[Jester]

Quote:

Originally Posted by En Sabah Nerd

I guess the Emperor respects Krennic's ballsy approach and is totally fine with his flaunting. Maybe the Empire is not as regulated as one would assume.

I've heard somewhere that Palpatine played at being a rather humble, unassuming sort of person as Emperor in public (hence the simple black robe). Can't remember if it was old EU, interviews with Lucas, movie novelizations or what, though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeddostotle7

Well, in real life, there are multiple levels of special forces troops. There are some that are better than the average soldier, but still used as such, and are relatively large in numbers, and there are some that are even more superior, and are few in number, and used for more specific tasks. Even if tbe Stormtroopers are comparatively elite soldiers, there can still be even more elite units.

That's not quite what I'm talking about. The situation I'm describing would be analogous to people from another culture assuming that the U.S. Army infantry is composed entirely of Rangers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by EvilMonkeyPope

The Empire is wasting resources making specialized gear for every possible task. Why can't Hover Tank pilots wear regular Stormtrooper armor?

Or AT-ST armour, or even the AT-ST pilots' get-ups...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeddostotle7

You think soldiers in real life all wear the exact same gear, no matter the role? There's gotta be specialization in the gear if there's specialization in the troops. You can't make gear that's perfect for every task. Besides, a number of trooper variants use modified versions of the normal Stormtrooper armor already. Shocktroopers, Shadowtroopers, Sandtroopers, etc. It's not wasting resources if it's making them more effective at their job.

Going strictly by the visual evidence of the films, it's fair to say that "Sandtroopers" are just a Stormtrooper landing party with some supplementary gear for planetside operations in semi-hostile environments.