Why didnt they shoot vader down ?

In ANH during the death star trench run we see han shoot at vader . the 2 tiefighters that were flying with him get destroyed . instead of running of to celebrate the death stars destruction why didnt the remaining rebel fleet go after vader's tiefighter. they must of knew it was him by the custom curve shape of the wing . and even if they werent sure they should have shot any enemy left down . from what we could see there was no other imperial ships in the area . so first , where did vader go ? obi wan says that ties are short range , so a star desrtoyer must have came to pick him back up . and if thats true why didnt they attack the rebel base before they relocated ( they had time to have a reward ceremony before they left ). ..and to add to this , i heard GL originally didnt plan on any sequels or prequels so i would have had all the bad guys killed so there would be closure. but back to the question WHY DIDNT THEY SHOOT VADER DOWN ?

 

First, they had to get out of the way of the explosion of the death star

second, vader wasn't piloting a tie fighter, his ship probably had hyperspace capabilities

and third, GL says he always invisioned the prequels as well as ESB and ROTJ

 

Very strange indeed, I've thought about this and i know i'd be trying my best to take him down.

Vader's TIE actually was custom designed with a hyperdrive, an extra that proved far too expensive for all TIEs in the Empire.

As far as killing off the bad guys, I think that given the reference to the clone wars and Luke's father, Lucas had also left the door open for sequels. It was set up well as the beginning of a series, but JUST enough closure if the movie turned out to be a flop.

 

Most of the Rebel fighters were either destroyed or very distracted by the time Vader showed-up. Even if the Rebels were able to go after the Tie Advanced X1, they probably wouldn't know it was Vader, and just think, "Hey, what a freaky-lookin' TIE."

And, when the Death Star blew-up, Vader recovered quickly and went into Hyperspace.

 

Theory55's right-Luke, Wedge, Han+Chewie and that Y-wing wanted to get as far away from that blast radius as possible (hence Admiral Ackbar ordering the fleet to move away from the second DS).

 

They didn't know it was Vader. Probably thought it was just another TIE pilot.

 

They probably didn't notice that Vader's TIE had been flung out of the trench.

 

Han's job was to clear the traffic behind Luke. It never occured to anyone that Vader would be in the trench. For all they knew, he was on the DS when it blew.

 

Why didn't the remaining rebel fleet go after Vader's TIE fighter?

I think that the explosion of the Death Star probably hid Vader's escaping TIE from view.


Where did Vader go?

I've written a short scene in which Luke encounters Vader in the Alliance base on Yavin-4 the day after the medal ceremony. Vader had landed his TIE fighter (which, as you noted, is short-range) on the fourth moon of Yavin, sneaked into the base, and tried to get revenge on Luke. (Of course, this scene contradicts everything outside of the 1977 SW film. I wrote it simply for my own satisfaction.)


I heard GL originally didn't plan on any sequels or prequels, so I would have had all the bad guys killed so there would be closure.

Before Star Wars opened in May 1977, Lucas figured that Star Wars would probably flop, but he recognized that it might be marginally successful. (He definitely did not think it would be a big hit.) In case Star Wars made enough money to justify having a sequel, he left Darth Vader alive. Also, it would be unsatisfying to have the evil Darth Vader simply shot down. It would be much more satisfying to see Luke kill him in a lightsabre duel.

 

where did vader go?

In Rogue Leader, he eventually comes back and leads a strike force to annihilate the fleeing transports on Yavin IV.

 

I always thought the the Rebs were thinking (hoping) that Vader died in the explosion at the time. But they learned later that was not true, to their horror.

 

well luke encounters him a few months after to get the khybur christal, it may not be a surprise at all

 

"I heard GL originally didn't plan on any sequels or prequels, so I would have had all the bad guys killed so there would be closure."

He was just leaving the door open for a sequel. There are numerous examples of this being done in other movies, where the creators were hoping their first film would do well and have sequels. Look at 'The Last Starfighter': Xur, the big bad guy, gets away at the end. In 'Flash Gordon', Ming's hand is shown picking up his ring after his seeming death, and the "The End" at the end had a "?" after it, implying the story wasn't over. And then you have 'Buckaroo Banzai', a movie whose ending told us to watch for the next adventure in the series that never materialized.

So if Star Wars had not done well, it would not have been unique in that the villain gets away.

 

Besides...

Vader would've owned all of them. Death Star or no Death Star.