The Star Wars films have always upped the ante. When viewed in episodic order, the big climax at the end has always taken a bigger and bigger scale. From IV, V, VI, and VII we have gone from Death Star, to Death Star II, to StarKiller base. Where could we possibly go next? The answer might be right under our noses. Although this is a speculative article, there are possible spoilers as well, so be warned!

Sure, The Empire Strikes Back didn’t have a giant super weapon. It’s also fair to say that Attack of the Clones didn’t either. So I’m not necessarily expecting The Last Jedi, as the middle chapter, to have a major superweapon either. You might say that Revenge of the Sith was also an exception, but I would argue that Grievous’ space ship, Invisible Hand, was the major threat in a way, and took the place of the superweapon. This does place RotS apart from the series a bit, but perhaps not as much as you’d think (read on). If we look at our saga films so far, we could say this is the series:

I. Droid Control Ship, Droids

II. middle chapter, ended with major land battle

III. Giant Space ship (Grievous’ Invisible Hand)

IV. Death Star

V. middle chapter, began with major land battle

VI. Death Star II

VII. Star Killer Base

VIII. middle chapter, major land battle on Crait

IX….?

It’s hard to imagine what could be a bigger threat than a planet-sized weapon. And it’s definitely possible that we won’t have something physically larger than the StarKiller base from The Force Awakens, but it could be more ominous in other ways. For example, the superweapon may be very mobile and fast, and may therefore pose a greater threat.

It does, however, seem that the last three major threats were powered by kyber crystals. So will the next? As it turns out, there was something else that uses kyber crystals–the Finalizer.

The Finalizer is a giant space ship, nearly twice the size of the Imperial era Star Destroyers, according to the starwars.com databank entry. The databank entry also states that part of its weapons are powered by kyber crystals:

Her turbolasers are more powerful and faster to recharge than Imperial-era weapons, a product of kyber crystals harvested in the Unknown Regions.

This doesn’t mean that it carries a super laser, but these are the “ventral cannons” that are referred to in TFA. These are able to charge more quickly, and hence were used a key point in the film to blast Finn and Poe. However, it does raise the intriguing idea of a ship of this size having a “super laser” that is powered by kyber crystals. This would enable the ship to swoop in and take down any other military base or possibly even more than that. If it’s this big, it might not be something that conventional attacks will work on. So how do you take down such a ship?

The answer might be right in front of us, and would be a fantastic ending. The Art of The Force Awakens has some concept art of Rey attacking a major Star Destroyer-style ship with nothing else but a light saber.

The image above is called “X-wing versus supergun barrel”, and was concept art for TFA. It certainly raises the possibility that in the concept art phase, they were considering a “supergun” of some type. Given the image below, it seems to suggest that this supergun was attached to a Super Star Destroyer of some type. Lucasfilm has reused ideas from the concept art stage, so it isn’t impossible that they will reuse the idea of a “supergun” attached to a large space ship in Episode IX.

With enough flybys, this kind of short range attack could possibly do some serious damage. It would be way more potent than a laser blast or proton torpedo because it would extend over such a large distance. Repeated cuts could end up creating a giant gash that would cause the ship to implode or tear apart. It would be even more interesting if the ship had shields that would prevent large ships from getting close, but wouldn’t stop a small ship like the one pictured. It would not only take major courage, but it would also take major piloting skill to fly that close for that long of a distance, and all while holding a lightsaber in the air going through steel. It would be a major climax, and, even better, it would be something different. It wouldn’t be another big Death Star-like superweapon.

Perhaps the only shortcoming is the fact that this scenario is already out in the open in the The Art of TFA. This may be true, but it would still be a surprise to most moviegoers and it would be all about the presentation on film.

I’ll also add that it could be that this scene, if it happens, will be at the beginning of Episode IX. In this way, it would allow for some cool mirroring with RotS with a giant ship crashing, and free up the ending of IX for something else, like a major fight between Rey and Kylo Ren, and a concurrent fight between Luke and Snoke. I would certainly be very satisfied if this is what happens. What do you think? Leave your comments below.

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