Stormtrooper effect
From Wookieepedia, the Star Wars wiki.
- "Only Imperial stormtroopers are so precise..."
- ―Obi-Wan Kenobi (line actually written to describe the fierceness and lethality of stormtroopers)[src]
The stormtrooper effect, also called stormtrooper syndrome, is an expression used to describe the cliché phenomenon in works of fiction of minor cannon fodder characters being completely ineffective in combat against characters important to the plot (protagonists). This ineffectiveness is typically visible as an inability to successfully strike the target with ranged weapons, even at close range. Though obviously unrealistic, the effect is common in many stories and movies. The stormtrooper effect is often a source of mockery by critics and fandom, but it is generally recognized as bringing a camp appeal where it occurs.
Though the origin of the expression is unknown, it refers to how the trained stormtroopers of the Galactic Empire in the three original Star Wars movies were usually unable to subdue the protagonists despite overwhelming numbers and firepower, chiefly due to their accuracy or lack thereof.
Contents |
[edit] Explanation
The stormtrooper effect is a narrative device, much like the character shield effect. Major characters drive the plot of the narrative, therefore they cannot be killed before their narrative purpose has been fulfilled. Likewise, given their importance, major characters are generally not killed in random shootouts, but rather in climactic battle and duel scenes. This requirement for main characters to live on until their narrative roles are fulfilled is achieved by such narrative devices as the stormtrooper effect, the character shield, the Wedge-type character, the inverse ninja law, and even the redshirt rule seen in Star Trek.
A possible in-universe explanation was given in Gundark's Fantastic Technology: Personal Gear, where a number of Imperial weapons were equipped with defective prismatic crystals that threw off accuracy by as much as 20%. One problem with this theory is that when protagonists use captured Imperial blasters, most notably on the Death Star I and on Cloud City, they are seen to exhibit phenomenal accuracy, rendering the "weapons problem" theory unlikely.
Another more plausible explanation could be that the stormtroopers' helmets have faulty visual systems, resulting in poor aim. The helmet's visors could also be too small to see out of properly hindering the trooper's aim. However, scout troopers, with their larger visors, still exhibit poor aim. Why this would be is unknown.
A simpler explanation provided by Mike Wong of Stardestroyer.net[1] is that in most scenes where the stormtroopers' accuracy is notably poor, they are actually under orders to not kill the main characters; these include scenes where the crew of the Millennium Falcon are fleeing the Death Star - and thus taking the bugged Falcon to the rebel base at Yavin per Grand Moff Tarkin's plan - and the scenes in Cloud City where the main characters are being driven back to the Falcon so that they can recover Luke, allowing Darth Vader to capture him.
This would fit with the notion that Stormtroopers are a fanatical elite, as it shows them to be willing to obey orders that put them in immense danger, such as deliberately putting up an ineffective resistance as part of a deception plan. This is further backed up by other scenes where stormtroopers prove unusually accurate, such as the Tantive IV boarding action, where many of them were hitting Rebel crewmen with shots from the hip, and the battle outside the shield bunker at Endor, where stormtroopers hit both Leia and R2-D2 with snap shots from long range.
[edit] In relation to clone troopers
The Republic clone troopers, on the other hand, are seemingly much better shots, taking down large numbers of battle droids (which are also seemingly suffering from the stormtrooper effect) and dozens of Jedi. It is possible that this phenomenon could be partially explained in-universe by the accuracy of Jango Fett, and after spending nearly three years in combat; facing all types of foes, which would be passed down to his clones, but not to the stormtroopers (with the exception of the 501st), who by the Galactic Civil War were almost all derived from recruits.
Perhaps the only true explanation (but sadly out-of-universe), is the fact that in most of the sources they were among the "good guys." This can be seen in Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, when Stormtroopers under the Mind Trick have better accuracy than regular Stormtroopers.
One more recent explanation occurs within the novel Republic Commando: True Colors. During the novel, it is stated by Mereel that the cloning contract between the Republic and Kamino would end by the end of the war. This would cause the Republic to search for alternative cloning sources. It is clearly stated within the novel that Arkanian cloning technology is faster, but the overall quality is significantly lower than Kaminoan standards. Also, during a test conducted by the Kaminoans concerning second generation cloning, the overall quality of the clone was inferior to their earlier designs. This information was obtained by Null Arc Trooper Mereel. Further proof to back up this theory was shown in the novel's sequel, Order 66. By the time of the Battle of Coruscant, the clone army was running desperately low on combat ready troops. During the battle, Palpatine unleashed a massive army of reserve clone troopers being held on the moon of Centax 2. These clones helped turn the tide of the battle, but Mandalorians Kal Skirata and Walon Vau noticed the clones significantly lower accuracy and combat training, as well as their apparent lack of knowlege of their Mandalorian heritage. These clones were created through Spaarti cloning technology. However, being cloned in less than a year and then flash-trained, these clones were little better than meatbags to be thrown at the enemy in overwhelming numbers.
[edit] Game mechanisms
There is doubtlessly a mismatch between the number of Reborn and New Reborn killed single-handedly by Kyle Katarn and Jaden Korr and the threat that they are made out to be, especially in cutscenes of the two video games they appear in. While it presents a mismatch, it does, nevertheless, serve the purpose of giving the player a positive gameplay experience, in addition, in both games, on all but the hardest difficulty settings foes with blasters (such as stormtroopers) have incredibly poor accuracy to the point that they have difficulty hitting a target standing still less than 6 feet in front of them, a theme typical of the stormtrooper effect. (The exception is automated turrets; while somewhat sluggish in tracking a moving player, they seem to have otherwise perfect accuracy even on the easiest difficulty settings.)
The accuracy displayed by clone troopers and B1 battle droids in the first level of Star Wars: Republic Commando is perhaps the poorest of any Star Wars game. Encounters between these two infantry units displayed absolutely terrible accuracy. In instances when a clone is only a few feet from a battle droid, the two enemies take several minutes before one of them is killed, usually the clone. An explanation of this is to display the superiority of RC-1138—the player—over the lesser allies and enemies, albeit in a rather exaggerated manner. When giving Thrawn an analysis of the capabilities of droid starfighters, Jorj Car'das mentions that the B1's are very accurate, but running both them and droid starfighters at the same time on Naboo overloaded the power and made both inefficient.
Most other Star Wars video games put the player in an excessively outnumbered situation. For example, in an X-wing Alliance mission, the player, Ace Azzameen, is supposed to single-handedly destroy waves of probe droids while being chased by TIE Advanced fighters, fired upon by the Star Destroyer's cannons, and the probes would also leave after a short time.
Star Wars: Battlefront later pokes at this idea; when one army is facing another, its usually the opposing side that has more success. While on the other hand, the player's allies display very low intelligence, on several instances they get killed by a grenade that they threw; many times they charge headlong onto well defended positions-taking many casualties.
Another factor that plays an important role is this is the nascent nature of computer-generated artificial intelligence characters. While their accuracy can be altered by defining different values for their accuracy, they often can be easily misled and their actions could become predictable, and hence, easy to counter.
However, when opened in notepad or with a user-made NPC editing tool, NPC files in the game Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, it can be found that there are values that may be edited to define said NPCs' accuracy, with a max of 5. However, the opponent is still a poor shot even at this highest setting. This, however, could be explained by the fact that most (if not all) weapons' bullets are extremely slow moving (especially when comparing to weapons like a standard 9mm), such that the player can easily dodge blaster shots.
In the Star Wars Roleplaying Game, there is a mechanism that replicates this effect in its narrative description: Vitality Points. Heroic characters have a stock of Vitality Points that turn hits into near misses, and not until these points are depleted do characters take hits and become wounded, according narrative conventions of the game. By contrast, stormtroopers, along with other non-heroic stock characters, lack Vitality Points. The lowest-level stormtroopers, though, have an attack bonus of +4 with their blaster rifles, which translates to approximately a 40-50% chance of hitting 1st-level heroic characters. This mechanism was removed when the game system was converted to the Saga Edition.
