A Tamer Superweapon: How Star Wars Rebels Redressed World Devastators
There was a lot of mythology and character development in the Star Wars Legends continuity, a body of stories and expanded universe material preceding a partial reboot in 2014. The terrible World Devastators from the Dark Empire comics among other elements from Legends have been rebuilt and included into the new canon.
Menacing a planet, the Dark Empire's World Devastators
Emperor Palpatine, the main enemy of the original Star Wars trilogy, reappeared several times in the Dark Empire comics within the Legends continuity. Palpatine sent his consciousness into mindless clone bodies by means of dark side power of essence transfer. Comprising lethal weapons, droids, and vessels, the Dark Empire—a strong faction of the Galactic Empire—was housed in his secret base on Byss in the Deep Core Among their ranks were massive war machines able to consume planets, the World Devastators.
Powerful tractor beams allow world devastators to harvest resources from a planet. This absorption not only ruins the planet but also gives the Dark Empire raw supplies to build warships and upgrade themselves, so generating a self-sustaining cycle of destruction and expansion. Though they are mobile and lack a dark side user, these terrible machines are similar to the planet-sized weapon Star Forge from Legends, which could produce an infinite number of warships but is even more lethal.
Mon Calamari's Battle and the World Devastaters
Although the World Devastators proved to be a strong enemy for the Rebel Alliance, strategic subterfugation combined with conventional warfare finally helped them to be defeated. During the Battle of Mon Calamari, elite Rebel pilots known as Rogue Squadron destroyed three small World Devastators. But only by sabotage could the bigger, more potent World Devastators be destroyed. The protagonist of the first Star Wars trilogy, Luke Skywalker pretended to fall to the dark side and allegiance to the Dark Empire and the Sith. Sneaking into the World Devastators, he and his dependable droid friend R2-D2 planted explosives and disabled their systems, so bringing about their final death.
The rise of the ore crawlers: a less dangerous reimagining
Though they had destructive power, the World Devastators were finally consigned to Legends. But set between Episodes III and IV of the Star Wars film series, a similar machine—the ore crawler—was debuted in the Canon animated series Star Wars Rebels. Though aesthetically similar to the World Devastators, the ore crawlers lack the terrible power and self-replicating ability of their Legends counterparts.
Ore crawlers search the surface of a planet for resources to enable military operations of the Galactic Empire. They are merely tools for resource extraction; they are not self-sustaining machines or planetkillers like the World Devastators. Although they are undoubtedly destructive, the threat the World Devastators present dwarfs them.
The Legacy of World Devastators
Though they hardly show up in the new canon, the World Devastators remind us of the great destructive capability of the Galactic Empire. The creative team behind Star Wars Rebels chose to keep the visual inspiration while toning down the destructive power of these machines, thus the reimagining of these superweapons in the form of ore crawlers shows how they did it. This decision lets the ore crawlers fulfill their role in the story without resorting to the cliché of unveiling a "planet-killing" superweapon, a device that has lately become rather common in the Star Wars series.
A monument to the strength of imagination and the ongoing influence Legends material has on the Star Wars galaxy, the World Devastators They act as a reminder of the Empire's destructive power and the value of the Rebel Alliance's struggle for freedom even in their toned-down form as ore crawlers.
