Star Wars fans have discovered the real reason stormtroopers always seem to be missing their shots, but to be honest it makes complete sense.
Throughout the various action sequences in the original Star Wars trilogy, stormtroopers are frequently shown to have inaccurate aim and constantly miss their shots.
Considering these soldiers are meant to be elite troops, it’s bizarre that highly trained shooters would constantly be missing easy-to-place shots.
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This led to a running joke in the Star Wars community, poking fun at the fact that stormtroopers can never perfectly land their shots.
The joke has been repeated in the likes of Robot Chicken, Family Guy, and even in Star Wars itself.
However, there is a very simple reason for why stormtroopers seem to always be missing, and it’s pretty obvious in the text itself.
For starters, let’s just establish that stormtroopers are depicted as being highly accurate in the opening moments of A New Hope.
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They wipe out most of the rebel soldiers aboard the Tantive IV and take the ship without many casualties.
Later, Obi-Wan notes the preciseness of the shots made to the Jawas’ sandcrawler on Tatooine. It’s only when our heroes get into firefights aboard the Death Star that stormtroopers are shown to be imprecise.
But it’s later revealed that the Empire allows them to escape so they can track the Millennium Falcon to the Rebel base on Yavin IV.
So, of course, stormtroopers were ordered to miss their shots, and instead use the action to herd the characters to specific locations.
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Despite it seemingly being set in stone, fans have come up with their own theories and explanations.
On Reddit, one fan suggests the soldiers’ equipment is at fault, writing: “They are elite troops, but their equipment is over engineered and unreliable.”
“Isn’t it literally supposed to be the Force protecting the good guys?” another comment wrote. “They show it pretty explicitly in Rogue One. Chirrut Îmwe walks out and the troopers literally cannot hit him until he completes his task.”
A third comment simply wrote: “They miss because they’re shooting at the main cast.” Fair enough.
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Still, despite there being a confirmed reason for stormtroopers’ bad aim in the films itself, it looks like this debate will never end.