Bingowings said:
This highlights the key difference between the TPM (and the PT in general) and ANH.
The TIE pilot's panic is a human response, without it things may not have gone well for the Rebels but ultimately he panics because of Han and Chewie's human/Wookiee decision not to bail out on their new friends and their skill at shooting the first fighter and remaining undetected when entering the battle.
Luke has a free shot at the exhaust port because of a chance panic but it's his skill and his decision to trust the Force to guide his actions and not the previously demonstrated inadequate targeting computer.
In TPM Anakin is in the fighter by chance, in the battle by chance, slips through the shields (possibly by skill but we can't rule out chance) and fires at the reactor by chance and luck has it it's a direct hit.
The only skill he shows is escaping the hanger in time and these are skills we have already seen him using with greater effect in the podrace.
It's a dead conclusion, the kid has not grown at the end of the story, he hasn't learned anything new.
Fate or the Force or Lucas has done all the hard work for him.
I always assumed VADER was the one who "panicked", vader is distracted by Han ("What!?") and crashes his fighter into the other (or they both could have been distracted and rammed eachother)