6. Escape Pods (Star Wars: A New Hope)
Although not strictly a plot hole, this major discrepancy in the "first" Star Wars is certainly worth a mention here. I refer of course to the insanity of the Star Destroyer commanders decision to let an escape pod leave the ship, carrying blueprints which are crucial to the success of the rebel alliance, simply because there were no life forms aboard, as if frivolously and consciously jetissoning key information into space is somehow acceptable practice. In a universe populated by robots without life signs, and given that the blueprints dont constitute a life form, surely it would have been better to play safe and shoot down every single pod rather than just the ones were you know youre going to kill someone. One blast of ammunition surely can't be considered too much of a waste to protect the Empire's biggest secret weapon? For that matter, why would an escape pod launch by itself without anyone or anything inside? Considering that shooting it down would have secured victory for the Empire in the first few minutes of the trilogy, its a safe bet that a certain commander ended up being force-choked off screen.