7. They got faster at building Death Stars
It took 20 years to build the first Death Star, but somehow it only took a few years to have the second — more powerful — Death Star nearly completed. This is a symptom of what one might call Prequel Syndrome.
In prequels, directors love to shoehorn in major elements from the originals to draw cheap nostalgia. The Star Wars prequels and The Hobbit do this a lot. When it comes to the Death Star, having the battle station in two of the three films as a complete and utter throwaway gag was stupid — but plays into this point.
While it could be argued that the first Death Star was being built in secret, which would take it a lot longer to get made, there was still an 18 year period where the Empire was in power and the secret wasn’t needed. No one knew it was a Death Star either — why not advertise it as a battle station? Even still, the fact that it took 20 years to build the first Death Star and less than a couple of years to ‘fast track’ a more powerful one is stupid.
Next: 6. Jedi Were Oblivious to Anakin's Dark Turn