Poll: Which is the best trilogy of the Star Wars saga? PT vs. OT vs. ST

It’s still a tenuous excuse for what is a stupid scene. You can believe it if you wish but to me it just sounds like a hasty explanation first devised well after the film was made to try and cover up a plot hole.

 

I'm probably going to trigger a lot of people by saying the prequels were the best. The droid army felt much more formidable foes than the stormtroopers, who literally couldn't hit water if they fell out of a boat. Yes battle droids suffer the same problem, but at least you had stuff like droidekas that actually required some thought to destroy. I also feel like the actors, besides Anakin, were generally better in the prequel. however I think the originals are still amazing films and definitely have their advantages. Sequel trilogy is only tolerable if you completely ignore the plot, they just basically did a bad remake of the OT.

 

Have one of my famous Arnie thumbs ups my friend:

Because my opinion is pretty much exactly the same as yours. Between this and your support of Beastmen, I salute you!

With regards to the Battle Droids, yes they are weak on their own as you point out, but they become more dangerous as a horde and they actually have an excuse to be individually weak (they were made with cheap parts and designed to be as easy to build and store en masses as possible because the Trade Federation were tightwads), plus, again as you correctly say, there are more powerful Droid units such as the B2s (can take blaster shots and keep on coming), Magnaguards (who can survive being decapitated by a lightsaber) and Droidekas (who are pretty much unbeatable in an Infantry fight and can only be killed by Starfighter-grade weapons).

The Stormtroopers have no such excuse, except in Rogue One where the elite Death Troopers are also a significant threat.

The Legion of Righteous Thought grows!

 

All these fantasy films (whether space fantasy or otherwise) have cannon fodder troops for the heroes to wade through. LOTR has orcs/goblins, TMNT has the foot clan soldiers, OT has stormtroopers, PT has droids and the ST has anybody not named Rey. You can argue that one is executed better than the other, but they all serve the same function.

You can easily point to scenes where stormtroopers are crap (i.e. fighting Ewoks), but the same can by done in relation to the droids too (i.e. getting picked off easily/accidentally by Jar Jar)

It isn't a matter of belief, I was merely explaining the theory to you.

 

The reason I was so astounded by the stormtrooper's seeming inability to be at all effective was that they were supposed to be highly elite shock troops. Yet somehow a ragtag group of rebels seems to have secured better weapons, gear, and starships (TIE fighters are ridiculously underpowered, they get massacred by X wings every single time). The Empire has vastly superior funds, but they have a vastly inferior military, which frustrated me. In the PT the Republic also has a large budget, so it's understandable that they can support an army of elite shock troopers such as the clones. How do the rebels get enough money to buy an entire fleet of X wings? More importantly, why doesn't the Empire use X wings as well? However these minor plot holes pale in comparison to the enormous mess that was the ST, and the OT was still a masterfully designed trilogy.

 

I would agree to some degree, however, there is no reason why the B1 battle droids should have been equipped with such a stupid AI. It is well established that better AI is readily available by that point. I understand the point of quantity vs. quality, but we're talking software here. It doesn't cost much more to upload a competent AI into all the droids. While it can be argued that you would possibly require slightly better hardware to run the superior AI, we see examples of far better AI being run in relatively cheap or even shoddily constructed droids. I'm not suggesting that they be equipped the most advanced AI available, but something that is at least competent.

Then again, I understand their purpose in the film, so it makes sense from a story telling perspective (in the same way as the Stormtroopers).

 

True, but if the B1s become too smart, they might rebel against their creators a la Terminator. They are treated pretty horribly by most Federation authorities. They would not want to fight for the TF. They had to keep them dumb or they could not control them.

 

True, but if you slightly increase the cost per droid, but it becomes as effective as two, three or more of its dumber counterparts, you end up saving money.

In the Clone Wars we see tactical droids that are much smarter and don't rebel. I agree with you that there is probably a threshold where that becomes a distinct possibility, but the B1 battle droids are VERY FAR from that point.

 

Not.
Even.
Gonna.
Vote.

 

Fair point @NIGHTBRINGER, I guess they could have marginally increased BI intelligence. Still though, the TF is lazy and perhaps don't want to entirely alter production schematics after they already started making the droids. It's a moot point anyway as they are designed to be stupid for plot convenience, not for any actual production reason.

 

@NIGHTBRINGER saw this and immediatly thought of your comment on the B-1s.