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In the most recent issue of Star Wars insider, the question of why the troopers all have different voices when they were all cloned from Jango is asked. The response goes into the usual "they didn't know they were going to be clones in the 70s" answer, and then says the interesting thing:

"However, there is also an in-universe explanation, provided by none other than George Lucas himself. During the productions of Episode III, Lucas told crewmembers that the stormtroopers seen in Episode IV are made from multiple sources. That is, they're not all Jango clones. By that time in the saga, other clone hosts have been selected.

Lucas intimated that the selection proces has become more political than strategic in some cases - a highly placed officer's cousin might be selected over a more capable specimen, for example. The politicization results in less-than-ideal candidates, which could explain some of the embarrasing marksmanship witnessed in the original trilogy."

Fair enough.

I like that theory. Good ol' Lucas thinking on his toes...the pinkie ones.

Hmm...it makes sense, except the political thing--you'd be able to do other things with a hypothetical officer's cousin than have him be the genetic template for an army

I told you the mans a genius.

to me this is the only reasonable explanation to the entire thing

i like that idea, it would explain the stupidity of stormtroopers in the OT.

in ep2 they are like rambo clones, always hitting their mark and kicking federation a$$....but in the OT they turn into the 3,000,000 stooges.

More of an idiot savant, nowdays. Backpeddling is nothing new for him.

Bah - I thought Stormtroopers could become Stormtroopers by going to "The Imperial Academy" or something like that.

ah but that is EU, and we all know what that means 'round these parts-

to quote Sebulba after his defeat..."POODOO!"

What does that mean anyway?

I've been wondering about the troops who fought the stormtroopers at the beginning of ANH. Their helmets kind of reminded me of the ones used by officers on the Death Star in particular, the "Death Star Commander" (the one with the mushroom-like helmet--remember the action figure?). Leia was an ambassador for the Imperial Senate, right? So, even if those were Alderaan security forces, they might have had Imperial-related uniforms.

Anyway, it seems as though you can still keep with the tradition of the SW universe and accept that clones were not the only ones who were stormtroopers, AND that there were plenty of non-trooper positions within the Empire.

Well Superfly, as far as ROTJ is concerned, it's Huttese for food. Hence Jabba's telling Han "now you're banta food" but his huttese says Bantha Poodoo. But in TPM, Sebulba says it as a clear cut curse word. It sounds like poo which we all understand, I always thought it was one of those jokes that worked as clean jokes for kids and dirty for adults who realized what it sounded like and how it was used. It sounded more like Jabba meant now you're banta s**t because they'd eat him and crap him out. And Sebulba clearly sounded like he meant s**t, since that's what I'd say after loosing such a major competition. So it all depends on who ya ask. Unless Sebulba really was yelling "food" like maybe he was tired and hungry after the hard race.....but I doubt it.

But what about all the Fleet Troopers parading about, there not supposed to be Clones as well?

Why then would clones assist or check on a fallen comrade, obviously they would be trained and manufactured not to? (In episode IV a Stormtrooper is felled and then another Stormtrooper is seen checking on him, in the background action.)

Why not? The battle was over by that point, its the scene of Vader's entrance. It would be the thinking of a clone to check who's dead and who isn't because its a waste of resources to not get a medic for those who were not dead. If you can save another soldier to fight for another day, that's efficient thinking.

I thought Lucas was so ahead of his time in the seventies by introducing clones then I found out that Isaac Assimov was making references to clones when Lucas was still wearing diapers. The star wars clones are far cooler though so Lucas redeems himself yet again.

All the officers are non-clones. All the technical and security guard positions (black funny hats) are non-clones. The diplomatic guard (white funny hats) are non-clones, as you point out.

But the STORMTROOPERS... GL has said they are all Clones, so that is that.

No, actually during the battle on the Tantive, 3 Rebel Fleet troopers are running, Stormtroopers round the corner and blast one, then one of the stormtroopers gets shot, then as some of them continue to fire, one of them checks on him, while the others are still firing, that to me shows more concern then a genetically engineered and trained from birth clone.
But your explanation is sensible.

Also, is every single Stormtrooper on every single planet supposed to be a clone? Surely they coulden't keep up production of clones to supply the entire Empire with Stormtroopers?

This unthinking support of everything George says seems a little story, i know he created the entire thing and im grateful for that, but this is the same George Lucas who demanded in a cutting room that
"The baddies have red laser swords and the goodies have green and blue"

I would accept multiple candiates for clones because after a while cloning a clone from a clone detoriates the clone affecting intelligence and marksmanship. Cloning a copy from a copy eventually renders them useless and subject to faster breakdown though used for banter fodder. A variety of clones from different sources would replenish the clones. This statement is from a clone.

Mind you clones from a single source would be alot more suseptible to god knows what sort of 'killer infections' and viri. Sharing teh same genetic make-up would also make iut easier for the rebellion to have just created a filtered virus to wipe out all the storm troopers.
So thats yet another reason to use more than one genetic template for the Stormtropers.
Plus what fun would it be if bad guys could shoot straight.....would have been a damn short film! LOL

Wayne...

Tough! Like it or not, it is his call. Anyone's disagreement with that is entirely immaterial.

That was a little rude Ush, I think its time for somebody to have their nappy time....

The tough was implied, he was just pointing out lucas' logic on matters.

Calling it 'unthinking' was my problem, making out that we are slaves to believe it. The point is that it is nothing to do with opinion, just fact.

Well, i just choose not to believe it Lucas can go play with his Laserswords and Ewoks and i'll keep my own interpretation of the original series.

No mixed gene pool can make the Stormtroopers that stupid. Even the Emperors best troops couldn't beat the Ewoks. Unless Lucas adds a thousand more Ewoks somehow, this just doesnt add up...

don't give 'im any more ideas
the reason for the troopers bad aim and stupidity in the OT is simple, the writer and audience wanted the good guys to win. So they did. The end.

Actually, the translation of "bantha poodoo" was given as "bantha fodder". From what I know, a bantha foddder is someone who follows around banthas in populated areas and clean up after them. :/ I'd hate to have that job.

Anyways, the OT stormtroopers are not clones, seeing as Luke and his friends were planning on joining the Imperial Academy, through which the first class you would be in would be stormtrooper. Perhaps after the clone wars someone put an end to all clones.

Yeah...so thats my opinion

Fodder is the term used for the feed given to Cows and Horses i believe.

Dude, come on.

As much as we all love Star Wars, there's no denying it is a family film.

Look at how incompetant the bad guys are in the Indiana Jones movies, yet nobody complains.

The bad guys are supposed to be clumsy, with the exception of the main baddies.

It's actually pretty cool how there's subtle moralising within STar Wars, but not too much as to be in your face. Like we've got our super-strong baddies like the Darths and the Emperor, who the adults love and provide awesome antagonists. Then we have the Stormtroopers, who are basically fodder for the good guys to destroy because they have to look strong. It's implying that "if you are bad, you suck" with the Stormtroopers. Then when we see ROTJ, it's a case of "if you are bad, you die" with Emperor and Vader.

Again, with the Emperor, he was sent to "hell" by Vader/Anakin, and Vader was redeemed and sent to "heaven". In a manner of speaking.

The Stormtroopers being clumsy is all part of the moral of the story. Don't be bad.

My thoughts on the Stormtroopers were that they were just ordinary people drafted into fight in the Imperial Army because the ordinary everyday people are cheaper and more expendable than the expensively cloned Clones.

Lucas dosen't believe in rationality like that Corran. I'm sure the billions of people on the thousands of Imperial worlds are forbidden from joining the Imperial army because there not clones. Thanks George.

Davin--Fodder means food. Feed as someone pointed out. I.E.--I'm gonna sprinkle bits of your carcass all over the desert for Bantha's to eat. The FUNNY thing, is that it's inconsistantly used, if FOOD is the meaning. But if S**T is the meaning, well...then it always makes sense. But its PG. So he can't put that as the translation. But adults all know what they mean...

In ANH Obi-wan says in one scene of the accuracy of the storm troopers shooting, "only imperial storm troopers could be so precise" A laughable line really considering that for the rest of the trilogy the storm troopers couldn't hit a barn door to save their lives. (Thank goodness really otherwise it would have all been over for our hero's in the first half of ANH. Clumsy, and cr*p with a gun, the gene pool for the clones must have been very iffy indeed.

it would be cool if they were anakin clones

Ha ha, interesting.

Also, I always found it funny how the Stormtroopers were only accurate if their target was a lightsabre wielding Jedi.

Also, Chewbacca. WTF? A big hairy, loud growling 2 metre tall hairball and they couldn't hit him?

Well the excuse in Episode IV is that they wanted them to escape so they could get the wherebouts of the Rebel base.

But hey it's a little funny that a millitary that was able to conquer the entire universe can be out shot by an addled kid straight off the farm in the most backwater planet of the galaxy! Imperials needed to invest some time of their training towards basic marksmanship methinks