doubleofive said:

I love the fact that the other pilot is so shocked that he crashes into Vader.

To be honest, I've always thought it was completely intentional. Call it a cultural thing, but rather than panic, I thought that the TIE-Fighter pilot "crashed" into Vader's TIE/advanced so that he could get him out of the way of the Falcon's fire.

That's the Empire. Total obedience and disregard for human life, regular pilots, soldiers, even officers being nothing more than living drones for the Emperor and Vader.

Or maybe he panicked. They're still human but it takes away of the "elite" status of the Imperial TIE pilots compared to the (mostly) rookie and undertrained rebels...