10 Stupidest Ever Things Done In Star Wars Movies
6. Darth Vader Forgets How To Negotiate
A New Hope begins with Princess Leia falling into the hands of Darth Vader and spirited away to the Death Star, where Vader interrogates her about the location of the hidden Rebel base. As she continues to resist, Vader threatens to destroy her home planet Alderaan if she doesn't betray the base's location. Leia breaks, and tearfully tells him the Rebel base is on the planet of Dantooine.
Vader, demonstrating the depths of his villainy, uses the Death Star's main laser to destroy Alderaan anyway.
At no point does it occur to Vader that Leia might be lying to save her home planet without betraying the Rebels. After sending troops to Dantooine and finding no rebels there, the Empire discovers she did precisely that. But Vader has already destroyed Alderaan, so he has thrown away his biggest bargaining chip in getting Leia to talk.
Vader's inability to anticipate that human beings can lie sets back the Empire's locating of the Rebel base at Yavin IV, perhaps long enough for the Death Star plans to reach the rebels and make the destruction of the Death Star a possibility.