OrderedOrb
Not too sore, are you?
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To be honest, the TIE Defender wouldn't need to completely replace the average TIE, that could be done by the Interceptor. That's basically a TIE +1 in terms of performance, and the average Tie was arguably better than the average -Wing in performance as a dogfighter, the X-Wing just had better ordnance with its missiles and Proton Torpedo's to take out larger vessels. The Defender was never meant to be a full replacement, it was meant to be used for small and elite squads that could initiate devastating hit and run attacks and counters to the hit and run tactics of the Rebellion. Couple up an elite squadron of Defenders with the Interceptor replacing the average TIE (not as hard as you think, the Interceptor cost only a little more than the regular TIE and made up 1/3 to 1/2 of the Starfighters of the Empire by the Battle of Yavin) and the Rebellion would be screwed.Yeah but that's the TIE Defender which from my understanding was so heavily modified by the Empire's skunkworks that it can barely be called a TIE. And if I remember right it was so expensive to produce that there were never enough of them to see any real use. You are right about the Defender being an amazing fighter and a hard counter to the Rebel fighters, but that kind of proves my point since there were obviously better options floating around that they could have used, like what the Rebels were using, and they wouldn't have cost nearly as much to get any use beyond swarm tactics out of.
To be fair though, Legends has been ret-conned and changed by different authors so many times that my familiarity with the in-universe TIE history could be way off by now.