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Why did it take 19 years to construct the Death Star I? I heard that the one seen at the end of ROTS isn't actually the first Death Star seen in A New Hope. Bah, I'm confused. Can someone explain?

GTGearZero wrote:Why did it take 19 years to construct the Death Star I? I heard that the one seen at the end of ROTS isn't actually the first Death Star seen in A New Hope. Bah, I'm confused. Can someone explain?

It isn't, it's layout is different from the one in ANH. This is easily explained by saying it's the prototype (only the frame, reactor, and superlaser). The prototype is first mentioned in Dark Empire II, appears in Jedi Search, and is mentioned in the new Death Star novel.

Or possibly one of several prototypes. The Death Star prototype in Jedi Search was built in the Maw Installation, which was established significantly after ROTS.

Saxton establishes that this could've been the Confederacy's Great Weapon or a prototype thereof, captured as a prize and subject for analysis and duplication by Moff Tarkin, he would develop the Death Star from it and his own research and development.

Master_Baerne wrote:Or possibly one of several prototypes. The Death Star prototype in Jedi Search was built in the Maw Installation, which was established significantly after ROTS.

Does it specifically say built there, and is there a reason why they couldn't be at the future site of the Maw Installation?

It is not surrounded by black holes?

As has been said by LFL over and over again, it is the original Death Star and yes, it was captured from the Separatists.

The prototype is retconned to having been built later, to test the superlaser-concept before doing anything drastic to the design, and the reason it went slowly, was that the Emperor had other, more pressing concerns than his one pet project (building a navy, consolidating imperial rule etc.)

Effective work was 2 years for the DSI (Star Wars Technical Journal), but with an additional 17 years of wastefulness.

Illuminatus Primus wrote:It is not surrounded by black holes?

I would think that, to the untrained eye, the Maw wouldn't look too much different locally from any other section of deep space. Unless you were right up against one of the black holes, that is.

Surlethe wrote: I would think that, to the untrained eye, the Maw wouldn't look too much different locally from any other section of deep space. Unless you were right up against one of the black holes, that is.

IIRC the Maw is visible because some types of gases or something or other fall into the black hole and make them visible, or something like that.

Surlethe wrote:

Illuminatus Primus wrote:It is not surrounded by black holes?

I would think that, to the untrained eye, the Maw wouldn't look too much different locally from any other section of deep space. Unless you were right up against one of the black holes, that is.

They are very close together, such that even something as large as a Lambda-class shuttle piloted slowly in sublight with all the structural integrity of a SW vessel lacks either the delta-V or the structural integrity against tidal forces to survive entering except along a single vector. I imagine the gravitational lensing of the background space would be immense.

Ah, that makes sense. I didn't realize they were that clustered together.

It makes no sense that they exist in equilibrium for so long; there must be some hitherto unseen and artificial mechanism preventing the collapse of the cluster. It has been suggested a superrace constructed the Maw, after all.

For some reason Kessel and its system are very close if we're to trust the Jedi Search narrative. (Ugh this shit is so stupid I want to hurt myself.) Don't know why the star and its planets remain stable so close to a cluster of black holes.

VT-16 wrote:As has been said by LFL over and over again, it is the original Death Star and yes, it was captured from the Separatists.

The prototype is retconned to having been built later, to test the superlaser-concept before doing anything drastic to the design, and the reason it went slowly, was that the Emperor had other, more pressing concerns than his one pet project (building a navy, consolidating imperial rule etc.)

Effective work was 2 years for the DSI (Star Wars Technical Journal), but with an additional 17 years of wastefulness.

Yep, see Lucas' excuses on the audio commentary of ROTS DVD.

Surlethe wrote:I would think that, to the untrained eye, the Maw wouldn't look too much different locally from any other section of deep space. Unless you were right up against one of the black holes, that is.

It's a bright glowing area of space, with little spheres of black (the black holes). they mention this in the novels and it's displayed in the last family mission in X-wing Alliance (turn all the settings up)

Illuminatus Primus wrote: For some reason Kessel and its system are very close if we're to trust the Jedi Search narrative. (Ugh this shit is so stupid I want to hurt myself.) Don't know why the star and its planets remain stable so close to a cluster of black holes.

The same ancient galactic civilization did it (didn't the NEC say the Rakata did it)

God or Super Aliens did it, right?

Illuminatus Primus wrote:It makes no sense that they exist in equilibrium for so long; there must be some hitherto unseen and artificial mechanism preventing the collapse of the cluster. It has been suggested a superrace constructed the Maw, after all.

For some reason Kessel and its system are very close if we're to trust the Jedi Search narrative. (Ugh this shit is so stupid I want to hurt myself.) Don't know why the star and its planets remain stable so close to a cluster of black holes.

Super-aliens. About the same story as Corellia, where apparently every single planet in the system is inhabitable and human-friendly, no matter how close to (or far from) the star they are.

Yeah, the super aliens story was just a rumor in-universe, but it is as good as any. They must've assembled some hyperspatial (truly hyperspatial, I don't mean the poorly named tachyonic medium for FTL transit in SW) meta-architecture we cannot see or something, that prevents the system from collapsing into its natural state.