8 Star Wars Questions That Always Confused You

7. What Was The Point Of Stormtrooper Armour?

Star Wars Stormtroopers
Lucasfilm

One of the big misconceptions throughout Star Wars is that stormtrooper armour is effectively useless. While it's definitely understandable why viewers have been left with that impression, given it doesn't protect against direct blaster bolts, stormtrooper armour actually represented the pinnacle of military design in the galaxy far, far away.

The plastoid material that covered each trooper was designed to offer some protection against glancing blaster fire, but it had other benefits too. Apart from looking intimidating, stormtroopers also had access to an array of equipment in each set of armour, including a full utility belt, optional backpacks to carry further equipment, and an extremely advanced helmet.

Stormtrooper helmets (referred to mockingly as "buckets" by the Rebels), came equipped with their own heads-up-display and advanced communication set-ups, which would directly interface with the battlefield and give stormtroopers the edge in combat scenarios.

It may not look like much, and it won't offer any protection against direct blasterfire, but stormtrooper armour was far from useless.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.