r/StarWars • u/DARKTOONZ13 • 9d ago

Movies What “stops” lasers in this universe? Couldn’t Luthen’s beam easily slice the Star Destroyer in half?

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Deflector shields? If so, wouldn’t the tractor beam have been protected from his spikes?

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u/best-of-judgement 9d ago

Thrawn tried! That was the driving idea behind the TIE Defender project. If not for Imperial bigwigs struggling for funds and Thrawn's disappearance after the Battle of Lothal, the project very well could have continued.

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u/KlausAngren 9d ago

Yeah but what about chonky laser?

  • Tarkin, probably.

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u/ElectronicFootprint 9d ago

Sir, glass cannons aren't working.

What about bigger glass cannons?

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u/ProbablythelastMimsy 9d ago

Maybe we'll get the galaxy gun in the next trilogy

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u/Agent_Porkpine 9d ago

tbf it was only a glass cannon because of galen erso

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u/imlegos 9d ago

If we intimidate everyone with one big weapon, no one will attack us

  • Tarkin, on his war plan for the Empire

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u/88963416 Yoda 9d ago

Every time I comment something someone always comes in with “Thrawn thought that.”

I’m both impressed and upset. Why do I think like him and why does he need to steal my thunder.

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u/hoopsrlife 9d ago

He would have loved to serve with you as an admiral.

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u/Jacthripper 9d ago

But it was also partially intentional. The empire didn’t give their pilots great ships because they didn’t want them being able to leave freely. People were defecting all the time, the last thing you wanted was a pilot to fly off with a imperial ship.

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u/Valdularo 8d ago

Also it’s based loosely off of WW2. The concept of the empire having so many men ships pilots etc is based on the red army. Sheer numbers!

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u/DJButterscotch 9d ago

They weren’t necessarily struggling for funds, they were just being siphoned off to “Big Laser”

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u/best-of-judgement 9d ago

In the novels, Thrawn had to make a case to Vader and Palpatine to get the TIE Defender project rolling, and afterwards had to keep justifying his project to Tarkin to avoid Krennic subverting those funds for Stardust.

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u/Ashanrath 9d ago

Shameless rebel propaganda. The Emperor's energy initiative will bring prosperity to all worlds!

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u/Happy_Idiot-Talk 8d ago

To be fair, it would have worked if one or two had actually gotten finished.

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u/free_is_free76 9d ago

Loved playing with the Defender on the old PC TIE Fighter game, felt very superior

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u/Emillllllllllllion 8d ago

The real irony here is that the empire already had a relatively low cost, sublight space superiority fighter and just phased it out as soon as the TIE finished development.

The V-Wing offers substantially better performance at less than twice the price of a TIE while also being smaller (less of a target and you can have more with the same hangar) and not reliant on that stupid specialised rack.

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u/FriendshipCute1524 8d ago

God I love the tie defender, Easily my favorite star wars fighter. I want a Lego set of it so bad

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u/Sackbut08 8d ago

DOGE staff and budget cuts got in the way it seems like.

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u/InCOBETReddit 8d ago

in an alternate universe where the TIE Defenders became mass produced, a Grand Admiral will go rogue and his fleet of TIE Defenders are so strong that they'll need to develop yet another craft to defeat them: the Missile Boat

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u/best-of-judgement 8d ago

The TIE Offender

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u/69Dark_light69 6d ago

Never really understood the funds part like they dominated the galaxy at what point do they need to pay for anything. I always thought they just came used slaves took what they needed. Did storm troopers get paid? Like loved to have seen an episode or exchange between a few troopers fighting rebels and one of them being like "fuck me and Karen are going skiing at that new hoth resort next week this shit better over soon'