In the real world, weapons of mass destruction are no laughing matter. They could cause the end of life as we know it, those who survive would have to live in a nuclear winter and/or post-apocalyptic wasteland, and it’d get really Fallout-ish really quickly. Super fun stuff.
When it comes to science fiction however, all bets are off. The Empire could eviscerate Alderaan with the Death Star and we’ll be chill with it. It’s all fiction, people.
Over on the r/starwars subreddit, a post appreciating the sheer terror of the moon-sized, planet-destroying weapon was made by u/Gagarin1961, who challenged commenters to think of a sci-fi super-weapon concept that is at least on par with it.
Thus began a discussion comparing the destructive power and overall awe-inspiring magnitude of the Death Star from Star Wars to Halo’s ring installations. Both deadly, both dangerous, both capable of eviscerating make-believe life as we know it.
The Halo fandom quickly crawled out of the woodwork, with the top response on the thread being a single word, Halo – the namesake super-weapon of the long-running Microsoft game franchise.
It’s a fairly valid point, a Halo ring (especially when combined with its peers scattered across the cosmos) is not only way more destructive, but it also dwarfs the Death Star in terms of size. Of course, size isn’t the only thing that matters, folks.
A Halo installation is also quite interesting from an aesthetic perspective, but inside and out. The Forerunners had a little bit more architectural flair than the Geonosians and Galen Erso, coming up with a lush and Earth-like surface to cover an abundant network of neon-blue tinted underground control systems for its mega-weapon. A little less drab than the grey interior and exterior of the Empire’s super-weapon.
Not to mention that simply standing on the surface of a Halo ring, you look up at the sky and feel like a tiny hamster on the universe’s largest running wheel. Of course, both super-weapons lose out on safety standards, given the lack of guard rails for sheer drops on the Death Star and, well, being able to just walk yourself off the edge of a Halo ring.
Of course, it goes without saying that Star Wars did come first, and undoubtedly the cultural significance of George Lucas’s original trilogy of films managed to have some sort of inspiring impact on the creation and design of Bungie and Microsoft’s sci-fi world, but hey – a simplified definition of innovation is to take something that already exists and make it better.
Star Wars sure did it when they took the plot of Halo Reach and turned it into A New Hope prequel by way of Rogue One. If we could end this article on one last inflammatory note, Energy Swords are aesthetically cooler than lightsabers.
With all that said and done, Andor’s full first season has now wrapped up if you want to binge that in one go on Disney Plus, and the second season of the Halo TV series is also confirmed to be on the way. Although, we don’t really have a leg to stand on with that one.