STAR WARS

Those mean ol' stormtroopers

We all know the stormtroopers are bad news, right? ...right? Let's examine a few brief scenes that contain some precious few clues about governmental attitudes towards the citizenry. First, after Kenobi slices somebody's arm off in a bar room altercation, stormtroopers arrive on the scene:

It's clear that the troopers were called to the cantina, they didn't just show up. The script describes the troopers looking at the dead bodies (dead? we only see one guy's arm cut off), so these supposed criminal types are not the types who 'take care of their own' (or perhaps they are and Jedi are clearly NOT their own?) because they either called the cops or, even more telling, do not disturb the bodies so the proper authorities can deal with them. Either way, they don't try to hide and protect the Jedi.

The barkeep points the troopers in their direction! This gives some indication of commoners' attitudes toward Jedi. As soon as the sword-wielding thug shows up in a public place he dismembers somebody. The authorities are then called (the appropriate reaction) and those evil bad Imperial troops want to have a word with the man who thinks he can just lop off people's extremities. And when they don't find the man they're looking for, why those bad bad men ... well, they leave to look for him without accosting anybody. Those foul Imperials. I can sure see why people love those blood-thirsty trigger-happy Jedi.

When the Jedi were still in power, in Attack of the Clones, we see their idea of due process - "Jedi business." Startin' to get an idea about why you never hear anybody fondly remember the good times when Jedi wandered around as judge, jury, and executioners? Second, troopers search the streets of Mos Eisley:

That evil stormtrooper... um... politely left a locked door unmolested. Again, no roughing up of innocent passersby, no breaking down doors. Is this perhaps an indication of the (new) rights and protections that the citizens of the galaxy have? Even when searching for royalist sympathizers engaged in a counter revolution, these Imperials seem to do their best to leave the innocents out of it and act with the utmost restraint. Go get those Rebel scum, boys!

Third, when stormtroopers, assisted by some sort of penis-nosed informant, head into docking bay 94 to try and stop solo from leaving. The first time we see Dick-Nose tailing Ben and Luke, the droids are nowhere to be seen, so that's not why he's tailing them. This could be a concerned citizen reporting the whereabouts of a violent criminal (Kenobi). Maybe he's a friend of Kenobi's victim trying to see justice done. These troopers are in pursuit of one or two suspected murderers, Kenobi for his blade work and Solo for killing Greedo (don't believe the doctored Special Editions that have digitally added a first shot by Greedo - this was done I suppose to pretty up Solo's questionable past), when they receive this order:

LOAD your weapons? He doesn't say to 'ready your weapons' or 'take the safety off' or 'set to kill'. No, he says "LOAD your weapons". These troopers have been patrolling without live ammo in their guns (their guns may in fact be using case-round ammo as shells are visibly ejected in several sequences in Empire), and only load up when they are closing in on two suspected (suspected hell - WE as the audience know damn well they did it!) murderers attempting to flee the city together. And what the hell else is Han Solo wanted for that upon siting him these troopers, models of self restraint, start shooting? If you think they're shooting because of the droids, guess again. The droids and everybody else are already aboard and out of sight.

This set's the stage for the rest of Han's career throughout the trilogy. His main talent seems to be in escaping. Unfortunately his talent isn't preventing the NEED to escape. Well, if you're in the habit of employing criminals, I suppose this is the sort of thing you have to deal with. Right?

My point is not to show the Imperials as the 'good guys', because they're not. They're a military force struggling for power and control. Such folk cannot, by definition, be the 'good guys'. Given a choice between the royals and the Imperials, I think more people get a better shake under the Imperials. That does NOT mean that I think the Imperials are great guys. Just better than the fucking royals.

Watch here as well for the first meeting between C-3PO and Han Solo. Threepio says "hello, sir" and Han turns away with a disgusted look. Threepio's mind tricks will never work on Han and as the movies progress Han's resistance to Force manipulation is demonstrated over and over again in his interactions with Anakin's protocol droid.