The Greys

No wonder the Empire can afford to keep building hugely extravagant space stations when they clearly skimp so much on basic health and safety features! But there is one section of the Death Star that does have guard rails — the Emperor’s throne room.

Yes, like any hierarchical political system it seems to be “one rule for them, another for us”. The poor stormtroopers and maintenance staff have to work with the daily perils of unsafe working practices, while the Emperor swans around his room with scant regard for the perilous pitfalls that lie on the other side of his balustrade. The architect probably felt that such dangerous drops added to the general “evil lair” aesthetic, whilst providing an illusion of openness and height that’s more befitting of a throne room. Or just left some enormous sections of floor out to keep the costs down.

Yet even those Imperial rails were clearly inadequate and underspecified given that the room is frequented by people that can easily force lift each other and toss them over the edge like a rag doll. There will be a lot of paperwork to fill out over that one!

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