[Jeddostotle7]

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Originally Posted by deecee4

heh, yeah, pretty much. its sleek and cool (well the shf version is anyway, the bs version looks a little dumpy imo) but,i don't think many people would guess that he pilots a hover tank if they just saw the design by itself.

going back to the original trilogy, you can look look at the troopers without any sort of context and get an idea of what their function is on the visuals alone. the snow troopers look like they're well insulated to function in harsh climates, the biker scouts are less armored and lighter than the standard stormtrooper and have an almost bmx rider aesthetic to them.

that kind of thought and practicality for designs seems to be fading in favor of simply coming up with cool looking designs regardless of their job designation and function. they're basically turning into cobra from gi joe....which from a toy collecting perspective is great i have to add lol

I get what you're saying, but I don't really agree. Death Troopers look like elite special-ops Stormtroopers and Shoretroopers look like they patrol sandy environments (not just because of the color of their armor). I agree that you can't really tell a Tanktrooper's purpose just from looking at his armor, but could you do that with the AT-AT driver? I can't think of any way for an armor design to really indicate that its wearer drives a tank.

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Originally Posted by Jester

That's not at all what I'm arguing. My points are 1: that Stormtroopers, by their name and design, are space-borne shock troops, not regular infantry, and 2: the only reason they were patrolling a little hole-in-the-sand like Mos Eisley in the first place was because they'd been deployed there by Darth Vader (who, as the Emperor's personal attack-dog, has a certain amount of leeway in Stormtrooper deployment) to search for the stolen Death Star schematics. The "Special Edition" of ANH basically confirms this with the Imperial troop dropship flying away in the background when the troopers find evidence of droids.

Most of the old EU, and pretty much all of the new canon, seem to go with the idea that Stormtroopers are regular infantry.

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Originally Posted by Jester

Without any sort of context, I'd guess that the troops involved in the Hoth assault were not Stormtroopers but rather Imperial Army soldiers.

The official in-universe name for Snowtroopers is "Cold Weather Assault Stormtrooper", with "Snowtrooper" being a shorter informal name for that type of trooper.