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Star Wars Fun Fact
Surprising and little known Star Wars tidbits, usually related to today’s Force Feature.Hey, it’s Dee Bradley Baker’s birthday! You’ve heard his voice over, and over, and over again – he’s the guy who voices not one, not two, but “ALL” the clone troopers for The Clone Wars cartoon series. That’s a heck of a job, giving them each a bit of their own nuances!
Life on “Tweet”-ooine
A featured dispatch from the Star Wars Twitterverse!Indian Jones just found new things in the map room #AncientVader pic.twitter.com/WlUv5OET6G
— TK-421 (@TrooperTK421) August 1, 2014
Star Wars Swag Bag
So many fun, quirky, and awesome ways to bring Star Wars into your daily life!Plush Chewbacca, makes Chewie noises when you squeeze him! Three sizes, click the pic for details.
Trivia Time!
Test your knowledge of the Star Wars universe!Yesterday’s answer: Princess Leia
Today’s question: What planet did Luke liken to “something out of a dream”?
Force Feature: Stormtrooper Failure!
Exploring the many worlds of Star Wars, in the imagination and in real life!So in the first half hour of Star Wars, this is what we learn about stormtroopers. First, they may or may not be human – heck, it was 1977, who could tell whether that was supposed to be a robot or a person in a suit?
Second, they’re decent fighters. They took out all the Rebels on the Tantive IV, and those guys were clearly ready to fight. Although, I gotta say, that door the stormtroopers blew open? It forced them to enter the ship in single file. The Rebels really should have been able to blast them one by one as they came through the door. So the stormtroopers are good enough and fast enough for that not to happen.
Third, they’re good detectives. They get to the crash site of the escape pod that carried Threepio and Artoo, and despite all that sand, they manage to find a key piece of evidence that helps them chase their quarry. Stuff ain’t easy to find in the sand!
Fourth, their tracking skills are solid. They managed to find the Jawas that had captured the droids. By following the enormous Sandcrawler tracks.
Fifth, they’re brutal. Really, stormtroopers? Did you have to wipe out an entire band of Jawas? Who among them would have gone and run their mouths? That’s right, no one. So that’s the first indication you get that they’re totally evil. Then, of course, Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru give you an idea of the next level of stormtrooper twistedness.
Six, they’re sneaky and clever – or at least, they try to be. When they attacked the sandcrawler, they tried to make it look like a Tusken Raider attack. Which, incidentally: How did the stormtroopers manage to get a hold of a bunch of banthas for any length of time?
And seventh, and most crucially, they’re good shots. When Luke and Ben comes across the Jawa massacre, what does Ben say? “And these blast points, too accurate for Sand People. Only Imperial stormtroopers are so precise.”
So what the heck happened? Because everything goes downhill from here. Obi-Wan brain-freezes the trooper who wants to know how long they’ve that the droids. Twists the trooper’s mind around his little finger, and then proceeds to call them weak-minded.
They’re so less-than-accurate, they can’t even shoot Han and Chewie at Docking Bay 94. Han and Chewie are highly exposed with no cover, and yet don’t even get a scratch. A bunch of stormtroopers in the Death Star control room aren’t even a fair match for Han and Chewie. And now in the Special Edition, when Han goes screaming down the hallway chasing the stormtroopers, Han turns a corner and there are thousands of stormtroopers there, and not a single one of them can shoot Han. They shot all the empty space around him, every last square of it.
Meanwhile, Luke and Leia are on the run, and you know the dead end they run into, by accidental destroying the bridge controls? Well, the stormtroopers behind them can’t even think to shoot their ankles when they get the door cracked open, and the ones in the doorway above them should just be sending a shower of laser bolts down on Luke and Leia. But more to the point, that doorway was made for stormtroopers to become known as sitting ducks. The doorways weren’t wide, so Luke and Leia shouldn’t have been able to hide behind anything anyway while they were getting shot at.
So the stormtroopers go from competent to incompetent. Within the space of a day. What the heck is up with that? It wasn’t until the Clone Wars that I had a theory about it. How many original trilogy stormtroopers are actually clones?
Clones are supposed to be unstable (from a certain point of view), right? Accelerated growth leads to accelerated aging and death. So it’s plausible to think that their skills degrade quickly over time. I mean, it’s doesn’t happen in a day, but it’s something to hang your hat on.
But according to sources reporting for Wookieepedia, at the time of Star Wars, only about 1/3 of all stormtroopers in the ranks were clones troopers. So maybe, just maybe, they staffed the Death Star with a bunch of the former clone troopers. That way, they can’t get into too much trouble as they start degrading.
But what do you think? Tell us your thoughts on stormtroopers in the comments!