Storming The Tantive 4.
Tracking the droids not only to Tatooine, but to the Jawas, and to the Lars.
The Battle of Hoth
Trapping the Strike Team on Endor. Everything after that not so much.
Capturing Baby Yoda.
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Well, that's a universal movie law:
All villains are deadly and unstoppable, whether they're soldiers or monsters or aliens or zombies or whatever... UNTIL they attack the leading characters. Then, they get hesitant and clumsy, and their weapons couldn't hit a barn or harm a fly.
Actually, as I point out in my post below, in A New Hope and Empire the leads did not have 'plot armor' there was an order in each of those films to not kill the lead characters. The troopers were literally under order to be missing them on purpose. They just had to shot at them enough to get them to go a certain direction, in both cases Vader wanted them on the millenium Falcon
shareReally? I always assumed the weapons were set on "stun", and they were missing because of the aforementioned movie law.
And if Imperial blasters don't have a "stun" setting, then they're the wrong weapons to use on a mission to capture someone alive.
Well in neither case were they trying to capture them, it seemed they were purposefully trying to get them all on the falcon. It makes more sense in a new hope because Vader specifically wanted them to escape on that ship so they can use the beacon to find the rebel hidden base. This is explicitly stated. The troopers were using the actual live fire to force the heroes in a particular direction. Couldn't use stun for that otherwise it would not work .
In Empire it is a little more suggested instead of stated. But the hyperdrive on the falcon was intentionally deactivated so they could all be captured on the ship. The idea was that Vader would use them, threaten them and such to get Luke to succumb to the dark side. This is why the only dock Lando could still get them on to was the Dock with the Falcon. I think Vader wanted them on the Falcon in case Luke got a way with them on it he would still get him. In both cases though in ended up not working out for Vader. But the Troopers did what they were supposed to do.
But starting in ROTJ the troopers did start to become a bit of a joke with their battle prowess.
I was just thinking about his the other day. I can't stand the criticism of the OT that the "stormtroopers" can't shot. As you point out they are quite impressively deadly when they are not restricted.
And it is also not 'plot armor' that protected the lead characters. In Both a New hope and Empire Strikes back the troopers had orders to either allow them to escape (as in the Death Star) so they can track them or to take them alive when on Bespin. Vader wanted them to live in both cases and gave orders for this. The Troopers did not 'suck' and the leads did not have 'plot armor' there was a specific reason and order they were given to not to 'shot to kill'
The First time that you get an actual indication that they suck is not until Endor in ROTJ. There they were kind of a joke but you can maybe make the argument they were not prepared to fight such a small sized and primitive force. That is not a great excuse for what we witnessed in ROTJ with the Ewoks but it kind of fits. Sometimes conventional armies can have difficulty with more primitive warfare at first if they have not been trained for it.
Worth noting that the two biggest blunders in the Imperial Navy were done by officers, and not Stormtroopers. First was the Imperials on the Star Destroyer, who chose not to destroy the escape pod because there were no life forms on board. Then on Endor, the Commander in charge of the shield generator completely buys Han's rouse, and opens the backdoor for them. Didn't even ask for an ID of the AT-ST pilot, or his current position. Just opened the door and allowed his last reserves to be captured. Also he didn't seem very concerned by the fact that he had lost all radio contact with every walker.
shareThis has been well explained by others. the times they were a bad shot was all the times Vader wanted the good guys to escape so he could track them to the rebels.
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