Spoilers The Mandalorian season 2 discussion
- Thread starter Turtletrekker
- Start date
One thing I have to mention is:
Why do stormtroopers bother to wear that armor? It doesn't seem to provide good protection against anything:
- Not blasters.
- Not kinetic projectile weapons (like a regular gun).
- Not blunt kinetic impact weapons.
- Not bladed weapons like spears or knives.
- And in past films and shows, it doesn't even seal to prevent gas from affecting the wearer.
So yeah what the hell is the use of wearing it?
Why do stormtroopers bother to wear that armor? It doesn't seem to provide good protection against anything:
- Not blasters.
- Not kinetic projectile weapons (like a regular gun).
- Not blunt kinetic impact weapons.
- Not bladed weapons like spears or knives.
- And in past films and shows, it doesn't even seal to prevent gas from affecting the wearer.
So yeah what the hell is the use of wearing it?
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Discipline.
Intimidating is all i can guess.
The Imperial military seems like it was generally organized and equipped for policing and projecting an image of strength and authority. Until the first planetary uprisings and the Rebellion broke out they probably didn't think they'd have to protect their soldiers against more than random hand weapons and if Stormtroopers did die there wouldn't be enough losses to have an impact on the size and strength of the ranks.
By the time the Rebellion was in full swing the Imperial military was consigned to keeping the status quo for most of their ground forces but supplemented them with units like the Death Troopers and Dark Troopers to add firepower and penetration potential, much as the Super Battle Droids were designed to supplement regular Battle Droids but give the Separatists a much more powerful punch on the battlefield.
By the time the Rebellion was in full swing the Imperial military was consigned to keeping the status quo for most of their ground forces but supplemented them with units like the Death Troopers and Dark Troopers to add firepower and penetration potential, much as the Super Battle Droids were designed to supplement regular Battle Droids but give the Separatists a much more powerful punch on the battlefield.
I can't remember where, but I remember reading somewhere that it's just for intimidation, and that they don't actually care about protecting the Stormtroopers, they're just cannon fodder.
This seems to be how it was, as the Empire was relatively secure, owning to Palpatine manipulating both sides of the Clone Wars. Thus, any threat he would regard as important was, to Imperial leadership's mind, dealt with. Thus, they turn their focus in keeping the populous under control.
Generation Tech, a YouTube Channel, is one of my favorite SW type videos and the link below is discussing evolving combat throughout the galaxy, but I specifically linked to the time discussing this shift of focus.
Wasn't there a line in Rebels from Rex complaining about the bad quality of Stormtrooper armor compared to Clonetrooper armor?? Or am I misremembering something?
I thought it was the helmet he was complaining about, the stormtrooper helmet is impossible to see out of, thus also explaining why stormtroopers have such piss-poor aim.
I think he was also lamenting the quality of the troopers under the armor as well. 
They gave Boba Fett more personality in five minutes than he ever had in his forty years of inexplicable popularity.
I like this badass sci-fi woman dream team Mando is building with Starbuck and May.
I like this badass sci-fi woman dream team Mando is building with Starbuck and May.
100% this. It is fatiguing to see his popularity boom and everyone go "See! Told you he was a badass!" It's like, he was badass by reputation only. He did nothing on screen that was deserving of such a title. Mandalorian did what I thought was impossible-gave Boba a personality, created sympathy and some interest in a brief episode than ever before.
They did both, at various times. In the episode where Kanan and Rex disguised themselves as Stormtroopers to infiltrate an Imperial ship or facility (I can't remember which), Rex specifically calls out how terrible the Stormtrooper helmets are. But in a later episode, when he's donned his chest plate and Phase 2 helmet to go into battle with the group, he has a line to the effect of "Nothing holds up like first generation armor."
He clearly doesn't think highly of the troopers themselves either, mind. But you can tell from when and where the lines are delivered that Rex doesn't think the Empire treats it's troopers well, or outfit them properly. He's passing judgement on them for not giving value to those lives, or proper respect to their service. I'm not sure there's a whole lot of difference to Rex between the poor quality of the troopers and the poor quality of their gear, they both reflect the ways in which the Empire has abandoned their front line soldiers. And to Rex, that's a pretty major principle, as you might expect. It's part old war veteran doing the classic "Back in my day!" kind of storytelling, but wrapped around the fact that to Rex, his fellow troopers were more than just squadmates, they were brothers. Rex always respected Anakin because he led from the front, but also because he valued the individuals under his command as individuals, not just cannon fodder.
Here's the thing: pretty much everything about frontline Imperial military equipment is all about numbers. Legions of troops, swarms of fighters, and all of it made as cheaply as possibly because those aren't really pilots and soldiers, they're ammunition. Their job is to overrun by sheer numbers. Decent armor and weapons would be a waste of resources. TIE fighters with shields and life support would be a waste of resources.
Your average stormtrooper is a dumb, ignorant conscript recruited from some nowhere dustball on the outerrim, or the slums of some core world or mid-rim factory world, given the bare minimum of basic training and testing to filter out the slightly brighter ones into the pilot corps, and drilled until all independent thought and disobediences is driven from their brains. They're then stuffed into the cheapest armor possible, handed the cheapest, least accurate blaster rifle ever, packed into a transport with 50 other dumb conscripts just like them, dropped on some nowhere planet in the middle of a battle and told to run straight at the people shooting at them. And when they're all dead, the Empire sends down another batch just like them.
There's actually a fun little short story in the recent 'From a Certain Point of View' anthology that gets into this from a TIE pilot's perspective: -
Your average stormtrooper is a dumb, ignorant conscript recruited from some nowhere dustball on the outerrim, or the slums of some core world or mid-rim factory world, given the bare minimum of basic training and testing to filter out the slightly brighter ones into the pilot corps, and drilled until all independent thought and disobediences is driven from their brains. They're then stuffed into the cheapest armor possible, handed the cheapest, least accurate blaster rifle ever, packed into a transport with 50 other dumb conscripts just like them, dropped on some nowhere planet in the middle of a battle and told to run straight at the people shooting at them. And when they're all dead, the Empire sends down another batch just like them.
There's actually a fun little short story in the recent 'From a Certain Point of View' anthology that gets into this from a TIE pilot's perspective: -
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One of my favorite sequences in the entire run. I love Rex.
So, wild speculation time. In the event that Grogu managed to reach someone on the Jedi Help-line, when he lit the Beacon of Gondor (which is exactly where my head went on that bit), who are we thinking shows up? I've seen all kinds of suggestions online, from Luke (either de-aged Marvel style, or played by actor Sebastian Stan), Leia, Ezra, Mace Windu, Bariss Offee. Plus ideas for an appearance from someone like Thrawn.
I honestly can't imagine it being Luke or Leia. Ignoring the casting dilemmas each present, I feel like that would completely derail the show. If Luke shows up, and this isn't the Luke Skywalker show henceforth, will the fans be happy?
Thoughts? I'm kind of hoping if they introduce a Clone Wars era Jedi it's someone like Quinlan Vos. Casting is less strictly defined, and they have a lot more avenues for writing without being locked into fates we already know. Plus I just love QV, and was disappointed we only ever the Dark Disciple ark of The Clone Wars in novel form. (And part of me hopes that if we got him, we'd get a Clone War flashback with a live action Asajj Ventress.)
Robert Rodriguez was not originally supposed to direct "The Tragedy", apparently John Favreau actually brought him in as a last second replacement. I think we can safely say that was a good choice, though I do have wonder who the original director was supposed to be.
