It’s my head canon that Sidious always intended for there to be 2 Death Stars. The first would be captained by Tarkin and serve as purely military installation. The second would serve as his moving Capitol and power base. Mutually assured destruction would always be on the table in case Tarkin, or another commander decided to rebel and use the first Death Star against him

A few simple, easily understood reasons 👇 1. When developing a prototype vehicle or project, of course its gonna take many years to fully assemble and be ready like say Americas - F35 program E. G. 2. The Death Star Mark II was a massively upgraded version of the original prototype - Star dust - and it didn't take nearly half as long BECAUSE the blueprints from the original were already available from the completion of the first. Again - Same with the F35 which can now easily be built in a few months or less 3. In the case of the Death Star Mark II The only things that were changed or upgraded were - Size, weak spots, firing accuracy and timing intervals That doesn't factor in, Palpatine wanting it built immediately following the destruction of the first

I assumed that the second was built more quickly because they already had learned a lot from the construction of the first one. That way the engineers didn’t make as many mistakes and had fewer setbacks

I always imagined they started building the second Death Star while still building the first. That way they still had some of the same materials between both projects. For instance, seems the empire struggled to acquire Kyber crystals in the early days.

The *'Legends'* anthology book "Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina" hinted that there were already plans to make a second Death Star even before 0BBY. The two ladies posing as the Tonnika sisters were sent to ambush a massive focusing crystal, the packaging for which was labeled, 'DSM2'. So they'd apparently already gotten started by then.

There were 3.5 years between the battles of Yavin and Hoth, then 1.5 years to the battle of Endor. This gives the Empire roughly 5 years to build the second Death Star, not 2

I thought in the books it stated he started Constructing the 2nd Death Star halfway through the 1st one because he was also Starting Construction on Star Killer Base around the time of the OG Trilogy

I had always assumed that a second Death Star was planned and started even as the first one was built.

I always figured the first was mostly a prototype, and frame and base structure of the second was mostly built at the same time. The first was primarily to test the weapons function and once it was proven that the kyber laser worked, they then went to work on the big one. Also, the senate was no longer an issue during construction of the second Death Star.

I think the 2nd death star probably began its construction while the 1st one is still midway through completion, but because the 1st still had series of technical difficulties with its kyber laser canon, neither death star could be finished. And at the time before EP4, Palpatine's major focus was probably on finishing DS-1 while DS-2 was still in its early stage. DS-2 probably only had a shell back then and doesn't have anything filled in yet. The reason is because Palpatine wants to see how DS-1 performs on all aspects in order to decide what improvements are required for DS-2. With the major technical difficulties being solved by Galen Erso and having learned the failure from Battle of Yavin, Palpatine had full knowledge of how to improve DS-2 in order to make it a far more invincible than DS-1. And with the Senate disolved in EP4, Palpatine no longer has any obstacles and is able to gather the needed resources much more quickly.

06:16 - Oh, I adored that special effect from 2016's Rogue One! Peter Cushing (Grand Moff Tarkin) He died in 1996, but 20 years later was brought back to life! Oh and Carrie Fisher was also reconstructed with CGI being her much younger self from the original trilogy! 😁👌 RIP those 2 😔

The main reason they built it so fast as they started building it immediately after they started the first one and their goal was to build dozens if not hundreds of them so they can control all the star systems

Yet another fantastic video! I have been following you for more then 7 years. As a Star Wars fan for nearly 40 years since I saw empire in the Theaters as a 5 year old kid I have adored this franchise. Thank you for doing what you do.

Apart from the major delays when it comes to build the first ones and the secracy of its build I also like to imagine that the emperor had place building orders for the hard to consctruct parts of the second death star even before the battle of Yavin. The galaxy is a vast place and its likely that he wanted more battlestations to control it. Thus its also natural to make the follow ons larger and more capable in terms of carring troops and secondary weapons than the original ones whom could be read as an experimental prototype for a larger fleet. The second one could also fire much more often than the first one so its possible that they took a lot of the learning experiences with the first one into building the second one. J.

He had a ATM with Infinite Credits.

Always wondered and was just on my mind the other day. Thanks

My dad always thought it was because they had more of an idea on what they were doing; they had the experience of making Death Star 1 already

I always assumed it was just easier to build a second one as you have already done it once. This is true in the real world, often a first type of ship takes years to build but subsequent ships of the same design can be built in a fraction of the time.

Of the original trilogy, I saw Return of the Jedi first so when I learned the first movie also had a Death Star in it, I thought the one we see in RotJ was the one from A New Hope being repaired because the Rebellion had only succeeded in incapacitating it

This view makes a lot of sense. The two Death star plot is deep to understanding the whole Skywalker saga. What irks me a bit is the recapitulation of the planet killing "planet" in the sequels. For me that trivializes Lucas' visionary story ... (so many suggestions for a sequel rewrite are possible.)

Does' everyone realize that Director Krennic, while looking up at the death star in Rogue One, that Grand Moff Tarkin SHOT HIM IN THE FACE by the death star?

Not joking; I was JUST wondering this yesterday and was going to find somewhere to inquire about it. Then this pops up on my feed. Makes sense to me. Thank you.

Your explanation of why the first Death Star took so long, is very much in line with mine. With the Senate, Palpatine couldn't spend too much too quickly. But with the second, he had that nice fat check from GIECO after the untimely destruction of the first. Insurance is very important! That's my theory, and I'm sticking to it.

It always made me wonder how they completed the 2nd death star so quickly.

0:17 yet... Darth Vader dissmissed it asserting to Admiral Motti "Don’t be too proud of this technological terror you’ve constructed, the ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force." Maybe he was bothered that it was weighting on him for the lost blueprints, or plainly didn't believe in its usefulness. Speaking a bit of legends and making this last point even worse; if true, then he was not aware Sidius was "preparing" the galaxy for the Vong.

i always assumed that the second death star was already under construction ...if not simultaneously, then on a staggered schedule ..there may have been secret death stars that never got completed .....hmmm possibly some good canon fodder for a book ?

Two years? The calendar starts at the Battle of Yavin and RotJ was set in 4 ABY (After the Battle of Yavin). Aside from that, one thing that I still don't get is why they didn't realize it was a trap the moment they dropped out of hyperspace and saw the glaring absence of space traffic around the station. Since it was obviously being assembled using materials from elsewhere, there should have been a *huge* fleet of ships swarming around it. That there weren't any should have been an immediate tipoff that all traffic had been cleared out for some reason. Such as the Empire having set a trap.

as someone else pointed out, I always figured they had more than one death star at a time. with all the setbacks the original had, they probably had more than one prototype of the original and most likely salvaged the unfinished death star(s) to start on the larger second death star. obviously the "improved" parts from the original death star could be debated as being new, to not leave the core as vulnerable as the original, but there is also the possibility that one of the Empire's engineers saw the vulnerability before the original was used and might have used the new design in the second death star before the first one was even blown up. of course its speculation at this point unless Disney adds that bit of information into their shows or maybe there's a book out there that covers that xD Either way, I think Sidious originally intended to use both death stars simultaneously before the events at the end of EP 4

Fascinating video and topic to dive into!

It’s also a lot easier to do things the second time around than the first. But I like what you said about how with no Imperial Senate, it basically put the plans into overdrive.

Ah thank you young one for providing this beneficial knowledge as those of us who always wondered how the DS2 was functional enough to levy an ambush as well as explaining how it took less time to build than the DS1.

This was of great help concerning the second Death Star and rapid construction. This just goes to show you just how much faster things can be accomplished WITHOUT politicians. Also, I like to point out that Sidious, dispite hating the Jedi, had the same weakness, hubris. The Jedi foolishly believed the Sith had been extinct for a millennium, and Sidious enjoyed watching Darth Vader and Luke trying to kill each other that he couldn't sense what was happening on Endor.

Great video. Thanks

If I remember correctly, a smaller sub plot of the novel “Shadows of the Empire”, was that Palpatine wanted to use Prince Sheezors shipping fleet. This way to help move materials for the empire to cover up the fact that they were building the second death Star.

Your channel is excellent. Keep up the good work. Best wishes from India.

Sounds great. Love the reason.

I recall seeing a Ralph McQuarrie concept painting for Return of the Jedi, which clearly depicts both the 1st & 2nd Death Stars being constructed along side one another, with the og being obviously much further along + wasn’t there a Jedi Academy novel that featured the ‘skeletal’ prototype of the Death Star, very similar to how it appeared at the end of Revenge of the Sith.

Probably had the second one already in progress. Plus it wasn't finished. At least a good 5-10 years left of construction on the second one. Plus they likely used some of the wreckage from the first one for materials. Plus the first one was a test bed where they had to design it all untested before.

I always wondered that thanks

I think it is important to know the second one was not finished when it was destroyed. The cannon or whatever you call it was operations but the rest appeared to be quite a ways from completion.

Makes way more sense that they had multiple death stars under construction at the same time

Brilliantly explained

They used Ewoks to build the 2nd Death Star out of wood, it was simply painted to look metallic.

Yes, I had always wondered about this, but I don't recall ever learning exactly when construction of each Death Star really began. "I have heard rumors of abandoned Death Star prototypes before construction of a true first Death Star began, and the countless lives lost in failed experiments and to the rage of frustrated imperial tyrant-generals, but as to hard evidence whether these were really true or the wild daydreams of drunken treasure hunters, I have, alas, made little progress." - an anonymous New Republic scholar.

So for the first one, he basically had to build the equivalent to a super aircraft carrier, using government money without them, knowing what you were doing

I was wondering but this makes sense now.

This is an excellent explanation. I had never though about this! Do you think technology may have changed over the course of the building of the Death Star?

i also suspect a large part of the death star II was already built by the destruction of the Death star I which could be a contributing factor then when the first was destroyed completing the 2nd one would also have been a factor. also, it wouldnt suprise me that engineer Galen Erso would have activly delayed the construction through designing a fatly system then activly redesign systems to fix the faults to delay the construction of the Deathstar I for almost a decade since he was recruited because he worked on kyber based power systems for the Death star when it was being covertly built by the republic prior to order 66. if i remember he tried to quit 3 years after order 66 and then brought back in 2 years later because the development ground to a halt then was forced to work on it again for the next 10 years. realistically he may have made the work harder then it needed to be and take longer than it should in order to buy time for the schematics for the Deathstar to be smuggled out to the rebellion and the rebellion to destroy the Deathstar I DeathstarII didnt have Galen Erso to work on it and introduce delays to the project

My assumption was the Second was already in development and in Canon; Starkiller base was already in Production in of itself.

Awesome video man! Quick question though, what movie/show was the tiny robots at 0:09 depicted in? I don't recall that scene anywhere.

There are indications in at least 1 legends book that super laser components were being stockpiled even before the first Death Star was destroyed, so I think there were always plans for a second Death Star, and it took much less time to build in part because it it was being built from stockpiled parts, and not completely from scratch.

I would love a breakdown of deathstar vs mass shadow generator. Which one was more effective and why. I think that would be pretty interesting

Loved the video but I had never thought about the second deathstar

I think the fact that it was operational, but not complete was also an important factor. If we took an aircraft carrier under construction, with only it's landing deck complete, and used a tug to drag it to a war zone, used auxiliary ships to provide radar and crew quarters, it could be considered "operational" and serve its function. The DS2 was likely in a similar state, the weapons system worked, but it had to rely on a shield from a planet, it probably couldn't move on its own power, and everything not related to the main battery was likely also unfinished. Not only that, while its superlaser did work, there's no reason to think it was at full power. The DS1 was able to devistate Jeda with just a single reactor laser, so for the DS2 to be operational in an anti-rebel fleet capacity and anti-Endor-rebel-team capacity all it needed was one or two reactors online.

Funny, just asked this in the Andor Fans page. Thanks for addressing this!

I think their research on kyber crystals was a major contributor as well. It's like the uranium in atomic bombs making the first batch took years, but after they figured out the refinement process they produced it in mass quantities.

I could be very far off because it's been a minute but if I remember right in Legends materials construction had started on the 2nd Death Star (also 3rd, 4th and more) while to first was still under construction which explained part of the speed in which DS #2 was being constructed. Also I seem to remember that there were to be several Death Stars about to really have things on lock down

I've heard several explanations on other channels, but this one makes the most sense. Having to deal with the Senate would slow things down considerably.

I believe construction started on DS2 as they were working on DS1. DS1 was the test-type and there were probably DS3 and DS4 parts being made before New Hope.

Who made the song for the end of the video? It’s beautiful!

my friends and I chatted about this at one point, and we had figured that they had already started construction on the second one before the 1st was completed. We figured that it'd probably take a bit of time, but, you could still get quite a bit done once the first was finishing up, plus, the amount of time between 4 and 6, would be more than enough to, at the very least, make it functional

Good explanation, between the knowledge from the first one and more absolute galactic control it makes sense. Of course, building a second version of your massively flawed first battle station and ending up with the second one destroyed is just... hilarious.

This explains alot. Indeed it now makes more sense why the second Death Star was being done more quickly. Thought not fully completed, the second one I think could have been even more deadly than the first once it wss finished

The second Death Star was *operational* but *not* complete. I seems reasonable to assume that the 80/20 rule could apply: they could complete the critical parts (such as the superlaser) quickly but the last 20% of construction could take 80% of the time. I also imagined that work on Death Star 2.0 was already underway while the first Death Star was nearing completion.

What I'm about to put forth may be more in line with "Legends" but I'd like to add somethings that could even help this crazy "built in only 2 years" theory. Military production/construction projects, especially of extreme large scale battle platforms, such as battleships, aircraft carriers, aircraft, etc. are typically built in pairs for various reasons. It was/is not uncommon for a new design of (say) a battleship to enter service no more than a year or two before its "sister ship," (this also being the standard practice of bygone ocean-liners.) That being said, according to "Legends," construction of the second Death Star began not long after the construction start of the first Death Star. The first Death Star was more or less the "prototype," the second Death Star being constructed on a more massive scale thanks to the information being gained as the first was built. Of course, while the first DS was constructed under extreme secrecy, the work on the second was simultaneously being slowly constructed just behind the first with just as much if not more secrecy. It's doubtful that even Gaylon Erso was aware of a second DS. Of course, if you add in the factors described within this video, then the second DS seeming to *almost* being completed in 2 years can make a lot more sense.

Amazing

Personally, I always just assumed that the second Death Star had started construction before the first had been completed. Even for such a superweapon, having more that one aids in power projection across an area the size of the galaxy. So I'd also somewhat expected that somewhere out there was the early frame of a third just waiting.

Sidious: I would like to apply for another loan Senate: On what Grounds Sidious: I AM THE SENATE Senate: Loan Approved

I always felt like the intention was to have a fleet of death stars. A single one would help maintain control of the Galaxy but it still would take a while to move it around between systems. Having two or three of them in addition to the imperial Starfleet would have been devastating. So I think that they started the construction on the second one about 10 years after they started the first one. They didn't openly construct the second one because the rebellion didn't know about it. Until the Bothan spies clued them in on it.

I had assumed that they began construction on the second one while the first was still under construction. But this explanation makes more sense. I think it was a mistake in A New Hope to make such a small deal out of the senate being dissolved when the impact of that was really pretty massive.

Point of fact: the second Death Star was built destroyed FOUR years after the first, not two. Construction on the second was technically ongoing during the Battle of Endor.

Simple. He watched Contact: "First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price?"

Thanks for answering this burning question for me; it’s been on my mind for a good while. I always thought Palpatine had a backup Death Star just in case the first one was destroyed.

In a movie script, anything is possible. Even sounds in space. Pew pew!

Little did he know, he could have just produced small hyperdrive engines to launch them into planets almost undetected. …Oh wait, that’s a 1 in a million move 🤦‍♂️

All these comments are great, but even younger me assumed they were already working on it prior to the destruction of the original Death Star. After watching the prequel trilogy it confirmed that Palpatine always had back up plans and plans amongst plans. So it’s quite possible that ten years prior to the Yavin battle the second station was starting construction. Anyway I digress, thanks for video and have a great day.

I always assumed they had just started building number 2 while the first one was finishing. But your theory makes allot of sense.

"Why build one when you can build _two_ for twice the cost."

My question is why Palpatine didn't just strap a warp drive to a 5lb rock. Seriously, that's all it take to blow up a planet the speed of light is very fast, so when you accelerate something faster than that it doesn't need to be big to blow up a planet. Edit: I forgot to mention it would literally be faster than the death star laser since lasers move at light speed, not faster than light.

Video idea about picking brains: when, why, and how did the rebel alliance become a unified force against the empire?

The difficult thing to reconcile is that they could construct a larger Death Star in less time, yet still have it be hidden so well that the Emperor would have to _allow_ the Bothan spies to find out about it, rather than have it stick out like a sore thumb. That speaks to a truly frightening logistics network. Which makes me wonder why the first Death Star was such a secret. The Senate had some tight purse strings.

Any info they were already building it before the destruction of the first one?

I always chalked it up to having the parts and know-how.

i always thought they built the first one shell-first, gun second, and then with the second one they built the gun first, and the shell around it. that way it could be operational while under construction.

It's an interesting take. I can see how the process outlined in this video makes sense. But for my money, my assumption has always been that the two Death Stars where built concurrently. In my own head-canon, the DS2 was began shortly after the DS1 and was not yet complete by 2ABY because it was so much bigger.

I always assume they were being built nearly simultaneously.. you have to think that the first death star is going to have a whole bunch of new engineering issues. You take your hard lessons from the first death star and you use it to make the second one which will always be faster an production

Whenever I'm watching one these, I'm always wondering what's the music that's playing in the background.

*¡12:39 pm Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, 30 November 2022!*

This seem like an elaborate explanation with extra steps. For an early 80s boardroom decision to blow up another before moving onto ET

being a force user he could sense nearby threats or shifts in the force that make him believe he would need to do things a certain way, Palpatine had the most power but Vader was the strongest

I would like to know more about the clans on Kiffu and kiffar, and how a kiffu gaudian becomes sheyf.

"First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price? Only, this one can be kept secret."

I just realized at 0:13 the objects the robots are installing are the same objects that are being manufactured in Andor

Don't forget that the manufacturing infrastructure took time to conduct the first time around but was already in place for the second one.

The logic is sound!

Just always thought they were building them both more or less together. But I didn’t know about any back cannon info

Simply put, it's not that he built the second death start so quickly, it's just that he had to go slowly on the first one.

What’s the clip of those little spider droids building the Death Star from?

Where did they get all the crystals from for the laser on Death Star 2?

He didn't want the empire to be seen as an easy pushover, so he immediately sought after a much better and more powerful 1 For him it was a personal matter as the - All Mighty emperor of the galaxy - 👑