Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Hello everyone... Recently while going through some online articles about the next movie “The Rise of Skywalker”. I read something about the sequence in the trailer showing the fleet of dormant star destroyers. The writer mentioned they're Imperial and not First order. I never knew there was a real big difference. Ive never seen anything obvious to show it, unless I'm missing something ? Question I have is am I missing something here ? Is there something quite obvious between the two types ? I know there were multiple variants in the Imperial fleet, i assumed that the remnants scattered to the unknown regions ? And eventually they just came back as the First order. I never thought they would have built completely new ships in the 30 year hiatus. Another question is if they're are differences does anyone make a model of the First order SD ? Any info would be helpful . 
 

Dennis

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Imperial Star destroyers are the iconic light-grey Empire designs seen after the Clone Wars ended, either an Imperial-I class or Imperial-II. The First-Order Star Destroyers however, are called Resurgent class Star Destroyers. Despite it making more sense if it had been done the other way, they are entirely new variants of Star Destroyers made just for the First Order, after the Empire was defeated. That goes for everything the First Order uses actually, nothing is left over from the Empire directly - it's all entirely new, latest technology stuff made just for them while they were in hiding. Their TIE fighters for example are far superior to the Imperial versions, and likewise so are their Star Destroyers. The Resurgent is significantly bigger (almost twice the Length of an Imperial-II), more powerful, has additional special weapon types etc. It's just better than the Empire's Star Destroyers in every way.

 

 

 

 

 

main-qimg-9212ceaed8e3fd854c1618ebbdc410

 

 

MsubxKp.png

 

Resurgent is on the left, Imperial is on the right.

 

The Remnants didn't just scatter and then come back. They scattered, set up a new faction and somehow got enough resources, manpower, money and influence to the point they seem to at least rival, and possibly outclass, the Empire - they captured the galaxy in about a day despite loosing their main base. They build the absurdly huge (far bigger than even Imperial Super Star Destroyers) Supremacy and Starkiller base etc.It's absurd really, it feels like these sort of things were just arbitrarily decided without much thought when they were throwing together the sequels. It's all new stuff they have, and it's all better, and there's seemingly more of it - all while the New Republic did the opposite and lessened their military massively because they basically "didn't want to seem like the Empire".

 

The dormant star destroyers are of interest because it's a huge fleet of those original Imperial-class Star Destroyers, something that hasn't been used for potentially 30 years and shouldn't really have a reason to be seen in the sequel trilogy, especially not on that scale. Neither the First Order or the Rebels use them.

 

As for the model kit, there isn't one as far as i'm aware.

Edited by TheVoidDragon
  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/6/2019 at 7:37 PM, TheVoidDragon said:

it feels like these sort of things were just arbitrarily decided without much thought when they were throwing together the sequels

This.  The biggest disadvantage of having six feature films, several TV series, and (at the time) a vast Expanded Universe of canon when JJ, Disney, & Co, started work on the sequel saga is that every aspect of the storytelling needs to be reasonably consistent with that universe and its established rules. 

 

I think this is indirectly an outgrowth of effects being all digital and the comparatively short timeframe put into developing both the story and the design of new vehicles, creatures, and worlds.  (Remember Lucasfilm took a full 3 years between each film of the original trilogy).  Instead of thinking about a new ship design with as much "real world" (in-universe) engineering logic as possible, the focus becomes purely what it looks like. 

 

For example instead of a Y-wing that has exposed engine components with the idea a "hood" (er, bonnet) was left off since the ship is under constant maintenance, in the first prequel we got the Naboo fighter that was supposed to house an R2 unit but forgot to include room for its legs.  The sequel logic of a "strap on booster" for a fighter capable of unassisted FTL travel is an order of magnitude worse (but frankly that doesn't even crack my top 10 list of problems with Episode VIII). 

 

Anyway I'm not as bothered by the questionable story logic of an all-new First Order starfleet, but it does show a pattern of neglect for both writing and design that follow rules of common sense.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

A quick breakdown of the Imperial class Star Destroyers as seen on screen:

The first one we see is described later as an ISD-I, it was a smaller model (91cm, about 3 feet long) made by ILM and had simplified detailing and a distinctive X-shaped antenna array on the top of the bridge. It was not lighted except for the engines.

The second one is the much larger 259cm (about 8 and a half feet) model created for 'The Empire Strikes Back' this is considered the definitive one and referred to as an ISD-II/ The X-shaped array on top of the bridge is rotated to lie flat now, it has full lighting and much greater detail and the hull proportions are subtly different.. They did use the ISD-I model a couple of times in TESB in the escaping Hoth sequence. Only the ISD-II has the '"garbage chute" at the base of the bridge spine that Han took advantage of to escape.

One Star Destroyer type seen in 'Return of the Jedi' is a bit of a mystery. It is much larger than a Star Destroyer, maybe about a quarter of the SSD length. It is seen twice- once with the fleet during the scene with Luke and the Emperor. When he is taunting Luke you see out the side window of his thrown room. It is surrounded by ISDs and you also see the SSD in the fleet so it is not that one either. It has been referred to as the 'Communications Ship'. In another battle scene you see some fighters racing down the length from the nose of a Star Destroyer type hull, but it is much longer and no super structure is seen (the distance they travel would have passed over the super structure location on an regular ISD). It is believed for this seen ILM inverted the larger 8 foot model and added some plates to cover the Hangars.

 

The Star Destroyers seen in both 'Rogue One' and 'Solo' are a mix of the two ISD types with details and features of each. IIRC they were digital models.

 

The fleet of Star Destroyers seen in the TRoS trailer are a variants of the ISD-I as seen in ANH- they have a huge gun mounted underneath where the ventral hangar bays are normally, some red striping on the hull and still retain the distinctive upright X-shaped array. 

 

 

Edited by Richard Baker
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That is how I think of it- an active scanning/tracking unit. When we see it up it is chasing the Blockade runner, later the Falcon. It is up in Rogue One and Solo.

When the ISD is involved in a fleet action it is down typically.

Looking at the actual filming models it appears to be the same unit, just ninety degrees different. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...