TIE Fighter short movie

[Voyager989]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN_CP4SuoTU

Those of you who remember seeing short clips of an Empire-focused TIE-fighter based animation of battle scenes these years past?

Well, he finally finished it. ~7.5 mins long.

[Raesene]

Can we get this person a contract for Rebels ?

[SilverDragonRed]

If that was an actual series, I would buy it.

[bilateralrope]

Looks like about half the Tie Fighters were destroyed in that engagement.

[Adam Reynolds]

Some random comments
- In general this was a fairly realistic ending to what most engagements of a Rebel fleet by the Empire would look like, the Rebels get largely wiped out. Especially if the Empire has interdictor support. Though that they oddly don't seem to have this at Endor, I wonder if the EU overrepresents its use.
- That tactic with the interdictor was interesting, almost exactly the same trick used in Solo Command. Though logically the Rebel fleet should have used the opportunity to jump into hyperspace, as happened in Solo Command.
- If this were canon, it would lead me to assume that standard Imperial tactics relied on completely expendable fighters based on a combination of this and ROTJ. Actually ROTJ alone does give something of an indication of this given that Piet's subordinates commented that they were in attack position after the Imperial fighters had already engaged the Rebel fleet, implying that that tactic was sound and not simply due to Palpatine. Perhaps it is due to a concern about Rebel fighters getting in close to Imperial vessels, implying they have some sort of weakness to massed fighter attack. This would fit with Brian Young's comments about shields being semi-permeable to fighter attacks.
- This seems to subscribe to the old EU idea that blue shots were from ion cannons. The prequels and ESB largely shot down this idea given that the Rebel ion cannon was red and the clone blasters are blue. Not to mention that turbolaser fire seems to be used to disable enemies more than ion weapons in the canon.
- It was an interesting visual choice to show through TIE pilot helmets as a means of humanizing them. Oddly by doing this and seeing the faces directly, they were humanized more than the Rebel pilots who we only saw through their visors.

[Batman]

Liked the visuals and the abundance of missile weapons but the music seriously stinks.

[Starglider]

Disagree, the music fitted the 80s anime visual feel, it went with the absolutely frantic editing better than the usual SW orchestral music.

[Simon_Jester]

[watches TIE bomber scene at 4:15]

That is cheating even for a revolver magazine.

[Batman]

Um-the TIEs do jack all other than evading asteroids at 04:15. I assume you mean the missile spam scene at04:40 or thereabouts.

[Simon_Jester]

Sorry, it's a scene that starts at 4:15 or so, and lasts for 30-40 seconds afterward.

[Kingmaker]

[watches TIE bomber scene at 4:15]

That is cheating even for a revolver magazine.

The circus is in town.

This was pretty neat, and I very much liked the style. Unfortunately, we're unlikely to see more of it. Aside from the obvious IP issues, it's one guy and the appeal is probably quite niche.

[biostem]

I quite enjoyed it. It was refreshing to see TIE pilots *not* portrayed as just cannon fodder, (though Imperial losses were understandably heavy). I hope there's gonna be a part 2 or something - it captured the feel of the 90's game for me, and it was nice to see a face put to some of the TIE pilots. It was odd to see the tug launch with the fighters, (perhaps a reference to how some tugs would replenish your warheads in the game). I also am curious what the lambda class shuttle was launched for mid-battle. Maybe we'll see more movies like these - perhaps even with a Defender thrown in *squee*!

I'm curious - what did the Interdictor do to make all those torpedoes go all wonky instead of hitting it? ECM or some kind of gravity projection thingy that the animator made up?

[Joun_Lord]

The missiles looked like the normal missile spam going in every direction I've seen quite a bit in anime.

I loved this completely. It is like a fusion of those glorious war animes of the past like Macross and REAL Gundam with the TIE Fighter video game. I don't see what people are talking about with the music. I loved the rock-ish Star Wars bits and the non-Star Wars action music.

The only thing that was slightly weird was the momentary shot of the AT-ATs and AT-STs with a scouttrooper walking around. I wonder why they would be mobilizing them in a space battle. I doubt they are going to just chuck the walkers out an airlock to assist in the battle (for one things I doubt either are vacuum tight) and there seemed to be no planets nearby. Mobilizing troops to board I can understand, especially with the disabled transport at the end, but walkers ain't going to be tromping around on a captured ship. Could have been lining up the walkers to use as hanger defense, I remember that giant ass beam from a Venator's hanger during the Battle of Coruscant in episode 3 was supposed to from a SPHA walker (those big walkers in Ep 2 that carved up the escaping Trade Fed ships like a thanksgiving turkey) so maybe.

Either way it looked cool as fuck.

[Dominus Atheos]

I quite enjoyed it. It was refreshing to see TIE pilots *not* portrayed as just cannon fodder, (though Imperial losses were understandably heavy). I hope there's gonna be a part 2 or something - it captured the feel of the 90's game for me, and it was nice to see a face put to some of the TIE pilots. It was odd to see the tug launch with the fighters, (perhaps a reference to how some tugs would replenish your warheads in the game). I also am curious what the lambda class shuttle was launched for mid-battle. Maybe we'll see more movies like these - perhaps even with a Defender thrown in *squee*!

I'm curious - what did the Interdictor do to make all those torpedoes go all wonky instead of hitting it? ECM or some kind of gravity projection thingy that the animator made up?

Probably the missile jamming ability Interdictors have in the Empire at War game.

Edit: see here:

http://eaw.heavengames.com/units/?g=Interdictor_Cruiser

[Borgholio]

I'm throwing my money at the screen but nothing's happening!

[Patroklos]

- If this were canon, it would lead me to assume that standard Imperial tactics relied on completely expendable fighters based on a combination of this and ROTJ. Actually ROTJ alone does give something of an indication of this given that Piet's subordinates commented that they were in attack position after the Imperial fighters had already engaged the Rebel fleet, implying that that tactic was sound and not simply due to Palpatine. Perhaps it is due to a concern about Rebel fighters getting in close to Imperial vessels, implying they have some sort of weakness to massed fighter attack. This would fit with Brian Young's comments about shields being semi-permeable to fighter attacks.

I am not sure where you are getting this. The whole point of fighters is to push off engagement distances do your high value motherships/support ships are not exposed to danger. Fighters are cheap and losing one doesn't doom everyone. If you were just going to save your fighters to engage alongside your capital ships you should just invest in more firepower on your capital ships instead of fighters as that is a far more efficient use of tonnage.

Another not, I like that they seemed to have mixed strike packages on both sides. We see a TIE Interceptor/TIE/TIE bomber acting a three ship element for an assault into the rebel fleet. I watched it without sound so maybe that was a improvised thing but it looked to me like an intentional grouping that speaks to combined arms style tactics. I saw that on the Rebel side a few times too.

[Borgholio]

Well we do see combined arms in canon too. During the first Death Star attack, the Y-wing bombers were supposed to take out the exhaust port while the X-wings provided fighter cover.

[Patroklos]

Not the same thing as I am talking about. In that example its still a Y-wing squadron of nothing but Y-wings directed by a leader in a Y-wing doing Y-wing stuff. In this case we appear to have an element with three different space frames as a coherent unit with a TIE interceptor pilot directing the specific tactical actions of other elements.

So its not just whole squadrons or homogenous craft cooperating on different missions entirely (Y-wings take strike, X-wings take CSP), but it appears to me that have actually integrated down to flight elements themselves. Whether that's a normal Imperial fighter division that persists or just a custom strike package for this specific mission or just an improvisational arrangement I don't know, but I like it

Also I was disappointed that the brought back the "cannon through the gun port" style ridiculousness from the prequels. I get that casemates might be a cheap way to mount weapons in a ship already bristling with weapons but can we at least get this:



Instead of this:



I get that they are doing this whole "Ships or the Line, IN SPACE!" thing but it is being taken to a ridiculous extreme with this particular manifestation. Yeah they did show the wing turrets so its not all bad.

[NeoGoomba]

Yeah, this was an extremely sweet video. It has been a randomly good week of Star Wars for me, catching this upload after just finishing Tarkin.

[Elheru Aran]

Yeah... that was actually really nicely done. The animation is just a wee bit 'off' from what an actual 80s anime would look like, but I chalk that up to the digital medium. I think there were scenes of gunners in a similar context in ANH, so it's not original to the prequels (of course, it's just as silly there as it is in the prequels).

[WATCH-MAN]

I wonder how many people, who do know only the movies, would see this video and say: "Yes, this is Star Wars as I know it".

To be honest: I have seen it and thought that this has nothing to do with Star Wars as I know it. The ships looked like Star Wars ships. But what happened didn't look like anything I have ever seen in Star Wars.

To me it looks like the wet dream of a Star Wars talifan.

It does not show what Star Wars is but what it is supposed to be - according to the convictions of said talifan.

[Patroklos]

There is a difference between showing things we that shouldn't be there and showing things that belong but just didn't make it on screen. For instance despite all the time and effort the movies took to present us with capital ships we have exactly one scene of capital ships firing on each other (Nebulon-B against random SD trench) and another where a character talks about capital ships firing at each other (Ackbar talking about concentrating firepower). In ANH we see a minor escort get curb stomped (which btw ends up being one of the all time best SW sequences ever despite its brevity and small scale) and in ESB opposing ships of any scale whatsoever never meet. In ROJ when they finally do appear on screen together one side is conveniently (I know why) not allowed to shoot and the other is just not shown doing so with one seconds long exception.

So can you blame someone as a fan see all these awesome ISDs and MonCals and never getting to see them in action? Of course not, and though we don't see it in universe nobody is going to argue they are not supposed to be able to fight each other and do. If we watched Jedi continuously talk about and show off their lightsabers for the first sixty minutes of a movie, bring them to the finale light them up but then put them away for some plot contrivance to never be used would that not be disappointing? Would that be evidence that light saber fights don't belong in SWs? Anwyay, all I am saying is that for example ISDs raping Nebulon-Bs might not be seen on film, but it certainly belongs in SW.

[Borgholio]

I wonder how many people, who do know only the movies, would see this video and say: "Yes, this is Star Wars as I know it".

To be honest: I have seen it and thought that this has nothing to do with Star Wars as I know it. The ships looked like Star Wars ships. But what happened didn't look like anything I have ever seen in Star Wars.

To me it looks like the wet dream of a Star Wars talifan.

It does not show what Star Wars is but what it is supposed to be - according to the convictions of said talifan.

I have to say this WAS Star Wars. While the video can come across as Imperial fan-wank, the fact is what we saw is a good example of what would actually happen if an Imperial squadron managed to get the drop on a Rebel Scum™ fleet. Nothing here seems out of place. We have the confident (almost cocky, but still competent) fleet commander, we see the quick-thinking interdictor crew, we see skilled TIE fighter pilots who are portrayed as actual people with individual personalities (the chick licking her lips when she got a target lock was pure gold), and we see rebels fighting for their lives but ultimately being defeated. We don't need to see Jedi or Sith for it to be Star Wars.

[Elheru Aran]

The capital ships (coming off memory) involved are:

--Two ISD's and an Interdictor
--A Nebulon-B, a Rebel freighter, and a couple of Corellian corvettes. No idea where the hell all the Rebel fighters were coming from, but I guess maybe they were escorting rather than carried thanks to having onboard hyperdrives.

The ISD's by themselves outgun the Rebel ships rather severely. It really is no surprise that they would've been able to defeat them with fair ease. If anything was wanky, it was perhaps the performance of the TIEs and all the missile-spam, but other than that... it all looked legit to me.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

WATCH-MAN, you do realize that everyone here was proud of being a talifan back in the days and that this place basically originated them? You can take that contempt for the term and shove it. We grew up with Star Wars too, and you don't have a right to control how we enjoy it. Nobody does, not for us, and not for you.