Star Wars stormtrooper armor?

[john]

I still haven't seen attack of the clones, but thinking of all the stupid things you see in movies reminded me of this;

 Why do stormtroopers wear armor? I mean, what's the point when a single shot will take them out regardless. In fact, in ROTJ, they were being taken out by Ewoks throwing rocks. They might actually live longer if they ditched the armor and could move & see better.

 It just always struck me as weird that they're covered head to toe in armor that doesn't seem to offer the least bit of protection.

[Steven Millan]

                    Why Stormtroopers/Clone Troopers Wear Armor
  1. It makes them look very menacing,and robotic.
  2. You can't real tell if they're all clones(of Jango Fett),disfigured,or monstrously   looking underneath their armors and helmets.
  3. They probably have enahnced features inside their suits and helmets.
  4. It's all part of science fiction.

[J.R.]

The Stormtroopers were pretty crappy soldiers. They couldn't hit a target the size of Alderaan. By the way, what was up with young Boba? He had a weird half-Australian, half-Scandanavian-type accent going on. Why must Lucas insist on populating the Star Wars galaxy with the most annoying children ever to scar the face of the Earth?

[Jay O'Connor]

> By the way, what was up with young Boba? He had a weird half-Australian, half-Scandanavian-type accent going on

He's from a distant planet, probably some other galaxy; do you expect him to have an easily recognizeable accent?

> Why must Lucas insist on populating the Star Wars galaxy with the most annoying children ever to scar the face of the Earth?

Lighten up.  Bobba had maybe one or two speaking lines and didn't do much, but he was useful to Jengo a few times.

You think Bobba and young Anakin were annoying?  Try hanging around real kids from ages six to nine :)

Maybe it's because I have a few children in that age range but I didn't find Anakin all that unrealistic, or really that annoying.  Children can sometimes seem annoying through adult sensibilities but if you understand that a child *is* just a child and take him or hr on his own terms, they are not so bad

[Sakerson]

Speaking of RofJ, I noticed that the blasters did about as much damage as thrown rocks.  So what's the point of blasters?  And the ATSTs were taken out with logs.  You'd think they'd make those things out of something other then tin foil.

Episode VI, otherwise known as "Attack of the Extras."

[Mofo Rising]

J.R. wrote:
>
> By the way, what
> was up with young Boba? He had a weird half-Australian,
> half-Scandanavian-type accent going on.

He sounds and looks a lot like a Pacific Islander.

[Flangepart]

Why armor? welllllllllllllllll.........blasters are heat energy wepons, and an unarmored man in the vacinity of close shots would get spattered with melted blobs of rock or metal. Qumulitive damage. Flashburns and the like. Andrew could give us a lecture on modern bodyarmor. In Korea and "Nam, light Body armor could stop grenade and mortar fragments, there by reducing casualtys. Only the heavy class 3 kevlar will stop a 7.62mm ball round, maby an armor piercing fired from some range, but there is no "Bullet Proof" armor, only resistant. It cuts down the damage, and forces the enemy to work harder to inflict lethal damage. Hey, it beats going to war in your skivvies! Also, the armor piercing round does less damage then soft or hollow points, because it has to stay together , with its extra hard tip,to focus its energy to punch through the armor. Same with tank cannon kenetic energy rounds. I'd always rather get hit with an A.P. then a tumbler, cause then it has to realy hit a vital orgen, not just get close enough. The physics are simple realy....just not to fun to visualise. Hummm....i'd bet a blaster bolt would heat cauterise its own wound. But, as in the Hammer's Slammers universe of David Drake, the blasters THEY use cause an unarmored body to explode into a mist of super heated steam! Yuck! Any more doubt of the value of armor? Also....Andrew, am i the only person (And Trekker), that is frosted at the lack of Marines on Starfleet ships? Stupid! They need Marines, cause when it comes to bording parties.....security goons in cloth shirts don't get it!

[Jay O'Connor]

As ex-Air Force I'm annoyed that Starfleet is patterned after the Navy in the first place

But as to the Stormtroopers, I think that's another 'informed attribute' that the troopers on Endor's moon were supposed to be experts, just like their vaunted accuracy in Star Wars.  Nothing that actually happens seems to bear that out.

[AndyC]

We're told that stormtroopers are crackerjacks in every respect, then they're taken out easily by the heroes, who look that much better by comparison. Sounds reasonable.

I'm inclined to agree with the idea that the stormtrooper armour is more than just protection from weapons. We know they have radios built in. I would think they'd probably also provide life support and protection in harsh environments, like Tattooine, Hoth, poisonous atmospheres or possibly even the vacuum of space. Would make sense, considering our first look at the stormtroopers had them boarding a ship in space by blowing the door. The suits might contain heating and cooling systems, air filtration, a self-contained emergency oxygen supply, moisture recycling, waste disposal, emergency homing beacon, night vision, remote cameras, or possibly sensors to transmit telemetry such as pulse, blood pressure, etc. Any of these are possible, or all of them.

[AndyC]

They might also wear armour because red shirts had already been done :)

[J.R.]

No, I hang out with my young nieces and nephews all the time and I find them very fun. Jake Lloyd and the kid who played Boba just happen to be bad actors, they don't even act like the children they are. But then again, the adults don't come off well either. Let's just end it all by saying George Lucas is not a good director when it comes to anyone not computer-generated. On the Stormtrooper front, soldiers in film very rarely reflect any of the discipline or training real military men exude. And think about it, in Episodes IV-VI, the troopers have American accents, not the gravelly British accents the clones of Jango Fett have. And speaking of that, why are sci-fi films set in space so heavy on British people? Does the sun truly never set on the British Empire? Do all sci-fi screenwriters believe England will overtake the Earth? In actuality, accounting for a breakdown of how many Earthlings there are and where they come from, chances are English people in space would be pretty sparse, and most Earthlings would be Middle-Eastern or Asian. But then again, lots of these movies are shot in England, so whatever. BUT COME ON! If I see Saffron Burrows or David Niven or other such limey buggers populating space in one more film I'll throw crap at the screen and yell, "DOWN WITH THE MONARCHY! I'LL HAVE THE QUEEN'S HEAD! YYAARRGGHH!!!! YOU HEAR ME, LUCAS? YOU'RE FROM CALIFORNIA! ACT LIKE IT, DAMMIT! POPLUATE THE GALAXY WITH BLEACH-BLOND SSURFER DUDES! YYYARRGGH!!!!" I'm sorry. I'll go take my medicine now.

[john]

>I would think they'd probably also provide life support and protection in harsh
>environments, like Tattooine, Hoth, poisonous atmospheres or possibly even
>the vacuum of space.

 Well, in Star Wars, Luke just pulls off his helmet, so at least the standard stormtooper armor doesn't appear to be air tight.

Ok, I did think of some of those things, but it seems to me that an empire capable of building two Death Stars and massive Star Destroyers would be able to design armor that would actually deflect blaster fire.

 "Here's your armor, it's got lots of nifty built in devices."

 "Great! I assume it'll protect me from weapons fire too?"

 "Umm, no." :)

[John Morgan]

Geek Mode on:

In the technical manual for Star Wars, they indicate a different suit of Zero G Stormtroopers.  So the Standard Stormtooper Armor cannot protect from the vacuum of Space.

Geek Mode OFF.

I've always been impressed in how little distructive power the blasters in Star Wars are shown to have.  A single blast show have a large amount of heat associated with it.  Why is it when a person, without the armor, is hit, he only gets a small wound?  Wouldn't there be a large burned surface?

[John Morgan]

I am also impressed how easy it was for Luke Skywalker, in Ep IV, to go from killing animals in a canyon to shooting humans.  For ALL HIS LIFE, he was a farm boy, now he's given a gun and shooting people right and left.

Maybe some military guys out there can sheed some light on this.  You go through simulations were you enemy is a human.  You know when you pull the trigger, it's not a living thing that will die.  But when it is real, you are forced to make your first kill, does it make an impact on you?  Do you have any feelings different from before?  Especially with close quarters combat were you can see the face.

[AndyC]

Thinking about the effect of the blasters for a moment, I'm sure I've seen people shot by a blaster jump backward as though hit by a bullet. Is this thing strictly heat weapon, like a laser, or does it deliver some kind of physical shock as well?