Why Was the Life of a TIE Pilot so Horrifying? Although many young imperial dreamed of soaring across the battlefield and defending the Empire, when they actually got up into the battle… Things were much worse than they expected.
Unlike how many Jedi Knights treated their Clone Pilots with respect, the Empire saw their men as expendable and recyclable since they had so many pilots at their disposal. Instead of trying to match Rebel tactics head to head, the Empire preferred to send out ridiculous amounts of tie fighters to overwhelm the enemy. As a result, the ships were designed to be cheap and quick to build, meaning they had no shielding and had very poor safety.
Because of this, countless TIE pilots were forced to suffer horrific, skin melting burns when taking canon fire… and if they ever took critical damage out in the dark void of space, the empire was not coming back for them… They would be forced to drift off in space until their oxygen ran out, dying alone and in silence