Using the Force, Luke Skywalker manages to reach the vulnerability and destroy the battle station without leaving any survivors, although Darth Vader flees and lives to fight another day.

It is the stage for conflicts between Jedi knights and Sith lords, individuals sensitive to the Force, a mysterious energy field that grants them psychic abilities.

The Legends universe additionally incorporates complementary stories presented in books, comics, TV movies, or games released before 2014.

[2] Several years before the Clone Wars, the Confederacy of Independent Systems begins developing a weapon capable of destroying entire planets: the Death Star.

[8] Engineer Galen Erso, who participates in the design of the Death Star, embeds a flaw that can destroy the entire station.

[9][10] He manages to contact the rebel Saw Gerrera so that his daughter, Jyn Erso, can retrieve the station's plans and destroy it.

With the help of the Rebel Alliance, Jyn and her team, named Rogue One, infiltrate the Scarif base where the Imperial archives are located.

A fierce battle ensues on the surface between the assault group and the forces on-site, and in space between the rebel fleet and the Imperial reinforcements led by the Sith Darth Vader.

Jyn Erso succeeds in transmitting the Death Star plans to the orbiting ships, but the battle station fires its superlaser on the planet's surface, leaving no survivors.

[11][12][13][14][15][16] On Toprawa, where the Death Star's superlaser is under construction, a group of rebel spies manages to steal the plans for the battle station.

He hands them over to his nephew Luke Skywalker, who discovers a message hidden by Leia Organa for the Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi.

This allows Grand Moff Tarkin and Darth Vader to know the exact position of the rebel headquarters and therefore to send the Death Star to destroy it.

[27] The Imperial forces consist of the Death Star, a mobile battle station capable of destroying entire planets,[4][5] equipped with numerous TIE fighters, the Empire's primary combat vessel and a symbol of its power.

[28] Darth Vader pilots an upgraded version, the TIE Advanced X1, which is faster, more powerful, and tailored to the dimensions of the Sith Lord's armor.

The "Gold Squadron", commanded by Jon "Dutch" Vander, consists of eight Y-wing interceptors, which are used primarily for bombing missions.

The Sith Lord participates in the battle to protect the station, forcing the X-wings of the "Red Squadron" to enter the trench as well.

He is saved at the last moment by Han Solo and Chewbacca aboard the Millennium Falcon, who shoot down one TIE fighter, causing a second one to panic and collide with Vader's ship, sending it spinning out of control away from the Death Star.

[40] In addition to the Millennium Falcon, only three ships from the "Red" and "Gold" squadrons return, including those piloted by Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles.

Before the production of the film A New Hope[Notes 1] even began, George Lucas created sketches of the various spacecraft that would participate in the Battle of Yavin.

[44][45][46][47] Only one full-scale X-wing interceptor model was built, which was visible in the scene preceding the battle in the Rebel hangar on Yavin 4.

For example, the number of rebel ships approaching the Death Star was increased, and the space battle sequences were refined, with the explosions being reworked.

[51] In Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, released in 1998, players take on the role of Luke Skywalker and can unlock a secret level allowing them to participate in the Battle of Yavin.

[56] In 2004 and 2005, action figures depicting Wedge Antilles, General Jan Dodonna, and Dutch Vander, the leader of the "Gold Squadron," were also released.

At one point, the transport joins a group of Rebel fighters and takes part in the assault against the third Death Star.

The site finds that "everything about this battle is superb," particularly praising the mechanical special effects and the scene where Han Solo saves Luke Skywalker.

[68] However, the website Looper only ranks it in fifth place, as it considers it to be a small battle between two Rebel squadrons and a few Imperial fighters.

[69] Several fans have attempted to calculate the number of casualties resulting from the explosion of the Death Star at the end of the Battle of Yavin.

[72] In a spoof of 9/11 conspiracy theories, some fans have made tongue-in-cheek speculations that the Death Star's destruction was actually deliberately caused, or at least allowed to happen, by the Galactic Empire itself, rather than as the result of the Rebel assault.

The family's dog, Santa's Little Helper, appears in a commercial for the Krusty Burger chain wearing Biggs Darklighter's X-wing helmet, who was a childhood friend of Luke Skywalker and a member of the "Red Squadron".

[77] The book Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Guide, released in 2019, uses another reference point: the Battle of Starkiller Base depicted in The Force Awakens (2015).