Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2024 April 24

= April 24 =

Star Wars arms buildup
As of around 25 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin), the Galactic Republic's Judicial Forces (it didn't have an actual Navy at the time) had a very small and poorly armed fleet and had to get assistance from private corporations even to deal with nuisance enemies like space pirates. But at the time of the Battle of Yavin, the Imperial Navy apparently had around 25,000 Star Destroyers. Those are huge ships with huge crews. Does the Star Wars literature record how that buildup took place? To what extent was Kuat Drive Yards (the shipbuilder) under Imperial control? It apparently predated the Empire and the predecessor Republic by many millenia. I'm not all that familiar with the Star Wars universe but have been reading some fiction set in it, and this question came up. Thanks. 2601:644:8501:AAF0:0:0:0:6CE6 (talk) 16:26, 24 April 2024 (UTC)
 * The Star Destroyers were probably built by the Empire over a 19-year period by the great shipyards of Badcon Tinuity and Plotre Quirements. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.15} 188.220.144.58 (talk) 04:34, 25 April 2024 (UTC)


 * How many planets are there in the Galactic Republic? What's their population? I mean, astronomically speaking, a galaxy could very well have a population of 1020, in which case I wouldn't be impressed by any galactic fleet of fewer than 1010 star destroyers. And they would be built by a billion different shipyards and all be slightly different due to ambiguities in the specs.
 * In other words: they just pulled some number out of their hat and hoped the viewers/readers wouldn't pay too much attention. PiusImpavidus (talk) 08:48, 25 April 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for the responses. I get the impression though (e.g.from Wookieepedia) that the SW backstory is very detailed about the cost of different types of ships, their armaments, etc. I'm not sure about the galactic economy as a whole. The premise of the movie series though, is that the Republic was quite thinly spread and strapped for resources, helped along by corruption and Sith influence at the top that were trying to make it fail on purpose. Then it collapsed and the Empire emerged in its place after some wars. So it seems reasonable to hope that the Empire's rise (including where its resources came from) is documented somewhere. Oh well. 2601:644:8501:AAF0:0:0:0:6CE6 (talk) 19:15, 26 April 2024 (UTC)