I've never noticed any Stormtroopers other than humans. The various Stormtroopers, Snowtroopers, Sandtroopers, and Scout Troopers armor always seems to be shaped for humans. Do the novels shed light on Stormtroopers that weren't human? If so, what other species were employed?
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1Emperor Palpatine was a bit of a racist(speciesist?) :P – LepelLeLama Mar 24 '15 at 06:56
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1Related, narrowly avoiding being a dupe, IMO: Is the Empire racist?. The existing question starts off broader, but specifically focuses on officers, not Stormtroopers. – phantom42 Mar 24 '15 at 11:39
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@LepelLeLama - actually, the Emperor himself wasn't xenophobic in private. But the rest of the Imperial brass mostly were, as was the culture – DVK-on-Ahch-To Mar 24 '15 at 17:53
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@DVK - Thanks for the link, I wasn't quite 100% sure :) – LepelLeLama Mar 25 '15 at 06:19
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In a recent ( less than two years ago) Dark Horse comic series starring Jaina Solo, the new Empire employed at least human and Trandoshan Stormtroopers.
From Wookieepedia:
Following Jao's escape, Empress Marasiah Fel had assigned Ania with a mission to rescue Jao Assam and provided her with an escort force of Trandoshan stormtroopers.
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In EU there are other examples of "rulers" using non human troops. Thrawn, Malak etc. – Cherubel Mar 24 '15 at 11:10
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@Cherubel the question is about storm troopers. I noticed the Empire never designs armor for species with different skull structures (horns, etc), such as Mon Calamaris, Zabraks and Togrutas – Dylan Czenski Mar 02 '16 at 14:38
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It's likely that either there weren't any or they were at least few and far between. There are two reasons for this:
- The Empire was speciesist. The officers are all human as well, and in the EU it's established that they have quite pro-human policies that make it difficult for non-humans to succeed within the military. There's also the logistical problems- the cost for manufacturing things decreases the more you produce, so it would make financial sense to, if you can, use a single species with one set of requirements.
- Many stormtroopers, as of the start of the Clone War, are clones of a single human, Jango Fett. This was established in the films. In the EU it's established that the Empire took over Kamino, where the clones were created, using their own creations so that they could be coerced into creating more. I'm not sure what proportion of the Imperial Army were clones at the time of the Clone Wars, but it can be assumed it was a substantial amount. However, this would have declined sharply as no more were being created (according to Legends), so there may have been a low number by the time of the destruction of the first Death Star.
PointlessSpike
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"Many stormtroopers are clones of a single human, Jango Fett" - I thought this was all of them (or most allowing for exceptions); in ep3 it's clear that he is the "prototype" for the storm troopers - is there evidence elsewhere that there were others? – robert Mar 24 '15 at 11:45
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1@robert By the time of the original trilogy, most stormtroopers are not clones. See this question. – KSmarts Mar 24 '15 at 14:02
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Seems as though that's based on information outside of the movies though. Differing heights could just be "dramatisation" artifacts. – robert Mar 24 '15 at 14:07
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@robert, the question asks whether the novels shed light on the question. They do. – PointlessSpike Mar 24 '15 at 15:05
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@Null- I've added a bit, as I was talking purely at the time of the Clone War. – PointlessSpike Sep 11 '15 at 14:54