Maybe the beam can be smaller/more focused at lower power? I would imagine it wasn’t on full strength firing at the Rebels. Full power would have been insane at such close range.
I would think the Star Destroyers had them boxed in, and the DS certainly could rotate easily to fire in other directions.
How does any planet destroying super weapon work? It’s a fantasy film, not 2001. As a kid, I presumed the beam pierced the core of the planet and blew it up from within. Looking at freeze frames from the original film, I’m not sure what’s going on.The deleted scene where the Emperor orders Endor blown up is problematic. I don’t think being in orbit of the planet you’re destroying is a safe place to be.
But the image used is the same as the one for ANH (the same shot if I’m not mistaken) so I’m talking about the sheer size of the beam, not its power levels. like I said, all scale is suspect in SW, but this is a glaring example (IMO) that could have been avoided.
To give an example, the Ion cannon in TESB doesn’t have the same issue. It fires a beam which logically strikes a Star Destroyer, and you see the beam ‘emerge’ from somewhere on Hoth’s surface as it passes the Rebel Ships. By comparison the DS beam would have a diameter about the size of a small city, yet you see it strike a single ship as if it had come from something in the scale vicinity of the Ion cannon.
I absolutely agree with your 2001 observation, so I get that putting science in SW becomes a highly subjective exercise. Like I said, ANH avoids this particular issue by not making scale an obvious thing with regards to the DS. RoTJ just shines a light on it that bugs me.