This May the 4th, Give the Stormtrooper His Due
If you grew up in the 1970s or early 1980s, odds are you at
some point dressed as a Stormtrooper for Halloween. You had to, even if you
loved the good guys. From the moment they blasted their way onto Princess
Leia’s ship in A New Hope (which we
simply called Star Wars back in “the
day”) in those sleek, white uniforms, Imperial Stormtroopers secured a place in
science fiction history as one of the coolest cinematic military forces ever.
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Now we here at Damper Three feel the need to, in a way,
stand up for the Stormtrooper. It seems that after a few decades of being the
Emperor’s cannon-fodder, they’ve become known more for not brutally gunning
down the heroes in the first two minutes of each film, so as to make for much grittier
but also shorter stories.
But this klutzy popular persona that they suck at shooting has
obscured an incredibly important aspect of the Stormtrooper: they are, by far,
a highly professional military force. Often to a fault. In fact, it was this dedication
to military professionalism that the Rebellion exploited to ultimately defeat
the Empire in the end.
Let’s take a look at the evidence:
- After boarding Princess Leia’s ship, Stormtroopers stuck to orders to capture prisoners even after Leia coldly gunned down a Stormtrooper despite them having quite vocally stated “set your blasters to stun.” It takes a lot of discipline for a solider to calmly say “she’ll be alright” after watching a comrade get wasted seconds before.
- Obi Wan himself, though dismissive of them as “weak minded” admitted Stormtroopers were precise marksmen. This comes from dedicated military training.
- Despite the destruction of the friggin Death Star and the death of Grand Moff Tarkin, Imperial forces STILL drove the Rebellion from Yavin, so that they had to set up at Hoth, only to be beaten there as well by overwhelming military force.
- These guys are SHARP in formation.
Don't lock your knees. First trooper to faint in formation
gets to scrape mynocks off the Death Star.
But the truest evidence of the professionalism of the
Imperial Stormtrooper comes from the Rebels, especially in Return of the Jedi. You’ll notice that, regardless of the
circumstances, Luke, Han, Leia, and even C3PO expected that if the bad guys
ever got the upper hand, the Empire would give them a chance to surrender. We
got a glimpse of this in The Empire
Strikes Back, when Han and pals were being pursued by Vader and the Imperial
Fleet. At one point, C3PO asks why they can’t just surrender, because that is
perfectly acceptable in times of duress. And that wasn’t the first time 3PO
expected capture over being blasted into pieces. Back to the capture of Leia
during A New Hope, remember there’s a
raging battle going on. But 3PO’s concern was “we’ll be sent to the spice mines
of Kessel.” He expected to be taken prisoner, not executed.
And there’s even more pointed examples of this in ROTJ. When the Emperor sprung his trap,
C3PO and R2D2 watch from a distance as Stormtroopers rush inside of the back
door to the power generator. C3P0 doesn’t say “OH NO, THEY’RE ABOUT TO DIE!” He
exclaimed instead, “Oh no, they’ll be captured!” This shows the there was an
expectation of a certain kind of adherence to rules of warfare.
Want an even more pointed example? How about in the middle
of firefight? There’s the scene where Han is trying to open the blast doors to
get inside of the power generator. He and Leia are actively slaughtering
Stormtroopers when Leia is wounded. What happens next says a LOT. Knowing they
wounded a rebel and that they were distracted, the Stormtroopers rush up behind
them and…demand the rebels surrender. This was a firefight, and the endgame of
the Emperor. As far as we know, there were no orders to capture Luke’s friends.
Yes, they were the bait to lure him to the Death Star but Luke was already in
Palpatine’s clutches. And yet the troopers were giving wounded rebels a chance
to surrender. To which Leia and Han replied with “ha, ha, thanks but here’s a
laser to your face for your professionalism.”
It’s pretty clear that Stormtroopers were merciless killing
machines when ordered to be. There are things like the slaughtering of Luke’s
aunt and uncle for no good reason. So there’s that. No one is saying that no Stormtroopers
would ever be dragged before a human rights commission. But this May the 4th,
as least as far as their military effectiveness, give them some slack.
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