Alternate interpretation of the Dodonna quote

[Rhadamantus]

What if by firepower they were only referring to the surface turbolasers? Then we can estimate comparitive firepower by surface area. The Death Star I has a area of 101,787 km^2. An ISD has an area of 2.74 km^2, which works out to less than 18000 ISDs. However, an executor would have a area of 135 km^2, so that Death Star would equal 754 executors.

[Esquire]

Why would you describe the firepower of a strategic weapon installation... Without including the strategic weapon it's literally built around?

[Rhadamantus]

Because that wouldn't be useful in a fleet battle with the Starfleet.

[Rhadamantus]

"The battle station is heavily shielded and carries a firepower greater than half the star fleet."

[Borgholio]

Actually I always did tend to interpret his quote as NOT including the superlaser. The reason is because as Rhadamantus said, the superlaser (at least on the first Death Star) was useless in a fleet combat. The biggest concern for any attacking force would be the massive number of turbolaser batteries and the heavy shielding that would prevent anything bigger than a one-man fighter from getting through.

[Galvatron]

For something so heavily shielded, the rebel fighters sure had no trouble inflicting superficial damage.

[Crazedwraith]

They were implied to be inside the shields.

[Borgholio]

They were implied to be inside the shields.

Actually it was outright stated...although they called it a magnetic field instead.

[RogueIce]

Actually I always did tend to interpret his quote as NOT including the superlaser. The reason is because as Rhadamantus said, the superlaser (at least on the first Death Star) was useless in a fleet combat.

It seemed to work just fine against a capital ship in the Death Star novel, which contradicted all the earlier EU about how only the DS2 could target ships.

Is there something in the new canon that says one way or another?

[Elheru Aran]

Actually I always did tend to interpret his quote as NOT including the superlaser. The reason is because as Rhadamantus said, the superlaser (at least on the first Death Star) was useless in a fleet combat.

It seemed to work just fine against a capital ship in the Death Star novel, which contradicted all the earlier EU about how only the DS2 could target ships.

Is there something in the new canon that says one way or another?

I suspect the distinction isn't so much that it couldn't before, it was more that the superlaser was capable of firing much more quickly with DS2, and off-axis. The DS2 superlaser may have been a Version 2.0, so to speak.

[Captain Seafort]

It seemed to work just fine against a capital ship in the Death Star novel, which contradicted all the earlier EU about how only the DS2 could target ships.

I suspect the distinction isn't so much that it couldn't before, it was more that the superlaser was capable of firing much more quickly with DS2, and off-axis. The DS2 superlaser may have been a Version 2.0, so to speak.

In addition, I'm pretty sure the old Technical Journal either strongly implied or outright stated that DS1 was capable of reduced-power antiship fire.

[Elheru Aran]

It seemed to work just fine against a capital ship in the Death Star novel, which contradicted all the earlier EU about how only the DS2 could target ships.

I suspect the distinction isn't so much that it couldn't before, it was more that the superlaser was capable of firing much more quickly with DS2, and off-axis. The DS2 superlaser may have been a Version 2.0, so to speak.

In addition, I'm pretty sure the old Technical Journal either strongly implied or outright stated that DS1 was capable of reduced-power antiship fire.

Moreover, in ROTJ it seemed that the Rebels weren't surprised that it could target their ships, only that it was active to start with. Ackbar seemed to think it might be a lost cause once the DS2 started swatting capital ships, Lando manages to convince him to hang on by getting the Rebel fleet mixed up with the Imperial fleet to discourage collateral damage.

[Simon_Jester]

Even if the superlaser can target capital ships (Dodonna might not know this for sure yet), it almost certainly cannot target fighters, and only fighters are being deployed in A New Hope.

[Adam Reynolds]

Why would you describe the firepower of a strategic weapon installation... Without including the strategic weapon it's literally built around?

Because it is a statement of the obvious. Would you describe the yield of nuclear weapons to a commando team storming an ICBM silo, or would you focus on the defenses?

On the issue of shielding, this was the key thing in canon that led to the fairly prominent theory around here that fighters can often fly under shields. The Rebel fighters indeed flew under it in some sense, which is what Dodonna was referencing when he mentioned the lack of a tighter defense. While it is possible to debate just how much this flaw occurs with capital ships, there is no question it occurred with the Death Star.

The Death Star's exhaust port weakness also indicates that critical targets have secondary shields. Which is also consistent with the destruction of Executor. After a fighter attack brought down their bridge shields. they were extremely vulnerable to fighters but still somewhat protected from an opposing capital ship.

[Patroklos]

Because it is a statement of the obvious. Would you describe the yield of nuclear weapons to a commando team storming an ICBM silo, or would you focus on the defenses?

Because you are for all intents and purposes asking them to undertake a suicide mission, and people generally want a good reason for doing that.

[Adam Reynolds]

Because it is a statement of the obvious. Would you describe the yield of nuclear weapons to a commando team storming an ICBM silo, or would you focus on the defenses?

Because you are for all intents and purposes asking them to undertake a suicide mission, and people generally want a good reason for doing that.

They already knew about Alderaan and that the Death Star would do the same to Yavin if they didn't stop it. The briefing appeared to be a purely technical one.

Frankly given the fleet numbers that seem to be reflected in the current canon, estimating their firepower based on this sort of thing gives results that are insane. If star destroyers are capable of that level of firepower, the Death Star is unnecessary, even against planetary shields.

[Commander Veers]

They already knew about Alderaan and that the Death Star would do the same to Yavin if they didn't stop it. The briefing appeared to be a purely technical one.

Indeed, purely technical. I interpret it as him simply explaining just how powerful this new superweapon is, in that it outstrips half of the massive Imperial starfleet in its firepower.

Frankly given the fleet numbers that seem to be reflected in the current canon, estimating their firepower based on this sort of thing gives results that are insane. If star destroyers are capable of that level of firepower, the Death Star is unnecessary, even against planetary shields.

This is good evidence that the 25,000 number is simply bogus, and someone pulled it out of... somewhere without the slightest knowledge of what they were talking about, as is the case with so much canon. Canon must be taken with a pinch of salt when you take into account most writers are just interested in the swooshy lightsabers and have no understanding of the wider universe.

The main issue with this interpretation is what it means for fleet numbers:
The DS-1 had only twice as many turbolasers (give or take, they're both in the low thousands) as an Executor-class, and we know from Solo's quote in ROTJ that there are 'lots of command ships'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdJnuhUWM6Q
So interpreting Dodonna's quote this way means that there are perhaps 2 or 3 Executors and a few hundred/few thousand ISDs and smaller craft. This simply cannot be possible, given that you could fit thousands of Executors, volume-wise, into the main reactor of the DS-1 itself.

More likely, there are 100,000+ ISDs, millions of smaller frigate-scale craft, hundreds, perhaps thousands of dreadnoughts and a great number of larger-than-destroyer vessels, like the Allegiance-class BC - perhaps 50,000 of those alone? It would be nice if some canon writer would finally put the 25,000 ISD myth to rest.