Star Wars: The Empire Already Had Better Weapons Than The Death Star

Highlights

The Empire had other weapons besides the Death Star that could have been more effective in pushing their agenda on the galaxy.
Starkiller Base was one suggestion, with a longer range and no built-in self-destruct, making it a formidable weapon.
Upgrades to existing resources like TIE Fighters and stormtroopers' armor could have easily turned the tide in the Empire's favor.

Star Wars fans have some ideas on what weapons the Empire could have used that would have been more effective than the Death Star. It turns out the oppressive fascist regime had plenty of other options, and the rest of the galaxy may have been lucky they didn't use them to their full potential.

The planet-destroying Death Star remains among the most iconic pieces of imagery in Star Wars. It's not difficult to see why, as it and its subsequent variations regularly played integral parts in the story due to their virtually unfathomable levels of destructive power. But according to fans, there are a ton of other weapons the Empire could have used more effectively to push their agenda on the galaxy. The Empire may not be the greatest threat to the galaxy, but it could be with a few tweaks.

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User Serdna87 posed a simple question on the Star Wars subreddit, asking what weapon would have been better than the Death Star. This immediately prompted a deluge of responses from other users, drawing on their experiences with Star Wars stories both in and out of the canon. One of the more obvious answers offered was the Starkiller Base from The Force Awakens, which was essentially the same idea as the Death Star with plenty of massive improvements, like a longer range and a less obvious weakness. But what about more subtle options?

"Well Starkiller base was. It had a MUCH longer range and it didn't have the built in self-destruct. They actually had to blow it up by conventional means."

That's where the ideas shone. Many of these improvements dealt with practical enhancements to the Empire's existing resources, such as upgrades to the TIE Fighters (such as Grand Admiral Thrawn's TIE Defender concept) and better armor for the stormtroopers. The idea here is that, since the Empire tends to focus more on maneuverability than protection for its fighters and infantry, designing them both so they can take a shot and keep going would immediately turn the tides in their favor during any given skirmish. One tough soldier is one thing, but requiring more than one blast to take down each one? The Rebels would have been easily outclassed. That's not to mention the less obvious idea of simply pouring more resources into local patrol garrisons, making the Rebels' "fast and hard" strike tactics less viable.

"Better armor and weapons for stormtroopers

TIE Defenders or TIE Advanced as the standard starfighter."

"TIEs were already the fastest and most maneuverable ship in the galaxy I think. The issue is how weak they were because they had no shields. All they had to do was add some shields and it would have made it that much harder for the rebels during dogfights."

"Take the resources and industrial capacity and plow it into local garrisons, light cruisers and small patrol craft. The sort of things that you'd actually need if you were fighting a galaxy spanning guerrilla insurgency."

Other suggestions were a bit more cheeky, bringing up now non-canon weapons like the nearly indestructible and subtly named Sun Crusher, which was no bigger than a starfighter yet possessed more destructive power than both Death Stars combined. In the Star Wars Legends continuity, the Sun Crusher was built at Grand Moff Tarkin's secret Maw Installation facility for developing experimental weapons and tech. It also had such power and resilience that it could survive a glancing blow from a Death Star laser, fly through a Star Destroyer's bridge without taking damage, and, most importantly, trigger a star to go supernova, destroying every planet in its system in one fell swoop.

"How about a completely invincible ship, no bigger than a starfighter, that could destroy entire systems by causing their stars to go supernova? And that could fly straight through the bridge of a Star Destroyer without taking damage?"

Sure, the Sun Crusher was destroyed by Jedi Master and resident hothead Kyp Durron, one of the strongest characters in Star Wars Legends, when he flew it into a black hole in Kevin J. Anderson's novel Champions of the Force (an event also seen in Michael A. Stackpole's excellent book I, Jedi). But that's no longer canon, which allows current Lucasfilm writers to bring it back. However, should any storyteller be trusted with such power? It would be difficult to explain how the Empire or the First Order could have fallen if they had access to such a weapon. Then again, if they can fumble the ball with the Death Star twice, maybe it's not all that outlandish.

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Star Wars

Star Wars is a multimedia franchise created by George Lucas and Lucasfilm Ltd with the 1977 motion picture. The science fiction franchise follows the adventures of characters (both humanoid and alien) in outer space, including those who can wield a mystical power known as the Force. Since the release of the original trilogy movies, the franchise has expanded to include multiple films and branched out to other mediums like comics, video games, TV shows, theme park attractions, and more. The IP and Lucasfilm were sold to Disney in 2012.