Star Wars ANH Question-Charging the Death Star's weapon

First let me say, I'm not a Star Wars expert, and if this has been discussed previously, then feel free to delete this thread. But ANH was on TV tonight and I came in during the climactic battle. As the X-Wings are attempting to hit the port, they keep showing the graphic with the time until the Death Star has a shot on the rebel base. When they finally come into range, the order is given to charge the weapon, which takes a little time to activate, therefore giving Luke time to make the critical shot. Is there a reason that they didn't start pre-charging the weapon when they were close to range? Just curious.

It's just Star Wars. No such thing as ANH.

Anyway, maybe the Death Star draws power from the engines to fire the super-laser, and it can't fire while moving.

I always wonder why they didn't just blow up Yavin instead of orbiting it. The explosion and debris would have crippled the Rebel base on Yavins moon, plus they could just shoot again.

James Kenobi 1138 said:

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I always wonder why they didn't just blow up Yavin instead of orbiting it. The explosion and debris would have crippled the Rebel base on Yavins moon, plus they could just shoot again.

Damn. I'm never gonna see that scene the same way again. Why didn't they blow up Yavin...

It's one of the bigger plot holes, but I always explained it by saying Yavin was a gas giant; the gas-explosion would've destroyed the Death Star too.

Why would the DS need to be firing its engines in space? Come to think of it, does it have hyperdrive, and if so, why not come out of hyperspace closer? Yeah, maybe they needed some time to charge the weapon.

Oh, I know: Who cares? Star Wars rules!

I always figured it was just their over confidence. No need to rush because the victory is inevitable. That's why Tarkin dismissed the suggestion that they could be in danger.

BornKIlr said:

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Is there a reason that they didn't start pre-charging the weapon when they were close to range? Just curious.

Because that wouldn't have given the rebels enough time to destroy the Death Star.

It doesn't make much sense from a real-world tactical perspective, but it makes for slightly better storytelling as long as you don't over-analyze it.

James Kenobi 1138 said:

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I always wonder why they didn't just blow up Yavin instead of orbiting it. The explosion and debris would have crippled the Rebel base on Yavins moon, plus they could just shoot again.

+1, I was thinking the exact same thing whilst at work the other day, yes my mind was wandering I guess it may have been slight overkill to simply blast Yavin away, I'm surprised over the years that a fanfilm hasn't appeared showing this...

If you dont mind EU stuff, the novel Death Star describes the sequence from other points of views. The book describes how the man in control of the laser gets psychic problems after destroying Alderaan and cant get himself to pull the trigger until its to late. When hesitating he sais stand by, stand by.

I try not to over think it only because Lucas did it for suspense and not common sense. I used to always over analyze movies but then found myself not enjoying them so much because I was too hung up on why didn't you do this that? I'm your typical "movie zombie" now. I just mindlessly watch the movies and munch on my brain bucket (popcorn).

Another explanation:

Maybe the "Stand by....stand by" bit was due to some malfunction. The shot on Alderaan might have strained the system, and they had technical difficulties leading up to the shot on Yavin IV.

Now, as for why they didn't blow up the gas giant, here's two explanations. (1) It's a gas giant, with no hard core, therefore the superlaser's reaction wouldn't have worked the same. Given that they hadn't tested it on a gas giant, they didn't want to risk things going wrong. (2) They knew what would happen, and knew they wouldn't be able to get out of range of the explosion. Destroying the gas giant would be too dangerous and their shields couldn't take it.

From what I've been told. Military has a fire at visual confirmation of target. Coupled with overconfidence that the rebels had no chance in hell to stop them, Tarkin wasn't going to jump into what could be seen by his superiors or subordinates as a panic reaction by powering up the laser prior to standard visual on target.

It's all about reputation man... a lifetime to build... seconds to destroy.

Though the Empire is categorized as "evil" it is also comprised of military (regular army, navy, air force) who aren't just insane followers but are still loyal to whoever is in charge. Even though they rule through fear, push too hard and it will be as Leia said that they'll lose the advantage they have over the various systems in the galaxy and the rebels will grow explosively if they just act... well... idiotic and just shoot without really thinking.

They want to crush the rebellion, but it has to be done with demonstration of superior strength, not as some cowardly act of desperation.

The most obvious explanation for not blowing up Yavin is that is simply beyond the Death Star's capabilities. The ability to destroy an Earth sized planet doesn't mean it can just as easily destroy a planet hundreds of times more massive.

These "plot holes" don't really exist. They only get brought up because fanboys assume that everything in Star Wars has no limits unless they are explicitly stated, or because as kids we were too young to understand what's actually happening in the movies. This is how brain bugs get started.

It's why fanboys wonder why the Sith couldn't locate Yoda, Obi-Wan, Luke or Leia via the Force even though this is shown to be impossible for them to do in the original trilogy. It's also how you end up with silly things like Jedi throwing fleets of starships around in the EU.

Jm419 said:

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It's one of the bigger plot holes, but I always explained it by saying Yavin was a gas giant; the gas-explosion would've destroyed the Death Star too.

Can a you even destroy a gas giant with a laser? Wouldn't the laser need to hit something solid?

On the flip side of that, how come the laser can blow up a planet with a single shot that lasts a whole 2 seconds? You'd think it'd need time to heat the core of the planet to the explosion point. If it was hot enough to do it intitially you'd think it'd just burn a hole through the planet so it'd look like a giant donut in space.

You saw it happen, so clearly it's not exactly similar to a current Earth laser tech. Also... they have lightsabers... that's a clear indication that things work differently than here.

CommanderCody said:

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+1, I was thinking the exact same thing whilst at work the other day, yes my mind was wandering I guess it may have been slight overkill to simply blast Yavin away, I'm surprised over the years that a fanfilm hasn't appeared showing this...

How Star Wars Episode IV Should Have Ended - YouTube

I always just wondered how it traveled so far so fast when it just seems to float along so slowly. I agree blowing Yavin to bits woulda done wonders to throw the rebel bases into trouble.

Since we don't know what kind of gas Yavin is made of... blowing it up just seems like a silly decision, so clearly they knew it wasn't worth it, to risk the Death Star as well.

The DS has to have a hyper drive to get from system to system. It flies it just doesn't have the cool blue or red flame coming from behind it. in the old Star Wars CCg it had a hyperspeed of 1 so you could move it from one planet to another.

Or maybe it didn't have the ability to fire two planet destroying shots in 2 minutes.

It might have to recharge between shots. Even my toaster has to recharge.

Brian

The Death Star must be big enough to have its own gravitational pull. In theory, couldn't its presence near another planet have adverse effects on said planet?

Agent RayBans said:

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The Death Star must be big enough to have its own gravitational pull. In theory, couldn't its presence near another planet have adverse effects on said planet?

It was actually a miniature model....

The EU has said it takes about 24 hours to recharge the Laser to fire again. Firing on Yavin would give the rebels ALOT more time to plan an attack and defeat the deathstar.

Of course, it was all just for dramatic effect, but it's fun to think about it lol

Agent RayBans said:

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The Death Star must be big enough to have its own gravitational pull. In theory, couldn't its presence near another planet have adverse effects on said planet?

Yeah that would be my guess for why it couldn't just fly in close from hyperspace. It would wreck a planet it didn't intend to destroy. Also remember that it was flying a route from Alderaan so if Yavin is in between they would actually have to come out of hyperspace and then wait to travel around Yavin to get to Yavin IV, as is shown in the movie.

As for charging my guess is also that it takes so much power that they have to have the engines totally shut down to have enough power to fire.