They deserved it

If The Empire simply had better engineers, they would have put down that silly rebellion.


Well, canonically speaking, it was a long time ago....hindsight is 20/20.


While that is very true, I'm not simply referring to the whole "using magic as a strategy" gameplan they put into effect overall. I'm talking about all the stuff they built to accomplish their goals. It sucked...all of it! If they had better engineering, this sort of thing doesn't happen. Let's examine:

In "A New Hope" we have a Deathstar that can be completely destroyed by a single missile fired into an unguarded exhaust port. This is nonsense. Also, Darth Vader's Uber-Tie Fighter goes spinning out of control into the darkest reaches of space with a single laser blast. Surely, somebody could have come up with a backup guidance system in the event that a FIGHTER was shot at. If I'm not mistaken, Vader also had to take his hand off the flight controls in order to aim his blaster. That's just poor engineering, too.

Moving on to The Empire Strikes Back, the Empirical Walker things are making their way across Hoth. These things are huge, stomping out fighter planes with ease, and armoured to resist laser blasts...unless of course something trips them with a piece of string. Then they fall down, get shot once and blow the heck up. No engineer worth his or her salt would design a tank that walks on feet with a center of gravity that high. For one thing, the movement alone is very inefficient, even if you have to walk across frozen tundra, then there's the stability aspect that would be much improved by having shorter legs.

Finally, "Return of the Muppets Jedi" introduces us to an entire fleet of garbage vehicles. First of all, The Empire still hasn't learned that Tie Fighters suck, so those make a reappearance. At least somebody realized that Death Stars shouldn't have an open exhaust port, but didn't think through that they can be fully powered with nothing to defend the main reactor...so once again, a couple laser blasts, and the whole thing goes up in flames. Super Star Destroyers are massive behemoths of battle ships (granted, not compared to a Death Star, but you get the idea) with nearly unlimited firepower, and the ability to carry hundreds upon hundreds of Fighters with them. The Bridge from which the thing is driven is propped high above the armoured exterior, relying on a single shield dome to protect it. Once the shield is taken out by a single tiny rebel X-Wing, one little crashing fighter is enough to take out the bridge and send the entire monstrosity crashing into the nearest planet or Death Star. Seriously? Last but not least are the new mini-walker things the Empire breaks out to protect the shield generator on Endor. These again are armoured to withstand laser blasts...but once again are perched much higher than they need to be on skinny little legs which cause the thing to trip when stepping on a log. Oh yeah...and once the thing does fall over sideways, it explodes. If it wasn't good enough for the Ford Pinto, it shouldn't be good enough for The Empire.

In conclusion:

Tie Fighters: Suck
Death Stars: Suck
Walkers: Suck
Super Star Destroyers: Suck
Little Mini-Walker Things: Suck

The common thread here is Empire Engineering. It's pretty plain to see that they needed better design of their stuff if they had actually hoped to win the war with the Rebels...regardless of The Force.