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Star Wars Rebels Season One (spoilers)

Breaking Ranks was a fantastic episode. Seems like the show is finding it's footing.

Those cadets were doing pretty well when they had to shoot those tiny targets to activate the platforms. Does the Empire un-teach them how to shoot later on?
 
I wish Rebels would address what happened to all the clones. They cannot possibly be extinct yet, unless Palpatine planned some kind of a purge once he didn't need them any more... Which wouldn't really make sense, because what dictator would dispose of hundreds of thousands of highly trained and blindly loyal troops?
 
So to recap some of these recent observations, the Empire wants the Stormtroopers to:
  • have a limited scope of vision
  • be trained poorly in marksmanship
  • have been instructed in ruthlessly stepping over their own comrades for victory

Sounds like the truly cruel and insensitive (Callous?) organization we've grown up watching.
It's been reflected on over the years how the strategy employed by the Empire is power in numbers. That's why the TIE has no shields and why troopers aren't trained to be excellent marksmen; all canon fodder. Still... it's going to be interesting to see how Rebels provides more insight into the recruitment process... and even see if/how women are indoctrinated. Seems odd to let women serve as officers but not as troopers.

Is it possible that the Stormtrooper helmets (in-universe) actually help them see more? Like the way a fish or a bird sees? I know that in reality those helmets help one feel blind. I had to be led around by the hand the Hallowe'en I went as a hilariously short Vader. It's tough getting beer through the grill.
 
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They've started showing the episode on the regular Disney Channel, so I was finally able to see Droids in Distress and Fighter Flight, although I ended up seeing them in reverse order.
I really enjoyed them. They weren't quite up to the height of the best of Clone Wars, but I thought they were fun. The writing and characters were both good. I see a lot of potential here once the show really finds it's footing.
 
I wish Rebels would address what happened to all the clones. They cannot possibly be extinct yet, unless Palpatine planned some kind of a purge once he didn't need them any more... Which wouldn't really make sense, because what dictator would dispose of hundreds of thousands of highly trained and blindly loyal troops?


That's the easy one. They aged out. The clone trooper aged at twice the rate of a normal human. They were between 10 and 13 years old during the Clone Wars. It has been 14 years since then. So the Clones of the War are between 24 and 27 years old...so by human standard they are 48 to 54 years old. There may be some left, but they'd be past their physical prime. Some might remain as officers. A lot might have died in those 14 years quelling rebellions and bringing the former Seperatist planets and other Republic planets and neutral planets beyond the Republic's old reach into the Empire. One assumes they stopped clone production at some point.

It is possible they stopped production but allowed the last batches born to age to full trooper as replacements for the old Grand Army of the Republic. Even if they stopped making new clones when Jengo Fett was killed, the last clone would be 17 years old in Rebels, or 34 in human standard. These last clones might still be viable in the Empire, but assigned to the elite units (Vader's Fist, the 501st for example).

Though it is also possible that they were programmed to die after they were past combat age. They were "product" after all. Crafted to make an Army for the Republic.
 
I believe in the Old EU they quickly stopped making clones once the Clone Wars ended and they aged and died off. I believe it was because the Jango genetic samples had degraded at that point.
 
So to recap some of these recent observations, the Empire wants the Stormtroopers to:
  • have a limited scope of vision
  • be trained poorly in marksmanship
  • have been instructed in ruthlessly stepping over their own comrades for victory

Sounds like the truly cruel and insensitive (Callous?) organization we've grown up watching.
It's been reflected on over the years how the strategy employed by the Empire is power in numbers. That's why the TIE has no shields and why troopers aren't trained to be excellent marksmen; all canon fodder. Still... it's going to be interesting to see how Rebels provides more insight into the recruitment process... and even see if/how women are indoctrinated. Seems odd to let women serve as officers but not as troopers.

Not to mention that just about anywhere else and unit cohesion has been the way to strength your troops not weaken them.
 
So to recap some of these recent observations, the Empire wants the Stormtroopers to:
  • have a limited scope of vision
  • be trained poorly in marksmanship
  • have been instructed in ruthlessly stepping over their own comrades for victory

Sounds like the truly cruel and insensitive (Callous?) organization we've grown up watching.
It's been reflected on over the years how the strategy employed by the Empire is power in numbers. That's why the TIE has no shields and why troopers aren't trained to be excellent marksmen; all canon fodder. Still... it's going to be interesting to see how Rebels provides more insight into the recruitment process... and even see if/how women are indoctrinated. Seems odd to let women serve as officers but not as troopers.

Is it possible that the Stormtrooper helmets (in-universe) actually help them see more? Like the way a fish or a bird sees? I know that in reality those helmets help one feel blind. I had to be led around by the hand the Hallowe'en I went as a hilariously short Vader. It's tough getting beer through the grill.

Or just like AT-ATs you're supposed to be so scared by their appearance you either give up or perform poorly.
 
I think it's just a matter or Star Wars emulating the modern military. There are lots of women officers. Until very recently, there weren't many sitting in a foxhole.
 
You wonder if you could tell in that armor. Though most women might be too short to be stormtroopers ("Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper" ~Leia Organa).
 
Meaning that the Empire might not be sexist as was thought back in the 1980s. It seems to still be human-centric from observation. Though possibly not as much as it once seemed.
 
Meaning that the Empire might not be sexist as was thought back in the 1980s. It seems to still be human-centric from observation. Though possibly not as much as it once seemed.

There's a long history of any observations from the OT being taken up by the EU, spread amongst fandom, or event adopted into later films in the canon.

Greedo was a Rodian bounty hunter so all Rodians are bounty hunters.

Obi-Wan wore robes (when he was on Tatooine, of course, and Uncle Owen did too) so all Jedi wore them.

Imperial officers have accents so that became a Coruscanti accent.

There aren't many females shown in the Rebellion either (besides Princess Leia,the controller at Echo Base, and later Mon Mothma and there were 3 female pilots cut out of RotJ for whatever reason) so it's not like the Rebellion is much better.
 
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