You are right, it's been debated for ages. It was, in my opinion and not really to my liking, settled with ICS but that's legends now so I guess the debate is open again. That said, there is a huge size disparity between Home One type and the other two types. 3-5 times the size IIRC, enough so to distinguish one type of the other two, or at least SHOULD.The Romulan Republic wrote:This, of course, presumes that it is accurate to apply the real-world naval designation of destroyer to an ISD, and for that matter that their is any point to applying real-world maritime naval designations to Star Wars vessels at all, both points that I have considerable doubt over.Knife wrote:Depends on what you want to call cruisers I suppose. There is the Home One type 'cruiser' but you could say the Liberty type and the wingless Liberty type are 'destroyers' on par with ISD's. Anyway, yeah, at least 4 large Home One types with around a dozen or so 'destroyer' types in the Battle of Endor.
All the stuff I would have said is legends. That said, there is a matter of scale in SW ships. You have very small ships measured in tens to hundreds of meters, you have ISD's and other 'standard murder wedges' in the 1-2 kilometer range, and large ships in tens of kilometer range.I mean, we see ISDs or similar vessels function in roles (vaguely) approximating those of destroyer, cruiser, or even battleship depending on the source and circumstances, and their's nothing to really pin them to a "destroyer" designation specifically other than the name, which could have an entirely different meaning in a fictional universe (especially when the term "star destroyer" is used for vessels ranging from substantially smaller than an ISD up to dreadnoughts orders of magnitude larger).
There used to be a two tiered system with 'star-' denoting a galactic civilization level ship (namely something big and powerful that only a very large civilization or nation could afford to field) that fell into naval functions like destroyer, cruiser, etc... with the smaller ships just being categorized with the naval designations. Granted, it's legends now but it is plain that if you call a Corellian Corvette a 'cruiser' in the colloquial sense, ie: a fast ship capable of operating independently, it is not the same as if you call an ISD a cruiser. Two totally different scales.
Since the old debate is 'on' again due to ICS and other works being legends, we can discuss this. But what ever you call them, it is clear that Home One types are on a larger and/or different scale than their smaller cousin's. Whether you wanna call it a destroyer, cruiser, or a tallywacker.
With the exception of destroyer, yeah that's pretty standard sci fi tropes. Though I've never personally liked the term Dreadnought as a naval role. Anyway, sure in conjunction with what I said above. That said, US navy destroyers aren't exactly chasing down fast torpedo ships and screening Battleships anymore either. The US operates way more destroyers now that cruisers, and no frigates (well except for the USS Constitution but that's not going anywhere in a war anytime soon).For that matter, "star destroyer" is a term which seems to only ever be used to refer to a specific style of wedge-shaped Republic/Imperial warship, and I don't recall the term "destroyer" ever being used otherwise in canon (correct me if I'm wrong). The usual scale seems to go roughly: Corvette, Frigate, Cruiser, Battleship, Dreadnought.
TMP refers to the small Corellian ship as a cruiser, a diplomatic cruiser IIRC. The term 'cruiser' has been horribly applied in SW. I remember at one time on this site doing a size comparison of US naval cruisers and destroyers and there really isn't much size difference between them, so it's more a matter or role and armament.And for what its worth, The Clone Wars specifically refers to the smaller Venator class as cruisers. Possibly different systems under the Republic and the more militarized Empire, but its hard to see classifications changing so radically that a vessel larger and more powerful than a cruiser becomes a destroyer in just a few years, especially in a setting that's so often technologically stagnant.
I some what agree. Although what ever military designation you apply to them, it's clear they are a galactic level standard size combatant. Whether you call that a destroyer or cruiser or what, the ISD and a handful of similar designs would represent a 'bog standard' warship for it's respective government. The two smaller Mon Cal ships, Liberty and wingless Liberty, are either bog standard or the Home One is bog standard and the two smaller ships types are 'less than'.Personally, I'm somewhat inclined to regard the label "Star Destroyer" as an example of Imperial dick-waving much like the name "Death Star" or "Starkiller", rather than designating said vessels as equivalent to naval destroyers.
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- PeZook
