The Mandalorian season 2 finale, episode 8, “Chapter 16: The Rescue” has confirmed a grim Clerks theory director Kevin Smith had about the second Death Star. The episode offered an unusual confrontation, as Cara Dune – a former inhabitant of the planet Alderaan, which was destroyed in A New Hope – confronts an Imperial officer who mentions he saw the destruction of Alderaan, and mocks her by claiming he enjoyed seeing it. When Dune retorts with a reference to the destruction of the Death Stars, the officer is deeply offended, stating, “Do you know how many millions were killed on those bases?“
Speculation about the number of inhabitants and thus number of casualties of the Death Stars has been a time-honored tradition of fans – and this speculation is referenced to hilarious effect in Kevin Smith’s movie Clerks. In the film, Smith raises a fairly crucial moral point, mentioning that while the first Death Star appeared to contain solely Imperial officers, and thus its destruction is fairly justifiable, the same can’t be said for the second ship. This is because the second Death Star was halfway through construction when it was blown up, meaning that, potentially, a large number of independent contractors were also on board the vessel in order to speed along the work – and that a huge number of innocent people likely died as a result.
In a perhaps unexpected twist, then, The Mandalorian series 2 finale appears to support Kevin Smith’s Star Wars criticism through the statement of the Imperial officer. When he mentions “millions” died, this is more in line with higher estimates of the death toll – certainly above the 1.5 million estimate given in Star Wars: Bloodline, or the “nearly two million” estimate given in Star Wars: Lost Stars, as the plural millions denotes an even higher number. This suggests both that there was more than just the crew on board the second Death Star, but also that a considerable amount of those who died in its destruction were construction workers. Not only does this once more emphasize how huge a blow the destruction of the Death Stars were for the Empire, it also serves a slightly more miserable purpose: it shows why so many people were galvanized to support them even after both were destroyed.
Throughout the history of Star Wars, the audience is repeatedly presented with the various evils a weapon like a Death Star is capable of, and also watch as it is established that this weapon is in exactly the wrong hands, making it borderline impossible to not root for the destruction of each ship. But the franchise seldom references the fact that these ships didn’t contain wall to wall menaces, villains, and diabolical Sith, but also a huge number of ordinary people, who were complicit in their construction and upkeep, but potentially didn’t actually support what they stood for or were used for – in other words, innocent people. But they still died in colossal numbers, leaving countless grieving friends, lovers, and family members in the wake of their demises.
As such, it’s clear that the destruction of the Death Stars aren’t as wonderous as the franchise initially may have suggested, as in actual fact these acts may have convinced many to support the Empire as a result of the collateral damage, much as Kevin Smith theorized long before The Mandalorian’s existence.
