Full Series The Star Wars Rebels Stormtrooper Incompetence Thread

From the "Rise of the Old Masters" thread:

So here you go. How bad do the stormtroopers suck? Is the fact that they're on a backrocket planet like Lothal a valid reason for their incompetence? How critical of an issue is this in the overall picture? Is it something you can ignore, or is it enough to break the suspension of disbelief for you? Discuss these questions and more ad infinitum here.

 

I just hope they hit something soon.

But what about those troops that went with Kallus to Zeb's homeworld? They couldn't be that bad of a shot if they managed to commit genocide.

 

Don't you know that Lasan was liberated through the Base Delta Zero initiative?

 

Was it? I'm afraid I didn't catch that on the holonet last night.

 

Yep. All hail the Emperor. Long may he sheev.

 

Stormtroopers are as competent as any other bad guy army in fiction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_Evil_Marksmanship#Stormtrooper_Effect

 

Since this thread was created due to my suggestion, I should clarify that I'm somewhat ambivalent about the whole issue. Sure, I would love for the combat to be a bit more 'realistic,' but it just isn't that big a deal for me.

 

My chain of questions in the OP is missing one that I just thought of: Can the stormtroopers in my avatar shoot any better than the ones on Rebels?

 

As long as Kermit the Stormtrooper is firing.

 

I must always reiterate when this comes up:

Stormtroopers in Rebels: Can never hit our heroes worth a damn and are generally incompetent.

Stormtroopers in the Original Trilogy: Can never hit our heroes worth a damn and are generally incompetent. Sure, a laser blast hit Leia in the arm in ROTJ, but it took two movies of Stormtroopers shooting for that to happen. Plus, Luke stood in front of a hangar of them without moving in A New Hope and never got hit once. And then all the other times in A New Hope where the heroes survive Stormtrooper fire. AND Empire Strikes Back.

Why is this even an issue for some people to accept? The stormtroopers were NEVER EVER competent at their jobs at all. Anyone wanting them to be such must have been spoiled by some strange EU material that I don't know about (obviously this is kind of just sarcasm. I'm sure everyone has a good, legitimate reason why they think the way they do).

And okay, I do understand people not liking Stormtroopers becoming comic relief, but that's unrelated to incompetence, really.

 

No it's not. That's just fan justification for poor storytelling. The real reason is a show on the Disney channel aimed at kids needs the heroes to win most weeks. The stormtroopers should be far more deadly than they're being depicted.

That's not quite right. It's stated by Tarkin & Vader that the plan in ANH on the Death Star was to let the Rebels get to their ship & escape so they could lead the Empire to Yavin, while not letting them think the Empire was letting them escape. The only way that plan could possibly work is if the stormtroopers (& TIE fighters) don't shoot them.

In ANH Obi-Wan says "only Imperial stormtroopers are so precise". Granted on Endor they didn't cover themselves in glory, but it wasn't due to poor marksmanship. They were supposed to be overwhelmed by indigenous beings who fought unconventionally on their turf & in their environment.

 

Spoiler: Rise Of The Old Jedi Masters

Luminara didn't win.

 

Spoiler

Against stormtroopers? Or against the Inquisitor? The thing I and most of the people who have raised these complaints but don't kneejerk dismiss everything about the show as "kiddy" have been saying isn't that the Empire in general is portrayed too lightly - it's specifically that the stormtroopers are complete blundering goons in a way that they weren't even in the OT. Kallus and the Inquisitor have both managed to pose legitimate threats, but the problem with the stormtroopers is that the sheer ease that they're disposed of with is kind of hurting suspension of disbelief.

 

*sigh*

Im just gonna post this again...



You cant expect them to perform better than the movies have portrayed them...

 

Spoiler

Fair points. At this point we don't know whether she was killed by the Inquisitor, Vader, Clones or Stormtroopers. But there still is that creepy sith alchemy thing going on. I guess I never really noticed the difference between the OT stormies and the Rebel ones. But I always figured they were doing it for laughs.

Hopefully, they do step one up with the storm troopers in terms of how they really be threats. But so far we only got a hint of that. When Kallus said in Droids in Distress or rather what he talked about with the Genocide of the Lasat people. It's hard to say whether stormies or Clones were with him when he did that though. Because it depends on how soon it was after the war.

Still, I can see where your coming from. Aren't there elite storm troopers or something?

 

That's one moment. There's also the excellent service the troopers give during the battles in RotS. Rebels is only 14 years after that. Also the idiot above is a scout, not a combat soldier.

The more important point is that Rebels is set in the Dark Times. It's supposed to be a super oppressive time with little hope. The stormtroopers are the front line representation of the Empire. If they're a bunch of goofballs how much of a dark time was it really? Obi-Wan & Yoda should be still out there cutting through these fools like butter if they're this hopeless.

 

ROTS had Clone Troopers not Stormtroopers. Clone Troopers have always been depicted in a positive light when it comes to their performance.

 

Right so after RotS they all retired? When did that happen again? Or can we assume that out of the thousands of clones who were active at the end of RotS alot of them would still be in service? It's only 14 years later after all.

 

http://www.hitfix.com/news/dave-filoni-on-star-wars-rebels-place-in-the-timeline

At around 3:30 in the video.

 

I don't think this has anything to do with the show being aimed at children. It has to do with the show's tight focus on a set of main characters. A show for any age can't go around killing off it's main characters in the first 3 episodes. The show needs time to develop a roster of secondary characters before good guys can start biting the dust. Otherwise we are going to get a stream of red shirts.

I agree that the combat scenarios could be done a little better. However, I don't see why we need so much death on screen within the first few episodes. Good drama doesn't need to be driven by the question "will they die?"

 

We saw embryos, babies, and kids on kamino at the end of the war, lazy retcon to say they all got old



R.I.P the 501st aka Vaders Fist

 

I'm only relaying the information. Don't shoot the messenger.

 

Why does there have to be deaths? What they should do sometimes is have the stormtroopers hit their target. A character could sometimes get shot & wounded. They then have to be treated & maybe that injury could be carried for a couple of episodes. That way there is genuine tension when they face the ST's & we know the crew is in a very dangerous world. The way the show's going so far is robbing the action scenes of any tension. You know that no one's in any real danger. Having nasty consequences for running into the ST's sometimes would make for a more exciting & gripping show.

Fair enough, thanks. I would like to know the reason for Palpatine no longer producing clones though. Especially since they're so awesome & the ST's are so hopeless. Doesn't make sense for him to not just continue pumping out the clones.

 

A Wookiee got hit in Spark of Rebellion. And it should be noted that Kallus beat down Zeb and the officer on the transporter figured out Zeb's bs pretty quick.

So people are getting injured by the Empire, even if the Stormtroopers themselves have only got one shot in. But it's not like the stormtroopers can hit people in every episodes, or even in most episodes, because then we are going to have 5 people hobbling around all the time.