Just one thing

This movie would have been perfect if the Starkiller Base had survived. I don't know, by General Hux and Supreme Leader Snoke using some built-in mechanism to impede the overheating, a number of things would have been accomplished:

-Prove that 30 years of Death Star design had serve some purpose. If, say, the system had some auxiliary exhaust to eliminate the excessive heat (I know that the Resistance blow up the main exhaust, but really? Just one for such a huge device?) or by reverting the flux intake of energy from the star.

-Prove Hux saying that they have trained their men better: even in New Hope, the imperials realized the goal of the rebel attack. Here, the First Order officials seem oblivious to the fact that the Resistance attack would produce a catastrophic chain reaction that obviously would start giving sign of its presence before firing the device. If they would had made clear to Hux the aim of the attack and the fact that the system is overheating, they would have established themselves years ahead of any Imperial.

-Prove that Hux and Snoke are actually capable of  wielding and effort this big. They had basically enslaved billions of people to transform a whole planet into a weapon and, at the first try, they let it be blown into nothingness? In my scenario, Hux is informed of the fact that firing the system would make the whole thing explode, but still he has to destroy the Resistance base, so he orders to relief some of the pressure by reverting the influx of energy, letting the weapon armed and the system safe; but as the thing continues to overheat, he was to consult with Snoke on what to do (which he does, just to be shunt by Snoke about the subject) with him saying that he can fire the weapon to get ride of the dangerous heat and somehow damage the Resistance; they don't need the whole power to do that and by relieving the pressure on both sides of the system they would have been on the clear.

These three point would have serve to establish that the First Order is better, more dangerous than the Empire, which is precisely what these movies need. But, the survival of Starkiller base would have serve other mayor purposes:

-Protect a huge plot point of the prequels (and by that I mean all previous episodes): a lot of people struggled and perished to make the knowledge of how to destroy the Death Star available to the rebels. It stretches the suspension of disbelief to ask from us to accept that a plan concocted in 5 minutes by the janitor can be equally effective than an effort years in the making.

-Maintain the treat the First Order poses to the Galaxy in episode VIII. As things are now, they have nothing! Nothing to threaten us with.

-Fly on the face of Han Solo's smugness: no, this is not another Death Star; no, there's not always a way to blow them up, and even if there is, you're gonna find some fine opposition to your efforts.

What the destruction of the base accomplishes in the movie could have been equally accomplished in my scenario:

-Avoiding Rey killing Kylo: yes, the earth is cracking because it's overheating... so it is in the proposed scenario.

-Give Poe Dameron an special status: as Luke in New Hope, Dameron will be known as the person that destroy Starkill Base. Isn't equally impressive to be the one that maimed it beyond functionality for a while? Though he already has a reputation and he lives up to it, so what if he didn't destroyed it?

-The survival of the Resistance. Yes, the weapon of Starkiller base wouldn't be able to destroy the Resistance planet completely. But it would actually put them in danger! Imagine the laser coming close, no one in the audience knowing what damage is going to produce. Leia then would have to act as a General! Saving the day for the Resistance.

And finally, the most important thing that the survival of the base would have achieved: the biggest anticlimax ever, putting the movie above The Empire Strikes Back; defying the logic of New Hope would have said clearly that this is a NEW movie, destroying completely the idea that this is just a soft reboot of the franchise. The setting was there, they just shy away of a superb ending...




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