Whilst I attempt to recover from last nights gruelling tribulations through the pubs and clubs of London Town (and some of the worst DJ song selections I’ve ever heard), I’ve been musing on Star Wars. I desperately want to watch the original trilogy again, but unfortunately I don’t have them on DVD any more since they somehow got left behind (along with most of my other favourite DVD’s at the time) when I hurriedly fled my student lodgings half a step ahead of an enraged landlord with a bill for £900 in backdated rent. I have several versions on tape, but I don’t think my ailing, dust-covered VCR actually works.
So I’ve been consoling myself with Star Wars websites, the Family Guy Blue Harvest DVD, and video clips (thank you YouTube’s lax copyright enforcement!). Most recently I watched the starship combat sections of the Battle of Endor. This is the largest space battle in the original trilogy, and is second in the saga only to the epic CGI Battle of Coruscant in Episode III.
Whilst watching it, I saw a distinct shot of a Y-Wing fighter arcing through intense oncoming laser fire, and I was struck for the first time at how deadly it must have been to be piloting one of those wallowing craft in that intense, fast-paced battle. I mean when you break it down to the fighter craft involved, the Y-wing was definitely at the sharp end of the stick. Look at it like this:
- X-Wing – One of the greatest starfighters ever built. It was tough (shields and armour), fast (beaten only by TIE Interceptors and A-Wings), and packed some nice weaponry (4 Laser cannons, and twin proton torpedo launchers).
- A-Wing – Reckoned to be the fastest fighter in the galaxy at that time, it’s lighter shields and armour were compensated for by it’s extreme speed and vector-thrust manoeuvrability. With traversable twin laser cannons and twin concussion missile launchers, it could mince unshielded TIE’s it couldn’t outrun.
- TIE Fighter – OK, so no shields, and light armour, but more manoeuvrable than the X, Y, and B wings that it faced, and fielded in overwhelming numbers, reckoned at somewhere around 3-to-1.
- B-wing – The new Y-wing. Heavy shields and armour, Ion cannon, laser cannons and twin proton launchers combined with an innovative new gyroscopic cockpit and overcharged engines. These could almost keep up with X-wings for manoeuvrability, and could take more of a pummelling. And they had lots of guns.
- TIE Interceptor – Fast, manoeuvrable, and deadly. These are TIE’s on speed. They were second in speed only to the diminutive A-wing, and were incredibly responsive. And once again, fielded in greater numbers.
- TIE Bombers - The only craft that I’d rate as being close to the Y-wings level of vulnerability. No shields, but still more manoeuvrable than them, and packing a similar armament (twin lasers, and concussion/proton launchers), and with slightly lighter armour, these didn’t really play much of a part in the battle. The few known to be fielded avoided the core of the dogfighting and concentrated on harrying the Alliance capital ships.
- Y-wing – Heavy shields, similar armour to that of an X-wing (perhaps slightly heavier), armed with twin laser cannons, (seemingly unused) Ion cannon, and concussion launchers. These are an old craft, forced from retirement by the need for fighters before the rebels got their hands on the X-wing. TIE’s of every kind fly circles around these beasts. They’re slow, sluggish to manoeuvre, and larger than every other fighter in the battle, making for a very tempting target.
Now don’t get me wrong, all the Alliance pilots were insanely brave to fly their little ships up against the might of the Empire with it’s fleets of enormous Star Destroyers, the gargantuan Death Star, and it’s swarms of TIE’s. But at least in the A, B, and X-wings you stood a chance! Whether it be speed, firepower, or flexibility, you had some boon over most of your enemy counterparts. But not so with the humble Y-wing. They were just drifting around out there, drawing fire and desperately trying not die before they blew up something!
So this blog is a salute to all those brave/foolhardy Y-Wing pilots that fought at the Battle of Endor (and it’s lesser cousin the Battle of Yavin).
We salute you! *salutes*
1 Comment
September 10, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog.
Cheers! Sandra. R.