Here's a fan theory.
The Stormtroopers let the rebels get away.
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So we need to talk about Stormtroopers,
which requires that you know the basic goings-on of the "Star
Wars" movies.
If you're already an expert, you can click here to skip ahead.
But for the handful of you who have somehow
managed to not see any "Star Wars" before now, what follows
is a quick primer.
A very quick primer.
A ludicrously quick primer.
OK, not that ludicrous.
Here we go, though.
The Galactic Empire is bad.
They're making a big weapon.
It's called the Death Star.
The rebels are good.
They want to blow up the Death Star.
Rural nobody Luke Skywalker becomes a rebel,
discovers he has space powers.
Han Solo and Princess Leia are also rebels.
Darth Vader is basically the Empire's very talented jet
black junkyard bulldog, also with space powers and a mask.
Also, he's Luke's father.
Luke and the rebels blow up the Death Star.
No!
We're almost done.
Before the Empire-- which, remember, is bad--
there was the Republic, which was good.
It was 25,000 years old before Chancellor Palpatine overthrew
it and began the Empire.
That's no small feat.
You need an army to do that.
There was one, the clone army.
It was huge and made of, yes, clones.
At first, the clone army was good.
Then the empire caused it to betray the Republic
so they became bad.
The Empire won the Clone Wars.
The clones became their military force,
and that's what Stormtroopers are,
the Empire's trained human clone army
refashioned from the clone trooper ranks
that betrayed the Republic.
Boom.
Or I guess pew.
So here is what's confusing and the subject
of much of fan speculation.
In "Episode IV," we have rebels Han, Luke, and Leia
on the Death Star.
They're trying to escape.
They're running around being shot at by Stormtroopers,
who we now know one, carry out the will
of the supreme commander and who, two,
are incredibly talented fighters because they
have been genetically designed for combat.
How is it, then, that they can't seem to hit the side of a barn
with their blaster rifles?
Now, there are a lot of reasons as to why this might be.
The cloning process for the Stormtroopers
changed a couple times, and so maybe these clones
have some defects is maybe the least sensitive way to put it.
There was also a theory going around
that all of their blasters are just broken, just defective.
Bad sights, crooked shoot-y part.
Whatever about a blaster that could possibly be broken,
let's just say that it is.
This was a bad batch.
These explanations, I think, are fine.
But also circumstantial and a little boring.
One other compelling theory is that as cloned
to all heck as these troopers are, there is-- nay,
must-- still be something human about them.
"Star Wars" canon establishes that throughout the Clone
Wars before the great attrition began,
Jedi commanders were able to foster certain clone
officers to the degree where they developed
some kind of individuality, some personality and humanity.
This, for the most part, was considered desirable
because it helped them think tactically.
But maybe there were some other side effects as well.
[MUSIC -- CARL DOUGLAS, "KUNG FU FIGHTING"]
Carl Smallwood on Cracked.com wrote in 2010 that he thought
maybe after having fought battle after battle against other
armor-clad helmet-wearing clones, droids,
legions of aliens, and all manner of beings so easily
dismissed as other because of their appearance,
that upon being ordered to shoot at humans without masks,
without armor or scales, with new hope in their eyes,
the troopers just can't.
Some deep and inescapable part of them resists.
According to a Frontline PBS report, in World War I, quote,
"Only 15% of rifleman would fire their weapon
at an exposed enemy soldier."
Is it so hard to believe that a long time ago in a galaxy far,
far away where people regularly interact with alien life,
where there is so much war and hostility and destabilization,
that clones with even an ounce of humanity
would heed a natural resistance to killing their own?
Makes sense to me.
So they take the shot because it has
to at least look like they're trying to do their job.
But they're such good marksmen, they miss perfectly every time.
But OK, maybe you're not a Mos Eisley cantina novelty souvenir
mug half full kind of person and don't believe
in the fundamental inability, or at least unwillingness,
of people to hurt their own.
That's fine, I suppose.
I hope therapy's going well.
A counter theory is that the Stormtroopers were, in fact,
ordered not to shoot.
The most meta of all of these theories
is that the Stormtroopers know that they are in a movie
or are just actors.
So if they kill Luke and the rebels, it's over and boring
and the movie is bad.
And so they have to let them get away.
They're in some way under orders from George Lucas.
Which I mean, OK.
Sure.
But also snore.
[SNORE]
A related theory states they're under orders from either Vader
or the Emperor himself to let the rebels escape so that they
can track them to Yavin 4 and find the secret location
of the rebel base there.
This makes sense and also explains
that one Benny Hill-esque scene where Han chases seven
Stormtroopers down a hallway.
They can't kill him.
He's the one that pilots the ship they need to track.
So this nonsense happens.
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This holds up and I think makes sense,
but it's also almost a little too tidy.
I like my fan theories to have some controversy.
My personal favorite theory explaining the arguably
feigned incompetence of the Stormtroopers
is the one which states that they knew somehow,
either instinctively or consciously by thinking
critically, or maybe even because
of their clone programming, that the rebels should win.
That whatever clone directive they have,
it led them to conclude even though Palpatine
is the Emperor in title, he is not by right or in actuality.
Or that the continued effects of serving under Jedi masters--
individuality, tactical thinking--
has led them to conclude that what
is in the best interests of the Empire as a federation,
not a political body, the Stormtroopers
as a military force or the entire galaxy,
is a reformation of the Republic.
I like this theory because I think
it can also be applied to the legions of other
what TV Tropes calls mooks.
The foot soldiers from "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,"
every henchman in every Bond film, the ranks of Cobra
soldiers from "GI Joe," and any extra who has ever
had to fight Jackie Chan.
Maybe they don't want to hit someone
they've suddenly realized isn't so different from them.
Maybe they know it's a piece of entertainment
and they can't just unceremoniously off
the good guy.
But maybe, just maybe, they've realized
that they are the bad guy and missing a shot, taking a dive,
is their own little mini rebellion.
No!
What do you guys think?
Why do the Stormtroopers miss the rebels
when they're trying to escape the Death Star?
And is there a theory that generally
accounts for how mooks are just all bad at their job?
Let us know in the comments and I will respond to some of them
in next week's comment response video.
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we talk about your thoughts regarding Noel Carroll's
taxonomy of horror monsters.
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