Can anyone say ‘time consuming’? Make no mistake, Raphael did a great job and has a definitely amazing amount of talent when it comes to creating things out of cardboard. But holy hell does this look like a lot of work, especially when it comes to cutting all the cardboard to exact shapes, gluing them together, and paying attention to the details in a way that will make the Death Star come to life in a way. Just when you think this thing is done and might look rudimentary but still impressive, Raphael keeps going and continues to show you ways to make it even better. Obviously this guy has a serious attention to detail when it comes to his creations, which is evident from the fact that the things he has behind him in the video couldn’t have been easy at all. But that kind of passion is impressive since it means that he has a distinct vision and is willing to go that extra mile for it and take something that people tend to take for granted and make something great out of it. Could just anyone do this? Possibly, if they had the drive, the know-how, and the boxes and the tools. But anyone with this kind of innovation and creative spark really has an edge when it comes to showing others how to do these things and when it comes to simply being able to amaze people with their talent.
The second Death Star of course had to have been under construction around the same time the first one was about to be blown up, as the cost of making two of these things would have been hugely significant and it’s hard to think that the Rebel Alliance wouldn’t have noticed since they had eyes and ears on the Empire fairly often. Trying to hide superlaser shipments and huge quantities of materials being moved about would be kind of difficult even in a galaxy as big as this one. But the fact that it was being built as a response to the destruction of the first one also makes sense considering that the argument that once something is done the first time and errors are noted and delays experienced, the next time gets a little quicker since the unforeseen errors can be avoided, hopefully, and any difficulties that came from the first construction can be ironed out ahead of time in order to facilitate a quicker process. If the first Death Star took 18 years to build however then the second one should have still taken close to a decade, and not that much time passed between A New Hope and Return of the Jedi. This would kind of make the argument that they were being built simultaneously make sense, though it could be that the second Death Star was progressing slower to see just what kind of issues needed to be fixed before the same errors could be made. That sounds unlikely as well, but at the same time it sounds a little more reasonable.
Whatever the case was when it came to its construction, the Death Star was a truly terrifying weapon since it could kill from a distance and it could be utilized for pinpoint strikes or for obliteration. We got to see this in Rogue One, during which Scarif and Jedha were targeted but not fully destroyed. This weapon is powerful enough that it became the basis for the First Order’s weapon, Starkiller Base, and then the cannons that were featured during Rise of Skywalker that had the same destructive power as the Death Star, but was far more mobile and compact. Plus, the cannon wasn’t the only one in existence as every new Star Destroyer that was hiding on Exegol had one. So really the Death Star was just the beginning of the most terrifying weapons ever since it was definitely devastating, but it was so massive that building them took years and to be fair, they weren’t quite as nimble as a Star Destroyer and didn’t have the range of Starkiller Base. But then again, Starkiller Base was taken out easily, the new Star Destroyers were tied to one command ship so that they could coordinate and leave Exegol, and the Death Star, the first one anyway, was hampered by an exhaust port that people still argue over. In short, the Empire really didn’t have a lot of luck when it came to finding a failsafe plan to keep their superweapons safe, and tended to miss very important details that might have allowed them to win the war.
Kudos and hats off to Raphael for his attention to detail on this project since the resulting piece looks awesome. If you’re looking for something to do with any extra boxes this would be the guy to watch.
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