Saga Lets talk about stormtrooper armor

Storm trooper armor gets a lot of flak.

But is it as useless as it appears?

Here is my take.

Unless its made of the expensive or rare Phrik no armor can stop a blaster bolt, a direct hit on a vital area is going to kill whatever.

Stormtrooper armor likely is designed to just reduce the damage and turn a fatal hit into a hit that just causes a serious wound. A lot of storm troopers we see hit, probably did not die, rather they where badly wounded and have been trained to lay silent and still so as not to distract there squad mates and draw more fire, later to be picked up by medics and dumped in a bacta tank and eventually returned to service.

Even in the real world bullet proof vests don't office magic protection and a solider shot with a AK47 will still likely end up with wounds requiring medical attention.

Anyway that's my theory.

 

I have always assumed it is there to lessen the blow of the blaster.

 

Exactly, turn a fatal shot into a wound.
Dunk those troopers in bacta and get them back into the front lines to be shot again.

 

Well as I said, those storm troopers shot in plot would likely be wounded rather than killed out right because of that armor. Only a very direct shot would likey prove instantly fatal and with the medical technology of starwars, if your not killed instanty is highly likely you will survive.

 

nah, we've seen in Rebels that it's a lot better than Clone Trooper armor. I mean it doesn't too much protect against blaster bolts (but you can survive), but especially for explosions a lot of the time stormtroopers survive and just are knocked out for a bit.

 

Clone armor was effective. However Imperial armor I believe to be mote of an intimidation factor. The Empire relies on fear to gain control. The armor itself doesn't have to be effective, just the psychological intimidation of the armor was effective until the beginning of the Rebellion. Then they just dropped like flies.

 

I always thought the Troopers look cool, from the Republic era to the Empire. Stormtroopers rock.

Am I the only one who am a bit unsure about the new Sequel era armour though? For me, I like the helmet, but the body part lacks the finesse of either the Clone Trooper streamlined version, or the Empire's slim fit chest plate. The rounded bulk suit makes the Stormtroopers look stodgy and inelegant.

I can almost imagine a Stromtrooper trainer showing new cadets the old armour in the tour of the museum and saying, Mark 3 to 5 armour was a more elegant outfit, for a more civilised age. Before the dark times. Before the designers were cronies of the leadership.

 

As I wrote on another thread, my theory is that stormtrooper armor is not meant to protect from direct hits. Those troopers we see being hit by a blaster actually die, are not just wounded. The armor acts as protection against explosion fragments, shock waves, shrapnel, heat, radiation etc., also as a life-support suit (possibly even spacesuit), provides oxygen in an unbreathable atmosphere, probably also has a temperature control function to protect against heat and cold. The helmet also protects the eyes against flashes from explosions or other bright lights, and the ears from noise like from explosions or near-hits. The suit does not protect you from a direct blaster hit (except maybe when set to stun) or lightsaber. Still it is far from "useless".

 

It's doubtful all people hit with a blaster die, especially with armour. Anyone not killed instantly will likely survive especially with the medical technology avalable in the starwars universe.

In war more people are always wounded than killed. The human body can take quite a bit of punishment and it' very hard to kill someone instanty unless you obliterate the heart, sever the aorta, femoral , carotid or damage the brain stem, most injurys even serious can take a while to result in death.

 

This may all be true. In real wars there would be more wounded, especially when hit in non-vital body parts. But don't equal today's bullets with blaster hits. We are not shown clearly how powerful blasters are but can assume they are a lot more powerful than mere bullets. They can be set to different levels, and can really do a lot of damage when set to more powerful output, enough to take down spaceships. When hit in an arm or leg I agree the victim wouldn't die. But this is rarely the case in any of the SW movies. The Rebels on the Tantive IV, as well as Luke, Leia and Han on the Death Star certainly shoot to kill. They don't shoot at arms or legs but go right for the head or chest, shots that are sure to kill stormtroopers. They know very well how to take down the enemy.
Again, we are not sure how powerful blasters are, but from what we see in the movies they can be devastating. A direct hit to the chest or lower body seemed to kill. While a bullet would only affect the part of the body where it enters, we know no such thing about a blaster hit. A blaster uses energy/plasma rays which would have a different effect on the body. It's pretty likely that a direct hit to the chest would do enough damage to kill through heat/radiation etc. There is really no way to compare SW blasters to today's physical missile-based weapons. SW technology is way too different.