Lit Armour in the Star Wars Universe

Storm Troopers always get grief about their armour not protecting them but I've never felt that it was the main reason they wore it.

Taking away a troopers individuality is why I think the armour was worn....it was the Empires way of saying hey your not a person you're just a piece of equipment that can easily be replaced. In battle orders would be followed without question by the Clones because there was no personal attachment between the men....when one faceless trooper fell there was always another one to take his place.

As for the other sets of armour in the galaxy that was worn more as a statement by the person inside it and not for any protection it gave....would Boba Fett have become as popular as he has if he was wearing Landos outfit from Cloud City?!

I can't recall anytime in the Saga where any armour really did anything besides looking cool?

 

Snowtrooper Armor had warmers etc in them to keep the troopers on Hoth warm in the saga. Vaders armor both keeps him alive and also offers a good deal of protection as it prevented Luke from Chopping Vaders arm off at the shoulder in Empire as well.

 

The Snowtrooper armour looks like it has less protective elements to it than the Stormtooper armour, I'm not sure I'd be to happy to wear bulky chest armour plating just because it contained the battery pack to keep my warmer units running....just put it in a pocket I'd say.

As for Vader I wasn't aware he had armour on the outside of his suit running down his arms?....if anything his robotic limbs made it harder to damage him than his suit did.

 

not his sleeves, luke slashes his pauldron before vader chops lukes hand off. something in vader's shoulder armor prevented a lightsaber from gong all the way through. Anything that can slow down a lightsaber is pretty good armor.

 

Just before Luke hits Vaders shoulder Vader misses a strike at Luke that hits the guard rail without going through it....i think that shows Vaders armour didn't have to be that strong to defect a glancing blow from Lukes light sabre, if a guard rail can withstand it surely his armour could as well without being overly strong

 

To defend the Storm Trooper armours, it actually acts as a space suit to protect the wearer from radiation, vacuum and gas attacks. It's not so much for melee or laser bolt attacks. Most armours in the Star Wars universe are either to show their identities, like Sith Lords, or act as a life support system. Boba Fett's armour acts as a way to protect the wearer during flight and from extreme environment, such as the Sarlaac Pit. Darth Vader's armour is also for his health.

 

I don't see why there wouldn't be. Explosions create debris, don't they?

 

Slugthrowers are a thing in the SW universe - I believe the Visual Dictionary, and/or the ANH novelization, points out that Luke's weapon on Tatooine is one.

The armour may be optimized against those rather than blaster bolts- with blaster bolts having been designed for armour-piercing.

 

IIRC, in one of the Young Jedi books, a new stormtrooper is brought before his commanding officer who is describing the trooper's armor to him. The officer throws a spear at the trooper, and it just leaves a small scratch in the breastplate. Then the officer pulls out a blaster, saying the blaster would slice through his armor as if he were wearing nothing at all.

So stormtrooper armor is resistant to physical weapons, but provides little protection against blasters.

 

That makes sense. It's not like there's modern armor that's incredibly effective against armor-piercing weapons, after all.

 

Which is why I think the armour in the Star Wars Universe is more for looks than protection.

 

From the ANH novelization: Instantly he had his rifle off his shoulder and had activated the energy cell.

 

That's odd:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/6-2Aug2_hunting_rifle

Maybe even slugthrowers are powered in some way.

 

From The Clone Wars' movie novelization:

In the shelter of a colonnaded doorway that was doubling as a first-aid station, [Rex] took out his datapad to check the casualty reports coming in, conscious of an injured trooper sitting on an upturned crate while the sergeant—Coric—tended the man's shrapnel injury. Plastoid armor was said to be the best credits could buy; Rex staked his life on it. But it had to have joints, gaps, and seals—and they were always vulnerable. The trooper had taken a spray of jagged fragments as razor-sharp and as lethal as flechettes. Some had penetrated the gap between back plate and shoulder.

 

My impression of armor is that it:
1: Protects from shrapnel and other small objects that would disable non-armored people
2: Can protect the wearer from long-range laser attacks and light laser attacks.

 

Just read this on TV Tropes the other day, and on the article's section for Star Wars there's some interesting speculation about how Stormtrooper armor might turn otherwise lethal injuries into survivable ones: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ArmorIsUseless

"One plausible fan explanation is that stormtrooper armor is about as effective as a bulletproof vest in real life—getting shot while wearing it hurts like hell and may break some ribs or cause you to fall over from shock, but at least it'll save your life. The camera doesn't linger on shot stormtroopers, so for all we know they could be getting to their feet a few minutes later and limping off to the medic."

 

Yeah, and then a bunch of Ewoks club them to death before they get there.

 

It's bad armour if ewoks and kill or bet them, but whould you rather have all the troopers wear what Han Solo wears? Whould you rather go into battle with no armour or with crappy armour. Also mabye the empire just dosnt train there troops as much and don't really care if the die beacuse they have more. But in battlefront 2 they said the imperials gave the reblic better armour then they had so in theory they do have better aroumer.

 

Not to mention his glove could stop a blaster bolt with ease.

I think if we were shown armor stopping a blaster bolt just once, the idea would sit much better, but as it stands, it seems pointless to the viewer. This is mostly apparent in Return of the Jedi, when blunt objects are used to devastating effect.

And I could be wrong, but it looks like Boba Fett's armor has taken some blaster damage.

 

Whether or not it was the Glove or the Force though has been up in the air for decades.

In the Eu it was not the glove. Vader actually had the ability per EU to absorb energy from Blaster bolts and some other types of energy, similar to what Yoda does in AOTC and ROts with force lightning. Several other characters had this ability in the EU though it was not common(Luke, Corran Horn).

 

It was made to be a practical effect onset; we see smoke, and the original intent was for the blast to be deflected. Again, the EU often takes things in a different direction than the filmmakers intended.

 

It's worth noting that the EU also has Vader's glove as indestructible thanks to a Sith Amulet incorporated into it.

So it's up to the reader which explanation they use- or a bit of both.

 

Eu explaination number 3 I think is that it is a Mando crush gauntlet made of Beskar which like cotorsis is nearly indestructible.

 

That explanation seems to be "unconfirmed" though:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Crushgaunt

EDIT: Though the Darth Vader's Armor page does provide cites:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Darth_Vader's_Armor

 

I think I'll move this over to Lit, there's not much more the movies can tell us about this topic.