Indulge Your Inner Geek

So... I felt a great disturbance in the Force and I'm looking for answers.

I just was watching Revenge Of The Sith on HBO and something at the end struck me as being a little odd.

Death Star Facts!

1. We know that at the end of Episode 2, Count Dooku fled with the plans to the Death Star. So, at earliest... that's when they started working on the "that's no moon, it's a..." space station.

2. At the end of Episode III after Anakin gets "suited up", he joins the Emperor on the deck of what will become a Star Destroyer. As they're looking out the bridge window, they're looking at a partially completed Death Star... the exterior structure in place with no outside cosmetic shielding, etc. Presumably they've got the superlaser and propulsion in place since that would seem to be done early in the process.

3. As we know, the first Death Star is not completed until A New Hope when it becomes fully operational. Luke and Leia are 18 years old in A New Hope which means that the first Death Star took at least 18 years [presumably longer] to build. And of course, that shit gets blown up at the end of the movie.

4. At the beginning of Return of the Jedi, we learn there's a new Death Star being built. It's not fully complete but it's pretty close as they can land on it, live on it, rule on it, all sorts of shit. And of course, by the end, we know that the superlaser is functional. That means that shit's pretty close to being done. The events of ROTJ take place a mere 4 years after A New Hope.

So, you can see where I'm going with, right?

Right?

Are you telling me that there are that many technological advances in the Star Wars universe that they somehow manage to go from a 18+ year build time for the first Death Star to sub-5 years? CRAZY!

And honestly, if there _are_ that many technological advances in the Star Wars universe, why the fuck can they not get some shields on a god damn TIE Fighter?