I watched Star Wars: A New Hope fairly recently, and while I liked it over the other newer SW episodes, I didn’t find it all that memorable. Anyway, in this movie I noticed that the storm troopers in their iconic white armor are easily disabled (not killed, since this is a Disney movie). I assume this is an armor suit, but the blind Asian guy can beat them up with his staff! Other than the cool factor, what is the suit’s purpose and function? It can’t even protect them from being hit with a stick.
Wearing such a suit would decrease mobility, and even if it’s a small decrease, I guess that would be acceptable if it offered superior protection as a trade off. But it seems like it can’t. Come to think of it, the storm trooper armor looks stupid without any real function.
I always figured it wasn’t supposed to be any good against sticks. This is a universe where anyone who wants to can carry a laser on their hip; who’s gonna come at an imperial trooper with a stick? I think the light-colored, lightweight armor is intended to be reflective to offer some protection against light-based weapons.
Of course, it sucks at that, too, but at least it’s an idea.
Watch A New Hope. There’s a blind Asian guy in there. I can’t recall the actor’s name or the name of his character–see, that’s how unmemorable this movie is even though it was just as good as The Force Awakens. Anyway, I’m sure a quick Google search will bring up the names. Doesn’t Disney own the SW franchise?
Yeah, it annoys the crap out of me when people punch the helmet and knock the guy out (as seen too many times in Rebels).
The later armor is crap. Captain Rex takes two direct hits (one to chest, second in helmet) and survives in The Last Battle, saying his ‘generation one’ armor is superior.
To steer this towards more of a GD direction, could there be any sort of armor or protection to stop either a laser shot or even a light saber? If not any specific material substance then perhaps some electroreactive armor? How about stopping a Star Trek phaser?
It could be useful against fragmentation. Kevlar armor can protect against fragments yet fail to protect against rifle bullets. Being hit with a blunt object while wearing Kevlar armor can still result in injury.
Trying to make sense of Star Wars technology is a fool’s errand, though. It has spaceships that behave like WWII fighters and no use of anything like gunpowder.
In the latest tabletop RPG, it is perfectly fine armor. The reason it doesn’t seem to do much is that most Star Wars weapons do a lot of damage and the usual troopers are mooks with low hp.
I think the armor is as much intimidation as anything - it clearly has very little in the way of actual protection against the arms at the time - hell, ewoks beat them about the head and shoulder with sticks and stones (and left broken bones).
The factual answer is it makes the common Imperial cannon fodder look like faceless mooks as opposed to actual humans. The same reason the Imperial officer’s uniforms are reminiscent of Nazis. Note that the Imperials are entirely white human men (the First Order is actually more diverse with various minorities and female officers). The obvious intent is to portray the Empire/First Order as a high tech fascist army of mostly faceless disposable shock troops.
In contrast the Rebel Alliance / New Republic have open helmets that show their faces and wear camouflaged fabric uniforms making them appear more like a “rough and tumble” guerilla force.
In in-film explanation is probably some variation of the armor provides some measure of protection against blasters and shrapnel, but like modern Kevlar and composite armor, will not protect the wearer from a direct hit by a high powered military weapon at close range.
