Garth Ennis did a Star Wars story, apparently.

[espanolbot]

Also: the Greatest Movie Speech Ever!

It was called Trooper, and it was posted on the original Scans_Daily way back when. It was pretty good. Summary of the plot under the cover,

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Trooper_%28comic%29

And the Greatest Speech in Cinematic History as performed by Charlie Chaplin in the Great Dictator, with footage from various Star Wars sources and music from Inception,

Comments

[citygod]

That video is stunning - never seen a minute of Clone Wars, but it still works. And the music is a fantastic choice.
Wow.

[icon_uk]

Would random murder for no purpose other than proving a plot point really have been used that much by the Imperial Troops I wonder?

Seems a bit of a waste of citizens (especially the "You can prove your worth to us by killing a random member of the crowd" bit) and a little bit OTT.

[mcity.livejournal.com]

I was going to respond "Warren Ellis", then I realized it wasn't one of his stories. Weird. It seems like exactly something he'd do. Except with less trenchcoats and profane chainsmokers.

[espanolbot]

Kind of does make sense beyond villainy for the sake of it, to me at least.

See below.

[espanolbot]

I think that it's a combination of,
- making them demonstrate that they see the Empire as being more important than individuals.

- the ability to follow orders, even morally questionable ones.

- it would act as an indicator of the personality of the cadet through who they shoot. Such as, do they display pragmatism in their choice of victim, or do they display erratic enjoyment in just shooting some random unarmed civilian? The Empire might see that people who are more calculating are more likely to take orders than someone who treats life like Grand Theft Auto just because they have an excuse.

And finally,
- keeping order amongst the population through fear, whilst the same time removing familial ties to the area, on the basis that no one in the area is going to that welcoming of the cadet for joining the occupation force and randomly murdering someone. This would enforce their loyalty to the Empire, in theory, as they can't really go back home after this, except in certain circumstances (the person they shot being an unpopular person, such as a corrupt politician, debt collector etc. etc., who is below the Empire in importance but above the regular folk).

[icon_uk]

But would all Stormtroopers have dubious morals? Wouldn't a lot of them, draftees in particular, just be for wont of a better terms and with no disrespect to those serving in the armed forces "grunts". Peacekeepers (in their way) on backwater worlds. Unlikely to have need of grey areas.

Tyrannies are very labour intensive. Keep most of the population vaguely happy and only apply the jackboot when required.

The fanfilms TROOPS and IMPS: The Relentless, strike me as being a more likely (if obviously sanitised) standard approach.

[espanolbot]

I don't think that it'd be standard procedure, just in the places that they think they'd been to use the jackboot (places that already had ties to the Empire could probably be afforded a softer touch), or it could be at the decision of the commanding officer at the time or something.

[kenwyn89]

There's two forms that stand out in military history as justification for war and killing (because it is not a natural state). One pushed upon troops is that the people they are killing are "lesser" than them for some reason, by politics and race wouldn't matter as long as they feel superior. The other that is found to be healthier for the individual soldier and more morale boosting is telling soldiers they are acting in defence of something- preservation of life rather than exterminating a blight. It's quite conceivable to get both views with troops within an army. And both allow for extraordinary behaviour when reinforced with group mentality with the former leading in excess to the path to genocide. Real punishments like decimation (killing every tenth man in a unit) existed in the Roman World. I can unfortunately believe empire troops stooping to that.

[shanejayell]

Was Trooper made before Clone Wars, I wonder? Or is the Empire no longer using clone troops by the time SW IV starts?

[espanolbot]

Yeah, it was made before the prequels. Though I think that I read that only the Emperor's Imperial Guards are the remains of the original clones, so it's possible that they started recruiting regular people from their occupied world's due to it being cheaper or something. Or because having the occupied people have an actual investment in the Empire by being an actual part of it, rather than effectively being taken over by aliens.

Y'know, like how in Star Trek the Federation assimilates worlds into itself to prevent them from being threats down the line.

[beoweasel]

The original Jhango Fett clones still existed long after the Empire's formation, but only the 501st (Vader's personal battalion) remained comprised entirely of Fett clones. After the Clone Wars, the Empire used a mixture of conscripts, original Fett Clones, and clones of exemplary soldiers to bolster the ranks of the Stormtrooper Corp.

[filthysize]

The Stormtroopers in the original trilogy are recruits. They only bred the clones so they have an army for the Clone Wars, but after Palpatine established the Empire, they didn't need clones anymore.

[mola_ram]

That and the increased aging processthe clones were put through.
they continued to age rapidly during the clone wars and began eventually quickly to die of old age

[beoweasel]

I don't know about that. Commander Cody was still very much alive after the Clone Wars, and continued on to train troops on Kamino (Where he grew to utterly despise the non-clone Troopers, treating them as incompetent and little better than cannon fodder.)

[mola_ram]

Didn't know that about Cody, but the entire clone aging process and the problems regarding it are covered in the Star wars Republic command novels by Karen Traviss.
(4 books; Hard contact, Triple zero, True colors and Order 66)
One of the plots in the books are about how a old mandalorian (Kal Skirata) who were hired by Jango Fett to help train the first batch of clone troopers on Kamino, sets plans in motions to find a way to reverse the aging process for a squad of clones he has come to see as his own "boys".

(the books aren't that well written IMO, but the work that has gone into mapping out the mandalorian language, customs and culture is great)

A quote from Hard Contact ;
What do i think about it? I don't know, really. Nobody's ever asked me for my opinion before.
-Clone Trooper RC-5093, retired at CF VetCenter, Coruscant.
Chronological age: twenty-three
Biological age: sixty

[icon_uk]

That truly is a magnificent speech, I find Chaplin the Tramp about as funny as a stubbed toe most of the time, but "The Great Dictator" and "M Verdoux" are marvellous.

[filkertom]

Excellent video. Thanks for sharing that.

[lissa_quon]

Nice video. Good use of music. The editing was also pretty spot on.

The speech though is of course amazing. No matter how many times I hear it that speech always brings me to tears no matter what else is added to it.

[beoweasel]

It's funny, I absolutely hated the CGI Clone Wars movie, but after playing through SWTOR (and from my roommate's suggestion) I sat down to watch some of the Clone Wars episodes from Season Three and Season Four, and to my surprise, there were several that were really good, including one story arc in the 4th season that dealt entirely with the troopers under Anakin's command.

[eyz]

I really enjoyed many of these "Star Wars Tales" comics actually.
They played a lot with the SW universe and went into various different genres/tone/stories...

[halloweenjack]

So... which story came first--this one, or the very similar chapter of the Invisibles by Grant Morrison (POV of random grunt who gets killed by one of the heroes)?

[espanolbot]

This one... I think so.