One of the things I love about Star Wars is how it can still surprise me. Everytime I think I have learned all there is to know, another plot tie from another spinoff spells out more of the story. Or someone behind the scenes points something out that just blows your mind. EVERYTHING YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW ABOUT THE DEATHSTAR IS WRONG!! ILM visual effects artist Todd Vaziri says: Nearly everybody points at the equatorial trench of the Death Star. I asked dozens of die-hard fans, including many co-workers at Industrial Light & Magic, and nearly every single person pointed to the equatorial trench. If you asked me, I would also have said the equatorial trench. In fact, this came up during ILM “Rogue One” dailies one day. Computer Graphics Supervisor Vick Schutz and Visual Effects Supervisor John Knoll were chatting about the details of our computer graphics version of the Death Star, and Knoll casually remarked that the trench run in “Star Wars” is a longitudinal line on the Death Star (meaning, a north-south trench). Most of us in the room were dumbfounded. “What did he say?” So while you are processing that, keep in mind that YOU KNEW that the big trench in the middle is where ships launch from, where the Falcon was pulled in. Did you see any of those landing bays in the trench leading to that well placed ventalation shaft that lead to the big red button? No. You didn’t did you? So we should have known all along that the horizontal trench wasn’t the same groove the Rebels were cruising through to get to the sweet spot. I mean, in General Dodonna’s briefing he even shows on a computer generated schematic that the vent is at the TOP of the Death Star and we totally dismissed it. And I always thought it was a fault of poor graphics, but when they show the pixel art of the Death Star plans, it clearly shows the weapon array CENTERED on that central crevasse. When they reuse this same “broken” image in Rogue One, I applauded their dedication to the source material. But guess what? That’s not the weapon dish. IT’S THE ENGINE! That’s right, this tubby technological terror isn’t stuck in orbit somewhere. It’s no moon, it is a battlestation and it can travel...