Rogue Leader said:
TIEs are a box with engines and a pair of guns with a pilot that probably won't survive their first dogfight... If you don't know how to use all the speed and maneuverability to your advantage then you're not going into a battle well prepared at all.
As oppose to Rebellion pilots who have the advantage of hyperdrive, shields, and a ejection system to protect their ships and people (as their resources were limited and thus to protect such investments made sense). Their pilots live through their encounters, learn from them, and come back as fighter aces to slag their Imperial counter parts.

Makes sense to me even if it was some interesting retconning. ;)

I know, I know.. I'm getting into a STAR WARS debate with a SW fan; a REALLY BIG SW fan. But all of the stuff you mention is fanfic EU stuff... it still doesn't jive with what a real empire would do: the Romans had the best in armor and weaponry, although it was after Caesar and Augustus that the legions really started to get professional military training. Also, one can look at the japanese empire during WW2 as far as "lightweight fighters that were a breath away from destruction". Even so, the US was an industrial giant and had the ability, material and time to create superior fighters to counter and destroy the Zeros.

In this case, it would be akin to Al-Quada (not that the rebels are terrorists, but would have similar financial and industrial challenges) having far better military equipment and trained soldiers than the US or UK. They may know all the best hidey holes and know that the only way they can match the US and UK is to play unfair, but when fighting toe-to-toe there is no match: they always lose. Same thing happened in Vietnam: when the VC staged the Tet offensive, they were annihilated because they came out in the open; when they went back to an underground battle of demoralization, they realized the only way to defeat the US was to destroy their will to fight.

Same case "should" be with the Empire and the Rebellion: the Empire has whole planets to mine, refine and industrialize to create any war machine that can withstand any rebellion firepower, much less overwhelm it, and with far better trained pilots that can be rotated in duty. The reality should be the other way around: x-wings falling apart due to lack of spare parts, while TIEs get harder to destroy, more manueverable, etc.

But this is STAR WARS. In a fantasy world, the good guys are always going to have the upper hand in some way, regardless of how silly the explanation may be. You would think the Empire just cloned Laurel and Hardy or Inspector Clouseau for their entire troop line, judging them by their competence.