The White Council

Re: OT: Imperial Storm Troopers (was Re: The REAL Issue About PODS)

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.

: : 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.

Having served aboard the U.S.S Constellation, the U.S.S. Ranger and the U.S.S. Saratoga, I would suggest that it ain't all that easy to get near an aircraft carrier - even when it's major defenses are being otherwise deployed. During Desert Storm (I was on the "Sara" in the Red Sea) several Iraqis in a rubber boat found out late one night that not all eyes or defenses were being "used against other forces".

The kind of close encounter that is being suggested (along with underwater attacks by divers) has already been considered. Some of the defenses are classified, but I can assure you that carriers may appear big and lumbering behemoths, but they're well defended.