[Jeddostotle7]

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Originally Posted by Jester

Which is the result of the production team slightly redesigning the Stormtrooper armour between shooting in Tunisia and shooting at Elstree Studios. In-universe, there's no reason why a detachment of the Empire's elite naval shock troops would be roaming a dustball like Tatooine except that they'd been set down there by Darth Vader for the express purposes of securing the Death Star plans. Argue otherwise on the basis of the minor cosmetic differences and you might as well accept the old Trekkie claim that Ewoks can shatter Stormtrooper armour.

Again, I don't think Stormtroopers are supposed to be quite as elite as you think, and they definitely aren't just Vader's personal army.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jester

I'm pretty sure sure that Stormtrooper armour is as protective as the Empire is willing to provide for a given cost-per-suit, which also rather neatly explains why Boba Fett's Mandalorian armour has apparently withstood dozens of direct hits from blasters, whereas a single shot with a small pistol like Leia's is generally enough to put a Stormtrooper down for the count.

I know this isn't in the films, but in Star Wars Rebels, sometimes after a firefight between the crew of the Ghost and Stormtroopers, it would show some of the Stormtroopers (emphasis on some) get back up afterwards. Now, I know this isn't Disney trying to shy away from death on a kids' show, because there are definitely many times on the show when there are people (including Stormtroopers) very clearly being shown to die. But there are also definitely a couple of times where some Stormtroopers are shown to get back up after being shot. That's probably the effect of how Stormtrooper armor was designed, to disperse the energy of a blaster bolt, as I described earlier. We can probably use this information to assume that not every single Stormtrooper shot by people in the OT died as a result of being shot, that they were instead incapacitated, and the camera didn't stick around long enough to see them come to.

Yeah, your point about cost-per-suit also holds weight, but it doesn't need to conflict with what I said earlier. Revised explanation: there's a limit to how strong they can make their armor before it's too bulky/heavy, unless they want to spend a relatively ludicrous amount on armoring their main (at least in the new canon, and inconsistently portrayed that way in the old EU) fighting force. One person spending a little extra on their armor to use duraplast instead of plastoid is a lot different than doing that for an army with billions or trillions of troops.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jester

Indeed, and as such, I can see him affecting to be satisfied with a plain, ordinary military shuttle (although now I'm hearing that Phasma's armour in TFA was apparently stripped from the hull-plating of Palpatine's personal transport...).

Eh, the only reason Palpatine's personal transport was chrome is because he's from Naboo. That's kinda their ship aesthetic.