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The Infamous "Stormtrooper Aim" Explained With Science

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A stormtrooper is able to Princess Leia with a rifle set to stun at a medium range in one shot.

Vader told them not to kill the heroes. Simple.

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I wore my friends trooper helmet a while back, and it fogged up on me.

"The other versions will disappear. Even the 35 million tapes of Star Wars out there won’t last more than 30 or 40 years. A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version [of the Special Edition], and you’ll be able to project it on a 20’ by 40’ screen with perfect quality. I think it’s the director’s prerogative, not the studio’s to go back and reinvent a movie." - George Lucas

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Wasn't the stun effect an expanding cone rather than a straight line laser?  The stun rifle barely had to be aimed.

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Cracked didn't read the entire article they cited ... firing percentages went up to 55% to 95% after changes in training. Stormtroopers displayed very good marksmanship in ANH. They boarded a hostile ship under fire, impressed even General Kenobi with their attack on the Sandcrawler, and in an incredible display of bravado actually faked a running battle with the rebels on the Death Star. These are not the actions of untrained conscripts who are afraid of taking (or giving) a life.

WRT the helmet, Luke's comment reflects the fact that the helmet's suspension wasn't adjusted for the size and shape of his head. He was significantly shorter than the average stormtrooper, and would have had a proportionately smaller head. He probably didn't know how to work the HUD, either. A trained stormtrooper would have no problem seeing in his helmet.

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Scruffy's gonna die the way he lived.
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They let the Rebels go it's the only explanation for the ease of their escape.

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Bingowings said:

They let the Rebels go it's the only explanation for the ease of their escape.

Seriously. The answer is in the movie like 6 minutes later.

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And then Leia threatens the Rebellion by leading the Death Star to the Rebel base, as many like to bitch about.

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generalfrevious said:

And then Leia threatens the Rebellion by leading the Death Star to the Rebel base, as many like to bitch about.

   And those who bitch about it never come up with an alternative.....were the Heroes/Rebels supposed to just 're-group' on Yavin and leave off destroying the Death Star to a later time (assuming they could find it at their leisure,  and then try to take it out)?????

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Uh, she could have just flown to wherever and transfered to a different ship. Or better yet, removed the frickin homing beacon, since she knew the Falcon was being tracked. But whatever, even Citizen Kane has a fundamental plot hole.

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Which is?

"It's the stoned movie you don't have to be stoned for." -- Tom Shales on Star Wars
Scruffy's gonna die the way he lived.
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I think it may be that no one ever heard Kane say rosebud.

But back to SW, that plot point I mentioned is an example people bring up who like to nitpick the whole trilogy.

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generalfrevious said:

And then Leia threatens the Rebellion by leading the Death Star to the Rebel base, as many like to bitch about.

They had an army ready to mobilize waiting as soon as they got the plans. I don't see any problem at all.

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I agree with that point. It was worth risking the Rebellion if it meant destroying the Death Star.

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Just to comment on something in the article responses, I have a 1980 Worlds of Star Wars magazine and it mentioned some biological background for characters. Dont have it in front of me but I recall it said the stormtroopers were clones.

I always figured it was a bunch of different clone models, not Jango Fett(since the prequels were decades away).

 

But the stormtrooper aim thing is something I never paid attention to.

I never spot the stormtrooper who hits his head either.

On Rosebud-I dont think its a plot hole exactly. Maybe he didnt want people to know he had a sissy fixation on a childhood item!

Strange name for a slei-- oops! spoiler warning!

 

 

 

 

 

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The "luring the Death Star into a trap" rationale works except for one small quibble: the Death Star plans had NOT been analyzed yet. Leia didn't know whether or not there was a weakness in the DS that they could exploit. Remember this?

Leia said:

The technical readouts of that battle station. I only hope that when the data's analyzed a weakness can be found.

And even if she was completely confident that a weakness would be found, she had no way of knowing how long it would take the Rebel analysts to discover it. Essentially, she has no reason to suspect that a marginally successful assault on the DS is even possible, and she doesn't know that there even is a weakness to exploit. All she seems confident of is the fact that Vader & Tarkin are tracking the Millennium Falcon. And yet, oddly, rather than switching ships at some planet somewhere or taking R2 somewhere else to get a complete technical analysis done, she leads the Imperial Forces directly to the secret base that she wants to protect and they want to destroy.

Dramatically and cinematically, it works. But it makes no logical sense whatsoever.

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zombie84 said:

Uh, she could have just flown to wherever and transfered to a different ship. Or better yet, removed the frickin homing beacon, since she knew the Falcon was being tracked. But whatever, even Citizen Kane has a fundamental plot hole.

   (This is also in response to Akwat Kbrana)

   Don't forget this, though:

"( assuming they could find it* at their leisure ,  and then try to take it out)?????" 

    Agreed on your caveat re Citizen Kane, though.

*or, as I should say, "find it AGAIN" ("it" being the Death Star).  Remember how the heroes 'luckily' got acquainted with the DS the first time?  Yet, I never hear people complain about how convenient to the plot that was.....

Come on,  we know the reason for the 'plot hole' in SW.   It's because Lucas wanted the Death Star battle - which was originally going to be at the end of Part III - to appear in the first film..........

..........oh wait.   I'm using what's most likely a revisionist meme (see paragraph above) to justify a so-called plot hole that was 'shoe-horned' into the first film. 

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"This is spurious business!" -  'Anonymous'

"Don't freakin' dissemble!" - Jack Nicholson as the Joker if he were in the movie 'Anger Management'

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 Come to think of it--the object in Kane's childhood wasnt really the issue--it was his lost childhood that mattered--maybe he did talk about that to people he knew but they didnt clue in(he hinted about it to his second wife when discussing things moved from his homestead).

He may well have only remembered the name Rosebud when he held the snowglobe.

The rebel base exposure is more of a problem since it goes against the character. Leia wanted to protect the base more than Kane wanted to talk about his childhood.

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Bantha Foodoo said:

The rebel base exposure is more of a problem since it goes against the character. Leia wanted to protect the base more than Kane wanted to talk about his childhood.

But we have no idea how long our heroes were on Yavin IV before attacking the DS. It was obviously not Lukes first time in that X-Wing. He knew the controls, targeting computer, was familiar with the weapons systems, the life support on his flight suit (presumably), knew about the flight squadrons and attack patterns ect. and knew the ship well enough to tell R2 what to fix. Also, the falcon traveled quite a ways through hyperspace. Who knows how long it took the giant, lumbering Death Star to arrive at Yavin. If a weakness wasn't found, the Rebels would possibly have had time to pack up and head out.

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Biggs in ANH edit idea
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Ok, I think we may need to start a Cracked.com thread but guess who's number 4 on the list of 7 Classic Star Wars characters who totally dropped the ball?

http://www.cracked.com/article_17546_7-classic-star-wars-characters-who-totally-dropped-ball.html

As they point out, Leia withholds the information when she's tortured by Dr. Ball M.D. and when her home planet is under threat she lies about where the Rebels are. So despite going through all this and correctly guessing that they're being tracked she just figures "F##k it, the Empire's going to find us eventually!."

Luckily for her and the rebellion Number 3 on the list is Tarkin who decides to park the Death Star in orbit of Yavin and wait for the rebel base to come into range.

Star Wars makes a lot more sense when you realise it's populated by a group of idiots.

 

Your brain just makes s**t up!

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Bobby Jay said:

Luckily for her and the rebellion Number 3 on the list is Tarkin who decides to park the Death Star in orbit of Yavin and wait for the rebel base to come into range.

See above post and the Death Star was orbiting Yavin to get to the moon not just parked there. Also, we have no idea how the DS even moves. It may have to rely on the gravitational pull of planets and moons or whatever. Why does everyone seem to think that giant thing was fast?

Ray’s Lounge
Biggs in ANH edit idea
ROTJ opening edit idea

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Wow. These plot holes do more damage to SW than the PT. We must be crazy to like this trilogy...