Star Wars’ Dumbest Superweapon – The Sun Crusher (and I Love It)
Let’s talk about the dumbest superweapon ever seen in Star Wars: The Sun Crusher.
The Empire was well known for building over-the-top superweapons. While the best known were the Death Stars, Star Wars is littered with other superweapons, some never completed and some only finished after the fall of the Empire. Of all the silly superweapons in Star Wars, including the EU, the dumbest of them all has to be the Sun Crusher.
What is the Sun Crusher?
The Sun Crusher was an Imperial Superweapon from the EU. It was developed at the secret Maw Installation. Work on it started during the construction of the First Death Star and it was finished in 11 ABY. The ship was small, only a little bigger than a snub fighter, and could be piloted by a single person, though it could carry up to 5 additional gunners. So that’s the normal part, everything else about this ship is dumb.
The Insane Over Powered Nature of the Sun Crusher
At first glance, the Sun Crusher doesn’t seem like much. It’s got 5 visible laser cannons, but it’s so OP, I’m not sure why it needs them. Two things about this ship make it totally insane. The first is its main weapon. The Sun Crusher is armed with resonance torpedoes. These are weapons that, in accordance with the ship’s name, will make a sun go supernova. Because blowing up planets wasn’t enough, they had to make a way to take out whole solar systems. On top of that, the ship is also indestructible.
By indestructible I don’t mean hard to kill, I mean can’t be killed. The Sun Crusher flies right through a Star Destroyer. It’s thrown into a gas giant and comes out unharmed. It shrugs off a hit from a Death Star super laser without issue. Eventually, it’s thrown into a black hole and it’s not clear if even that hurt it, or just made it impossible to get to. This thing is so dumb! It’s small, fast, it kills stars, and it can’t be killed. It’s so crazy good I’m not even sure why it needs the laser cannons. I mean… nothing can hurt it? What’s the point? You aren’t sending this thing out to dogfight.
It’s Dumb But I Love It
Look, the Sun Crusher is dumb as heck. It’s pretty much the most OP thing in all of Star Wars (certainly to that point). It’s a collection of “this is the best” things that sound like a 5-year-old came up with it “No you can’t blow up my ship, it’s invincible!” It’s so powerful that once they got rid of it, they also had to collectively make everyone forget all the tech that went into making it, any of the crazy parts of it, the sun-killing weapon or the indestructible armor alone would have been game changers.
The Most Star Wars
But I also kind of love this thing. It’s just so very… Star Wars. It’s dumb and over the top and of course, the Empire would have something like that. It’s all the uncontained excess of the old EU in one ship. And I kind of love how it is used in the story. In Star Wars the superweapons are powerful, but they’ve got a weakness (normally some kind of port). The story is pretty standard, the heroes band together and figure out a way to blow up the big bad thing and they win.
But the Sun Crusher is different. It can’t be beaten. And, importantly, it’s never actually used by the Empire. Han Solo helps steal it and then it is taken by rogue Jedi Kyp Durron to use in his revenge quest. In fact, it’s a superweapon that is used exclusively against Imperial targets. It’s a pretty interesting role reversal and one that leaves the good guys scarred. In the end, the Sun Crusher isn’t beaten, its pilot is convinced to stop his mad crusade. It’s a unique turn to the story of Star Wars superweapons and one that I’ll never forget.
Let us know what you think of the Sun Crusher, down in the comments!
