: It's the only explanation. The Imperial Storm Troopers could
: not hit the side of a barn with a grapefruit -- that's how bad
: they suck. And their armor is completely useless against
: enemy fire, which makes you wonder why they bother wearing
: it. The only thing worse are those new battle robots from
: Phantom Menace, who could all be shut down simultaneously by
: hitting the central "off" switch.

Well, these guys who "suck" so badly nailed Leia with one shot, all but wiped out her crew, took out many Ewoks, and generally speaking even got a lucky shot in on Leia (who was nailed in the arm). And it took Luke and Leia quite some time to kill 3 or 4 Storm Troopers on speeder bikes.

: And why can't the Empire make a death star / mother ship that
: can't be blown up by a single shot? It's as if you could
: paddle up in your row boat to a nuclear air craft carrier and
: sink it with a single short from your slingshot. But I
: digress.

It took several shots to destroy the first Death Star. And they had to fly into the second one to find the big power generators to cause them to blow up.

And, yes, you COULD take a rowboat up to a nuclear aircraft carrier...and get swamped. It's more like taking a speeder boat up next to a carrier (during a major battle where the carrier's defenses are being deployed against other forces) and delivering a small tactical nuclear charge, which should take it out without having to go through all the BS of getting the reactor to blow up.

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