why are stormtroopers colorless?

In the PT, the clonetroopers armor are often colored. In AOTC, they seem to indicate rank, and in ROTS, they symbolize different companies of troops (The 501st Legion for example wear blue). They even wear camoflogue colors on Kashyyk. So why are the stormtroopers all the same in the OT. Why no coloring to denote rank or company or camo?

 

I noticed this too, but I realized something a long time ago about Star Wars; don't think about it too hard.

 

Well actually in A New Hope, a few sandtroopers wear orange and white pauldrons that designate rank but that is as far as it goes in the original trilogy. The bad guys wear black, white and grey and there is virtually no color in their world. If you have the original trilogy on DVD, watch it with the commentary turned on and Lucas talks a little bit here and there of how he uses symbolism in Star Wars.

Notice the Rebel fighters all have colored designs but the TIE's have no colored designs. Notice at the beginning of Revenge Of The Sith, both the Republic and Separtist ships have colored designs, but in The Phantom Menace the Trade Federation ships were not painted, and by the end of Revenge Of The Sith, the former Republic ships that are now the Imperial ships are without colored designs.

The Imperial ships are without color just like the Imperial stormtroopers are without color.

 

White denotes the soulless, impersonal, mechanical ways of the Empire.

 

Word

 

If you want an in-universe explanation, I'd go with cost-cutting. The Empire doesn't like to spend extra.

 

The PT is a symbolism for a vibrant, lively place. The OT means more of a bland, dull place.

 

It is easier just to think of the stormtroopers of the OT as weakminded minions of the Empire. They're all from similar molds and there's no point in demarking any differences between them. Also, at this stage of the universe perhaps non-clones have taken over the command positions formerly held by clone commanders and so the stormtroopers don't need anything else in addition to the white armor.

 

I thought white was a color...

 

The Empire made many enemies. Commanding officers had identification and so could be easily killed accordingly.

No markings, no messy killings for Rebels.

 

Now that I think about it more, they didn't even have their Scout Troopers camouflaged on Endor.

Jeez, how more bland and stupid can you get.

 

Actually, white is the absence of color, and black is all color combined into one.

That is what I read once, but I tend to think it would be the other way around....

anyway, the in-universe reasoning is that each different kind of troop was given a seperate uniform. Shock trooper, scout trooper, snow tropper, pilots, etc.

In Ep. I, the droids were ranked with color. Ep.II - the colors were ranks for clones. In Ep. III, it was a combination of rank and what sort of troop they are.

The real reason: to sell more toys, because people love Clone variations. Which, if you think about it, is ironic.

 

You have it backwards, Black is the absence of color, White is all of the colors mixed.

 

*yawn

I think the point is that the armor is simply white and there are no markings of rank on the stormies like when they were clonies. That's the colorless that is being questioned by the thread author.

 

Everything I've read has called the Stormtroopers "faceless killers" or "anonymous killers". What better way to continue that train of thought than with the lack of individuality via the lack of color distinctions? The rank plaques that the officers wear are merely for chain of command purposes. Trust me, I have military experience, I know all about uniformity and group unity. Having played on Star Wars MUSH as an Imperial character for years, I can honestly say that the Empire is one for placing the group above the individual, and promoting dependency on the group. As are most totalitarian states - Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, etc. If you destroy individualism, you destroy a chief motivating factor in "thoughtcrime" to quote the late great George Orwell.

 

I, personally, think Stormtrooper's are in white armor to lower themselves in rank as being simple pawns-- In other words, having no personality or uniqueness about them. No distractions.

 

I think this basically sums up what everyone has said in this thread so far. It sums up what I am thinking as well.

 

Clone Troopers from AOTC were plain white, but their armor gouged, dented, and smeared with the mud of hundred worlds, they were no longer the white knights they used to be at the start of the war. They had different colors or patches due to the campaigns in which they served during the war. Because of that and the wounds they sustained and the scars they wear, troopers begun to speak, react, and even smell differently, acquiring unique skills...

Kaminoans did a magnificent job with this clones and even their armor was over the top... They even had a plastoid shell as a portable shelter which protected them against exploding laser cannons...

After the war and the Empire was born, Palpatine didn't need the help from the Kaminoans to create the stormtroopers... The Empire cloned their troops from different templates and openned academies for trainning non-clone imperial officers and troops... So, the stormtroopers were a mix of both (clone and non-clone) and their color was white as a symbol of a single Empire that ruled the entire galaxy...

 

White is all colors combined, black is the absence of colors, in science and light waves. In art theory and pigmentation, White is the absence of color and black is a combination of all colors. Either arguement is valid, depending of course on your point of view. You see, many of the truths that we hold depend on your.......oh never mind.

Carnage

 

Palpatine did away with most of the color scheme rankings, same goes for the Republic ships/Star Destroyers which had red colors and markings on them, but by the end of ROTS we see a couple of plain unmarked gray Star Destroyers hinting at the things to come. (Shot right before Vader, Palpatine and Tarkin are shown standing on the bridge near the end.)

 

Well, it actually depends on your point of view, as old Ben would have said. Let me explain.

The rules of colouring depend on the way they are reproduced. On screen, we use direct light. White contains all colours, black is the absence of colour. To produce all possible colours, we will add what we call "basic colours" : red, green, blue. Adding all means you have all the colours, i.e. white. Adding red and green will give you yellow. Then, by adding different proportions, you get other colours, like you could add only 50 % of red and 60 % of blue. You would obtain a kind of purple that is a bit more blue than red, and darker, because you don't use 100 % of each. This is easy to try on your computer, with any painting tool you could have.

On paper, you don't use direct light. Instead, the (white) light coming from the sun (or an artificial source, but then it will be more "coloured" than the sun light) "hits" the paper and kind of "rebounds" to your eye. The painting that you put on the paper acts as a filter. Put some yellow, it is actually a filter that prevents the blue to come back to your eye. So only green and red come back, and, try it on your computer, this gives yellow. Instead of "adding" the colours, we "substract" them. The "basis" colours are now reversed compared to the ones used on screens : yellow, magenta and cyan. Mixing all of them will give you black. It is what is used in your colour printer. Except that a perfect mixing of printed colours is not possible, so printers have added the black as a separate colour, but it is theoretically useless. You could even find other colours (lighter), but I won't explain here why, as I'm already far out of subject.

 

Spoken with Conan O'Brian's nerd imitation voice!

 

The choice for wearing white would be a reason of pride in the stormtroopers to instill fear into the masses. Kind of like with Britan and the "red coates." Historically Britan was an "Empire" they too were arrogant about their uniforms, believing that the enemy would feel it was outnumbered the British empire would win psychologically.

That worked for a while until the American Revolutionaries/rebels wore colors that blended in with the environment that they were in. In essence, the Americans wore what could have eventually been a "camo" of sorts.

In RotJ, Lucas used this form of "Emperial arrogance" as the Empires downfall. The Scout Troopers and Stormtroopers were no match for the Ewoks, and as a result had no where to hide.

 

It was also a great way of striking fear into opponents.

If they had heard of the Stormtroopers and were being marched on by some, how would they know if they were the Empire's Elite or recruits fresh from Carida?

 

Republic Commando Troopers = Phase 1 armor

During the time around the execution of Order 66 = Phase 2 Armor

Original Trilogy Troopers = Phase 3 armor