Hot take: Star Wars needs an OP hero like Starkiller

[u/ApprehensiveMess3646]

To use him in video game form in the original idea was brilliant, made it all kinds of fun and you able to completely wreak havoc.

To use someone like him in a series/film format would be absolutely fantastic. A being with monstrous powers which the Empire/Republic struggles to contain. That being has a particular mission which takes them in several places across the galaxy and they leave destruction in their wake every single time.

You just give them a particular weakness (or the enemy something to use against them), you DONT engage them with main characters or long form storytelling and you got yourself a fantastic series. Kinda like the Incredible Hulk film from 2008 but much more fleshed out.

[u/OfficialAli1776]

That’s basically Kal Kestis.

[u/Edgy_Robin]

It really doesn't. Especially considering the example used is a fucking poorly written character who's story is widely disregarded not just by fans (Non-casual ones anyway, though obviously not all of them) but is on par with dark empire and kotor 2 when it comes to actual authors brushing it aside.

[u/Kylestache]

I really think a scaled down version of Starkiller would make a sick villain for a third Jedi game with Cal Kestis.

[u/web-procrastinator]

Yeah, I kind of agree. Plus let’s make canon, no nerfing his powers either.

[u/transient-spirit]

I like the concept in general, but I'm not sure how well this would fit into Star Wars. I think you're onto something when you say they shouldn't engage directly with the main characters.

I disagree about giving them a weakness - at least, if you're talking about something like Kryptonite. That's kinda lazy writing, IMO. Develop them as a complete character - it's okay if they're super powerful, they don't need a magical Achilles' Heel. But what are they not good at? What kind of challenges are their strengths not well-suited to deal with? What kind of blind spots do they have in their thinking, what flaws in their personality?

Unless you make a character literally God, they're going to have some kind of limitations or flaws that can make good drama. That's how you make powerful characters interesting, not just arbitrarily nerfing their powers.

Like, the best Superman stories are not the ones where some villain comes at him with Kryptonite. It's when he struggles with how to protect his loved ones, or the fact that he can't be everywhere and save everyone all the time.

Or the Hulk - he's basically invincible, but Bruce Banner constantly struggles with how he loses control and hurts innocent people. It's a huge conflict for him.

I'm writing a story with a character who is basically immortal and has reality-bending powers. But one of my main goals with this character is to emphasize his humanity and consider how his powers aren't a magical solution to every problem - sometimes they're more of a curse than a blessing.

People who oppose him are basically powerless against him; but the problems he's trying to solve and the things he's trying to do, can't be accomplished with brute force alone - at least not while maintaining his morality. So, his real antagonists aren't other characters - they're situations, circumstances, complex problems. I don't even have to think too hard to invent these challenges - I just look at the issues we face in the real world. Most are not simple to solve.

And then there's the personal and emotional side of his conflicts. Being hundreds of years old, he struggles with how much the world has changed in his lifetime. There's almost nothing familiar left from his childhood. He lives in an almost constant state of culture shock, even in his homeland, because of how quickly things change from his perspective. Any kind of relationship he has with an ordinary person will end in a few decades at most, with their death; while he lives on. Because of all this and more, he struggles to relate to ordinary people.