The Senate isn't on Coruscant any longer.

Correct, and it wasn't Coruscant destroyed. They mention the system in the briefing. Hussani system???

It was the Hosnian system. Allegedly Hosnian Prime was the seat of government for the New Republic, apparently it rotated though member states or some such. Along with the destruction of the system was the destruction of most of the New Republic's fleet. It's a good thing too, because it appears the First Order put so much effort into building Star Killer base they forgot to build any star destroyers. I only counted one in the whole movie.

Really not sure why this stuff wasn't in the movie, the lack of exposition about the current political landscape was one of my big criticisms.

SUDDELNY HAN BREAKS TEH RULES

and yeah, let's not forget that at that very moment the Death STAR started weighing like a STAR because it consumed the star's matter in huge quantity

As far as jumping into the atmosphere of the planet (honestly, I'm just using that as a shorthand for "incredibly deep into a gravity well"), if it's a matter of the safeties on the hyperdrive, I'd like Han to just casually mentioned disengaging them. And maybe have him smirk, look over at Finn and say "how do you think I made the kessel run so fast?" *cheque growls* "no, we won't hit anything. I updated the nav computer before we left Maz's place. I think."

And now we have a sense of stakes, intellect, and drama.

The safetys on the Falcon were likely disabled long ago by Han, and if not then he certainly did it for that jump.

And the communication through hyperspace has been done before several times in books. And possibly even in ROTJ, doesnt Lando say something after they jumped to lightspeed but before they jumped out...maybeI'm wrong on that. I also think they have done it in Clone Wars or Rebels, but again could be wrong.

Although I am positive theyve done it in the books multiple times.

The planet that the Starkiller blew up was Hosnian Prime, where the Republic government now meets.

IIRC Rogue Squadron is able to communicate in hyperspace during the books. Jumping in atmosphere was kinda crazy too, but it's a movie, there's also space wizards and planet guns.

Merely mentioning "space wizards" and "planet guns" is not a good enough reason to completely change the way ships have always been used in Star Wars.

I've watched Star Wars, Empire and Return of the Jedi many times and I can't remember any line telling us when and where one can hyperspace travel to. So no TFA hasn't changed how ships have always been used in Star Wars; you're just thinking the EU matters more than it does.

The Cross-section book I got from my family for Christmas explains the Star Destroyer issue.

So the Finalizer was the first of the Resurgent-Class Star Destroyers built, and its big---2915meters long, and carries 2 wings of fighters(144) and a hundred support shuttle for the Stormtroopers.

Also the New Republic and First Order have treaties that impose sanctions and limits on size and firpower ships carry, and the Resurgent class breaks these treaties, so they are kept relatively in secret. Leia keeps telling the Republic about them but they for the most part think that she is wrong, though she tracks the ships, well the few they have. Sadly it doesnt say how many, I'd guess maybe a dozen or so.

And in one shot in the movie when you see the Finalizer's bridge looking out at Starkiller Base, you do see 3 other destroyers off in the distance up near the planet (whether they are Resurgents or others, who knows).

I remember specifically in one of the Rogue Squadron books, Wraith Squadron I think, where an Imperial admiral figured out a trap and dropped his ImpStar Duece out of hyperspace. He couldn't contact his other three ships, but hypercommed them a message as soon as they completed their jump.

As much as I love Kotor, the Star Forge was one of the dumbest ideas in the game. And even then, I think I prefer that storyline (i.e. secretly create a massive invasion fleet) to the "A bigger (dumber) Deathstar" that makes even less sense. Heck, even the Suncrusher from Jedi Academy series would have been better and that is one of the worst stories of all time.

The radiation and heat emitted from absorbing energy from a sun would killed everyone on the planet both while charging and again when firing the weapon. Flying in and making a sun go supernova makes infinitely more sense than shooting "hyper space lasers". Come to think of it, can't they just strap hyperdrives to large planetoids/asteroids and jump them into the planet, or near the surface to creat an extinction level event. Star Wars meets Armageddon would have made a much better movie, particularly with a catchy theme song...

The Deathstar was always an odd one to me too, until I just recently found out it was built using super-scaled Lightsaber technology, which actually makes (some) sense.

The first thing I noticed was that Finn and Poe escaped in a TIE fighter without helmets... TIE fighters don't have atmosphere inside, hence the TIE pilot space suit.

Of course one could argue that the special forces TIEs have atmo. Or one could argue that they were in the ship only relatively briefly and that they are just using up emergency reserves.

The first thing I noticed was that Finn and Poe escaped in a TIE fighter without helmets... TIE fighters don't have atmosphere inside, hence the TIE pilot space suit.

Of course one could argue that the special forces TIEs have atmo. Or one could argue that they were in the ship only relatively briefly and that they are just using up emergency reserves.

The first thing I noticed was that Finn and Poe escaped in a TIE fighter without helmets... TIE fighters don't have atmosphere inside, hence the TIE pilot space suit.

Of course one could argue that the special forces TIEs have atmo. Or one could argue that they were in the ship only relatively briefly and that they are just using up emergency reserves.

From what I've read on the wikis, the TIE/sf is equipped with a life support system, in line with it's upgrades to be a modern space fighter. Though I'm not sure if it was ever explained why the rebel fleet appears to consist of a dozen T70's, which has been really bugging me along with the other things others have mentioned here.

Starkiller Base was my problem with the movie. I liked the rest. But, why build a weapon that you'll literally get two uses from, then you not only no longer have the weapon, but you've also lost a military outpost, because the star holding the system together is gone? As far as we can tell, Starkiller had no propulsion system (how would you keep a planet intact while moving it?). It fired its apparent inaugural attack to destroy the Hosnian system, and the sun was going to be exhausted by the time they attacked the Resistance. That seems like an awfully big investment in a "use-twice-and-destroy" weapon.

The first thing I noticed was that Finn and Poe escaped in a TIE fighter without helmets... TIE fighters don't have atmosphere inside, hence the TIE pilot space suit.

Of course one could argue that the special forces TIEs have atmo. Or one could argue that they were in the ship only relatively briefly and that they are just using up emergency reserves.

TIE fighters not having life support is a bit of EU fluff, now solidly brushed aside.

OK, here's what I noticed.

Starkiller Base is basically a planet that has been excavated around the equator down a couple thousand miles at least, right? So wouldn't the atmosphere "flow" down into that huge chasm and leave the original surface of the planet in near vacuum? An atmosphere on an earth-type planet is very thin compared to the size of the planet, and there was a lot of that planet missing.

I think you overestimate the depth of the canyon.

Starkiller Base is not nearly the size of earth, our planet has a diameter of 12000 kilometers.

1) Somewhere in the 5-6 seconds Han is running to the Falcon's cockpit and hitting buttons, he jacks into the other ship and opens the hanger doors, you can see them opening as the Falcon is turning. 1st problem down. Other one though is getting jump coordinates to somewhere straight ahead of the ship in the 5 seconds after they're off the deck and turning. Would take longer than that to punch in a manual "get us just far enough away to make a stop and then a proper jump".

It's possible while trying to open the interior door to the hanger(that he shoots to open), he connected the ship to the Falcon at that panel. It's possible Han knew where the ship was headed when they picked up the Falcon and punched in those coordinates. It's possible Han has a pre-programmed jump into the nav computer that is a short get out of danger jump of a light year or 2 where he can then make a proper jump.

2) This seemingly now makes the canon(from Rebels) Interdictor irrelevant. Han is shown to be able to bypass what is generally taken as a built-in safety to hyperdrives.

The Falcon was heavily modified befor, during and after Han owned her. That moof milker Plutt even put a compressor on the ignition! I'm sure the Falcon is capable of doing all sorts of crazy stunts like jumping to hyperspace while docked or coming out of Lightspeed in an atmosphere, all he while threatening to explode at any moment. It's the ultimate hit rod in a movie series that celebrates such things.

StarKiller base is using 'hyperlightspeed' technology. That's good enough for me to explain how we can see the destruction of the Hosnian system from many light years away, as well as draining a star of whatever it was draining it of without causing it to collapse or go nova. Starkiller's atmosphere would have been kept in place despite the hundreds-of-miles deep chasm with normal shield technology scaled up. Hanger bays always seem to have atmosphere despite being open to space.

We don't know if the base was mobile, but even if it was fixed we don't know if it was limited to two shots. According to their plan two shots is all they needed...well one shot really, to destroy the Relublic fleet (the space pickles that blew up with Hosnian prime) and the seat of the galactic government. Destroying the Resistence would have been a matter of chasing them down with an ever increasing FO fleet. StarKiller would have then been used as a deterrent to keep any rogue systems in line by being a threat that could destroy a system from the other side of the Galaxy. With StarKiller gone the FO still has what is probably the largest fleet in the Galaxy now that the Republic fleet was wiped out or at least largely reduced.

According to the schematics of StarKiller base it looked as if all the modifications to the planet were still less than the scale of the construction of the Death Star, merely using the planet as a frame to house the necessary machinery for the weapon. Only half of the equator was excavated and only partially replaced with the weapon. The occilator does seem to extend to the core, as might the main cannon of the weapon, but the planet is not nearly as densely packed with banger bays or inhabited areas as the Death Star.

It's a large base and an impressive weapon, but it might not represent anything close to the real might and strength of the FO.

The Death Star Banger Bays, where the size of your Stormtrooper doesn't matter.

My biggest problem with the Falcon jumping inside the atmosphere (and therefore bypassing the shield): if that is merely dangerous as opposed to downright impossible, why has it not been weaponized until now? Build a missile with a hyperdrive, launch enough of them at a shielded plsnetary installation and watch it go boom.

My biggest problem with the Falcon jumping inside the atmosphere (and therefore bypassing the shield): if that is merely dangerous as opposed to downright impossible, why has it not been weaponized until now? Build a missile with a hyperdrive, launch enough of them at a shielded plsnetary installation and watch it go boom.

Same reason people don't shoot asteroids at other planets or put a hyperdrive on a moon and send that like a missile...the writers don't think like that.

Actually, it's because most people in the Galaxy don't have the resources to research doing that, or are just not willing to. Or if it is weaponized then it won't take long to develop a countermeasure, like shields that work slightly differently/have a different frequency so that it stops FTL travel as well as bradyonic matter. If Han had guessed wrong and the FO had used different shielding tech it would have worked and the falcon would have gone splat. This is why super weapons like Death Stars existed, they overwhelmed planetary shields, completely destroyed planets, and were reusable and mobile. StarKiller base seems to be a it of a cost saving measure, using insitu resources to power the weapon that may have limited shots but practically unlimited range. A properly shielded and mobile Death Star would not have been vulnerable to a counterattack like StarKiller was, but StarKiller may have been cheaper or easier to build or to hide while under construction.

And for some reason fully automated weapons in Star Wars tend to be silly droids and not terminators or cruise missiles.

In Star Wars those planetary sheilds no longer protect you. Why can't an entire squad just jump in?

Because you get that wrong and you get splattered over the planet. There's a good reason he didn't tell Leia what he planned on doing.

My biggest problem with the Falcon jumping inside the atmosphere (and therefore bypassing the shield): if that is merely dangerous as opposed to downright impossible, why has it not been weaponized until now? Build a missile with a hyperdrive, launch enough of them at a shielded plsnetary installation and watch it go boom.

I'd imagine the reason you don't get hyperspace cannons (as in hitting something at "lightspeed" rather than the Starkiller Base that fires a solar exosphere through hyperspace) is something to do with the nature of lightspeed: you don't have the momentum of going that fast in realspace. Otherwise physically jumping a frigate into a planet at lightspeed could be an extinction event.

As for reverting missiles, you saw how much damage point blank torpedo strikes did in the assault. Furthermore, you'd have to revert at exactly the right moment.

2) This seemingly now makes the canon(from Rebels) Interdictor irrelevant. Han is shown to be able to bypass what is generally taken as a built-in safety to hyperdrives.

The Interdictor physically prevents jumps. Preventing a ship from jumping by exploiting its safeties is one of the daftest things the EU ever had, considering any sensible Rebel force would simply deactivate those safeties.

In the SWU, traveling at Hyperspace doesn't follow physics very well. It's long treated lightspeed collisions as a bug on the windshield, not a bug traveling the speed of light hitting it.

In the SWU, traveling at Hyperspace doesn't follow physics very well. It's long treated lightspeed collisions as a bug on the windshield, not a bug traveling the speed of light hitting it.

Welcome to 90% of Scifi.

I don't get why people complain about "real physics" and travelling faster than light in scifi.

After watching the movie again I'm not that annoyed by the jumping into a mass shadow thing, after all Han managed to mash up the Falcon pretty good when he did it and he's supposed to be one of the best pilots in the galaxy. Not a pretty landing at all.

All of those inconsistencies come from conflicts with the EU. Disney was pretty clear that they had no intention to maintain consistency with the EU.

All of those inconsistencies come from conflicts with the EU. Disney was pretty clear that they had no intention to maintain consistency with the EU.

Except it also raises the question: why did they not do the same in RotJ with the shield of the 2nd Deathstar? Instead of risking the lives of so many people, why not jump that captured Lambda, filled to the brink with explosives inside the shield, aimed at the generator on the moon?

Honestly, also given Rey's and Kylo Ren's Force abilities, it seems to me Disney just goes for the cool factor, consistency with anything be damned.