On today's Star Wars factions compared episode
We'll be examining the special forces units of the four main prequel and original trilogy factions
Hey guys, this is Eckart's letter
Hello
and welcome to another episode of
factions
Compared to see previous episodes in this series to get an idea of what we're doing here
Make sure to check the link down in the description
specifically though today
We are talking about the special forces arms of the Galactic Republic the Rebel Alliance
The Galactic Empire and the Confederacy of Independent Systems first. We'll take a look at each faction and then at the end
We'll rank them from best to worst, but I'm curious before watching the video, which one of these factions
Do you think has the best Special Forces units take a second and vote in the upper right hand corner right now?
Let's get started with a look at the Galactic Empire
And I'm not going to lie besides for last episode the Empire has had sort of a rough go during this series
They received poor ratings in both the Army and Navy
centered episodes
But I think things will change today
Special Forces is one area where I think the Empire actually has a really good chance of coming out ahead
First off the Empire's army was born of the Old Republic which itself had specialized Clone Trooper
Training not only were pre-existing regiments like the Clone commandos
Incorporated into the Imperial regime, but the Republic's general favoring of Special Forces was not only maintained, but also
Expanded because of the size of the Star Wars galaxy the variety of unique threats and the degree to which the Empire
Militarized the Imperial Special Forces divisions continued to be developed besides for just specialized training the Empire also made numerous
advancements in genetic manipulation power armor forest manipulation in various other areas related to combat effectiveness
Especially units like dark troopers or terror troopers were crafted with a purpose and technology never seen before in the galaxy all
reflecting the Empire's extreme militarization and
Palpatine's recognition of the incredible threats facing the galaxy however the Empire not only had excellent soldiers with the best
experimental technology
But also a variety of soldiers the dark trooper branch alone had over a dozen different
Subtypes this meant that the Empire was able to effectively bring a great deal of force Taylor designed to any threat
Palpatine was crazy and evil and thus the Empire was as well this results in hundreds if not
Thousands of special projects many which spawned a variety of Special Forces units due to that along with as I mentioned the sheer
Militarization of the Empire I think it's really tough to beat them in the Special Forces
Category the Imperial Army grew out of the Republic so let's also take a look now at that faction
specifically because the Republic existed for thousands of years we will focus on the Clone Wars era and
specifically on Clone Special Forces most of the Special Forces clone troopers including arc troopers and Clone commandos
Fell under the special
operations Brigade arcs and commandos were actually the most well known in my opinion of the SF units and were
representative of the Clone Army Special Forces
Generally the regular Clone Trooper was trained from Earth to be a fighting and killing machine Clone Special Forces units
Received not only more training with a great deal more resources dedicated to them
But also better training commandos and arc troopers have better teachers
They had more one-on-one time with their instructors, and they were taught how to succeed and survive dangerous missions both
but arc troopers specifically were also genetically modified to be more strong-willed and
Independent and independent means not only that they could operate on their own or within small groups
But that each trooper had a distinct personality something that you don't see to the same degree
Among ordinary clones while all Special Forces clones were given fantastic armor and weaponry
I really do think it's this training
That is key the ordinary clone was already
well-trained however Special Forces units arcs and commandos were on a whole nother level
their whole life dedicated to not only being a better soldier
But also a better Special Forces soldier
We also see with Clone commandos that they're integrated into squads at a very very early age
Which allows them to operate as a unit in a way that most clones and certainly most ordinary
Troopers could not there's really something to be said about being bred to
Kill now there were other units that could talk about including shadow troopers
But I think what I've said so far about arcs and Clone commandos
Generally holds true for all clones Special Forces divisions next we have the other belligerence of the clone war the Confederacy of Independent
Systems
CIS special forces were obviously unique as they were droids they were built rather than birthed and trained I see two main
Benefits to using Android special forces the first is that at least theoretically you can design a model to fit any
Situation you can also design and produce droids relatively quickly which ties into the second benefit if a Special Forces
Droid is destroyed. Well. You just build another one you don't lose years of training and institutional knowledge
You just go to the factory and pop another one out
You don't to train it for 7 10 15 years this however is also the clear downside to droid special forces
I think that generally battle droids are less deadly than organics at least behaviorally that lack of personality
institutional knowledge and just experience that you get from years of battles and being a Special Forces commando cannot be replicated by
programming sure joints have quick reflexes
but they lack a certain instinct at least in the Star Wars universe that you see with organic combatants the
Technological advantage should not be ignored and even the Empire used some form of droids with their shadow Trooper
programming however even organic Special Forces units can neutralise that advantage by using things like vehicles or
explosives all in all I don't think Confederate programming will ever be equal to training and
Experience and as I say it a second ago
I think that any technological
advantage any durability any firepower any whatever can be neutralized or equalized through the use of armor or
vehicles
This is really not surprising given the droid army more often than not
relied on sheer numbers rather than individual killing machines
I will certainly acknowledge though that the Confederacy of Independent Systems
Created a variety of very dangerous droid types the super battle droids the ultra battle droids Corps ptosis droids
Droids and more all gave Republic soldiers a lot of trouble finally we have Rebel Alliance Special Forces
And I think the defining aspect of the Alliance in this respect is a lack of institutional training
Infrastructure now the Alliance certainly did have Special Forces units to in particular, which I'll talk about later
But there is no denying that when compared with the Empire the Alliance didn't have the time or the resources to
Overly train its soldiers many of the Alliance's best soldiers were primarily trained and defected from the Empire or from other
Military groups obviously the Alliance did do some of its own training however there was somewhat of a lack of uniformity
In my opinion the Alliance had both spec ops and Special Forces
Divisions the spec op forces were kind of like spies going undercover performing missions of subterfuge
Etc etc
Special Forces on the other hand were more like Imperial commandos or arc troopers
there's not really a lot to say other than that these soldiers were the best of the best and
underwent an additional level of training when compared with other Alliance soldiers still the Alliance was limited they had a lack of
Resources a lack of personnel lack of equipment, and they weren't exactly pioneering new forms of technology
The Alliance was much smaller than the other factions on this list
However the Empire did piss off a lot of people
And they didn't generally use aliens within their ranks that gave the Alliance two potential avenues for recruitment
There's also no denying that the Alliance did win the war much of this was because of the efforts of Special Forces groups on
covert missions with a brief description of the four factions out of the way
Let's now rank them from best Special Forces to worst the faction with the best Special Forces is in my opinion the Galactic Empire
they had the most type of troops their troops were the best and they had the best weapons they also undertook the most research and
We're constantly developing new technologies and Special Forces units
I don't think any faction in Star Wars history can match the Empire when it comes to scale and quality of their Special Forces
Coming in at number two is the Clone Wars era Republic?
I think the excellent training of clone units and the fact that they were birthed and bred to be
Successful fighters is what sets them apart from the lower factions on this list coming in at number
three is the Rebel Alliance and there's just the fact that the Alliance didn't have as
Infrastructure and resources as the other factions on this list however
I will say that they did use their special forces units very very well
Which more or less allowed them to win the Galactic Civil War still?
I think the training of their units can't compare to that at the republic and they certainly didn't have the fancy high-tech
technology or things like genetic manipulation that the Empire had still they do manage to come ahead of the worst faction on this list the
Confederacy of Independent Systems the Confederacy lands in this position purely because it is my opinion that
droids in combat will never be as effective as an organic being especially a being who has been hardened by years of battle and
Training in my opinion the sea is also placed less
importance on special forces divisions relying more commonly on shared numbers employing large
Amounts of basic battle droid models will you see commando droids and other models?
But those were relatively rare and still not as good as the Special Forces units of the other factions as I mentioned
I think any of the technological advantages held by droids for example increased armor can be dealt with by organics using powerful weapons or vehicles
That however is just my opinion am I under estimating the droid army over valuing the Empire
or have I failed to realize that the rebel special forces were good enough to win the
Galactic Civil War let me know all of that more down in the comments also
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Thank you so much for watching this has been at carts ladder may the force be with you