Lightsaber fights get all the glory in Star Wars. The stakes are just so high when a red lightsaber clashes with a blue or green one, as one side winning means a drastic shift for the galaxy. However, the Jedi and Sith wouldn’t get chances to show off if it weren’t for all the brave pilots who take to the skies. Nearly every Star Wars movie features a massive space battle, but the prequels don’t care as much about them as the original trilogy and the sequels. Sure, there’s a great sequence at the start of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, when the Separatists attack Coruscant and kidnap Chancellor Palpatine, but there’s not much else to write home about.
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It’s hard to blame the prequels for moving away from space battles, though. After all, they can’t make use of two of the most iconic ships in Star Wars: the X-Wing and TIE Fighter. The Rebellion’s vehicle of choice gets a ton of love, which makes sense, since it blows up its fair share of superweapons and is always handy in a pinch. However, the Empire knows how to make its fleet versatile. Here are the four coolest TIE Fighters in Star Wars history.
4) TIE Silencer
A dark side user is only as cool as their ship, and Kylo Ren gets a sweet one in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. When the First Order is attacking the Resistance, Ren leaves the command ship in his TIE Silencer, donning a red and black color scheme. The First Order’s enemies rarely get to marvel at the ship’s design, though, because it hits them so quickly that they don’t even have time to react. It’s a shame Ren trades his Silencer in for a Whisper.
3) TIE Defender
A base model TIE Fighter isn’t good enough for some members of the Imperial Army. Grand Admiral Thrawn puts the TIE Defender into development early in the third season of Star Wars Rebels, and the ship makes its canon debut shortly after. What makes the Defender stand out amongst its peers is its third wing, deflector shields, and hyperdrive. If it weren’t such a pain to build, the Empire would probably make the Defender a mainstay of the fleet.
2) TIE Avenger
Speaking of hyperdrives, the TIE Avenger, which appears in Star Wars: Andor Season 2 as a prototype, has one, as well as more artillery than most rebel cells. The Empire clearly has high hopes for the Avenger, but Cassian Andor crushes them when he steals the ship and crash-lands on Yavin IV, the eventual base for the Rebellion. He later uses it to kill a group of particularly nasty Imperials on Mina-Rau, proving its effectiveness.
1) TIE Crawler
While the majority of the best TIE Fighters get time to shine in live-action, some remain in the minor leagues. The TIE Crawler makes its only canon appearance in Choose Your Destiny: A Luke & Leia Adventure, being a sort of land tank that crushes anything in its path with its treads. The TIE Crawler will never be as effective as the AT-AT, but this list is about being cool, and in that regard, it drives laps around Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back‘s MVP.
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