Or people are too dumb to understand decent writing. The storm troopers destroyed the rebels in the opening scene. They killed almost every fighter in the battle of Yavin. The only time they didn’t perform well is when intentionally letting Leia escape. Sure there’s plot armor, but there’s also an explanation for a lot of it.
For Leia, Vader had set the Stormtroopers on ‘Stun’.
They mean when they escape the death star and rescue Leia in ANH. Vader explicitly says he ordered to let them escape so they could be tracked to Yavin 4.
Another instance of explaining plot armor.
Actually, i was making a StarTrek joke.
They also sucked in Mos Eisley. They aren’t trying to let them escape, nor are they trying to take them alive or anything like that. They completely give up the element of surprise by loudly shouting “blast them!” and then fail to hit anything despite having an entire squad of troops ready to open up on them.
That said, ESB shows them as being competent, and the only shots they miss are from long range and against targets with good cover. Sadly, the same cannot be said of ROTJ, as basically everything the empire does on Endor is idiotic and makes them look incompetent.
as basically everything the empire does on Endor is idiotic and makes them look incompetent.
Which makes perfect sense, as by RotJ the empire had to rely on barely trained new recruits and recently promoted officials, because most of their veterans were dead - either by Vader-phyxiation, by “meetings with the Emperor” or straight up backstabbing.
Also… I assume quite a few of their best and brightest were on the first death star. That was a large station…
Considering Tarkin, Sidious’ right-hand man, died in that explosion, I’d say that’s a safe assumption
If Tarkin was the right hand, would that make Vader the left hand? Ironic …