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Soviet strategy of throwing men (and women) and hardware at a problem until they steamrollered it.
Numbers have a quality of their own - to paraphrase one J Stalin.
Storm Trooper – cloned, trained from birth, equipped with the best and latest firepower.
Ewok – 3′ high teddy bear. No equipment beyond sticks and stones, zero combat training.
But on home turf.
I've just realised. It's an allegory for the Vietnam War, isn't it.
... balls, as someone already said on the previous page.
Most wars with imperial aims are.
See also:
Haiti
Cuba
Panama
Iraq 1
Somalia
Afghanistan
Iraq 2
Syria
Libya
ISIL
Invading doesn't work but there's always next time.
Iran, anyone?!
Sorry, I'm playing catchup.
Why only 3 shirt colours anyway? Surely they could’ve splashed out on green, black, white to give a better distinction between who does what. I guess Federation catering would wear white, and maybe Federation HR & procurement are in green so we don’t see them so much, but surely security would’ve looked proper badass in black shirts rather than being lumped in with the knob-twiddlers and spanner-jockeys in red.
Voyager-era medical was green. "Please state the nature of your medical emergency." I could've sworn there was a green female uniform on TNG too but I can't quite place it.
Black security uniforms is probably a bit too Section 31 / "are we the baddies?"
The green was to show it was a hologram and not human, I think...
I’ve just realised. It’s an allegory for the Vietnam War, isn’t it.
It looks like it, but is it deliberate?
Vietnam, from an outsider's perspective, is a classic case of underdog defending home vs big outside aggressor. This has been played out countless times in history and is widespread as a romantic theme in literature and film. Of course Vietnam was prominent in people's minds at the time, but that in turn also raised awareness of other struggles such as that of the natives against American/European colonisers - and to be honest that's what the battle in RotJ reminds me of. American culture reveres the struggle for freedom against oppression (whilst at the same time doing plenty of oppressing) so it could be seen as being pro traditional American freedom values; pro traditional American anti-colonialism/anti-British/independence; subversive anti-Vietnam; or subversive anti-American domestic colonialism.
Or it's just a generic romantic triumph of underdog set-piece.
EDIT oh, apparently Lucas verified it is deliberately anti-Vietnam. As you were.
FB-ATB
Full MemberAren’t stormtroopers clones of Jango fett? Perhaps he was a bad shot and this gets replicated and as quality reduces with each copy…..
They were initially but over time they started diversifying, to reduce the risk of Stormtrooper Blight.
As a kid watching Starwars little nerd me wondered where the empire got people to be storm troopers, did they advertise in the paper?
Wanted: Baddies for Death Star, uniform provided.
Same place Nazis got troops.
At the start of Rogue One, Jyn Erso's a kid & her Dad gets taken to work on the Death Star. It's just about finished by the time she's grown up. After it gets destroyed in A New Hope, doesn't take long to get a Mk2 underway.
where the empire got people to be storm troopers, did they advertise in the paper?
Think Mel Brookes covered this in Blazing Saddles
you’ve got all manner of spacecraft with in atmosphere capabilities. Why do you need to drop your ATATs so far from the battle so they can torturously slowly walk towards the enemy?
1) If you're dropping troop carriers you want to do it somewhere safe away from anti air fire.
2) See previous point regarding shock and awe tactics. It's just badass as they know (think) nothing can take them out so just send them to plod in whilst the rebels brick it.
Uniforms, hierarchy, discipline, obedience, permanent warfare, good vs evil, social classes don't exist, behaviour and character are essentialist, genius not teamwork gets things done, foreigners are alien, destruction is thrilling, empires can be good or bad, people need to fight, opponents are robotic and identical in Mao suits, technology solves all, no-one ever needs the dunny. May well be wrong, never seen one.
EDIT oh, apparently Lucas verified it is deliberately anti-Vietnam. As you were.
I think, given that "A New Hope" is a mish-mash of a huge number of films TV, books, myths and so on, I think there's a bit of refitting the past going on there, especially as Lucas suggested it was Anti Vietnam for the first time only in 2005.
wondered where the empire got people to be storm troopers, did they advertise in the paper?
Wanted: Baddies for Death Star, uniform provided.
To most people they were the goodies. Even Luke was planning to join up in the first film
The Rebel Alliance needs to learn the same lesson that the U.S. Army was handed in 1950, that good troops cannot overcome poor planning and even worse resourcing.