The Star Wars universe has introduced several doomsday-style weapons. Some of the scariest weapons included the Arc Pulse Generator and, of course, the Death Star. That said, one of the worst weapons came long after the Galactic Civil War and, while only being fired once as a flex from the First Order, left a deadly and lasting impact on the galaxy -- Starkiller Base.
Introduced in Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, Starkiller Base was born from the remains of the planet Illum, where Jedi would go to find their Kyber Crystals. With a huge battery to focus its power, the massive base could wipe out entire systems with better efficiency than the Death Star. But where the Death Star left little time for its victims to realize what happened, one function made Starkiller Base's deadly weapon more terrifying than its predecessor.
How Did Starkiller Base Get Its Power?
When the Death Star would fire its primary weapon, it involved a complex system of targeting and setup to power the laser. However, since the entire ship was designed around the weapon, the charging process was much more unpredictable. While this was tactically impressive, as it meant the ship could be ready to fire at any time without warning, it didn't offer much of an intimidation factor. In the case of Starkiller Base, its most important function made the base into a much more ominous threat.
To fire its system-destroying laser, Starkiller Base would require the full power of a sun. As a result, the light of the sky would leave a system before that same energy would be redirected to its target. However, the base's main charging function also took that light energy and converted it to dark energy. To make matters worse, it could be stored whenever needed and fired with the same power as the sun it had absorbed. But even still, this terrifying feature wasn't the reason Starkiller Base was scarier than the Death Star.
Starkiller Base's Effect Made It Scarier Than the Death Star
Upon its creation, the Death Star was a planet killer that only destroyed one planet completely in the movies. It also seems to have a negative stigma among the Rebels, with the rest of the galaxy largely unaware of what it was or how it destroyed Alderaan. While the same could be said for Starkiller Base, it's likely many planets saw when it fired upon Hosnian Prime and the surrounding planets. But the scariest part came just before it fired when the whole system witnessed its sun die and flow into a foreign planet. To make matters worse, even its firing was a slow and agonizing process as the blasts traveled millions of miles to reach their destination and destroy it.
Though it destroyed planets on a much larger scale than the Death Star, what made it scarier was how it built tension and fear as it charged. And the sun dying quickly became a metaphor for the hope that left its victims, and the blanket of red that came from the blasts was the only light present, allowing victims to see their loved ones one more time. There's no doubt that the Death Star had a fast and effective quality in its laser, but the mounting anxiety and fear from Starkiller Base devouring a sun proved that waiting for the end made it a much scarier doomsday weapon.