Star Wars Fans Discover Reason For One Baffling Death Star Decision

Highlights

• New fans are uncovering hidden details in Star Wars daily, from stormtrooper bloopers to Death Star design insights.
• Death Star’s lack of handrails could be explained by Geonosians’ ability to fly – an overlooked design element.
• Empire’s oversight of safety features on Death Star may reflect their view of people as expendable assets.

A number of Star Wars fans just realized why one often memed-about element of the Death Star’s design actually makes a lot of sense. It turns out it has a lot to do with its origins and a bit less to do with workplace safety.

The cool thing about a franchise as big as Star Wars is that new fans are noticing certain details for the first time every day. This ranges from things like the classic shot of a stormtrooper hitting his head on a door to more behind-the-scenes goodies like a particular “hidden character” in Revenge of the Sith. Today’s freshly unearthed tidbit involves the planet-destroying space station known as the Death Star. It turns out one supposed safety oversight on the massive structure may have a different explanation other than simple Imperial negligence.

The “oversight” in question is the Death Star’s lack of handrails, leading to some precarious situations for heroes and baddies alike. Fans will recall the tense scene where Obi-Wan stealthed his way through to deactivate the station’s tractor beam, balancing himself carefully over a perilous drop. Well, users on the Star Wars Cantina subreddit have realized one rather compelling and oddly simple possible explanation for this. The Death Star was originally designed by the bug-like Geonosians, and they could fly.

It makes a lot of sense in a deceptively uncomplicated way. As part of Palpatine’s conspiracy in Attack of the Clones, he took advantage of the people of Geonosis to have them draft the design for his ultimate weapon. However, due to that outsourcing, he and his people may not have thought to go over certain details. The need for handrails is basically nonexistent for a species that flies as part of their regular method of traversal, and they likely wouldn’t have even thought to include that design element since their architects and engineers just create what they know.

The thing is, it’s only one possible theory. Other fans pointed out that the Death Star likely went through a number of extensive revisions after the original Geonosian draft. The Empire may be deceptively weak in their immense power, but every portrayal of the fascist regime shows them as sticklers for details and order. It’s hard to imagine that, with so many rules and regulations, everyone involved would somehow miss such a glaring flaw. Then again, they also missed the intentional exhaust port vulnerability that led to the station’s ultimate destruction, so there’s that.

It’s also entirely possible that the Empire didn’t consider handrails a worthwhile investment. They’ve proven time and time again that they consider their people largely expendable, so a few fallen stormtroopers is probably nothing in the face of some saved credits. No wonder Crosshair defected back to the Bad Batch.

Source: Star Wars Cantina/Reddit