I don’t have an issue with arcing lasers, but that’s probably because it happens in a movie where shield strength is clearly and visibly localized. I imagine that arcing the plasma to hit a part of the ship even slightly forward from the absolute back of the ship would require the target to shield a larger area and in so doing drain the shields more quickly.
Hey, I hadn’t thought of that. I’ll go with it. The visual still “feels” wrong to my brain (since to lob something in that manner normally requires gravity…), but that justification helps out. If I’m not bothered by the details of how other tech (lightsabers, hyperdrives, shields) in Star Wars works, why should it matter how exactly they can make energy bolts curve through space? I just hadn’t thought about it being a “curve ball” as opposed to a “hail-Mary long shot”. Nice.