Skip to main content
1 of 5

Why did Alderaan blow up instantly but Jedha and Scarif blew up slowly?

In A New Hope, when Alderaan is blown up by the Death Star, the destruction is instant and very explosive.
Similarly, in The Force Awakens, when Star Killer Base fired on and destroyed Hosnian Prime (as well as a handful of smaller planets in the Hosnian system), the result was spectacularly explosive.

Now, fast forward to Rogue One. In it, both Jedha and Scarif are destroyed by the Death Star. However, both explosions are drawn out and less instantaneous. In fact, the destruction of Jedha is so "slow" that Jyn and others even have time to escape its destruction.

I might have missed it in the movie, but is there a reason in the movie why Jedha and Scarif's explosions were more drawn out?