CT Classic Trilogy Stormtroopers are Effective

This is a point that rankles me, that many casual appreciators and even seasoned fans sometimes go in for this idea that stormtroopers were a bunch of useless goofs. But I contend that this perception (assuming it's expressed unironically) stems from a serious misreading of the original classic trilogy.

Here is my case, since someone may need to read it.

EpIV:
1) Stormtroopers are ruthlessly effective when they attack the rebels at the beginning of the film. They do not have greatly superior numbers but they wipe out the rebels and capture a few very quickly with minimal losses.
2) Leia does manage to take out one stormtrooper of the four who corner her aboard her ship, but is quickly stunned by another one. Some outside sources indicate that Leia is a sharpshooter, which is supported by her hitting an AT-ST driver from some distance in epVI, but this is beside the point. Four troopers had her pinned down and she only took out one before she was hit.
3) Obi-Wan Kenobi may at times prevaricate or obfuscate difficult truths, but when he says "only Imperial Stormtroopers are so precise" describing the precision disablement of the Sandcrawler, we are clearly meant to believe him. Up to this point there is no reason to doubt his assessment.
4) When attempting to stop the Millenium Falcon at docking bay 94, a small group of stormtroopers are firing hand weapons at a starship. It's no testament to their incapacity that the Falcon takes off unharmed.
5) On the Death Star, Han, Luke and Chewie overpower the cell block security using a ruse, after which they fight effectively from cover. Han's claim that he had the situation under control is clearly empty boasting. However point six is already in play.
6) When the Falcon is captured, Vader tells Tarkin that they must be trying to return the plans to the princess, and thus "She may yet be of some use to us." Given this line, in light of later dialogue, we should assume this his plan (not Tarkin's) was implemented very soon afterward. Namely, the troops were supposed to chase the heroes, but actually allow them to escape.
7) We then see throughout the subsequent chases throughout the Death Star that Stormtrooper shots keep missing wildly. This is made so obvious that attentive viewers could not fail to notice. Clearly, it's meant to raise a question answered later on in the film--why are they missing so badly? The reason is because they are doing so on purpose.
8) After the dogfight with four sentry ships, Leia tells Han "They let us go..... They're tracking us." As confirmation, Tarkin is immediately shown expressing skepticism to Vader about Vader's plan, because Vader clearly suggested offscreen to Tarkin that they should plant a homing device on the Falcon and let the princess escape, so they could find the rebel base that way.
9) There are no more stormtrooper firefights in the film, but TIE pilots are shown to be very effective against the rebels in the final space battle.

HENCE: There is NO reason to conclude from this film that "Stormtroopers never hit anything." They are actually very effective unless ordered to miss.

EpV:

1) When the Empire takes over Echo Base, stormtroopers in snow gear drive the rebels out effectively and rapidly. The heroes escape because the Falcon takes out the heavy blaster cannon and they manage to take off before Darth Vader arrives.
2) On Cloud City, the heroes surrender immediately when caught between Vader and fewer than ten stormtroopers. Clearly they do not regard stormtroopers as ineffective buffoons, because there are three of them and conceivably they could just shoot their way out of the situation. However this scene is argued, it doesn't support the notion that stormtroopers are incompetent and or an empty threat.
3) When Lando double-crosses Darth Vader, he summons an equal number of Bespin security guards to match the Stormtroopers. Since we never see Bespin guards in action, this may not tell us much but clearly they don't ambush the troops with only three or four guards.
4) When pursued by a group of stormtroopers (not very large) Lando, Leia and Chewie flee while attempting to give them the slip. They do not make light of the situation. They avoid enemy fire by using corners as cover.
5) Upon reaching the landing platform, they have a long straight path to the ship. Artoo Detoo confounds the Stormtroopers by filling the hallway with flame retardant fog (which he previously deployed to douse a fire on the Falcon in the original film) so the fact that the stormtroopers do not score a hit on the escaping heroes has a straightforward explanation. As they emerge from the fog to the platform, Lando has a line of sight advantage and is able to take a couple of them out, but this does not mean they are ineffective. And again, the heroes have been fleeing the whole time.

EpVI:
1) The battle with the Biker Scouts is a serious challenge to Han, Luke, and Leia's abilities. They expend considerable effort to defeat only a few scouts and Leia is thrown from her bike in the process.
2) Leia and Wicket defeat two scouts because Wicket surprised the one who captured Leia. Without him she would have been brought to the bunker and turned in.
3) The original, easy infiltration of the bunker was a ruse on the part of its defenders so that the heroes could be cornered inside. This is perhaps not absolutely certain, but in light of the Emperor's overall strategy to draw out the rebels so they could be eliminated, it seems fairly clear. Hence the fairly easy break-in doesn't make the stormtroopers look weak because the rebels were walking into an ambush.
4) Once the trap is sprung, the rebels are only able to escape because of a surprise attack by a very large number of unexpected Ewok reinforcements.
5) Ewoks are shown overpowering Palpatine's best troops but they are doing so on their own territory, using attacks from above and behind with many clever snares and tricks. They are also numerous. We only see a few Ewok deaths, but it's fair to say that this probably has to do with an awareness of the film's young audience. Only one Ewok death is shown up front and center, to emphasize the pathos of the scene.
6) Durig the ensuing firefight, stormtroopers actually hit and disable two major characters. One disables R2-D2 with a direct hit while he tries to hack the doorway terminal. Artoo is taken out of the battle permanently and achieves nothing else for the rest of the film. Another hits Leia in the shoulder, again a direct hit. She appears to be out of commission, but still manages to take out their captors with a couple of good shots. But these hits, along with her shooting the AT-ST driver are indications of her talent for marksmanship, not for the incompetence of stormtroopers.

I think these considerations taken together remove any doubt that stormtroopers are indeed formidable and effective. They are not buffoons who routinely miss their targets out of incompetence.

Am I alone in this, or am I taking the question too seriously? This meme or trope that stormtroopers can't hit anything really annoys me because it comes from a fairly egregious misreading of the films, especially episode 4 where they did indeed miss, but only when specifically ordered to do so.

 

You make a lot of good points, especially about the 1977 Star Wars film. The stormtroopers mop the floor with their enemies. They are so awesome that they even sacrifice their own lives so as to obey Tarkin's orders to let Luke and company escape.

 

Damn good post. Your observations are spot on.

It's the Death Star escape that gives the Stormtroopers a bad rap. But like you say they are missing on purpose. They're actually driving Han, Luke, Leia, and Chewbacca towards the Falcon. This is also why there is such a small guard left at the Falcon and the ship isn't impounded. The guards left are distracted by Obi-Wan and Vader dueling.

EpV. - One you missed is the Stormtroopers immediately shoot C-3PO when he walks in on them.

 

I figured they couldn't miss C-3PO in such close quarters so it didn't add to the point of their competence. But it does add to the point of their being a genuine threat.

 

One of the things I didn't like about the Rebels cartoon series is that it made the Stormtroopers look like useless buffoons, unlike most of the OT. So if you want to respect stormtroopers, don't watch Rebels; it really plays up all the memes and unfounded assumptions that have grown up to discredit the Empire's finest.

 

Rebels turned the Stormtroopers into inept cartoon henchmen. What The Clone Wars did for Clones made Rebels treatment of Stormtroopers even more glaring.

Stormtroopers and the Droid Army are both deadly threats to non-Jedi. They're both quite scary. There are moments on The Clone Wars when the goofy humor and glee created by the Droid Army's programing has them come across as ruthless psychopathic killers. The first instance I remember is when droids are cracking open defenseless escape pods full of clones.

In my imagination is C-3PO in distracted way accidentally walks in on Stormtroopers taking a break with their helmets off. They take a second and then blast him.... That still shows they are pretty deadly. If you catch them off guard they kill you on the spot. Yikes....

I just watched a clip with that bit of Empire again. It might be more sinister in two ways.

1) The Stormtroopers might not be on a break. There might be lots of Stormtroopers hidden just out of sight as Han, Leia, Chewie, and Threepio enter Bespin. Basically our heroes are caught even before they land. There is a Super Star Destroyer waiting for them in space. And in Cloud City there are Stormtroopers hidden out of sight all along the path Lando leads them on. That entire time they are on Bespin the heroes are already done. If they turned back to get on the Falcon they are caught. And with each step into the City in the Clouds the heroes are into further danger.

2) If Darth Vader knows C-3PO is his C-3PO....... That could be a trap. A similar droid gets the droids attention. Then the sound of R2-D2 draws in C-3PO so he can be shot..... I don't know. The stormtroopers reaction does seem like they are surprised.

 

Thank you for this post detailing how effective stormtroopers actually are and I wish other Star Wars media would follow the films more closely on this matter, especially Rebels and I say that as someone who is a fan of that show.

While not nearly joked about as badly as regular stormtroopers I'm also rather mystified by the fandom's and at times Lucasfilm's misconception that tie fighter pilots are poor pilots. Which is the furthest thing from the truth, especially in ANH as the OP itself points out. I'd argue their the most competent of the stormtrooper type's we see in the OT in my opinion.

 

There's the weak-minded sand troopers from Mos Eisley, the buffoon that brained himself on the door onboard the Death Star, and the two inattentive slackers talking on the job, allowing Kenobi to get past them with a simple Jedi trick.

I think the stormtroopers are partially responsible for their poor rep.

 

I disagree. All stormtroopers are weak-minded in that they follow the Empire. The head bump was a gaffe that they kept as a comedic moment. Of course it later was alluded to when Jango bumped his head, but he is very competent. Kenobi distracted the Death Star stormtroopers using the Force. He is the galaxy's top sneak.

 

Jango barely escaped from Kamino and later lost his head. He did kill one Jedi. His son has more ability.

If the stormtroopers were alert and doing their job they would’ve seen Kenobi.

Since you’re bringing up the other films besides the classic trilogy, not all stormtroopers are weak-minded - there’s Finn (FN-2187).

 

My point was that a single stormtrooper bumping his head doesn't mean they are all buffoons. Obi-Wan Kenobi is one of the greatest Jedi Masters. The fact that he can outmaeuver them is not the same as the notion that they are incompetent buffoons whose shots always miss.

It's interesting to ask why no stormtroopers in the classic trilogy defected like Finn. My personal explanation is that after the balance of the Force was restored, the more Force-attuned abductees could be prompted by the light side to defect. Also, CT stormtroopers were volunteers rather than abductees who were conditioned from childhood. They are the kind of person who made a choice to be a stormtrooper and serve the Emperor. So there is already a filter, which is different from the ST era. Kylo Ren alludes to this when he criticizes Hux for using conditioned abductees rather than creating a clone army. But he is late to the game having joined the First Order five years ago and just being a jerk about it. Hux is right to blow him off.

 

There’s a female in The Rise of Skywalker that’s an ex-stormtrooper, is she force sensitive too?

 

My contention is yes, they all are. It's a matter of degree, though. It's not binary the way some people think. Everyone has a connection to the Force, but only some have enough sensitivity (reflected in a high midichlorian count) to actively train to conscious effectiveness. There have been different answers over time. The best one I can think of is that a lifetime of training would get the least force-sensitive person very limited results.

 

It's not just the stormtroopers though, it's the whole Empire. TIE pilots, Star Destroyer captains, Kallus, the Inquisitors, even going up to Tarkin and Thrawn. And let's not forget that Darth freaking Vader was about to send Kanan and Ezra to be one with the Force before he was like "Nevermind, I guess I don't have to kill these Jedi even though doing so is usually my top priority". Rebels was just a kids show, so it had that silly and casual vibe to it...so I guess we can accept the depiction of Imperial incometence.

 

Good post. I have always been a bit annoyed by the meme that the stormtroopers are ineffective and incompetent, because it doesn’t correspond to what we see in the movies, and it has irked me that Lucasfilm has played into that notion on Rebels and The Mandalorian.

 

It's not as annoying as the "Sean Bean dies in everything" meme

 

but he does lol

 

The only ineffectual Imperial that I remember from the CT isn't even a stromtrooper, it's the tractor beam control officer aboard the Executor. How close does the Falcon have to fly to the Executor before you can lock onto it with a tractor beam??

There's another fine example of trooper efficiency, the TIE pilots who chase/shepard the Falcon that close to the ship only to have some bridge officer muck it all up.

 

It's probably not a matter of how close but how FAST the target is moving whether you can lock a tractor beam on it. Same with the DS cannons in ANH not being able to hit the Rebel fighters. In the movie they say they are "too small", while it would also have depended on speed, as the fighters were both relatively small and also flying very fast over the DS surface. A fast-moving object is naturally harder to hit than a slow one. The same logic would apply to tractor beams. And the Falcon was very likely hard to lock on not despite but because of it being so close to the SD, as well as moving towards that bridge at a high speed. And with Han's skillful maneuvering the ship probably disappeared completely from SD scanners as soon as it had attached to the back of the tower, being indistinguishable as a separate object. My guess anyway.

 

Another thing not mentioned for E4: When Artoo and Threepio walk out in the middle of a firefight at the beginning of the movie, all the stormtroopers shoot around them. makes sense since they are looking for the Death Star's plans. They could be in any computer or droid, and a destroyed droid's memory may be harder to search (and the Force help the stormtrooper who shoots the plans Lord Vader is looking for) they had to hit the rebels while missing any and all computers, droids, and higher ranking rebels who know where the plans are (for an easier search). That's also why the gunners may have had orders not to shoot any lifepods without lifeform readings.

 

I think Rogue One, Jedi Fallen Order and the Mandalorian have the best depictions of Stormtroopers. Sure they come out with some goofy stuff and they're not all as competent as their predecessors, but they're still credible threats to the protagonists and not to be underestimated.

 

Good thing Sean Bean didn't play Qui-Gon, or it would have been very predictable.