Science-fiction lovers will occasionally take realism in our movies, games, and TV shows for granted. Science fiction is about pushing the limits of of our imagination when it comes to what is possible. Hyper-intelligent machines, laser guns, and faster-than-light travel are just a few of the commodities that science fiction has give to us that exceed our current reality. And perhaps no other science fiction franchise is as well known or as beloved as Star Wars.
We love Star Wars for the magnificent space saga it has given us about the Skywalker family. But come on, we all have to admit that the technology that Star Wars showed us is the real draw. Who has not wanted a lightsaber at some point? Who hasn't pretended to have their own Millennium Falcon? And𝓡 let's not forget the Death Star, the ultimate weapon of villainous proportions.
But is the Death Star all it's really cracked up to be? The more I think about how the Death Star functions and what it is intended to do, the more I see flaws in its conception. If you really think about it, the Death Star is the most nonsensical science-fiction item ever created. I can no longer ignore the fact that the Death Star is, quite frankly, the most inane piece of equipment a bad guy has ever wasted his/her time building. You think I'm kidding? Read on if you want to 🎃learn how and why the Death Star is more than a little bit dumb.
25 Hoꦇw Does It Move?
The Death Star is exactly what it looks like. It's a giant ball in space. So have you ever wondered how it moves? It does move, as shown in A New Hope when it shifts into position to attack the Rebel Base on Yavin 4 and in Rogue One when it shows up to fire on Scarif.
But how? As far as I can tell, there is no sign of a propulsion system on its rear. What exactly is🗹 the Death Star using to push itself forward in a gravity-less environment?
24 How Can They Afford This? ♐
Economi♎cs students at to calculate how mu𓆉ch the Death Star would have taken to build. The answer was ginormous.
It would take roughly $852 septillion just to construct the Death Star.
That figure dꩲoes not even take into account the funds necessary to pay the employees needed to run the thing or the equipment necessary to fund additional TIE Fighter battalions. There is honestly no way that the Empire could have paid for the Death Star, let alone two of them💮.
23 🦂 Bad Management
Darth Vader may have been the Dark Lord aboard the Death Star, but we all knew that Governor Tarkin was the man in charge. He just did a terrible job. Think abꦉout it. Tarkin knew the Rebels had just stolen plans to the Death Star that could reveal a weakness in the battle station.
Instead of regrouping and searching for what that weakness might be, Tarkin decided to confront the Rebels immediately. He basically attacked an enemy group knowing he had faulty equipment.
22 🍨 Why Didn't They Get To The Point?
If you'ꦗre trying to attack a small thermal exhaust port, why not just fly directly to said exhaust port instead of zooming along a trench for several minutes beforehand? It is like science-fiction creators sometimes forget that space is a three-dimensional area, and that there are multiple ways to approach things.
Did Luke and his fellow X-Wing pilots really have to travel through that trench in order to reach the port? Couldn't he and his🌱 fellow Rebels have just flown d✃irectly to it?
21 ♍ ൲ Paint A Bullseye On The Weak Point
Speaking of the trench run in A New Hope, how silly is it that the Death Star would have a trench leading directly to its one weakness. Are trenches normal adornments for thermal exhaust ports? Was there any logical reason for that port to have a trench leading directly to it?
Granted, I'm no engineer of Death Stars, so I have no clue what I'm talki🍃ng about. It seems to me, however, that all a thermal exhaust port needs to be is a vent releasing heat. A trench has nothing to do with it.
20 A Humongous Secret ඣ
The prequels revealed to us that the Death Star had been planned since before the Clone Wars. The Separatist leadership hꦍad apparently been preparing for the enormous battle station for a while.
But if that was the case, how did the Death Star remain a secret for so long?
💃A construction of that magnitude requires a ton of workers. Are you telling me that all of these employees kept their mouths shut about what they were working on? Someone had to spill the beans.
19 A Door To The Vacuum 🐲 ꦓ
One of the things I never really noticed until I was older was how the Death Star apparently has an open hangar bay door to outer space. How do the Imperials retain any atmosphere within the hangar with such a gaping hole like that?
In the Star Wars universe, magnetic shields over open doors prevent the loss of oxygen and atmosphe🧔re from an enclosed space. Umm, okay. What exactly is this technology and how are more people not using it?
18 That's✤ Not How 𓆏A Shield Works
The second Death Star got an upgrade in protection from the first. Thanks to a facility on the forest moon of Endor, the seco🍒nd Death Star had a shield🅰 surrounding it that the Rebels could not penetrate.
But if the Rebels were not able to attack the Death Star II because of that shield, shouldn't the shield have prevented the Death Star from firing upon the Rebels? That presentation of how the second Death Star was operational was total bolognꦦa.
17 Keeping The F🅠alcon In Mind
When the Rebels are finally able to make an attack run on the🗹 second Death Star, Lando pilots the Millennium Falco🦩n into the bowels of the half-constructed space station. He leads a small group of ships along some pipelines that eventually lead to the reactor.
The Death Star is understandably gargantuan, but mayhaps, while they were building this second station, they could have made the pathways leading to the reactor smaller. There's no reason why the Millennium Falcon should have been able to fit inside those tunnels.
16 𒀰 Expecting Trouble
Let's return to the first Star Wars movie for a moment. Remember how we were talking about how insane it was for the Empire to have built a trench leading directly to the Death Star's one weakness? (It'💃s almost like they knew it was a weakness.)
It is also insane to have placed guns inside the trench to ward off an attack. Seriously, there is no reason for the Imperials to hav🔴e turrets there unless they knew that the thermal exhaust port was going to come und♌er attack.