michaeldemarco9950So basically building the prototype, then building the next one by improving on the mistakes used to build the first one.
Personally, I always just assumed that the second Death Star had started construction before the first had been completed. Even for such a superweapon, having more that one aids in power projection across an area the size of the galaxy. So I'd also somewhat expected that somewhere out there was the early frame of a third just waiting.
I think the fact that it was operational, but not complete was also an important factor.
If we took an aircraft carrier under construction, with only it's landing deck complete, and used a tug to drag it to a war zone, used auxiliary ships to provide radar and crew quarters, it could be considered "operational" and serve its function.
The DS2 was likely in a similar state, the weapons system worked, but it had to rely on a shield from a planet, it probably couldn't move on its own power, and everything not related to the main battery was likely also unfinished.
Not only that, while its superlaser did work, there's no reason to think it was at full power. The DS1 was able to devistate Jeda with just a single reactor laser, so for the DS2 to be operational in an anti-rebel fleet capacity and anti-Endor-rebel-team capacity all it needed was one or two reactors online.
I could be very far off because it's been a minute but if I remember right in Legends materials construction had started on the 2nd Death Star (also 3rd, 4th and more) while to first was still under construction which explained part of the speed in which DS #2 was being constructed. Also I seem to remember that there were to be several Death Stars about to really have things on lock down
I thought it was learned the emperor actually built the "death star"(s) to battle the incoming yuuzhun vong war.
I hope that everyone sees what can be accomplished without the interference of politicians .
Is that really the lesson here? LOL
Trump showed us all just that. #MAGA2024
Was The Emperor truly evil? Or ruthlessly efficient?
@@jameslauder3984 nah bruh Trump did more good for america then he will ever get credit for and you blinded by Sleepy Joe biden like the rest if the sheeple
@@eddiebrock1908 uh I agree with you. Trump is one of the best presidents we’ve ever had.
Brilliantly explained
I had assumed that they began construction on the second one while the first was still under construction. But this explanation makes more sense. I think it was a mistake in A New Hope to make such a small deal out of the senate being dissolved when the impact of that was really pretty massive.
What I'm about to put forth may be more in line with "Legends" but I'd like to add somethings that could even help this crazy "built in only 2 years" theory. Military production/construction projects, especially of extreme large scale battle platforms, such as battleships, aircraft carriers, aircraft, etc. are typically built in pairs for various reasons. It was/is not uncommon for a new design of (say) a battleship to enter service no more than a year or two before its "sister ship," (this also being the standard practice of bygone ocean-liners.) That being said, according to "Legends," construction of the second Death Star began not long after the construction start of the first Death Star. The first Death Star was more or less the "prototype," the second Death Star being constructed on a more massive scale thanks to the information being gained as the first was built. Of course, while the first DS was constructed under extreme secrecy, the work on the second was simultaneously being slowly constructed just behind the first with just as much if not more secrecy. It's doubtful that even Gaylon Erso was aware of a second DS. Of course, if you add in the factors described within this video, then the second DS seeming to *almost* being completed in 2 years can make a lot more sense.
So for the first one, he basically had to build the equivalent to a super aircraft carrier, using government money without them, knowing what you were doing
Sounds great. Love the reason.
All these comments are great, but even younger me assumed they were already working on it prior to the destruction of the original Death Star. After watching the prequel trilogy it confirmed that Palpatine always had back up plans and plans amongst plans. So it’s quite possible that ten years prior to the Yavin battle the second station was starting construction. Anyway I digress, thanks for video and have a great day.
It's an interesting take. I can see how the process outlined in this video makes sense. But for my money, my assumption has always been that the two Death Stars where built concurrently. In my own head-canon, the DS2 was began shortly after the DS1 and was not yet complete by 2ABY because it was so much bigger.
Fascinating video and topic to dive into!
I always assumed the 2nd Death star was the first death star but wasn't completely destroyed! A bit like a planet where half of its size missing... They never made it clear in the original films this was a completely new death star!
He had already started the second before a new hope
It was also like a third again bigger. The whole thing never sat right with me, I always figured it was lazy writing and I’m a huge fan of the original trilogy! This helps me accept it a little more.
Of course they made it bigger! The Empire were stupid enough to make a massive planet destroying superweapon instead of tens of thousands of much more useful Star Destroyers instead. The Empire clearly only care about raw size and power over actual effectiveness.
He didn't want the empire to be seen as an easy pushover, so he immediately sought after a much better and more powerful 1
For him it was a personal matter as the - All Mighty emperor of the galaxy - 👑
*¡12:39 pm Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, 30 November 2022!*
Video idea about picking brains: when, why, and how did the rebel alliance become a unified force against the empire?
I always just went with what Randall Graves theorized. He said that the Empire hired contractors to build the second Death Star.
I always figured that the first one didnt completely blow up and that they were able to salvage some of the superstructure. After the second one exploded, bits of it were all over Endor and likely out in space as well, so this would make some sense.
I always felt like the intention was to have a fleet of death stars. A single one would help maintain control of the Galaxy but it still would take a while to move it around between systems. Having two or three of them in addition to the imperial Starfleet would have been devastating. So I think that they started the construction on the second one about 10 years after they started the first one. They didn't openly construct the second one because the rebellion didn't know about it. Until the Bothan spies clued them in on it.
Great video. Thanks
In a movie script, anything is possible. Even sounds in space. Pew pew!
Another reason the Death Star got finished so rapidly: The emperor already had the blueprints, from Skarif, as to how the first battle station was built. So rebuilding it was a piece of cake.
Sidious: I would like to apply for another loan
Senate: On what Grounds
Sidious: I AM THE SENATE
Senate: Loan Approved
I always felt like it was already under construction before the first one was destroyed. 2 lightsabers. 2 Death Stars. It's something to do.
I always assume they were being built nearly simultaneously.. you have to think that the first death star is going to have a whole bunch of new engineering issues.
You take your hard lessons from the first death star and you use it to make the second one which will always be faster an production
This is an excellent explanation. I had never though about this! Do you think technology may have changed over the course of the building of the Death Star?
I just realized at 0:13 the objects the robots are installing are the same objects that are being manufactured in Andor
The difficult thing to reconcile is that they could construct a larger Death Star in less time, yet still have it be hidden so well that the Emperor would have to _allow_ the Bothan spies to find out about it, rather than have it stick out like a sore thumb. That speaks to a truly frightening logistics network. Which makes me wonder why the first Death Star was such a secret. The Senate had some tight purse strings.
But the whole "the first Death Star took almost 20 years" is just a Lucas retcon. If one just goes by ANH (really, just "Star Wars") we have no idea how long it took. The notion that it took 20 years is just so Lucas could force feed us Death Start stuff in the prequels.
I’m pretty sure half the time that it took to build the first death star was taken up by the research into the super laser
I always wondered that thanks
This seem like an elaborate explanation with extra steps. For an early 80s boardroom decision to blow up another before moving onto ET
He was able to build it so quickly because Jerjerrod doubled his efforts. Obviously. Duh. It's in the movie.
I hoped so, for Jerjerrods sake…. The emperor isn’t as forgiving as Darth Vader is
I always chalked it up to having the parts and know-how.
Don't forget that the manufacturing infrastructure took time to conduct the first time around but was already in place for the second one.
I want a SW Transformers crossover where Unicron takes the Death Star as his new body.
It stands to reason that the first and second one were in construction at the same time. The first, being the prototype, probably began construction a year or so before the second, and was being used as a 'test bed' to figure things out like weak points, and reactor systems, and so on. The first incorporates all manner of things, like open exhaust ports, that the second doesn't have, simply because it's seen as just a test run to make sure everything works together; while those designs are taken and refined and used on the second one that's already under construction. I wager they knew about the failings of the exhaust port early on, but it was largely dismissed. Even so, once they moved to the second one, those problems were corrected. This actually isn't that uncommon with weapon construction. Try things out with a fully working prototype, and then apply that to the production model.
I just always assumed they started building them both at the same time but because the second one was bigger it took longer to build and when the first death star was destroyed they had to rush to get the second one operational.