Despite their apparent inability to hit their targets, Stormtroopers are officially described
as the elite warriors of the Galactic Empire…
Like most Star Wars characters, Stormtroopers have a unique visual design, and were instantly
popular with fans when they were first introduced in ‘A New Hope’.
In this video, we will explore the history of the Stormtroopers, their creation process
and other interesting facts.
So, let’s begin…
1.
THE HISTORY OF THE STORMTROOPERS Some of you may be wondering why George Lucas
chose the name ‘Stormtrooper’ to describe the soldiers of the Imperial army.
Well, it’s not difficult to see that he borrowed heavily from Adolf Hitler’s Third
Reich and the Nazis, while creating concepts for the Galactic Empire…
But, he also drew inspiration from real-life Stormtroopers, who were specialist soldiers
of the German Army in World War I, referred to as ‘Sturmtruppen’.
World War I is known as the first modern war that forever changed the face of battle.
This is when warfare switched from old style combat with small arms, bayonets and cavalry
charges to using high-tech weapons, bomber planes, tanks, submarines, chemical warfare
and bunkers.
During the war, the German Stormtroopers were literally in charge of storming the enemy
trenches.
Considering the first action sequence in A New Hope, Lucas definitely picked a fitting
name….
2.
STORMTROOPERS ORIGINALLY HAD LIGHTSABERS Ralph McQuarrie is the legend responsible
for how the most of the original Star Wars trilogy looked and felt.
He created concept designs for Vader, R2-D2, C-3PO, Luke Skywalker, all the movie sets,
and much more.
In fact, some claim that it was his concept drawing of R2 and C-3PO on Tatooine that convinced
the 20th century fox executives to green light Star Wars.
While a lot of what McQuarrie designed ended up in the Star Wars galaxy, certain things
were removed or modified, such as the Stormtrooper Corps.
Interestingly, one of the earliest pieces of concept art drawings shows Stormtroopers
wielding lightsabers.
Judging by their motor skills in the movies, giving them lightsabers is probably not a
good idea.
3.
THE STORMTROOPER ACADEMY In the Force Awakens, Finn explains that he
was taken as a child, and trained to be a soldier until adulthood.
Well, that might be how the First Order handles their recruiting process, but the Empire approached
finding loyal recruits in a slightly different manner….
See, The Empire wanted people to join willingly…Once recruited, the prospective Stormtroopers had
to endure two years of gruelling training at the Carida Academy.
Members of the Imperial Army, Navy, and Stormtrooper Corps trained at this Academy, which was one
of several that the Empire created throughout the galaxy.
They even had special academies for training female recruits, such as the Academy for Young
Imperials on Lothal.
And judging by Captain Phasma, we can be pretty certain that the First Order also recruit
females.
4.
SPECIALIZED STORMTROOPERS If someone mentions the word Stormtrooper,
most people will think of the standard white variety seen in the original trilogy.
But The Stormtrooper Corps consisted of several divisions that specialized in different environments
and operations….
This isn’t a brand-new concept unique to Rogue One either, as we witnessed Sand troopers
in A New Hope, who specialised in desert environments… but, they did look a lot like regular Stormtroopers….
Next up we have Snow troopers who, you guessed it, specialize in cold environments, and you
might remember them in the Empire Strikes Back attacking the Rebels on Hoth.
Then we have Shadow Troopers, who wear cloaking-enabled all-black armour and use T-21 repeating blasters.
Space troopers carried equipment that allowed them to survive in the vacuum of space and
Magma Troopers wore specialized armour that allowed them to fight in intense heat.
Rogue One introduced us to the bad ass Death Troopers, acting as the personal guard of
director Krennic.
Death Troopers served as the elite bodyguards of all high-ranking members in the Tarkin
Initiative, a covert unit which was a part of the Empire’s Advanced Research Division.
In addition to protecting military leaders, Death Troopers served in Imperial Intelligence.
5.
STORMTROOPERS ARE HIGHLY SKILLED WARRIORS There’s a scene in A New Hope when Obi-Wan
Kenobi and Luke Skywalker stumble across slaughtered Jawas in the Dune Sea.
Luke immediately assumes that sand people must have been responsible.
But Obi-Wan correctly guesses that Stormtroopers were the real culprits.
Obi Wan states that the blaster marks on the sand crawler were “too accurate for sand
people.
Only Imperial Stormtroopers are so precise.”
You’d be forgiven for chuckling to yourself at this point.
But according to official canon, Obi-Wan is correct.
Stormtroopers are highly trained, elite warriors within the Empire’s Imperial Army.
Well, their aiming skills are inconsistent for sure, and certain characters in Star Wars
have stated that Stormtroopers are less accurate than the clone troopers were.
But in Rogue One, spoilers, Stormtroopers demonstrate to us that they are deadly and
capable enough to kill every major character…
6.
THE STORMTROOPER ARMOR HAS 18 BLAST RESISTANT PIECES
Aside from being incapable of hitting a target 3 feet away in the original trilogy, Stormtroopers
also seem to die very easily.
One or two shots to any part of their body can apparently kill them — which is odd,
because Stormtrooper armour is supposed to be strong enough to deflect most blaster shots.
Created on the planet Gilvaanen by the Imperial Department of Military Research, Stormtrooper
armour was originally intended to be used by clones, following the discontinuation of
the Phase II clone trooper armour.
However, once the clones were abandoned, the new designs became the primary armour set
for the Stormtrooper Corps.
Containing 18 plastoid plates, which is the same type of material Darth Vader uses, Stormtrooper
armour is actually one of the strongest in the galaxy, not that it seems to help them
in combat.
Well, to be fair, the armour is meant to protect the wearer from “glancing blaster shots,”
and not from direct hits.
7.
EVERY STORMTROOPER CARRIES A THERMAL DETONATOR So far, we have learned that Stormtroopers
are equipped with a variety of armours and weapons to aid them in various environmental
and combat situations.
Fans of Star Wars: Battlefront, will know that standard Stormtroopers use E-11 Blaster
rifles as their primary weapon, and each use a C1 Personal Comlink as their primary mode
of communication.
But have you ever wondered what the cylinder around the back of their waist is for?
Well let’s just say Boushh isn’t the only character to carry a thermal detonator…
In addition to their blaster rifles, every Stormtrooper is trusted with one N-20 Baradium-core
thermal detonator.
These detonators were manufactured by the aptly named BlasTech Industries, and they
allowed the Stormtroopers to set the level of blast intensity as well as timing.
What could possibly go wrong?
8.
ELITE STORMTROOPERS PROTECT THE EMPEROR Fans will know that Sheev Palpatine was protected
by Imperial Royal Guards in Return of the Jedi, and thanks to Rogue One we now know
that vader also uses these guys for his protection.
But what about in a battle situation?
We’ve never really seen the Emperor near a warzone …And when he was still the chancellor,
he rarely went anywhere outside of Coruscant.
But there is a scene in Revenge of the Sith, when Palpatine finds Anakin’s charred body
on Mustafar.
If you look closely you will see that he is guarded by clone Shock Troopers.
The human shock troopers also wore red-painted armour similar to their clone Shock Trooper
predecessors.
Some of the Empire’s troopers even continued to wear the Phase II clone trooper armour
from the Clone Wars, presumably believing the armour to be better.
9.
OVER 30,000 STORMTROOPERS DIED ON THE DEATH STAR
It’s true that the Empire killed billions of people when they blew up Alderaan using
the Death Star, so what followed next was probably well deserved…Well except for the
250 thousand odd innocent contractors and their families simply living there…Good
job Luke…
When it comes to canon, it’s unclear how much personnel were aboard the Death Star
when it exploded.
However, when we take a look into Star Wars Legends, we see that there were 265,675 people
on the Death Star when it met its fateful end.
Among those people were 30,984 Stormtroopers.
It’s likely that the canon numbers are pretty close to these figures…but, it’s unlikely
that Disney will want to go into detail on this morbid subject…so we’ll probably
never know…
10.
THE REAL REASON CLONE TROOPERS WERE REPLACED For a long time, casual moviegoers assumed
that all Stormtroopers were clones, but that all changed when John Boyega was cast as a
First Order trooper in The Force Awakens.
We even got a short backstory of how the First Order obtains their candidates for the military.
Immediately, it’s pretty evident that the First Order’s troopers are much more skilled
than their Empire predecessors.
And the clone troopers that came before those Stormtroopers were even more skilled than
the First Order.
So, the question is, why would the Empire choose to end the clone program and invest
in human recruits?
Well, according to George Lucas, whose notes were revealed during a Star Wars Rebels panel,
Stormtroopers proved to be more loyal than clones.
An exact quote wasn’t given during the panel, but the notes stated that clones were becoming
too individualistic, and Stormtroopers proved to be more patriotic, as they joined the empire
willingly…
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