Stormtroopers had good aim early in the Galactic Civil War/Pre-Yavin era as Stormtroopers were in fact the elite Imperial Troops, compared to regular Army units that garrisoned most Imperial worlds.
The degradation in their ability happened as the rebellion became more and more of a threat so the Empire had to repeatedly increase the number of Stormtroopers in service, and facing the higher demands the academies and other training facilities were forced to keep lowering the standards to qualify as a Stormtrooper. In the early days of the Stormtroopers, they were very capable and elite troops. After Yavin, the massive surge in recruits forced the standards to drop further, and by the time of Endor their quality was so bad pretty much anyone who could hold a rifle would qualify.
Well, and now almost no canon video media features imperial infantry other than stormtroopers, purely due to recognition of the design.
They’re used as bog standard cannon fodder mooks now, which helps explain all the various “super storm trooper”, “dark trooper”, “super duper special black ops elite mandalorian trooper” they keep rolling out. Wake me up when they pull a Dragon Ball Super and give us Super Storm Trooper Blue.
Stormtroopers had good aim early in the Galactic Civil War/Pre-Yavin era as Stormtroopers were in fact the elite Imperial Troops, compared to regular Army units that garrisoned most Imperial worlds.
The degradation in their ability happened as the rebellion became more and more of a threat so the Empire had to repeatedly increase the number of Stormtroopers in service, and facing the higher demands the academies and other training facilities were forced to keep lowering the standards to qualify as a Stormtrooper. In the early days of the Stormtroopers, they were very capable and elite troops. After Yavin, the massive surge in recruits forced the standards to drop further, and by the time of Endor their quality was so bad pretty much anyone who could hold a rifle would qualify.
Well, and now almost no canon video media features imperial infantry other than stormtroopers, purely due to recognition of the design.
They’re used as bog standard cannon fodder mooks now, which helps explain all the various “super storm trooper”, “dark trooper”, “super duper special black ops elite mandalorian trooper” they keep rolling out. Wake me up when they pull a Dragon Ball Super and give us Super Storm Trooper Blue.