Thoughts on Vite Ramen? Anyone try out the new flavor yet? You can pick some up and get 10% off by using code EckhartsLadder at bit.ly/3av0r3p

I'm sure the Empire believed in women's equal rights to oppress aliens; miss 80% of their shots; and get killed in disproportionately huge numbers by young, dashing, good looking insurgents with a knack for the force.

This makes sense and I like how it helps add to the empire's human supremacy. It didn't matter what sex you were because they are racist not sexist.

I thought the reason they all sound the same is the voice processing filter in the helmet, I assumed that you had people with all sorts of weird accents and different voices but the vocoder only really differentiates the actual speech patterns (speed/choice of words) but assume in training this is standardized as a form of coms etiquette training (use easy to annunciate words, keep things brief, don't "umm or uhhh" excessively, etc.)

its about time somebody made a video like this because I'm so tired of people saying female stormtroopers were a pure Disney canon but actually a legends thing

Given the size of the army, having everyone generally the same size from a logicistics stand point makes sense. 1 suit of armor, one set of armor, able to fit one set of phyiscal praramaters + or - 5% We see this when say, wolfe, trys to put on storm trooper armor and it doesn't fit. he's gained weight so the armor doesn't fit him anymore. This tells us that its likely 1 standard size, mass produced... and its eisier to select people that fit in the armor, then spend money trying to fit armor to every person.

Yes we don't really know the gender of any trooper that doesn't talk since they are supposed to be menacing and look the same the only thing you can confirm is they are human since the Imperials hated them

If you wanted a modern equivalent check the US Green Beret or Marine Recon requirements with some obvious arbitrary bits thrown in.

An interesting video. The Empire seems to have taken a practical and realistic approach to recruitment with women joining the Stormtrooper Corp. The requirements are what they are to maintain combat effectiveness, any less would put the lives of soldiers at risk. If a woman passes the requirements, great, she joins. If not, she gets washed out just like a man would if he didn't pass proof.

I remember in Battlefront: Twilight Company there was a female Stormtrooper trying to support her sick dad on Sullust. That and the female FO Stormtrooper in TFA were my first Canon examples of female Stormtroopers, but I knew they existed in the old EU, too, thanks to some reference books. Also, I still have my Imperial Handbook and it's really fun to just go back to it. Still haven't read the Essential Guide to Warfare, but I've been thinking about it.

They wouldn’t allow aliens to be stormtroopers however they made one alien a Grand Admiral like Thrawn

"Giant gravity well projector-looking boob plate armor" seems like an apt description. I mean, some human or near-human males would be pulled toward that kind of thing, as if by gravity. 😀

Isila Drutch's account is actually VERY close to some real-world details. In the Canadian Armed Forces (which is a fully-integrated army; women can serve in all the same positions as men) the ratios of men-to-women are roughly the same - but they're also different, and the Empire might be similar; A Company is 3 Platoons, which usually shakes out to about 100-150 people when you account for all the squads or sections of troops plus their command and support personnel. The regiment I served in just so happened to have 3-4 women in it per 100 members (with about 1/4 of them in administrative roles as clerks and supply technicians), compared to Drutch's 3. Between my unit and some others, it was roughly a 1/25, 1/30 ratio. However, mine was also an infantry regiment, part of the "combat arms" (troops whose purpose is to make direct contact with the enemy), but in non-combat arms units you would often find much higher ratios of women. Medics, technicians, administrative units, pilots, and so forth had ratios generally above 1/20 and sometimes as high as 1/10. This is mostly down to the CAF being a volunteer force (as many, but not all, Storm Troopers were) wherein you didn't just sign up for 'the army' but to specific regiments that did specific jobs; artillery, intelligence analysis, military police, infantry, armoured, etc. etc. and most women simply chose jobs other than the infantry.

Having served with women who complained vigorously about wearing body armor due to breasts, I kinda disagree on the armor.

I couldn't help but smile at Essential Guide to Warfare's nod to the infamous "Femtrooper" cosplay that made the convention rounds in the aughts, by giving us an actual in-galaxy soldier's Take That! of the concept.

Very fitting this came up now as I clearly heard a female stormtrooper in Episode 3 of Obi-Wan.

5:20 Omega from the BadBatch is the only female clone we know of so *technically* there was one female clone

Breaking into the world of realism boob armor is actually a thing, kind of. If you look at specialized female ballistic vests, they do have a cup shaped protrusion that male ballistic vests do not have. Certainly bikini armor is not a thing, but shaping armor around a female soldier's boobage is a thing.

Ecks: Boob armor doesnt matter. It serves no purpose whatsoever. Shadversity: AM I A JOKE TO YOU?????

The 501st Legion (real world) does recognize "Legacy Armor" which is cut more for women... but this is definitely not the boob/midriff pin-up armor. The slight differences are in some of the angular shapes on the helmet and chest/abdomen piece... but these were very subtle differences. I think this style fits smaller/petite women better, but there are definitely plenty of women in regular stormtrooper armor as well. If both armors suits are side by side, you really need to look carefully to even see the differences. Casual observers or fans will likely not notice they are not exactly the same. I think it only applies to OT stormtroopers... as I don't think there is a separate set of armor for the FO troopers. 😀

1.79m is closer to 5'11, not 5'9. Makes sense as Leia comments on Luke being a little short for a stormtrooper, with Mark Hamill being 5'10

It's always funny how Stormtroopers are supposed to be elite soldiers when they're rarely portrayed as elite in most media.

That depends on how you define 'boob armour' Eck. If you mean the 'perfectly follows the shape of each individual breast' then yes that is completely made up for style. However given that Star Wars does follow some elements of our reality - I highly doubt that every single female stormtrooper had the exact same armour as the men and that what they had was similar to a number of historical examples of female armour where the upper part of the chest plate is shaped a bit to account for a breast size that won't fit in standard armour that fits males and for a rather important reason - comfort. Case in point that we have easily seen in Star Wars - Katee Sackhoff's live action debut as Bo-Katan is actually closer to what some of the real life examples look like - albeit a tad more tailored to her exact body. Odds are that unless by chance every female stormtrooper has the exact same body type and measurements - kinda doubt it unless that's a requirement, there is likely a limited production of a slightly different chest piece that on average unless you really look - likely wouldn't tell the difference, other than maybe seeing a male and female from teh side to see part of it sticks out slightly more. If not, well then that armour is going to be incredibly uncomfortable cause I know how uncomfortable it is being a guy in something sized wrong for your chest and all, let alone what I hear from plenty of women I know who have had to wear armour (police and military) who also made it pretty clear how unpleasant it was wearing armour for any period sized for guys not them cause they were not flat.

This gives a whole new perspective on Leia's line "Aren't you a little short for a Storm Trooper?"

I mean, boob armor would exist but it makes sense for a standardized military not to make separate plates

*“I didn’t ask what you are trooper, I asked where your blaster is!”*

I think it is worth remembering too, the Empire had a whole lot more than just stormtroopers in its military.

Scout Trooper: “Aren’t you a little short for-?” Female Stormtrooper: “Finish that sentence and die!” From an old fan-made short film.

In Legends, until the destrution of the 2nd Death Star, the 501th were all Jango Fett's clones. The other legions were composed by varied humans and diverse clones.

Correction. The female Stormtroopers didn’t have breast armor because it was cheaper that way and made everyone look the same. It is, however, still effective. There’s a dude who brought it up when people criticized Bo Katan’s armor in The Mandolorian.

You need to remember. Once they have that armor on, you can't tell if you're facing the 501st or a bunch of newb greenhorns fresh from an academy.

That ad for vite ramen though.... just amazing lol

I was always under the impression that the Empire, despite being based off of the Nazi’s, had the mentality of the Soviet Union, which was not caring about the specific gender of the soldier, just so long as that soldier could preform and produce results in combat. Female stormtroopers are human so that alone meets the imperial requirements. The Empire cares about performance of the soldier, not their gender.

Fleet battle between Grand admiral Thrawn vs. Ender Wiggin Each one has an equal sized fleet with equally capable subordinates, and since Ender is from a different universe each has equal understanding of the technology they’re using. They are in command of Star Wars vessels. Pick a famous fleet of your choosing I’d suggest death squadron

that was some good info thanks for the work you did.

thanks for doing this video and topic.

Another Stormtrooper issue is standardized equipment. As a former Marine, I experienced being at the upper end of height limits when I was embarked on the USS Tripoli (a helicopter carrier) for eight months. Troop racks (beds) were 72 inches long and I was 75 inches long. The overhead (ceiling) was low, and I kept bumping my head on pipes and valves. Squeezing through hatches was a chore even without combat gear or floatation devices. I didn't experience the other end of the height limits, so I can't talk about how hard it would have been to undog hatches or reach for things on the work benches or other things short Marines suffered--and those who were too small to be Sailors would have needed help carrying out their duties. Now let's talk about uniforms and body armor. I worked as a contract security guard on a five-year overseas anti-terrorist mission and one of the security officers was under five feet and under 80 pounds. Finding body armor and helmet and boots small enough for her was difficult. Finding an XXL helmet for one big-headed male security officer was difficult--but I could read supply catalogs and managed to find the correct NSN for an XXL PASTG helmet. It arrived within a couple of weeks and, of course, now that security officer had to wear that damned thing sometimes. There was another issue--several of the 300 or so security officers, male or female, had small hands and they couldn't reach the trigger on their M9 pistols because their fingers were too short, and the grip was too fat and the trigger in the forward position (hammer down) was too far. I had to come up with training bandaids to match qualification course to physical handicap--having a fat pistol was a handicap. Funny, but the M1911A1 would not have had that problem. Stormtrooper physical dimensions would have limited how many human females could have been Stormtroopers. I've 20th Century American military and security guard experience (27 year military and 30 year security guard--was on reserve status for about half of those 27 years) to back up my claims. Using clone soldiers would have eased logistics with a more-standardized human body. Having factories close to the front that could produce equipment custom tailored to the soldier is a plus--today we have 3D printers and when I toured BB-60 USS Alabama (a World War Two battleship that's now a museum) there was a tailor shop on-board to customize uniforms. That still leaves the spacecraft and spaceships themselves. Had the Empire decided on Ewok clone soldiers instead of Wookie stormtroopers, they could have had smaller ships with the same crew compliment--and Imperial walkers could have been more efficient war machines. The Empire stuck with humans (for movie producers, adult humans between 64 and 72 inches are easier to hire than very small or very large actors).

I’m gonna blow some peoples’ minds even more: all stormtroopers already have boob armor. You can’t unsee it now.

Yo mate, I really do be loving your videos, and in the month since I have started watching your videos I have definitely started becoming a much more well learned Star Wars fan!!! ((I also think you have prompted me to leave more comments then perhaps I have left on any other person channel... other than one guy, but I don’t me to promote him))

Slightly off topic, but considering how specist the empire was, it's incredibly impressive how high in the ranks Thrawn rose.

Actually the US Army has had issues with body armor not fitting female frames very well. Interceptor Body Armor, used by the US since 2000, is designed with three size: Small, Medium, and Large. However, it has been found that on many women the armor doesn't sit properly. Because females generally have wider hips than males do, the plates will often rest on their hips rather than their shoulders, resulting in greater discomfort as well as less flexibility (which already aren't great even if the armor fits properly). The US Army actually went so far as to develop a variant of the Improved Outer Tactical Vest tailored to fit women. So, while boob plate is generally impractical, there would no doubt be at least subtle differences between the armor systems for males and females, simply because of the different frames the sexes have. A male plate system won't fit a woman as well and vice versa.

It sounded like at least one of the Stormtroopers at the checkpoint in OBK S1E3 sounded female.

I just never get bored of the outro 👋🐶👋

"Hey, can you shoot straight? y-yOU CAN? bINGO! yOUR'E iN!" "Hey, you wanna see my gravity well projectors?"

In cannon, form my research. You are correct, female Stormtroopers are treated mostly no different than males. However, in the junior and senior academies female cadets were bunked and trained (somewhat) separately from males. Female cadets still interacted with male cadets, but the treatment between genders, at this stage, varied based on the commandant of the academy and the instructors. I heard or read somewhere that female Stormtroopers could be even more dangerous than males do to how much more work they had to put into training, kind of like a female marine.

I think it's important to note that in the Legendsverse, the Empire didn't care so much when it came to Stormtroopers. But when it came to their officers, the Empire did have a sexist attitude. Admiral Dalla is probably the best known example, given how she was passed over for promotion and had credit stollen from her multiple times before she met Moff Tarkin.

enjoyed watching Dark Forces gameplay as the back drop of this video. really takes me back.

Hey I know this isn't relevant and the likelyhood that this comment gets buried is high but, I just wanted to thank you in particular for showcasing and talking about Star Wars lore. You have almost single handedly gotten me into Legends, even though I watched the films a long time ago, and I can't thank you enough for showing me this expanded universe that has brought me so much joy. Thank you Ecks.

So, the best way to make a functional and deadly elite force is to set certain performance standards and not worry about who meets them, only that they do? I’m shocked! Absolutely amazed! It’s almost like that’s exactly what real-world militaries should do!

Boob armor is not only not needed, as it's generally portrayed it's detrimental to the wearer as the cleavage area would serve to direct melee weapons *directly* into the heart. Real breastplates actually do protrude out in the middle, but it's more like one big boob than two small ones, as that serves to deflect melee weapons off to either side. Of course this doesn't much matter for blaster fire, but now you know :D

If female stormtroopers were lower in terms of numbers, then someone like Admiral Daala must’ve been extremely rare, even though Tarkin took a shine to her when she beat him in I think a training exercise

Dude. You have your own Ramen. That's insane

In kenobi episode 3 there was a female stormtrooper at the checkpoint

As long as the showers are coed like in Starship Troopers I'm all for them lol.

Convinced me to have Vite Ramen for dinner tonight

I forget where it was, I think it was Admiral Daala that pointed out that the Emperor didn't like women in the Empire.

They aren’t as good as our cloneboys though

One should keep in mind that when Star Wars originally came out, woman serving combat roles in the real world wasn't a thing, and the movies reflected that at the time. (Note that my knowledge history on civil rights isn't the greatest) A reason why we only see white males in the ordinal trilogy could be because we were only a decade or so out of the segregation. So, with our more modern understanding for a sci-fi setting it doesn't make much sense for a people to be sexist and racist within their own species. Which is where the Empire's Xenophobia comes into play.

I don't know if you do verses still, but I have an idea. Delta squad vs delta squad, gears of war vs star wars!

WRT Boob armor: we do have historical examples of boob armor for men though, and I'm not talking "equivalents" like codpieces, but armor with defined and separated domes for pectoral muscles with nipples drawn on.

Empire when recruiting men and women to be part of the Stormtroopers: "It's free real estate."

The Legends stories around Admiral Daala basically exposed the Empire as mostly sexist men in charge. Tarkin and Thrawn ended up being relativly Meritocratic, but otherwise, it was old sexist/xenophobic human men running the Empire. Disney's Star Wars has stepped away from that entirely, and that's okay! We got some really cool characters out of it! I'm just going to say...when the bad guys are sexist...it's because they are the bad guys. Sexism bad so bad guys are sexist. Just like they were also humanity-first xenophiles as well. Empire were bad guys. We can use the bad guys to showcase things as bad. When the bad guys are just "Oh, also cool just happen to wear different uniforms for a different cause" it sorta cheapens the potential to just, show off what bad guys do and how in real life...there are things bad guys tend to believe. Sure sure sure "gray areas" yadda yadda, but you can sometimes just get so gray that no one can say anything meaningful ever about what horrible things groups of people are capable of in reality. Still love that "People don't want freedom, they want safety" speech from that officer in Mandalorian to Bill Burr. I need more Imperials like that. Genuine belief in a world view that is harmful, but you can picture someone in reality holding, not just cartoonish villains that say nothing other then "we kill and oppress people". Basically, I want bad guys to be bad guys again, because I'm over this "both sides" gray area stuff when it's more obvious that real "bad guys" exist in the world.

Just wondering, if a clone has a child, does that child also age twice as fast?

Great video and interesting topic! You could do a video about female Stormtroopers in the First Order as there are plenty of them in ROS.

If I were to ever become a storm trooper I now know they wouldn't take me. I certainly meet the weight and muscle requirement but I'm only 5'8. I wonder how long it will take current Lucas Films to retcon this bit of lore -.- Boob armor certainly is a thing. Not nearly as dramatic as hollywood and video games make it out to be but men and women do have different body armor in the military. Shadiversity did a whole video on it.

Shadiversity has done a couple of videos on boob armor when it comes up. Take a look at them, real good.

Are those little darth vaders running around in the background footage or are they mouse droids?

imagine passing all the training just to get ventilated by Han or Leia while trying not to harm them

Technically that Female Soldiers do exist in reality as well. They do need female soldiers for the galaxy in universe since they can't keep relying on male only a lot. There are some females in the Rebellion like Leia, female soldier in Endor Strike Team, Mon Montha, and a Female Technician in ESB in Original Trilogy as well. They never specified the entire Stormtroopers were just male only in The Empire in The Original Trilogy. It's not just the First Order that added Female Soldiers fighting. Some of the Original Trilogy era did have Female Soldiers existed like in Rebels, The Mandalorian (I think it was at Moff Gideon's Ship), Obi-Wan Kenobi (there was a female Stormtrooper that appeared in Part III and it was at the killed by Tala Durith), The Bad Batch, etc.

I actually have a wiki book from like the early 2,000's Star Wars, and read a comic about this. In Legends (aka Old Lore), the Empire was incredibly sexist and Xenophobic, with only one female Admiral who was basically sent away to a research station. She ended up becoming a massive problem for the New Republic and Admiral Gideon was a major ally of hers. She was a bit of a cold badass (she got an army by rounding up Imperial warlords, and those that didn't try to rebuild the Empire got gassed). Soldier wise, female Stormtroopers did exist, but faced pretty heavy discrimination. Naval officers and TIE pilots were pretty ok with woman serving. So, if you were a woman, you could be a Stormtrooper, Pilot, or low level Naval Officer. But you would likely never be a commander, Captain, or even Admiral unless Vader or Thrawn thought you were special.

Imagine nine hundred and ninety-nine terrillion new born Jango fett clonetroopers refitted in imperial stormtrooper armor every 24 hours and recruiting nine hundred and ninety-nine terrillion 5 year old boys and girls in the imperial stormtrooper Corp ever 24 hours in star wars legends lore to make the imperial military grow bigger.

Her Gravity well generators... Dang, that's pretty funny.

We got to see (hear) lots of Female Stormtroopers in Kenobi Episodes 2 and 3. In episode 2 the subtitles even say "Female Stormtrooper"

Haha KZfaqr with the funny dog picture!!

Have you ever thought of doing a video about what if Abeloth escaped during the clone right after the ones died? Cause that would a very interesting scenario.

What did the empire think about stormtroopers dating or officers and troopers together

Sgt. Johnson(Halo) vs Captain Rex(Star Wars) Johnson gets Br 55, 1 m6 sidearm and marine BDU Rex gets DC 15 rifle his pistols and phase 2 clone armor

Not only are they capable of becoming regular Stormtroopers but as seen in Rebels they can also become Death Troopers as well. Now I kinda wonder if any could become Royal Guard's.

Y'all need to go check out the stunt doubles for Obi wan Kenobi and Darth Vader they look FRAKING hililous lol

Could you do a video about the training Stormtroopers underwent and how skilled they actually are? I heard through a respect thread that their training is 2 years long and it's known to be brutal.

Women can be war criminals too dangit.

Boob armor actually does serve a purpose, it's easier for a woman to wear. This is no joke, stormtrooper armor in real life would probably be somewhat uncomfortable for women. Women who wear army issue armor in the U.S military encounter this issue occasionally. It depends on how well endoued they are. So boob armor does have a purpose. However, stormtrooper armor may have been designed in a unisex style like some t shirts are. Meaning it may actually have been just as easy to wear for women as it was for men, or equally uncomfortable. Lol

I'm not going to lie I was listening to some really depressing music and I think you just saved me from going into the depth. Love brother

The dog thing at the end was fucken hilarious

One of the most compelling Legends depictions of Stormtrooper recruitment and training was Garth Ennis' "Trooper" in issue 10 of Star Wars Tales. Convicts and volunteers are forced to kill each other so the survivors can enter training. Training and service are relentless killing and being killed. The troopers are drained of all humanity and while the few faces we see are male they're mostly the same identical impassive helmet. Obi-Wan, Rise Of Skywalker, and LEGO made a conscious choice to give Stormtroopers diverse faces and genders, which is probably the right choice, but it humanizes the troops that are committing atrocities and getting casually killed off.

Eckhart: There are no female clone troopers. Star Wars Weebs: Hold my saki!

Could you go over all the leaders/government that ruled the galaxy?

501st member here with over a decade in the bucket. Our female TK's are critical members of the Legion. They *DO* look identical to their male counterparts. My complaint is WE NEED MORE! Search for your local Garrison or Detachment and enlist today!

The Empire doesn't lower their standards for female recruits (unlike real militaries do, unfortunately), so I would imagine that they're pretty meritocratic at least for the lower enlisted ranks. NCOs and commissioned officers may be another story, because you need to be just as good at playing politics as you are at your actual job to make it far in those circles.

I guess the question has to be asked, what possible incentive would there be for women as a group, to join the Stormtroopers in the 1st place? While I am sure, the lifestyle *may* appeal to a fairly narrow band of women, I dont think its a stretch to assume, for most human females, the life of a stormtrooper is going to be a (very) tough sell. Maybe some interest? among females in supporting roles, but, as a actual front-line ST, ineffective egg-shell armor and all that? I doubt it....

If the exkartsladder flavor doesn't taste like you, I'm not buying

The Imperial Handbook was published post-disney buyout. Can this really be sourced for Legends?

What if we kissed wearing Stormtrooper helmets? JK. Unless 👉🏻🥺👈🏻

The bar has been set pretty low by Phasma

Boob armor does serve a functional purpose in blunt force attacks. Curved armor is always stronger than flat armor for a given thickness, and the more curved, the more stronger. In a genuinely equal universe, boob armor would certainly make more sense than the silly codpieces you see on some European plate armor, and equally as much sense as the muscle cuirass. Those silly codpieces served their function equally as well as the more generic versions, or presumably they wouldn't have been made, seeing as how making something like that would've been considerably more expensive. I think Shadiversity and his peers have each made at least one video to this effect, although I can't recall their exact decision on how useful it was. Heat dissipation is a wholly different story, though. Convex curved surfaces have an almost lensing effect of the heat inwards (given that the heat is external), and inside corners and concave curves cool _much_ slower than flat surfaces. The best way to cool something quickly is ridges and fins, which are notably lacking in stormtrooper armor design, and would've made them look way cooler anyways. They should add that to modern stormtrooper armor. They could easily call it a "technology upgrade", no one would bat an eye. Either way, boob-like armor certainly isn't out of the question in any world, even though full on boob armor might be a bit silly. Think sports bra vs Victoria's Secret bra. Sports bra type armoring makes sense in any world, but I have a feeling that trying to go for Victoria's Secret style armoring would just end up in a parade more often than actually used. Which makes sense, if you think about it that way.

I aspire to be as chill as you

I find it awesome that the Kenobi series has shown some clear female troopers by their voices. It's cool as there are a lot of bad ass military/ public service women out there

It was funny seeing people get mad when Finn was first introduced. A black stormtrooper was enough to trigger them. Despite the fact, you know, its seldom for them to take off their helmets so literally anyone could be under there.

Well, NOW I can never get a certain image out of my mind whenever I see an "Interdictor Ship" ^_^

@EckhartsLadder Is this your game play of Dark Forces? Talk about a throw back. I still have the disk somewhere...