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human
[Star Wars EU/Legends] What if they just skipped the Death Star?

I just started reading Zahn's *Heir to the Empire*. I got the impression that Grand Admiral Thrawn wasn't too happy with the Death Star(s). As if it was more a matter of vanity than of strategy, like a pyramid of the Imperials, and that the waste of resources that crippled the Imperials into defeat. Thrawn also talks about it having serious flaws in architecture, another argument that it was "bad value".

So, how would the period of episode 4-6 pan out if the Imperials went with a smaller scale of fuck-all than the Death Star?
gpt
For the Rebels? Horribly.

Rogue One demonstrates that just the regular machinery of the Imperial military and intelligence services had ground down the Rebellion to the edge of fracturing. The Rebels were literally dying for a big move, in order to give themselves something to rally around and to demonstrate to the galaxy that they had a real shot at changing something. Even if they got their ass kicked, it could still be their "Remember the Alamo" moment, something to rally around.

DS1 was this on a gold platter. The termination of Alderaan was an undeniable message to the entire galaxy to pick a side or the Empire would kill you anyway. Every planet in the Empire now knew that there was no difference between having a few Rebel-affiliated senators and going full-ham armed uprising, so there really wasn't a point in even trying to play along anymore. And the termination of the Death Star was a PR win beyond measure; it told everyone that the Rebels *can* fight and *can* win, even against something they really, really shouldn't be able to prevail against. The Rebellion was no longer a rabble of old Senators and Generals who couldn't let go of the past leading a bunch of young punks who didn't grasp what they were signing on for, they were a legitimate alternative to the Empire, a true successor state to the Old Republic.

Take away the Death Star, and all that goes away. The Rebellion never gets their slam-dunk victory over a weapon system so cruel that the entire galaxy has to stand up and take notice. They never get their Alamo at Scariff. Unless *something* happens to replicate those events, the Rebellion is dying slowly, breaking up into smaller and smaller factions as an "every man for themselves" attitude starts to emerge, with people more concerned about protecting their own ship, their own unit, or their own homeworld over committing to the overall Rebellion. Instead of hanging together, the leading lights of the Rebels run off alone and get hanged separately.