Posted this awhile back in the Revisited ideas thread (thought I was posting in this one). It's still an unfinished thought, but one that I think might be going somewhere...
ray_afraid said:
This is just a thought... and an unfinished one at that...
But does anybody else think the Empire should refer to the Death Star with a different name? Seems to me that "Death Star" should be a slang term the Rebellion uses to show what a terrible weapon this thing really is. Also, it seems a bit silly for the bad guys to call their battle station something so obviously evil. Wouldn't they be promoting this thing as something that is here for the good of the people while secretly using it to enforce their own agenda? And, if so, wouldn't naming it "The Death Star" kinda blow the lid on that?
Not that the citizens of the universe could really do anything about it at this point, but... I dunno. Guess it just seems a bit on the nose. Might as well name it "The Evil Empire's Big Scary Kill Machine".
ray_afraid said:
Ryan McAvoy said:
I think the Empire get off on butch names for their hardware.
Stardestroyer - Avenger, Executor, Devastator and Tyrant plus Stormtroopers is pretty evil.I dunno.. To me, all of those things sound Nazi-esuqe. Which isn't to say they don't sound Intimidating, but if you were living a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, calling a large battle ship a "Stardestroyer" doesn't seem to be a term you'd find anymore alarming than calling a plane with mass destruction capabilities a "Bomber" here on Earth during WW2.
But a "Death Star"....
Ryan McAvoy said:
Death Star sounds evil but I imagine that was the point when they designed a weapon of mass genocide on an almost unimaginable scale.
haha that's true...
Like I said, it's just a half-thought, but there's something there... I just haven't figured it out yet lol
What got me thinking about it is Lando's line "We'll last longer than we will against that "Death Star"!...." the way Billy Dee-livers that line makes "Death Star" sound like it's a nickname they've given it. So I'm thinking...
What if the Empire refers to it as the "Iron Star"- a giant space station from which they can watch and govern the galaxy. It's a giant, galaxy cruising big brother, able to survey lawbreakers, catch them and even imprison them right inside. What they aren't saying is that it also has the ability to destroy an entire planet with little more than the flick of a switch. The Rebels then give it the name Death Star in their own anti-Empire propaganda.
And I'm still not sure where I'm going here....