system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Star Wars] Why would the rebels fly across the surface of the Death Star, instead of straight at it?

I was just thinking, why would you approach the Death Star, and fly as close as possible to all the guns? Why not start your attack until you are diving straight down onto the exhaust port? It seems like it'd end up being much easier, and with much fewer casualties. 

They way they did it would be the equivalent of a WW2 bomber flying 20ft above an entire fleet just to hit a destroyer on the far edge. Rather, they could dive-bomb in, hit the target, and pull up and out of range of enemy fire. 

Also for that matter, why did the Death Star have trenches on it, lined with guns?
gpt
by flying directly at the DS, you allow all the weapons to be brought to bear on your ship. By flying down the trench, where the port was located anyway, the fighters are below the firing arcs of many of the guns, and only a few guns that happen to be in the trench are able to be brought to bear on the fighters.