Superweapons or megaweapons were weapons of extremely devastating power, ranging from the capacity to destroy a city to entire planets.

Description[]

A superweapon (also spelled super-weapon)^[3] or megaweapon^[4] referred to a weapon of great power, capable of bringing varying degrees of massive destruction.^[5] Some may level whole cities^[6] and continents,^[7] whilst some could even destroy planets.^[8]

Variants[]

Superlaser[]

Main article: Superlaser

A type of superweapon was the superlaser, which were laser-based superweapons. These weapons often required large power-sources, such as the first Death Star, which took massive amounts of Kyber crystals to fire.

History[]

Skara Nal[]

Main article: Walker (Skara Nal)

An ancient walker and a superweapon created by the culture of the Ancients eons before the founding of the Jedi Order was a massive, four-legged vehicle, armed with a head-mounted energy weapon capable of significant amounts of destruction.^[9]

Forgotten times[]

Superweapons were used in ancient wars between the Jedi and the Sith.^[10] Retold in legends, superweapons of the Sith were powered by massive kyber crystals.^[1] Superweapons were also used against the planet Polis Massa, destroying the planet and bringing the Eellayin species to extinction.^[11]

Malachor[]

Main article: Malachor superweapon

One such weapon existed on the Sith planet Malachor, inside a Sith Temple.^[12] It was constructed in 3966 BBY by Darth Tanis.^[13] Powered by a giant kyber crystal, the weapon had the power to petrify living beings, having done so at an ancient battle that took place around it, killing all combatants. In 3 BBY, during the Galactic Civil War, Jedi Ahsoka Tano, Kanan Jarrus, and Ezra Bridger traveled to the Temple in hopes of finding a way to defeat the Galactic Empire's Inquisitorius; dark side Force-sensitives trained to hunt Jedi. At the Temple, they met former Sith apprentice Maul who tricked Bridger into putting a Sith holocron on an obelisk on top of the structure, activating the weapon.^[12]

Shortly after, Darth Vader, the apprentice to Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious, arrived to take the Temple's power. He attempted to kill Bridger but was stopped by Tano who began to duel him. As they two dueled, Bridger and Jarrus managed to stop the Temple's firing cycle by removing the holocron from the obelisk, causing the Temple to collapse.^[12]

Darth Momin[]

Main article: Darth Momin's superweapon

The Sith Lord Darth Momin also constructed a superweapon, one with the ability to raze an entire city. He used this weapon to destroy a city before he and his acolytes were defeated by the Jedi.^[6]

Starflash[]

Main article: Starflash

Starflash was a single-use superweapon that was acquired by the Stybla family of the Chiss Ascendancy. It could fire a blast of tachyonic as well as lightspeed energy at a star, which would cause the star to send a return blast that was far more powerful. Though the original Starflash was used and destroyed at the Final Assault on Csilla, another was obtained centuries later and was in the possession of the Stybla at the time of the Clone Wars.^[14]

Clone Wars[]

Main articles: Malevolence, electro-proton bomb and defoliator

The Subjugator-class heavy cruiser Malevolence used by the Confederacy of Independent Systems during the Clone Wars was considered to be a superweapon,^[15] as was the defoliator and the Galactic Republic's electro-proton bomb^[16] developed by Sionver Boll.^[17]

Age of the Empire[]

The Galactic Empire created, or was believed to have devised and possibly made, many other types of superweapons:^[18]

The Death Stars[]

Main article: Superlaser#Death Stars

Imperial Admiral Conan Antonio Motti loved technology that created devastating superweapons, specifically the Death Star project, which consisted of a superlaser.^[20]

Arc Pulse Generator[]

Main article: Arc Pulse Generator

The Arc Pulse Generator, invented by former Imperial Sabine Wren, was classified as a superweapon.^[22]

Operation: Cinder[]

Operation: Cinder was a code name for the campaign to punish Imperial and rebellious worlds for failing Emperor Palpatine in the aftermath of his death.^[18] The campaign was comprised of a number of different weapons such as the climate disruption array used on Vardos and Naboo,^[23] the vortex detonators used in the destruction of Nacronis,^[24] and a number of other unknown methods used to cause widespread devastation on planets such as Abendedo, Burnin Konn, Candovant, and Commenor.^[25]

Other projects[]

The Galactic Empire developed and produced, or was rumored to have, many other superweapon projects. Such include the Onager-class Star Destroyer, was a type of capital ship that utilized a kyber crystal superweapon; The rumored Mass Shadow Generator, which would have existed in both realspace and hyperspace; The Torpedo Sphere, a siege platform and space station; The Omega Frost, a rumored interstellar freeze ray; and the Electro-Proton Bomb/Defoliator, based off the electro-proton bomb and the defoliator from the Clone Wars.^[18]

First Order-Resistance War[]

Starkiller Base[]

Main article: Starkiller Base

Decades after the Empire, its successor, the First Order, developed a massive superweapon called Starkiller Base. Utilizing energy from its system's star before converting it into a powerful beam that tore through hyperspace, Starkiller Base was capable of wiping entire star systems off the map.^[26]

Axial superlaser[]

Main article: Axial superlaser

The Sith Eternal utilized superlasers mounted on the bellies of their Xyston-class Star Destroyer fleet.^[27][28] When used, the axial cannon fired a red beam in a sustained burst to break through a planet's surface. The beam would pulsate, unleashing shock waves of crust-and-mantle-tearing energy, before reaching the core and destroying the planet. However, the superlaser was directly connected to the Sith Star Destroyer's reactor, meaning any severe damage to the cannon would destroy the warship.^[29]

Rumors[]

There were many rumors about superweapons, including interstellar freeze rays and chemical weapons that could turn organics into stone.^[30]

Behind the scenes[]

Earlier versions of the 2015 film Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens had the Resistance developing a superweapon known as the War-Hammer. In those versions, the War-Hammer would've been several times the size of a Star Destroyer and had the form of a massive ship with a huge front that could penetrate any shield and was able to deploy ships through it.^[31]

Appearances[]

Non-canon appearances[]

• Rogue One: Recon A Star Wars 360 Experience
• LEGO Star Wars: Droid Tales Episodes I-III
• Star Wars: Visions — "THE TWINS" (Ambiguous canonicity)

Sources[]

Notes and references[]