The best stormtrooper change that Andor made to Star Wars has been reversed in a way I cannot quite believe. There are many types of stormtroopers in Star Wars, often viewed as bumbling, inaccurate grunts of the Empire. However, Andor fixed this stormtrooper mistake.
As the best Star Wars TV show, Andor bolstered the franchise in a vast number of ways. Not only did it add immense context, drama, and weight to the formation of Star Wars‘ Rebel Alliance, but Andor forced many to take the franchise seriously in a way they might not have before.
The aforementioned stormtrooper change was just one of the many ways in which Andor ensured this, yet I am baffled to find that Star Wars has just reversed it.
Andor Finally Made Stormtroopers Scary Again
What Andor did was actually make stormtroopers scary, something that Star Wars had forgotten over the decades. From the first Star Wars movie, the Imperial soldiers were seen as jokes.
Be it the way one of them bangs his head on a door, the jokes at their expense, or the poor aim that allows Luke, Han, and Leia to escape the Death Star unharmed, Star Wars never took stormtroopers seriously.
Andor changed this by treating the Star Wars galaxy with increased maturity. The Empire became a terrible organization capable of atrocities that were depicted in a real, grounded, terrifying way. What made the stormtroopers even more scary, though, is that they were rarely present for this.
Andor focused more on other types of Imperial soldiers, reserving stormtroopers for huge climactic moments like the Ghorman Massacre. This meant that, whenever stormtroopers actually did appear in Andor, they were presented as the elite soldiers of the Empire that committed its worst crimes. Above all else, this made Star Wars’ most iconic villains scarier than ever.
Star Wars: Visions Season 3 Reverses Andor’s Stormtrooper Change
Despite Andor‘s best efforts, Star Wars: Visions season 3 makes stormtroopers more akin to what they always have been, albeit in different ways. The first way Star Wars: Visions reverses Andor‘s change comes in episode 2. In this episode, a rebel princess helps a young alien survive an Imperial raid, leading them into conflict with an entire squadron of stormtroopers.
Although there is a large group of stormtroopers, they revert to being inaccurate, bumbling idiots. At one point, a group of five to ten stormtroopers is firing their weapons at a stationary speeder, missing every single shot they fire. Just before that, they are beaten by a cute baby alien with a slingshot.
Star Wars: Visions season 3, episode 9 continues to change Andor‘s perception of stormtroopers, only in a much different way. This episode delves into the psyche of a stormtrooper during his death on the Death Star. This makes the stormtroopers feel much more grounded, like Andor did, only in a way that arguably humanizes them.
Instead, Andor made the stormtroopers a competent embodiment of evil. Star Wars: Visions, though, makes them either bumbling fools or humanized soldiers once more.
- Release Date
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2022 – 2025-00-00
- Network
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Disney+
- Showrunner
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Tony Gilroy
