Star Wars Past EU Officially Decanonized by Lucasfilm
- Thread starter Tom
- Start date
Thanks - so it's not true/canon. I thought I hadn't missed something.
Honestly the only Star Wars ships I can think of that actually have shields are maybe, uh, the Death Star?
The isn't even evidence of that in the EU or X-wing games, so I don't know what that was about. I don't recall that being mentioned in Droids either. The only thing that might be reasonable is that the A-wing does have only the two guns on screen, while the Y-wings and X-wings have four guns. The B-wings have even more than that.
Missile weapons are tricky to track as you have to know what the tubes look like on any given fighter. All the Alliance fighter in he films seem to have missile weapons of some kind. The X-wing, Y-wing, and B-wing seem to have proton torpedoes while the A-wing and Millenium Falcon had concussion missiles. What does that mean? By Canon? Got me.
Shields is a different matter. Shields don't seem to do much for the starfighters. It has been assumed for decades now that the TIE fighters have no shields. We know the rebel fighter do as they are mentioned specifically in Star Wars when they are heading to the Death Star. Also that they can double their deflector shields in specific directions. We know the Naboo fighter had them as Anakin raised his while turning things on. The Millenium Falcon has shields as 3PO says that if they are hit again in the back quarter they are done for due to the shields failing. To which Han puts all power into the forward shields and turns around to "attack" the Star Destroyer.
Missile weapons are tricky to track as you have to know what the tubes look like on any given fighter. All the Alliance fighter in he films seem to have missile weapons of some kind. The X-wing, Y-wing, and B-wing seem to have proton torpedoes while the A-wing and Millenium Falcon had concussion missiles. What does that mean? By Canon? Got me.
Shields is a different matter. Shields don't seem to do much for the starfighters. It has been assumed for decades now that the TIE fighters have no shields. We know the rebel fighter do as they are mentioned specifically in Star Wars when they are heading to the Death Star. Also that they can double their deflector shields in specific directions. We know the Naboo fighter had them as Anakin raised his while turning things on. The Millenium Falcon has shields as 3PO says that if they are hit again in the back quarter they are done for due to the shields failing. To which Han puts all power into the forward shields and turns around to "attack" the Star Destroyer.
As far as I know, the stats given to fighters in the Star Wars RPGs are canon, because the info comes straight from the Lucasfilm Archives.
And pretty much all Rebel fighters have shields. Their ships are harder to manufacture than Imperial TIE's (which are almost stamp-mass-produced). The Rebel ships are far rarer, and therefore, the Rebellion invests their rare ships with shields. Imperial fighters, with perhaps the exception of Vader's TIE X1, have no deflector shields or hyperdrives.
And pretty much all Rebel fighters have shields. Their ships are harder to manufacture than Imperial TIE's (which are almost stamp-mass-produced). The Rebel ships are far rarer, and therefore, the Rebellion invests their rare ships with shields. Imperial fighters, with perhaps the exception of Vader's TIE X1, have no deflector shields or hyperdrives.
Mara Jade was the best thing to come out of the EU.
Rebel fighters had shields because the Rebellion valued it's combat pilots, partially because they didn't have that many of them and partially because the Rebellion was the good guys.
The Empire didn't put shields on TIE fighters because it didn't care about it's combat pilots, partially because they had heaping tons of them, and partially because the Empire was the bad guys.
Rebel fighters had shields because the Rebellion valued it's combat pilots, partially because they didn't have that many of them and partially because the Rebellion was the good guys.
The Empire didn't put shields on TIE fighters because it didn't care about it's combat pilots, partially because they had heaping tons of them, and partially because the Empire was the bad guys.
Well, the evidence in the games is that A-wings have only two laser cannons and two concussion missile launchers. All other rebel craft are more heavily armed.
Yes. The A-wings were stripped down speedsters with a relatively narrow mission profile. The reason they were used in the Battle of Endor was that everything was used in the Battle of Endor.
Well the A-wings had a little bit of help... from the entire Rebel fleet and it's concentrated firepower.
Yes with a kamikaze run on the Executor's Bridge. I guess that makes it the SW equivalent of the A6M Zero.
The A-wing that crashed into the bridge was damaged. It wasn't intentional.
That is how kamikaze tactics started, damaged fighters ramming into ships or other enemy infrastructure.
A Wing Armament:
Two Triple blasters and two concussion missile launchers.
At least, that was as of the old SW RPG by West End Games.
Two Triple blasters and two concussion missile launchers.
At least, that was as of the old SW RPG by West End Games.
Yeah, I don't expect the stats for all the starships and starfighters to change. There's not really a point.
I always kind of figured kamikaze attacks were basically the pilots' version of seppuku.
That would only work if the pilot was dishonored, and dying in combat is not (from what I recall) dishonorable. Capture perhaps, but kamikaze like tactics would first be used by pilots who had damaged planes figuring they were going to die one way or another (or maybe be captured if they survived in the ocean), so they might as well take some enemies with them. A few allied pilots did this as well. It was not all that common, as human survival instict is fairly strong.
Later in the war, it was just another weapon. There wasn't time or fuel to train pilots properly anymore in Japan. So they trained them enough to take off, navigate, and get them worked up enough to use themselves and their planes as a weapon for the Emperor. Anything to keep the Americans away for one more day.
Later in the war, it was just another weapon. There wasn't time or fuel to train pilots properly anymore in Japan. So they trained them enough to take off, navigate, and get them worked up enough to use themselves and their planes as a weapon for the Emperor. Anything to keep the Americans away for one more day.
No. Suicide attacks by damaged planes were not Japanese exclusive iirc. They developed from pilots attacking targets by ramming their damaged planes into them that happened on both sides. It's just that as the Japanese got desperate and lost many of their qualified pilots that were not replaceable they turned to some rather questionable methods or desperate methods such as kamikaze pilots to turn the tide. Most of the pilots were young and inexperienced given basic training to how to crash the planes iirc. But suicide attacks in WW2 were not exclusive to the Japanese. Much of it was borne more out of desperation or fear of the enemy.
Yeah, TIE fighters, interceptors, and bombers have no shields...again, with the exception of TIE X1, Vader's personal fighter. His is also the only canonical Imperial TIE equipped with a hyperdrive.
The TIE Defender has shields and hyperdrive...but it is an EU ship.
Apparently, there are variants of the TIE Bomber that can be used as boarding craft. It appears in several technical publications by Lucas Archives...but I do not know the canonical status of that usage.
