Summary
- The destruction of the Death Star II in Return of the Jedi could have had catastrophic consequences for Endor, but the Star Wars canon attempts to mitigate the dark implications.
- Dr. Curtis Saxon's theory suggests that the destruction of the battle station would have caused radiation sickness and chemical contamination on Endor.
- The Legends continuity addressed the Endor Holocaust theory and explained that the debris mostly spread across the galaxy, while the new canon reveals that it landed on the Ocean Moon of Kef Bir instead.
Although Return of the Jedi concludes the original Star Wars trilogy with a Rebel victory, the destruction of the second Death Star presents potentially catastrophic problems for the Forest Moon of Endor. This issue is addressed in-universe in the original Legends continuity, but the canon-exclusive Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker seemingly makes matters worse for the new continuity in its depiction of the Death Star II’s wreckage, reopening the discussion regarding Return of the Jedi’s ending. Like Legends, the current Star Wars canon also addresses the aftermath of the battle station’s destruction, attempting to mitigate the potentially dark implications of the Rebellion’s victory.
Return of the Jedi has the Rebellion going up against a Death Star-equipped Imperial force once again. While the Empire used the battle station as bait to draw out the Alliance’s fleet, the rebels succeed in destroying it once its deflector shield is down, as the station’s incomplete superstructure leaves its main reactor even more vulnerable than the first Death Star’s. The Battle of Endor sees not only the destruction of the Empire’s second Death Star, but also the first death of Emperor Palpatine himself. Despite this major victory, one Star Wars writer has pointed out that the Death Star II’s destruction could spell doom for Endor.
The Death Star's Destruction Would Have Destroyed Life On Endor
Dr. Curtis Saxon, who wrote 2002’s Star Wars: Attack of the Clones Incredible Cross-Sections and 2005’s Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith Incredible Cross-Sections, has a grim theory regarding Endor’s fate after Return of the Jedi. Dr. Saxon, who has a doctorate in astrophysics, wrote an extensive technical commentary called “Endor Holocaust,” detailing the apocalyptic ramifications of the Death Star II’s destruction. The fact that a small moon-sized battle station detonated in low orbit of the larger Forest Moon would spell doom for Endor’s environment and its sapient inhabitants, the Ewoks. Dr. Saxon specifies that the main factors in Endor’s devastation would be radiation and debris from the explosion.
Dr. Saxon proposes that the battle station’s destruction would create “an enormous burst of gamma-rays and high-energy particles” that would give every being on the side of the moon facing the explosion radiation sickness at best, and death at worst. Equally catastrophic would be the battle station’s debris raining down on the Forest Moon, which would chemically contaminate Endor’s environment and create “nuclear winter” effects. The theory is compared to other catastrophes in the Star Wars Legends continuity, such as the devastation of Honoghr, and Dr. Saxon even suggests ways that the theory would fit alongside Endor’s other appearances and references in later Legends-era works.
How Star Wars Legends Dealt With The Endor Holocaust Theory
The Star Wars Legends continuity, formerly known as the Expanded Universe, was the official Star Wars timeline for most of the franchise’s history. Lucasfilm officials and Legends-era creators not only went to great lengths to keep the franchise’s continuity tidy, but also explain understandable concerns like the Endor Holocaust theory. The potentially-apocalyptic effects of the Death Star II’s destruction were addressed in a multitude of Legends-era materials, such as Apocalypse Endor, a short comic by Christian Read and Clayton Henry in an issue of Star Wars Tales.
In the comic, a retired veteran of the Stormtrooper Corps who survived the Battle of Endor takes morbid comfort in his belief that the Death Star II’s debris wiped out the Ewok population. However, he is immediately corrected by his listeners, who reveal that most of the debris was either vaporized or intercepted by rebel forces. The 1992 novel The Glove of Darth Vader by Paul and Hollace Davids, also explains that there was a short-lived hyperspace wormhole when the Second Death Star exploded (created by its hyperdrive regulator) that spread most of the debris across the galaxy.
Endor and its population are demonstrably unaffected by the explosion in Legends material set after Return of the Jedi, from Marvel’s classic Star Wars comics to the Legacy of the Force novels. Lucasfilm’s Pablo Hidalgo addressed the Endor Holocaust theory in a 2004 issue of Star Wars Insider, noting that the Star Wars franchise often breaks the laws of physics for the sake of its story and that George Lucas’s intended “happy ending” negates the grim predictions of Dr. Saxon’s theory. Indeed, viewers often forget that the Star Wars franchise’s genre is science-fantasy, not science-fiction. The laws of physics are followed, at best, inconsistently throughout the franchise.
Endor's Fate Is A Huge Problem For Star Wars Canon
The Expanded Universe was renamed Legends and rebranded as an alternate continuity in 2014 to provide the Star Wars sequel trilogy with a creative clean slate. One of the many changes this rebranding made to Star Wars was its removal of all counterarguments to the Endor Holocaust theory, at least until the release of The Rise of Skywalker. The 2019 film reveals that gigantic portions of the Death Star II did not strike the Forest Moon of Endor, but instead landed on the surface of Kef Bir, the Ocean Moon of Endor. The Forest Moon and its Ewok inhabitants (including Wicket) are shown to be unharmed in the film’s finale.
Just as Hidalgo debunked the Endor Holocaust theory for Legends, his 2019 reference book, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary, also debunks it in the new canon. The book explains that the Moddell sector (which includes the Endor system) is full of hyperspace anomalies, which was briefly worsened by the destruction of the Death Star II’s reactor. This resulted in the majority of the battle station’s debris being deposited on Kef Bir instead of the Forest Moon of Endor. Although Kef Bir lacks native sapient life, the second Death Star’s debris devastated its ecosystem similarly to what Dr. Saxon’s theory proposed for the Forest Moon.
The remainder of the second Death Star’s debris was handled by the Rebellion, according to the official Star Wars Twitter account, which stated that the rebels used shields and tractor beams to protect the surface of the Forest Moon of Endor from debris (and presumably any other harmful effects of the explosion). While the matter appears settled, it will likely be discussed once again in the upcoming From a Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi. Adam Christopher’s story “The Steadfast Soldier” will explore the Battle of Endor’s aftermath from the perspective of Enric Pryde, who may once again call the ending of Return of the Jedi into question.