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GrahamKennedy wrote:Yeah, it started there. I remember those silly things raised quite a few eyebrows when they were first seen.

What's silly about them? Given the observed properties of phasers they stand a good chance of stopping a beam in its tracks, and even if they don't there's at least the possibility of reducing a fatal shot to "just" a serious injury.

Apart from direct weapons fire, the armour keeps out shrapnel (one of the biggest killers on a modern battlefield) protects the head against both shrapnel and random knocks and, if worst comes to worst, holds the body together if the wearer is seriously injured. You stand a much better chance of surviving a serious injury if your internal organs don't spill out all over the ground.

Overall, there are many reasons for wearing armour (helmets in particular), which outweigh the cost of being slowed down a bit by the weight of it.

I always wondered why Stormtroopers wore armour. They can't even protect your head when you walk into a bulkhead, or deflect the shot from the kind of tiny guns Princess's carry round in their purse.

kostmayer wrote:I always wondered why Stormtroopers wore armour. They can't even protect your head when you walk into a bulkhead, or deflect the shot from the kind of tiny guns Princess's carry round in their purse.

No armour is 100% proof - there's the strong possibility that Leia hit the Stormie's armour at a weak point. Besides that the key advantages are its protection against shrapnel, the sensory/comms advantages of the kit built into the suit, and the NBC protection awarded by the fully-sealed bodysuit. Look at the way the clonetroopers were able to advance into a cloud of dust and various noxious chemicals in AotC for example.

kostmayer wrote:I always wondered why Stormtroopers wore armour. They can't even protect your head when you walk into a bulkhead, or deflect the shot from the kind of tiny guns Princess's carry round in their purse.

Stormtrooper armour is blaster resistant, it's not designed to provide complete protection but rather turn a killing hit into a wound. And you'll note that the blasters used against them in the films are all high grade military models. With the notable exception of Solo's DL-44, which is an overpowered civvie model.

There's also the sporting blaster Leia used on the Tantive IV. Given the range she fired at though, it's likely that she was able to hit the bodyglove rather than the armour.

Captain Seafort wrote:There's also the sporting blaster Leia used on the Tantive IV. Given the range she fired at though, it's likely that she was able to hit the bodyglove rather than the armour.

If I recall the novelisation correctly, he was alive. But if you look at the hit compared to the military blasters, there's alot of sparks. Where the military blasters usually just flash and produce smoke. I'd wager that the armour robbed the hit of most of it's power.

While Stormtrooper armour doesn't stop the blast completely, it does seriously negate the damage the shot causes. Take a look at ANH, where you can see massive chunks getting blown out of steel walls. Now look at what happens when a Stormtrooper gets shot; there's a small blackened mark, with only a small amount of the armour actualy breached. Where he not wearing armour, the trooper would probably have been quite messily killed.

ANH novelisation wrote:The trooper who had been unlucky enough to find her fell first, his head a mass of melted bone and metal. The same fate met the second armoured form coming up fast behind him. Then a bright green energy pole touched the woman's side and she slumped instantly to the deck

I don't think he survived that. Then again, I don't recall a second Stomie being shot, or stun blasts resembling lightsabres, so the scene is of questionable accuracy WRT the film.

Rochey wrote:While Stormtrooper armour doesn't stop the blast completely, it does seriously negate the damage the shot causes. Take a look at ANH, where you can see massive chunks getting blown out of steel walls. Now look at what happens when a Stormtrooper gets shot; there's a small blackened mark, with only a small amount of the armour actualy breached. Where he not wearing armour, the trooper would probably have been quite messily killed.

A good indicator of what's happened is that they are checking their buddies to see if their alive when Vader boards.

I don't think he survived that. Then again, I don't recall a second Stomie being shot, or stun blasts resembling lightsabres, so the scene is of questionable accuracy WRT the film.

Indeed. Given that it was a sporting blaster, it's likely that it did no more damage than the rebel soldiers weapons.