1 {scene: artillery control room in Imperial star destroyer, engaging rebel blockade runner above Tatooine}
1 Imperial Officer 1: There goes another one.
2 Imperial Officer 2: Hold your fire. There are no life forms. It must have short-circuited.
3 Imperial Officer 1: What about droids who might be carrying the plans? And why bother saving one shot?! We've fired thousands already!
4 Imperial Officer 2: Saving one shot could qualify us for the Most Efficient Battlegroup Of The Month award.
4 Imperial Officer 1: Oh yeah, I forgot.

This has always bothered me. Why don't these guys blast the damn escape pod just to be sure, and short circuit three entire movies and the downfall of the Empire?

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2014-01-03 Rerun commentary: According to the ever-reliable Wookieepedia, the guy who made the call not to shoot the escape pod was one Gunnery Captain Bolvan. His entire (extended universe) personality seems to be built around the fact that he habitually makes poor judgement calls. Talk about extrapolating a character from one second's worth of screen time.