The White Council

Re: OT: Imperial Storm Troopers

Tolkien and Inklings Discussion

: : I've never understood why people diss the Imperial Storm : : Troopers. They kick butt on everyone except Ewoks (and they : : are NOT bad shots). Sometimes I think George Lucas arranged : : for me to see completely different versions of these movies : : from everyone else.

: I wouldn't dis them at all. But they are portrayed as rather : inept. Which I don't think is their fault, nor is it the : case, but it is borne out by the movies.

I can't recall any scenes with really inept Imperial Storm Troopers. They take every objective. That's hardly inept.

: By means of comparison, Luke, Leia, Chewie and Han Solo seemed : to be rather good at shooting everyone. The best example of : this is right after Obi and Darth have their duel, and Luke : gives up the boat by screaming, "NO!"

But Luke was using the Dark Side of the Force at the time. Force users are supposed to be deadly accurate. That's why Anakin was such a good podracer.

: How many trained stormtroopers were present in the hanger? We : could surmise that there were at least 20 and probably closer : to a hundred hanging out, cleaning their armor, and placing : bets on how long it would take Vader to chop down the old dude : in the funny brown robes.

: And yet after the alert is unwittingly given out by Luke, not : one of these guys could hit our fleeing heros, while : Luke et. al. managed to down half a dozen, plant a pot shot in : the blast door (and why does that cause doors to shut : and lock??) and then take off without a scratch (except for : Obi, of course . . . but was he really scratched??).

Anyone, taken by surprise by someone using the Force (and that includes DODGING blaster shots as well as delivering them) is not going to come off looking very well.

: Now, I assume that the Empire trains these guys, and doesn't : just pass out blasters and armor to any JarJar Binks that : walks along! And thus, with some twenty blasters all pointed : at Luke et. al. one would think that these trained : soldiers would be able to at least wing someone. Chewbacca is : the biggest target walking, and I don't recall his fur even : being singed!

Pointing the blasters at Luke (who was basically the only one firing at them) is not an effective means of hitting a Wookie inside a spaceship.

: But perhaps I was just drunk when I watched the movies. ;)

I have to admit, I've watched the Star Wars movies many, many times. I don't read the books, but I can discuss the movies ad nauseum.

The only stupid storm trooper I ever saw was the one Leia blasted in the storage compartment when he cried out, "There's one. Set for stun!"