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  1. #1
    Astonishing Member Zelena's Avatar
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    Default Why can’t the stormtroopers in Star Wars shoot straight?

    A Guardian article by Rich Pelley…

    My opinion is a long tradition of bad guys unable to shoot straight and good guys miraculously able to make it through until the words “The end” appear on the screen.
    “Strength is the lot of but a few privileged men; but austere perseverance, harsh and continuous, may be employed by the smallest of us and rarely fails of its purpose, for its silent power grows irresistibly greater with time.” Goethe

  2. #2
    Silver Sentinel BeastieRunner's Avatar
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    I remember that Dark Forces and the pre-D20 Star Wars RPG had retconned in the fact that Stormtroopers after the completion of the first Death Star were using the BlasTech E-11, which while more powerful than the E-10, was made for close quarters situations due to it's inaccuracy.
    "Always listen to the crazy scientist with a weird van or armful of blueprints and diagrams." -- Vibranium

  3. #3
    Incredible Member Robotech Master's Avatar
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    Rebels had the characters complain that they couldn't see well out of the Stormtrooper helmets and experienced accuracy decrease while undercover as Stormtroopers. I think Rex may have even said something about them having inferior visibility to the clone trooper helmets or something. So there is a suggestion of poor HUD in their trooper helmets.

  4. #4
    iMan 42s
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    Stormtrooper aim being bad is just a misunderstanding of what happened in the OT.

    They intentionally missed so they could force the heroes to flee and follow them to Yavin-4. Otherwise they decimated Echo Base and nobody really gave a **** about the fleeing heroes on Bespin because Vader is only here for Luke whom he was dealing with personally, so the Stormtroopers either kill or draw them away. Then in ROTJ they still get good hits in even though they will loose the battle. It's a blatant misunderstanding of them in the OT not helped because Filoni keeps bringing this up and frankly not helped because his team are really bad at writing villains.

    Funny note about the armor though since I actually own replicas of these.

    An OT stormtrooper can have bubble lenses or flat lenses. Bubble lenses are awful and it's good to see these largely ditched in the Disney era. They're terrible to see out of which may have actually been what Luke was complaining about (Mark Hamil and Harrison Ford used Hero helmets with the bubbles). OT helmets are also asymmetrical which led to a kind of technique to put the thing on which is a sort of twist. Not doing this would also result in not being able to see a thing. This is because the helmet was put on wrong and your eye was in the wrong spot. I don't know if this was fixed for ESB or ROTJ but the Mark 2 stormtrooper used for ESB and ROTJ was considered far comfier than the originals.
    Hilariously though neither the Stormtrooper or clone is actually able to sit down due to physical constraints of wearing the armor either injuring the wearer or it actually bending which you can see is happening to Harrison Ford in ANH. So anytime you see a clone or Stormtrooper sit, it's bullshit. Clones also lose a ton of vision basically with not being able to look down and losing peripheral vision. So clone vision has and can actually get worse with different helmets.
    -----------------------------------
    For anyone that needs to know why OMD is awful please search the internet for Linkara' s video's specifically his One more day review or his One more day Analysis.

  5. #5
    Ultimate Member ChrisIII's Avatar
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    I think it's still canon that as the Empire got further away from the Clone Wars and the Republic, they sort of had a 'quantity over quality' kind of philosophy with a lot of the mass produced equipment.
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  6. #6
    "Emma is STILL right! Vegeta's Avatar
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    Why is this considered such a problem only in the Star Wars universe and not any other popular franchise? I mean the criminal underworld in Gotham City can't ever seem to hit Batman, but no one makes a big stink about how terribly ineffective they are at their jobs. Seriously, crime families shouldn't even exist in that universe if the gangsters they employ can't kill one flamboyantly dressed man.

    Maybe because it's fiction and the story ends prematurely if the protagonists die in the first act?
    "The White Queen welcomes you, TO DIE!"

  7. #7
    Moderator Frontier's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vegeta View Post
    Why is this considered such a problem only in the Star Wars universe and not any other popular franchise? I mean the criminal underworld in Gotham City can't ever seem to hit Batman, but no one makes a big stink about how terribly ineffective they are at their jobs. Seriously, crime families shouldn't even exist in that universe if the gangsters they employ can't kill one flamboyantly dressed man.

    Maybe because it's fiction and the story ends prematurely if the protagonists die in the first act?
    It's literally a trope that extends well beyond Star Wars .

  8. #8
    iMan 42s
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vegeta View Post
    Why is this considered such a problem only in the Star Wars universe and not any other popular franchise? I mean the criminal underworld in Gotham City can't ever seem to hit Batman, but no one makes a big stink about how terribly ineffective they are at their jobs. Seriously, crime families shouldn't even exist in that universe if the gangsters they employ can't kill one flamboyantly dressed man.

    Maybe because it's fiction and the story ends prematurely if the protagonists die in the first act?
    It's considered a thing in the Star Wars universe since a bunch of people didn't realize the Empire let the heroes get away in ANH and take issue with losing to Ewoks. Pretty much it. EU writers and Filoni then contributed to the Empire appearing as ineffectual which contrasts the in-universe distinction as being the most lethal and oppressive force in the galaxy. So it's literally a problem created by the EU writers not understanding a plot-point and then doubling down on it.

    But yeah it's an issue overall but since Star Wars is kind of infamous for explanations and backstory for everything it gets brought up constantly. Not helped further that Filoni even spent a majority of time making the Empire look like morons in Rebels which was one of the earliest Disney era sources.
    -----------------------------------
    For anyone that needs to know why OMD is awful please search the internet for Linkara' s video's specifically his One more day review or his One more day Analysis.

  9. #9
    Ultimate Member ChrisIII's Avatar
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    It's interesting that even Rogue One's "elite" Deathtroopers weren't all that great either. Sure, they looked and sounded intimidating but weren't really any more effective than the average Trooper (and also Rebels made this point even more). Even in the Mandalorian, they were hardly effective. The flametrooper was more scary.

    The Darktroopers were pretty effective, as Din had a hard time with just one. Of course with Luke they didn't stand much of a chance but well, that's Luke....
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  10. #10
    Mighty Member Zauriel's Avatar
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    https://www.reddit.com/r/scifi/comme...stormtroopers/

    Obi Wan had this shooting accuracy stuff figured: "These blast points; too accurate for Sand People... Only Imperial Stormtroopers are so precise."

  11. #11
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    It was on Bespin that Stormtrooper aim became egregious. In A New Hope they were very effective in clearing the blockade runner's halls and it was a plot point that they let Luke, Han, and Leia go. But when the gang were escaping on Bespin they couldn't hit anything, especially Artoo when he was just spinning in a circle.

    Just look at at this scene starting from 'on no! Chiewie, they're behind you!." Artoo is right in the open in the doorway and continues to just spin in place after the others have run off when he's the only thing left to shoot at, at they still miss every single shot. At the end it's clear that they're trying to hit him and they just can't do it even though he's just rotating on the spot before slowly rolling away, and if they had hit him once the others would never have escaped since they never would have gotten the hyperdrive working or even unlocked the door to get to the Falcon. Leia and Lando are also caught out in the open with their backs turned and also escape completely unscathed.

    Last edited by sunofdarkchild; 01-10-2021 at 12:54 AM.

  12. #12
    Moderator Frontier's Avatar
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    You never see this complaint with the Battle Droids, but I guess the B-1's being a joke was kind of the point of their character eventually...even though they still managed to hit some Clones, occasionally, and there were the Droideka's, Commando Droids, and Super Battle Droids that were generally actual threats.

  13. #13
    iMan 42s
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    The droids and later First Order kind of had the benefit of hindsight as well as just had better ways to showcase a threat to the audience. Droids could be in greater numbers and we could see more advanced weaponry. The First Order also showed Stormtroopers while still a bit goofy a bit more threatening than before with the benefit of hindsight and smarter usage of the iconography (instead of being subtext with the Empire the FO just uses Nazis as text). Though for some reason the Empire didn't adapt or when they did to appear more threatening you had your EU writers play it down.
    -----------------------------------
    For anyone that needs to know why OMD is awful please search the internet for Linkara' s video's specifically his One more day review or his One more day Analysis.

  14. #14
    Moderator Frontier's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SuperiorIronman View Post
    The droids and later First Order kind of had the benefit of hindsight as well as just had better ways to showcase a threat to the audience. Droids could be in greater numbers and we could see more advanced weaponry. The First Order also showed Stormtroopers while still a bit goofy a bit more threatening than before with the benefit of hindsight and smarter usage of the iconography (instead of being subtext with the Empire the FO just uses Nazis as text). Though for some reason the Empire didn't adapt or when they did to appear more threatening you had your EU writers play it down.
    Although the First Order somehow couldn't kill Kazuda Ziono, so that's a pretty big knock against them .

  15. #15
    iMan 42s
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    Quote Originally Posted by Frontier View Post
    Although the First Order somehow couldn't kill Kazuda Ziono, so that's a pretty big knock against them .
    I mean yeah, that's what I'm saying. EU writers like Filoni have this habit of downplaying the villains in an effort to make the heroes look good which in turn results in a single casualty in all of Rebels, or the Bo Katan episode of The Mandalorian. It basically results in the villains not having any teeth.
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    For anyone that needs to know why OMD is awful please search the internet for Linkara' s video's specifically his One more day review or his One more day Analysis.

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