10 Huge Star Wars Plot Holes That Everyone Overlooks
6. Why Didn't The Empire Fire At Yavin Prime?
In A New Hope, before the Death Star can fire upon the rebel base on the moon Yavin IV, it needs to be manoeuvred around Yavin Prime... for some reason.
This naturally buys the Rebels time to destroy the Death Star, and so you have to wonder why the Empire didn't simply fire the Death Star's laser at Yavin Prime itself, which as a gas giant would likely allow the laser to penetrate through and in turn obliterate Yavin IV.
The most-cited answer is that the Empire simply didn't expect that the Rebels would be able to do anything to compromise the Death Star in the time required to get a good direct shot at Yavin IV.
If you want to be generous to George Lucas it's because the Empire got complacent, but really it's a classic case of giving the bad guys the idiot ball for a few minutes to keep the story going.