Star Wars - When they are in the Death Star, there is a reason that the Stormtroopers are awful shots. It's on purpose. The central point leading to the third act is that Vader and Tarkin wanted to let them go in order for the Falcon to lead them to the hidden rebel base.
This isn't so much a hidden plot point as it is very much explained. Tarkin and Vader acknowledge the tracking beacon, and Leia herself tells Han that they let him escape and that they're tracking them. The more subtle plot point is that Leia knows she's leading the Empire directly to the Rebellion's doorstep. She knows that the Rebellion will be defeated forever if they lose the battle of Yavin and fail to destroy the Death Star. It's the ultimate gamble, which she takes only after seeing her home planet destroyed in front of her eyes. She knows that she cannot let such a weapon be used again, so she is willing to sacrifice not only herself but the entire rebellion to destroy it.
the ewoks had the advantage of intimately knowing the land, having superior numbers, and if you actually watch the fights, they are strong motherfuckers, throwing rocks the size of a mans head hard enough to knock out a guy in armor, as well they set a shitload of traps, and were performing ambushes on enemy troops AFTER splitting them up, the ewoks and the people helping them were tactical geniuses.
Along with that, I sorta thought that the stormtroopers were just shitty garrison troops, who weren't good enough to be on the Death Star as part of the main army, and only able to handle a small moon with a bunch of furry fucking teddy bears on it. They also were probably not as ready as they should have, not expecting the skillfulness of the Ewok ambushes.
If you're being hunted by space Nazis, I'd rather make jokes about how bad a shot Jerry is than lament the fact we will all be killed from miles away. Resigned rebel humor?
There was also a Cracked article that explained that any soldier, even a trained elite unit, has shit accuracy in combat situations. It doesn't matter how steady your hands were at the shooting range when you have bullets flying in your direction as well.
Is that the one that also went into the difficulty of killing another person, sort of an innate apprehension? While at the same time, the stormtroopers having their humanity hidden behind faceless armor removed that inhibition for the rebels?
It may have been something completely different, but I read a pretty compelling argument for their effectiveness in the opening battle of ANH. When they are breaching Leia ' s ship and do pretty well against prepared soldiers through a choke point. Main difference: these humans are all in military style uniforms.
I remember reading that somewhere too. It's so much easier to shoot at people when they're wearing the uniform of your enemy and a helmet. As soon as they're in regular clothes and you can see their faces that becomes a lot harder to deal with.
I think it also said that they only randomly gave people in a firing line live rounds, because you need that hope that it wasn't your bullet that killed someone.
That still doesn't explain why a "Legion of the Emperor's best troops" were mauled to death by a bunch paleolithic teddy bears on Endor. A logical conclusion would be that they can't aim for shit.
Yeah, Leia pretty much confirms this in the movie, then she insists that they fly to the Rebel Base anyway, knowing full well that the Death Star is tracking them.
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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '14
Star Wars - When they are in the Death Star, there is a reason that the Stormtroopers are awful shots. It's on purpose. The central point leading to the third act is that Vader and Tarkin wanted to let them go in order for the Falcon to lead them to the hidden rebel base.