timeline - Were there two Death Stars in construction at the same time?

The first Death Star was in construction at the end of Episode III (presumably 19 BBY). The ending shot is this picture, with only small portions of the superstructure completed:

Emperor and Vader looking at the Death Star under construction

19 years later, the Death Star has only been recently completed (the novel Death Star places the completion about 1 BBY). So we assume it took about 18 years to build, and that's with tons of Wookiees working on it. Fast-forward to Return of the Jedi in 4 ABY, and the second Death Star is significantly built, and is "fully operational":

Death Star 2 as it appeared at the Battle of Endor

They had learned from their mistake on the first Death Star, and had covered up the thermal ports. Presumably they did not just make a patchwork fix, but re-engineered that portion. Anyway, it seems unlikely the progress made on the second Death Star occurred in only 4 years. Both Death Stars cost huge amounts of money and resources, and having two in construction would have been much more difficult to hide. So were both in construction at the same time?

Answer

The second Death Star's construction started during the Battle of Yavin, when Emperor Palpatine ordered for the construction of new superlasers, to which the resources for its construction, including Hyperspace tugs and treadships, from its origin near Sullust to Endor via the Silvestri Trace, an obscure hyperspace route.
Ironically, he issued this order shortly before the first Death Star's destruction at the hands of Luke Skywalker.

Source: "The Essential Guide to Warfare", via Wookieepedia

Comments

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

languages - Do we ever see written English in the Star Wars films?

In Empire Strikes Back , we see a transcription of what R2's beeps and bloops mean, but it's not English (sorry for the low quality, it's from the 2004 DVDs): I'd assume it's what Basic looks like when written, but is there some point in the the Star Wars films we see written English instead? (This sort of spun off from a discussion in How do people understand astromech droids? .) Answer At one point there was English but it has been phased out in subsequent versions of the films. Chris Gould at DVD Active did a comparison of all versions of each of the Star Wars films, and in his comparison of Episode 4 , there are a couple of screenshots showing how the power gauge for the Death Star tractor beam was changed. I imagine there are probably more to be found in his other comparisons but I haven't got around to reading those yet.

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...

Blog

Search This Blog