My actual canon says that Stormtroopers actual have great aim, as evidenced by the praise Obi Wan Kenobi spoke highly of their marksmanship, and that time they took out a bunch of rebels in that one hallway without any casualties on their side
It kind of got lost over time, but the Stormtroopers in A New Hope were never trying to kill the heroes. Instead, they were herding them around the Death Star so that they could make a daring escape and lead Tarkin and Vader to the hidden Rebel base. They knew the Rebels had a hidden base, they just didn’t know where it was. Similarly, in Empire, they’re trying to capture the group rather than kill them and are actually quite effective in that regard. It’s not until Jedi where they suddenly become incompetent.
Ah, you’re referring to the part where one of the rebels looked directly at the audience and said “just so you know, this wasn’t a plot hole; I am explicitly acknowledging the fact that they let us escape so that they could track us.”
Stormtroopers had good aim early in the Galactic Civil War/Pre-Yavin era as Stormtroopers were in fact the elite Imperial Troops, compared to regular Army units that garrisoned most Imperial worlds.
The degradation in their ability happened as the rebellion became more and more of a threat so the Empire had to repeatedly increase the number of Stormtroopers in service, and facing the higher demands the academies and other training facilities were forced to keep lowering the standards to qualify as a Stormtrooper. In the early days of the Stormtroopers, they were very capable and elite troops. After Yavin, the massive surge in recruits forced the standards to drop further, and by the time of Endor their quality was so bad pretty much anyone who could hold a rifle would qualify.
Well, and now almost no canon video media features imperial infantry other than stormtroopers, purely due to recognition of the design.
They’re used as bog standard cannon fodder mooks now, which helps explain all the various “super storm trooper”, “dark trooper”, “super duper special black ops elite mandalorian trooper” they keep rolling out. Wake me up when they pull a Dragon Ball Super and give us Super Storm Trooper Blue.
My head cannon says that storm troopers actually have great aim. Jedi powers cause them to miss more, like some aura.
My actual canon says that Stormtroopers actual have great aim, as evidenced by the praise Obi Wan Kenobi spoke highly of their marksmanship, and that time they took out a bunch of rebels in that one hallway without any casualties on their side
It kind of got lost over time, but the Stormtroopers in A New Hope were never trying to kill the heroes. Instead, they were herding them around the Death Star so that they could make a daring escape and lead Tarkin and Vader to the hidden Rebel base. They knew the Rebels had a hidden base, they just didn’t know where it was. Similarly, in Empire, they’re trying to capture the group rather than kill them and are actually quite effective in that regard. It’s not until Jedi where they suddenly become incompetent.
Ah, you’re referring to the part where one of the rebels looked directly at the audience and said “just so you know, this wasn’t a plot hole; I am explicitly acknowledging the fact that they let us escape so that they could track us.”
Stupid ambiguous writing
The Stormtroopers in Jedi were handpicked by a career politician.
Stormtroopers had good aim early in the Galactic Civil War/Pre-Yavin era as Stormtroopers were in fact the elite Imperial Troops, compared to regular Army units that garrisoned most Imperial worlds.
The degradation in their ability happened as the rebellion became more and more of a threat so the Empire had to repeatedly increase the number of Stormtroopers in service, and facing the higher demands the academies and other training facilities were forced to keep lowering the standards to qualify as a Stormtrooper. In the early days of the Stormtroopers, they were very capable and elite troops. After Yavin, the massive surge in recruits forced the standards to drop further, and by the time of Endor their quality was so bad pretty much anyone who could hold a rifle would qualify.
Well, and now almost no canon video media features imperial infantry other than stormtroopers, purely due to recognition of the design.
They’re used as bog standard cannon fodder mooks now, which helps explain all the various “super storm trooper”, “dark trooper”, “super duper special black ops elite mandalorian trooper” they keep rolling out. Wake me up when they pull a Dragon Ball Super and give us Super Storm Trooper Blue.
Super Storm Super Trooper