You could make an argument that there was some kind of huge spinning gyroscope reaction wheel system on that axis which projected the explosion that way.
My thought is that it’s revealing the construction and weak points of the death star. It may have been constructed in two hemispheres that were joined together, and that seam might have been the failure point where gassed were released when the internal pressure got too high.
Except then we should see the two hemispheres blow out from each other a bit, which they don’t.
You could make an argument that there was some kind of huge spinning gyroscope reaction wheel system on that axis which projected the explosion that way.
But we all know there wasn’t.
My thought is that it’s revealing the construction and weak points of the death star. It may have been constructed in two hemispheres that were joined together, and that seam might have been the failure point where gassed were released when the internal pressure got too high.
Except then we should see the two hemispheres blow out from each other a bit, which they don’t.
All in all, the film makers had many things they could choose to make the effect look plausible, but they didn’t.