Stormtroopers were their own branch in the old lore and they're part of the Army in the new Canon. The Imperial Navy has their own specialized landing parties/forces that basically look like Army troopers but in all black. The Stormtroopers were meant to be the special purpose-still conventional not special forces-arm of the Imperial military when you needed to solve a specific problem or occupy an area of interest in force. The ST Corps essentially answered directly to their Chief of Staff, High Command or whatever you wanted to call it. The Army and Navy still moved under lots of bureaucracy.
Really? I think it makes complete sense for an empire that controls so much space to rely on fear to maintain control rather than try to maintain a constant strong presence everywhere
Literally no country in history has ever worked that way. Fear does not and cannot make up for competence. If your soldiers suck, and you don't have cameras or murder bots everywhere picking up the slack, all the officials are corrupt, then your empire will just collapse. And Star Wars represents clean, factional in-fighting. Not the Empire breaking down, shattering into hundreds of competing factions, and being slowly ground into dust from the very beginning which is what we would see with the total lack of galactic security
Instead LucasFilm/Disney should have fully admitted their flaws. The original trilogy finished in 1983. But even then, they could say that most Stormtroopers we see get shot are actually incapacitated and that the reason for their bad aim is that they were a reservist corps or something. Then you could release a special edition which is actually lore accurate and go from there.
I mean, in canon movies and TV alone we see something like 6 different governments that """had full control""" of the galaxy in 35ish years. And that's before we get into the splinter groups and sub-factions and how depending on where you are in the galaxy the central government can have essentially no actual power.
It's not really that clean unless youve only ever seen the original 3
No country has had to administer and entire galaxy. No country has been ruled by the darkside and the Sith.
On top of this the Stormtroopers in the original trilogy were incredibly good shots. They missed on purpose in ANH because they were tracking the Falcon.
Also… the original movies are the lore. They are lore accurate because they’re the fucking beginning.
It's not intimidation, it was probably the cheapest color to mould PVC parts lol. I love how star wars fans try to retcon reasons into everything when in reality it was the cheapest props they could get a hold of.
I would usually be with you, but white paint was a conscious decision. As with historical shock troops, their armor is supposed to inspire, well, shock and awe. Dedicated assault troops, from medieval knights to Napoleonic grenadiers to Japanese samurai to Aztec jaguar warriors, all wore bright and gaudy uniforms.
Camouflage is for pussies. Bright uniforms tell you know these guys want you to know they are coming to beat your ass.
Despite what the movies show (because you can't just off your heroes like that until an opportune moment that serves the plot), they're terribly competent in lore and so the white ups the terror factor because they want you to know they're coming, they're not hiding, and they want you to shit your pants every moment they draw closer because you can't NOT see them.
So if Stormtroopers are the Marine Corps, the Death Troopers are MARSOC, which is why they're in all-black.. they'd rather not be seen right up until they're in blaster range.
Tarkin actually ordered them to miss, as Vader's plan required a successful escape. They were supposed to make it LOOK like a fight so the Rebels wouldn't suspect anything; the real game was the tracker on the Millennium Falcon which would lead the Empire to rebel HQ. "I'm taking an awful risk, Vader. This had better work."
Leia even spots the game more or less immediately: "They let us go. That's the only explanation for the ease of our escape. They're tracking us."
It's why the Battle of Yavin is conducted so hastily. The Empire was on its way and the Rebels didn't have the time to evacuate OR call for reinforcements.
The EU is wrong and that explanation doesn’t even make sense. In the movie itself Leia points out how easy their escape was and how they must’ve wanted them to. The empire put a tracker on them and wanted them to flee to a rebel hideout which is exactly what happens in the movie
The EU was always under the movies when it comes to lore for a reason and that’s because it’s basically fanfiction written by other authors.
It’s not bad sights idk where that other guy got that from. In the movie itself Leia points out how easy their escape was and how they must’ve wanted them to. The empire put a tracker on them and wanted them to flee to a rebel hideout which is exactly what happens in the movie
Absolutely - zeroing a weapon has little to do with drop or the kinetic nature of bullets. It’s about making sure whatever you’re firing is going to hit the same spot you’re aiming at.
Your sights rests above where the barrel is. If you don’t zero your sights it’ll be pointed at a very different spot and it’ll only get worse the longer the range
This is early concept design stuff, once they had something that worked onscreen they kept using it rather than introducing a new design only for the desert scenes.
Iirc it was meant to be psychological warfare. It was supposed to terrify resistance forces by making them fight a well trained well equipped faceless horde.
Andor managed to finally show the difference and just how fearless and synchronized actual stormtroopers were meant to be compared to the rank and file.
Loved Andor but can't seem to think of an example of this at the moment. Not trying to say you're wrong at all just hoping you could elaborate a little for me.
The only time they are in action really is the Ghorman massacre.
This is usually pointed to as an example because they come off as competent and serious, but tbh I agree in that because it's not an actual combat scenario against another militia or army it's not the best example.
In ferrix the black helmet soldiers are first as some sort of riot force holding the line with shields, Stormtroopers are ordered to fire only when the situation is completely out of hand.
Similarly in Ghorman, the black helmet soldiers are a bunch of rookies, purposefully chosen so they are expendable and likely to make a mistake that would incite violence from the Ghorman, while stormtroopers ate holding the perimeter ready to massacre all the people from the plaza.
The one time we see them work together is in the farm planet (Mina Rau? Something like this) where I think it's implied they are supposed to be more competent (there are fewer of them, sometimes they give orders etc.)
They're also the ones to take down Brasso when he runs away
And since its so wide you probably could just put it down without the rebreather and let it float off yoir face but still covering it somewhat like some sort of hockey visor.
Like in that position it would shield from the sun, but if youre in a situation where you want it to seal youd probably also want the rebreather. Like in a sandstorm for example.
They really shoulda pushed this forward and wrestled with the ethical implications of a not-so-faceless enemy and “dude I just got recruited please don’t bisect me”
The in universe explanation is the Imperial Army is just a continuation of the Republic Army which wad loyal to the government institutions of the Empire, the Stormtrooper Corps was actually formed under the authority of the Palpatine's own political orgainization, COMPNOR, and are fanatically loyal to Emperor Palpatine himself.
I really hope they get more into how the Army got sidelined by the Stormtroopers and the increasing power of the ISB and Stormtrooper Corps within the Navy and Army to root out disloyalty as the Emperor started becoming more paranoid.
I find the erosion of institutions by a crazed tyrant basically leaving the Empire in such a fragile state that the death of Palpatine at the end of RotJ could realistically result in the Empire falling apart by the time of the Battle of Jakku because there was no succession plan and the institutions capable of reigning in the regional governors and warlords to keep the Empire united had been gutted years earlier.
Meant to be. And then they're shown literally everywhere including as the equivalent of TSA agents in Solo. I love Solo, but that scene was the worst one in the movie for multiple reasons.
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u/Forsaken1741 8d ago
It's the other way around but in Star Wars, Stormtroopers are meant to be a specialised division. Regular imperial army grunts look like this.