Ships of the week, the TIE series

[Sonic Glitch]

No where in Star Wars have we seen an electrical discharge when the shields are hit;

Actually, we do - have a look at this.

Huh... Well that's new. Never noticed that before. Which edition is it in?

[Sionnach Glic]

Special edition, I'd presume.

[Captain Seafort]

In terms of the reason for the different effects, it's possible that the difference between that image and the more common bright flashes is that the flash (or rather, a multitude of much smaller splinters too small to resolve) is the effect of an impact on a holding shield, while the splintering effect is caused by a shield collapsing and not diffusing the energy as effectively - that was the shot that knocked lumps off the the T4 and forced it to shut down its reactor.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Weird how the impact area appears to be above where the discharge happens. [Ponders]

[Sionnach Glic]

The flash appears to be in more or less the same spot in the two pictures. But it's the fighter itself that has moved, as it has started spinning. This stationary effect would be more consistant with the flash of something hitting a shield than an electrical discharge, I'd imagine.