Page 1 of 2
1
2
LastLast
  1. #1

    [Star Wars] The Sheer Incompetence of the Empire...

    So let me get this straight: the empire, controlling all of the known galaxy... millions of worlds to draw taxes from (undoubtedly very high taxes)... but can't afford basic rifle training for their standing army? They can afford massive, mile long star destroyers with dozens of turrets, life support, state of the art scanning tech to discover rebel bases, FTL drives... hell; they built a moon sized death star out steel and tech and all... but can't even afford to teach their troops how to even aim right?

  2. #2
    It's more a story telling effect to build tension and not kill off the protagonists instantly.

  3. #3
    i remember seeing a theory on that. was a pretty fun read about how stormtroopers missed on purpose and how when it didnt involve main characters, they were always marksman shots.

  4. #4
    Bloodsail Admiral Beery Swine's Avatar
    7+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Location
    Philly, PA
    Posts
    1,033
    Hell, that's just one aspect of Imperial ineptitude. One thing I've learned while both watching the only REAL Star Wars trilogy and playing the action games is that the most common cause of unnatural death in the Empire was falling into a bottomless pit. Seriously, where the fuck are all the hand rails? You can afford a small moon-sized planet destroying laser but you had to cut costs in the guard rail department? WTF is wrong with you? And isn't there anything you could have put in those bottomless pits? Seems like a fucking waste of space. Very inefficient.

    And that goes double for Nar Shaddaa, the smuggler's moon.
    Weird Al - I never feed trolls and I don't read spam
    Galen Hallcyon - The internet has shown us that everyone is a fuckin' moron.

  5. #5
    Titan
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    In my head, where crazy happens.
    Posts
    11,562
    Quote Originally Posted by Valyrian Stormclaw View Post
    So let me get this straight: the empire, controlling all of the known galaxy... millions of worlds to draw taxes from (undoubtedly very high taxes)... but can't afford basic rifle training for their standing army? They can afford massive, mile long star destroyers with dozens of turrets, life support, state of the art scanning tech to discover rebel bases, FTL drives... hell; they built a moon sized death star out steel and tech and all... but can't even afford to teach their troops how to even aim right?
    You've touched upon one of many, MANY flaws of Star Wars.

  6. #6
    One theory is that blasters are just inacurate. Its not like Han or the rebel soldiers hit with every shot.

    Anyway, how about rhe empire falling appart immediatly after the dead of palpatine and vader. What happened to the chain of command or, as another theory suggest, did palpatine mind control all high ranking officers.
    ~Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.~
    ~Every damn thing you do in this life, you have to pay for.~

  7. #7
    Well, any high ranking people would usually be... I dunno, motivated and driven, ambitious... all things taught and encouraged by the Sith... until you became a threat to them, in which case they'd have you killed.

    I started watching A New Hope last night (been watching a movie each day this week) and I turned it off like an hour in. So bad.
    Quote Originally Posted by THE Bigzoman View Post
    Meant Wetback. That's what the guy from Home Depot called it anyway.
    ==================================
    If you say pls because it is shorter than please,
    I'll say no because it is shorter than yes.
    ==================================

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Amorac View Post
    One theory is that blasters are just inacurate. Its not like Han or the rebel soldiers hit with every shot.

    Anyway, how about rhe empire falling appart immediatly after the dead of palpatine and vader. What happened to the chain of command or, as another theory suggest, did palpatine mind control all high ranking officers.
    Expanded universe talks about huge galactic civil wars. Rebels just screwed everyone. But whole expanded stuff was cut off from canon.
    Last edited by Maximus Testiculos; 2015-04-24 at 11:27 PM.

  9. #9
    I'm fairly sure they were ordered not to kill Luke and Co. as Vader/Palpatine had plans for them.

    I mean Palpatine wanted Luke as his next apprentice so there's that.

  10. #10
    Scarab Lord Teebone's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    May 2013
    Location
    "Sunny" Florida
    Posts
    4,218
    A storm trooper opened fire at a crowd in a nearby shuttle station today as an act of defiance against the Republic's peace accord. No one was injured. More on this as it develops.

  11. #11
    The Millennium Falcon was meant to escape so that the Empire could track Leia back to the rebel base. The Stormtroopers never intended to hit their targets when Han and Luke were on the Death Star.

  12. #12
    basically heroes winning gunfights against all odds makes for good stories and crappy realism.
    I don't think this matters nearly as much as you think it does.

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Amorac View Post
    One theory is that blasters are just inacurate. Its not like Han or the rebel soldiers hit with every shot.

    Anyway, how about rhe empire falling appart immediatly after the dead of palpatine and vader. What happened to the chain of command or, as another theory suggest, did palpatine mind control all high ranking officers.
    I've always just imagined that the Empire didn't fall apart so much as it splintered. Like hard.

    Palpatine dissolved the senate in ANH, making himself pretty much the tip top of Legislative and Executive power (possibly Judicial too, dunno). So when he dies, the chain of command is a bit... wonky. Maybe he had an heir, but somehow I doubt it. Either way, once people started hearing about Palpatine dying, shit went down.

    Some systems immediately revolt, either probably overrunning less defended military installations. Some Star Destroyer captains probably see the writing on the wall and swap sides immediately. Others probably go off to form their own little Fiefdoms from whatever Systems they've got oversight on.

    Also the stability of the Empire might well have been called into question as a result of the events of ANH and ROTJ. Think on this: how much did two Death Stars in less than a decade cost them? Also, during the Siege of Endor, how many ships did they lose? They lost a Super Star Destroyer. That thing can't be cheap. How many did they have? How much of the Empire's military strength was decimated in that battle?

    So yeah. I doubt they took out the whole Empire at once, but I'm betting the Galaxy splintered pretty quickly into chaos.

  14. #14
    Over 9000! ringpriest's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Location
    The Silk Road
    Posts
    9,424
    Quote Originally Posted by Valyrian Stormclaw View Post
    So let me get this straight: the empire, controlling all of the known galaxy... millions of worlds to draw taxes from (undoubtedly very high taxes)... but can't afford basic rifle training for their standing army? They can afford massive, mile long star destroyers with dozens of turrets, life support, state of the art scanning tech to discover rebel bases, FTL drives... hell; they built a moon sized death star out steel and tech and all... but can't even afford to teach their troops how to even aim right?
    They seemed to shoot just fine while boarding the Tantive IV; on the Death Star, the plan was for our heroes to escape, leading the Empire to the Rebel's base - killing them all would have foiled that plan neatly. The assault force on Hoth overran Rebel positions and destroyed their shield generator in a short and decisive battle. Now, the battle on Endor... well, it was originally supposed to be Wookies, right? So they were defeated by the script, maybe?

    - - - Updated - - -

    There's also always the explanation from the great Darths & Droids webcomic:
    Luke: Owen and Beru are dead. The homestead was all shot up.
    C-3PO: Oh no!
    Luke: I thought they could defend against anything. Those troopers must be better than you thought.
    Obi-Wan: Hmm, usually clone troopers are really lousy shots.
    R2-D2: Yeah, right. They shoot droids just fine.
    Obi-Wan: Droids are different.
    R2-D2: Superior. More worthy targets, obviously.
    Obi-Wan: I once fought Jango Fett, their clone-father. He had a nervous twitch fighting living targets. He never hit.
    R2-D2: You living targets need all the help you can get.
    R2-D2: Anyway, we're done looting. Let's go.
    The scary thing is, I don't think that's just in the comic - I don't think Jango actually shoots at and hits anyone in the prequels, though he does plenty of fighting... (the comic goes into detail elsewhere about under what circumstances they are deadly: when Vader is using the force to control them).
    "In today’s America, conservatives who actually want to conserve are as rare as liberals who actually want to liberate. The once-significant language of an earlier era has had the meaning sucked right out of it, the better to serve as camouflage for a kleptocratic feeding frenzy in which both establishment parties participate with equal abandon" (Taking a break from the criminal, incompetent liars at the NSA, to bring you the above political observation, from The Archdruid Report.)

  15. #15
    the plot armor was strong with Luke and his friends.


    The incompetence in the first movies was to make it possible for a couple of young people to beat the empire. That same incompetence doesn't exist before or after this time period because this time period was the beginning. Low budget and no cgi makes all the older movies look bad when the action hits.

    Any theory that for some reason they missed on purpose, were ordered to miss or other things like that is just trying to defend the shit quality in which movies were sadly made back then.

    If they remade the original trilogy, there would be much more action with an actor who could actually pull off some awesome feats to make it more believable.

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Amorac View Post
    One theory is that blasters are just inacurate. Its not like Han or the rebel soldiers hit with every shot.
    I've always subscribed to this theory, personally. Obi-Wan even mentions it when introducing Luke to his father's lightsaber in ANH. "The weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster."

    Anyways, I also think Stormtroopers are incompetent because they were mass recruited. The Empire relies on sheer force of numbers and technology to put fear into the hearts of its citizens. The Republic went for quality with the Clone Troopers but had difficulty funding both their creation and training (This is the basis for a few episodes of The Clone Wars where the Senate has to vote on deregulating the banking system in order to fund more CTs). The Empire, on the other hand, went for quantity over quality, in addition to superior technology. Stormtroopers are more comparable to Battle Droids than to Clone Troopers.

    Quote Originally Posted by ringpriest
    The scary thing is, I don't think that's just in the comic - I don't think Jango actually shoots at and hits anyone in the prequels, though he does plenty of fighting... (the comic goes into detail elsewhere about under what circumstances they are deadly: when Vader is using the force to control them).
    Jango kills Zam Weesel with a poison dart to the neck from quite far away in Attack of the Clones, so he's not a bad shot. The only problem is that his only other opponents in that movie are Jedi: Obi-Wan, who he hits with a rocket on Kamino, and Mace Windu, arguably the most powerful Jedi Master not named Yoda.

    Quote Originally Posted by MikeBogina
    That same incompetence doesn't exist before or after this time period because this time period was the beginning. Low budget and no cgi makes all the older movies look bad when the action hits.
    That's actually not true. In Rebels, they make a point in showing that Stormtroopers are highly incompetent. In fact, in the trailer for Season 2, Rex makes a comment about Clone Troopers being a superior breed of soldier compared to Stormtroopers.
    Professor of History at Dalaran University

  17. #17
    Their guns didn't have stocks and they mostly fired from the hip

  18. #18
    Just a sidebar, watch the original star wars, and obi-wan vs vader, that has to be the worst, lamest lightsaber fight ever.

  19. #19
    Banned Hammerfest's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    United States of America
    Posts
    7,995
    Quote Originally Posted by anyaka21 View Post
    Just a sidebar, watch the original star wars, and obi-wan vs vader, that has to be the worst, lamest lightsaber fight ever.
    You kind of have to put yourself back in 1977 when you watch it. For its day, it was just fine as a choreographed sword fight... but things have improved since then.

  20. #20
    Storm troopers are considered "cannon fodder" in the Empire.
    Last edited by Barnabas; 2015-04-27 at 01:37 AM.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •