Not when it’s buried in the wreckage of the second Death Star.
I’m not deliberately knit-picking, infact what I’m about to say is not supposed to be contentious, but offering a perspective that hopefully allows more freedom to explore fun/interesting ideas without being beholden to imaginary (or ‘in universe’) science.
I totally respect your point about 40 years of technological development not applying to an OT era vehicle that has laid in decay, without modification for all of those 40 years.
My counter point is this:-
If the justification for dismissing TIE hyperspace capability is solely based on the line from ANH, I’d grant the concept a little more leeway.
- if it’s fair to consider that the X-wing is the ‘good guy’ equivalent of the TIE in approx size and spec (I would argue it is, considering it it’s the primary alliance/resistance fighter depicted across the series and the fact there is a game titled ‘X-wing vs TIE fighter’ - alluding to parity), then the X-wing should similarly not be light speed capable either
…which follows since we never saw the X-Wing use a hyperspace drive in ANH, so at the time the line was uttered the X-wing seemed equally beholden to the same principle within the context of that movie.
(Rogue One DID later depict that they are/were hyperspace capable during the ANH timeframe but is it possible that was a retcon or an oversight based on ROTJ capability??? We’ll probably never know, if you consider that back in 1977 SW lore was non-existent, no bible, no visual dictionary’s, no ‘science of SW’ books.
Hence, anything and everything written or explored since those original script pages were written is in addition (or even amendment) to the original intentions.
My point is, I’m sure none of the SW creators involved have lost a shred of sleep over such minor details if it served the story or the visuals …and so we probably shouldn’t either)
Anyhow, I digress.
What we definitely do know is that by ROTJ (approx 6 years in universe time) the X-wing was definitively shown to have hyperspace capability.
That can be attributed to in-universe technological development, the creative whims of GL, improved visual effects, a higher budget and the audience’s demand for greater spectacle…or ALL of the above?!
- Since the TROS TIE being referred to here is a defunct unit from within the DS2, who knows what the empire was working on in there?
Maybe it was a prototype? Or maybe even generic TIE’s were hyperspace capable by this point in order to match the capabilities of the enemy equivalent.
If you look across real history especially involving combat and conflict, innovation and development moves forward at hugely more advanced rate because it’s driven by the necessity to gain an advantage over your adversary’s.
WW2 at the start of the conflict it was prop planes, by the end it was jets! 6 years. Real world.
It’s not unreasonable to assume that proportionate/parallel developments in fighter propulsion would occur in the SW universe too?
- As such, just because we never saw a TIE use hyperspace either in or by ROTJ doesn’t mean they hadn’t been made capable? The movies were always told from the heroes perspective and so we never explored or followed the Empire to depict their journey to and from battle in the same way we did with the rebel fleet during those assaults.
All we know is that the movies never depicted an instance where a TIE entered or exited hyperspace…for whatever reason…but that doesn’t conclusively mean that they couldn’t - at least by the time the battle of Endor took place?
Anyhow, there’s nothing (that I’m aware of) that settles it either way and that means you can really ‘choose your own adventure’ on the matter?
To bring this full circle, my point is this:-
The SW universe has ALWAYS played fast and loose with it’s science.
It’s not old school Star Trek.
It’s always been science fantasy over science fiction, and is arguably a lot better for not letting the science dictate the fun.
So, to ensure that I’m making it very clear that I don’t have a dog in this fight, I’ll end on this:-
On the subject of ‘the creative whims of the creator’ this is YOUR edit. If you don’t want or are not interested in TIE’s being hyperspace capable, that’s your choice and your vision. And that’s cool. You don’t need to justify it any more than that.
BUT don’t squander your time and energy on a throwaway line from 40+ years ago or let it dictate or limit your creative options.
At this point in the SW franchise we’ve already seen that the creative teams involved across the movies themselves are not beholden to much (ESPECIALLY the tech!), hence why we’ve seen changes, retcons and the in-universe introduction and reliance on ‘a certain point of view’.