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Ravendeviant In reply to Qwerty1939 [2019-05-17 13:50:21 +0000 UTC]

That's a great point!  You'd think that somewhere in all of those movies, or somewhere in all of those awesome episodes of Clone Wars, or Rebels, they would include a tiny little scene in which a blaster bolt clearly deflects off of a piece of stormtrooper armor, to justify its existence.  Or maybe we'd see Rex or Cody or someone survive a blast or an explosion or something, and then say, "I'm sure thankful for this armor.  Without it, I'd have been a gonner."  That's all it would take.  I'd also love to see a scene in which we see a trooper using night-vision, or helmet-mounted targeting assist, or zoom features, or enhanced audio, or GPS, or something to justify those bulky helmets.  Like, maybe the first time Ezra puts on one of his many Imperial helmets, he could be surprised by all of the blinking internal displays and features.  Surely there must be some kind of HUD in those things.  And if not the Stormtroopers, then at least the Mandalorians should have some of those cool features.  Maybe the new Mandalorian series will give us this long overdue view from inside a helmet.  Thanks for the great comment!       

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eclipsegrafx In reply to Ravendeviant [2020-01-17 07:18:12 +0000 UTC]

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Ravendeviant In reply to eclipsegrafx [2020-01-17 13:53:16 +0000 UTC]

So true! So true!  And that one scene in which Rex's armor actually does some good must be balanced against the roughly 15 kazillion occasions in which clonetroopers drop like flies the first time any beam strikes them.  Another pet peeve that I have is that we very rarely ever see the digital "heads up displays" that the troopers have.  That's just one more reason to love The Mandalorian, in which we regularly see Mando's P.O.V. looking out through his helmet's visor, using various features like thermal-vision.  And we also repeatedly get to see his armor take a direct hit and totally save his bacon.  Yay!  Go Mando!

This brings me to another point.  (Sorry for the lecture.)  One of the great things about the original trilogy is that there was a very real appreciation of the hardware.  I mean, the movie really gives some serious screen time relishing the appearance of the lightsaber.  The audience is really given a chance to enjoy the look and feel of it.  Obi-wan talks about it, and Luke plays with it.  We all have moments of awe with it.  Likewise, we really get a chance to relish how cool the X-Wings, Y-Wings, and Falcon are.  Likewise, the Star Destroyers, Death Star, Snowspeeders, Walkers, and Speeder bikes are given real moments where we have a chance to be in awe of them.  In addition, these vehicles all have moments to shine in which they actually help to accomplish something, like blowing up the Death Star, etc. and we as fans are allowed a few moments to bask in that victory. 

In the last two movies (Ep 8 and 9) it really feels like every ship is just there so that we can see it blow up tragically.  Kylo Ren shows up in a COOL BRAND NEW FIGHTER, which is instantly cut in half by a melee weapon and ignominiously crashes into the dirt without ever having done ANYTHING.  Then, ten minutes later, he shows up in ANOTHER brand new TIE Fighter, which is promptly stolen by Rey.  She flies it halfway around the galaxy and then burns it.  What a tragic waste of a cool new design.  (They won't be selling many replicas of that ship.)  Similarly, they went to all the trouble of including a BRAND NEW B-Wing in Ep 9, but it's never more than a tiny silhouette on screen.  Why bother to include it at all?  In Ep 8, the entire Resistance Fleet is destroyed without ever having accomplished anything.  We are shown each new ship very briefly, just long enough to see it crash and blow up.  I find this all very frustrating. 

Part of what fans enjoy about Star Wars is the cool sci-fi hardware, doing what it does, being amazing!  I agree that the hardware shouldn't steal the show, but each piece of gear is emblematic of the people, and the era and the struggle.  I think that hardware was something that George Lucas understood and enjoyed.  He used this love of machines to great effect in the first trilogy.  I think that somewhere along the line, they lost track of man's love of "gear."  Instead, they just throw a lot of designs at the screen in rapid succession and have them prove how pointless and useless they are, and then have them blow up in a spectacular demonstration of CG graphics, but it all feels kind of empty and hollow to us because they skipped over the part where we got a chance to enjoy its awesomeness.                      

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Qwerty1939 In reply to Ravendeviant [2019-05-17 14:53:53 +0000 UTC]

Indeed ! And to think those stormtroopers dying immediately of Han Solo 's one shot kills in TFA ....makes me sad😂😔


Well , on the bright side :
youtu.be/YJYRSIDelWU

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