Did the Imperial forces take dewbacks around with them to every planet? Or did they pick them up on Tatooine? Why would they waste their time with these things? Wouldn’t anything be better than a dewback to get around on?
Maybe they were inspired by this very recent thread
I always just kind of figured it had to do with Imperial acquisitions personnel and the sudden appearance of unlimited funding.
I mean, think about it. The government went from a democratic form of government to the Empire, pretty much overnight. And the Emperor couldn’t possibly oversee ALL of it, could he? Not with all those Jedi to hunt down and kill, right?
I figure some Moff or other was running around with all that money and he thought Dewbacks and AT-ATs were, well, you know… cool. And maybe the outfit that made AT-ATs or bred giant lizards was willing to cut him in for a piece of the action. Or, hell, maybe they just had a really cool presentation. Or maybe the Emperor had a seat on the board, which he later relinquished, to provide the appearance of a lack of a conflict of interest.
And they put in an order for several thousand giant lizards and robot elephant tanks that can’t handle rough terrain.
And if a few zillion Stormtroopers happen to get killed… well… hell wid’em. They’re just clones, right?
(Warning: any similarity between this post and current Iraq War policy is totally coincidental)
I always assumed they were native to Tatooine, and were only used by Imperials who were stationed on that planet. Seems odd, even so, but it is notoriously difficult to keep complicated machinery functioning properly in a desert enviroment. Maybe the dewbacks were a stop-gap measure for when all of their landspeeders went down for repairs at the same time.
Conversely, there are still horse-mounted police officers in most major US cities, which has got to be at least 75% because of tradition, and not genuine need for cavalry troops in day-to-day urban police work. Could be the same deal here: there’s a history of using dewbacks for mounts that’s been carried on long past the time that dewback mounts were necessary or practical.
Dewbacks are native to Tatooine (you can see a couple in Phantom Menace when they arrive at Mos Espa).
I think they serve the same practical purpose as Taun-Tauns. Native to the environment, they are sure to survive the treacherous extremes the planet throws at them.
I think we can also assume that the Troopers using the Dewbacks are the local garrison already stationed there, and they met up with Vader’s troops from the Devastator in the “Look Sir, Droids!” scene.
My experience with horse-mounted police is that they are used for large crowds and crowd control. Not riot-like crowd control, but large events. There are several advantages the mounted officer has:
He’s higher than just about anything else being mounted on the horse, so he is easily visible
The visibility makes things like traffic directing easier.
For whatever reason, people respect an officer if he is mounted instead of standing on the ground. Once again, I think this is a crowd control thing.
Well, that’s all I can think of, but I swear I remember seeing an article once, long long ago, probably in the Albuquerque Journal around balloon fiesta time, about APDs use of mounted officers. I think the reasons were pretty much along the lines of what I just said.
Well, this probably isn’t what I was thinking of, but it’ll do.
From the Albuquerque Tribune, April 16 2002:
I guess this was a bit of a hijack, but I thought it might be interesting.
Not only that, but you can drink the refreshing condensate that forms in the ridges of their backs in the morning.
Mmmmm. Yet another reason the recruiters never have trouble getting new grist for the Academy.
The were probably issued by the same procurement officer who issued hovering bikes that travel 300 mph on Endor.
God as my witness, I thought you were still talking about mounted policemen when I read this.
For some reason, I’m now imagining the Imperials invading Hoth while riding thousands of Taun-Tauns instead of clumsy assault vehicles.
There were plenty of pictures of U.S. Special Forces troops on horseback in the Afghan campaign. (I confess, I got a distinct Star Wars vibe when I saw them, too. There was this one picture I swear I remember of a Special Forces guy on horseback with his assault rifle that I wish I could find again. He may have even been wearing one of the modern “coal scuttle” U.S. Kevlar helmets.) The Imperials were just intelligently adapting to local conditions. There was also Obi-Wan’s remark about Tusken Raiders always riding single-file, to conceal their numbers, whereas these tracks were made by people riding side by side–the Imperials were just trying to blend in (“Oh my God–Owen and Beru Lars are dead! They’ve been slaughtered!” “Look–dewback tracks!” “Curse those Sandpeople, anyway!”), but that little oversight meant they couldn’t fool the wily old Obi-Wan.
AT-AT’s, on the other hand, are clearly the product of graft, corruption, and no-bid contracts.
Dude, Tusken Raiders ride sweaty hyperthermic elephants. I mean Banthas. Chaw!
Well, wasn’t Tatooine kind of a backwater? Maybe the imperial garrison just didn’t have the funds or resources to get enough Speeder Bikes (or whatever) for all it’s troops.
Heck, I even seem to remember reading about frontier imperial outposts using old Republic-era equipment (in the Extended Universe, at least.)
Killing Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru seems to be about the only time they ever hit what they were aiming at - didn’t Obi Wan make some remark about the blaster holes being too evenly spaced for it to have been Tuskens?
We tell officers this all the time, but we don’t really mean it. People will say anything when they’re horny.
The blast points are too accurate for Sandpeople. Only Imperial Stormtroopers are so precise.
:rolleyes:
In other words, the best way to defend yourself against Sand People is to stand perfectly still. 
Yeah, if you notice the sandcrawler was blasted to shit!