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dragonlady7via http://ift.tt/20fG6yn:
exuberatrix:
bomberqueen17:
millicentthecat:
Sauce: Star Wars: The Force Awakens Incredible Cross Sections (download full size images here and here)
Relevance: “But where the Empire treated its pilots as expendable, the First Order values them as critical military assets. TIE cadets receive extensive training in secret flight schools far from space explored by the New Republic, and their fighters now boast onboard deflector shields to bolster their defenses.”
@bomberqueen17 @firstorderforceuser @senator-benamidala @and-then-bam-cassiopeia
Oh fascinating!
How much of that berserker ethos has survived in the organizational culture of First Order pilots, though? I mean, even if they’re part of the stormtrooper program and they’re raised in an ideological cleanroom, who the hell were their flight instructors, especially back in the earlier years? I’m guessing there are at least a few Imperial veterans involved, Battle of Jakku survivors maybe, pasted back together with whatever passes for psychiatry in the First Order, and they’re responsible for teaching at least the first few cohorts of impressionable, highly-conditioned cadets how to pilot, and how to Be Pilots. And yeah, you can tell them ‘we have new combat doctrine now,’ and maybe they even agree with it, but that kind of ingrained cultural attitude doesn’t just go away, you know? Who are the legendary snubfighter aces of the Imperial era, according to the veterans? Or even according to First Order hagiography? What did they do to get that status? A lot of irl ace pilot stories already go pretty much like ‘did something improbable and ludicrously risky, somehow pulled it off; later died in combat;’ given Imperial starfighter doctrine, how much more over-the-top do you figure a pilot has to be to be noteworthy? And the First Order cadets, they’re hearing this stuff, internalizing it, but they’re also being told: 'you’re valuable assets; you’re the best of the best, you’ve been winnowed from the masses for your aptitude and specially conditioned to excel; your ships have been improved to protect you.’ And when they put it together, what they’re hearing is 'anything your heroes did, you can do better,’ and as of TFA, they haven’t had many chances to engage an equally-advanced opposing force, so they haven’t really had opportunities to be disabused of the notion. TL;DR: First Order pilots are a veneer of discipline imperfectly concealing a core of fanaticism and ego that’s different from their predecessors’, but not much saner. And they’re specialist personnel, so they probably get a little more scope and leeway for their idiosyncrasies than the infantry do.
YES YES YES
*rolls around in this*
exuberatrix:
bomberqueen17:
millicentthecat:
Sauce: Star Wars: The Force Awakens Incredible Cross Sections (download full size images here and here)
Relevance: “But where the Empire treated its pilots as expendable, the First Order values them as critical military assets. TIE cadets receive extensive training in secret flight schools far from space explored by the New Republic, and their fighters now boast onboard deflector shields to bolster their defenses.”
@bomberqueen17 @firstorderforceuser @senator-benamidala @and-then-bam-cassiopeia
Oh fascinating!
How much of that berserker ethos has survived in the organizational culture of First Order pilots, though? I mean, even if they’re part of the stormtrooper program and they’re raised in an ideological cleanroom, who the hell were their flight instructors, especially back in the earlier years? I’m guessing there are at least a few Imperial veterans involved, Battle of Jakku survivors maybe, pasted back together with whatever passes for psychiatry in the First Order, and they’re responsible for teaching at least the first few cohorts of impressionable, highly-conditioned cadets how to pilot, and how to Be Pilots. And yeah, you can tell them ‘we have new combat doctrine now,’ and maybe they even agree with it, but that kind of ingrained cultural attitude doesn’t just go away, you know? Who are the legendary snubfighter aces of the Imperial era, according to the veterans? Or even according to First Order hagiography? What did they do to get that status? A lot of irl ace pilot stories already go pretty much like ‘did something improbable and ludicrously risky, somehow pulled it off; later died in combat;’ given Imperial starfighter doctrine, how much more over-the-top do you figure a pilot has to be to be noteworthy? And the First Order cadets, they’re hearing this stuff, internalizing it, but they’re also being told: 'you’re valuable assets; you’re the best of the best, you’ve been winnowed from the masses for your aptitude and specially conditioned to excel; your ships have been improved to protect you.’ And when they put it together, what they’re hearing is 'anything your heroes did, you can do better,’ and as of TFA, they haven’t had many chances to engage an equally-advanced opposing force, so they haven’t really had opportunities to be disabused of the notion. TL;DR: First Order pilots are a veneer of discipline imperfectly concealing a core of fanaticism and ego that’s different from their predecessors’, but not much saner. And they’re specialist personnel, so they probably get a little more scope and leeway for their idiosyncrasies than the infantry do.
YES YES YES
*rolls around in this*
