I kind of realized something about Starkiller base the other day too. I realized that I don’t think I (or many other people) would have disliked the repeated death star thing as much had it not already been rehashed in Jedi. Like if Jedi didn’t have the death star plot and instead focused on like storming the Imperial Capitol or something, then the idea that the first order built their own, bigger, better version of the death star would not have been so annoying. It would have actually been kind of cool. The only reason it was not well recieved (for me at least) was because it was the THIRD time the planet sized superweapon thing had been done in this series. It would have made sense that they spent the last 40 odd years redesigning and perfecting the design into a greater threat.
It would have made more sense in universe seeing as how the First Order would have most likely seen the destruction of the 1st Death Star as a fluke. Out of universe I think people would have accepted it more if:
- Didn’t shoot laser beams across the galaxy
- Destroyed a planet/system in a different way (something like sucking the life out of the Sun)
- It wasn’t glossed over like it was in the theatrical version
Would have been even cooler if it DIDN’T get destroyed at the end of the film, so it could be a threat throughout the trilogy.
Funny thing is is that I thought right when Poe was going to destroy whatever SKB’s weakness was that there would be a special kind of shielding around it and they would lose the battle and the film would end on a more bitter note.