Star Wars’ primary villain, Emperor Palpatine, has long sought revenge against his enemies, though this may have proven to undermine the Death Star. Throughout all the Star Wars movie trilogies, Palpatine served as the primary villain of the Jedi Order. While Palpatine’s backstory in Star Wars is still shrouded in mystery, his efforts to become the sole power of the galaxy have been adequately explored.
From his manipulation of the Senate in the prequels and his time as Emperor in the original trilogy to Project Necromancer and Palpatine’s resurrection in the sequels, the Sith Lord is one of the more iconic antagonists in the entire franchise. This antagonism has often centered around one core desire for Palpatine: revenge. Be it the destruction of the Jedi, the dissolving of the Republic, or his return masked under the First Order, Palpatine has always sought revenge against those who have opposed him. Through this thirst, however, Palpatine may have undermined his greatest weapon, the Death Star.
Undoubtedly the biggest focus of Palpatine’s revenge was on the Jedi Order after the prequel trilogy. Palpatine concocted Order 66, the Inquisitors, and other dangerous methods to remove all traces of the Jedi once the Empire rose in the Republic’s place. Despite these overly barbaric methods, Palpatine took his revenge one step further, as revealed in Star Wars: Darth Vader #1 (2017).
This comic book confirmed that Palpatine began destroying the lightsabers of his enemies. From the various weapons collected by the Inquisitorius to any other Jedi weapons he could find, Palpatine stripped them down and decimated them out of a need for revenge. This sums up Palpatine’s villainy well, and is in character for the evil Sith Lord, but may have proved to be costly to one of the Empire’s biggest weapons.
The main way lightsabers link to the Death Star is via Kyber crystals. Lightsabers are powered by Kyber crystals, powerful rocks that have inherent links to Jedi through the Force. Given the immense power of Kyber, the Empire began utilizing it to build the Death Star and later Starkiller Base under the guise of the First Order. It was Rogue One: A Star Wars Story‘s Galen Erso who discovered the Death Star’s laser could be powered by Kyber, ironically highlighting a flaw in Palpatine’s aforementioned revenge.
If Palpatine had not destroyed the various Jedi lightsabers years earlier, the Kyber within them could have quickened the Death Star’s construction. The Kyber could have been used to perfect the superlaser earlier, a fact that Palpatine was blind to thanks to his need for revenge. Therefore, one of the defining traits of the Sith and Palpatine himself was one of the reasons the unveiling of the villain’s greatest weapon was delayed, which ultimately led to his downfall in the original Star Wars trilogy.