I'd say with most of the new Star Wars stuff I think they're trying to show the Empire in a new light, and personally I really like it. We joke about the stormtroopers being wonky and silly, but I like the new direction.
No spoilers, but in Andor and Mando, and a good chunk of the new stuff my opinion has changed. They're actually intimidating, they're who they were supposed to be. These faceless nameless automotons on every corner, watching everything you do, who don't know you or your history but will shoot on the slightest hesitation. I think it's done extremely well finally, showing the true power of the Empire.
The writing in Andor was so good, it makes us empathize with the literal Nazis.
So so good.
spoiler
I enjoyed how it showed the actual fall into authoritarianism. The prequels made it seem like this quick overnight thing, when usually it's a slow drip, so slow that most people don't realize it's happening. The slow eroding of rights, troopers slowly showing up where they weren't before, power shifts. Phenomenal job to everyone there.
And fucking terrifying right now too.
My head cannon says that storm troopers actually have great aim. Jedi powers cause them to miss more, like some aura.
My actual canon says that Stormtroopers actual have great aim, as evidenced by Obi Wan Kenobi speaking highly of their marksmanship, and that time they took out a bunch of rebels in that one hallway without any casualties on their side
It kind of got lost over time, but the Stormtroopers in A New Hope were never trying to kill the heroes. Instead, they were herding them around the Death Star so that they could make a daring escape and lead Tarkin and Vader to the hidden Rebel base. They knew the Rebels had a hidden base, they just didn't know where it was. Similarly, in Empire, they're trying to capture the group rather than kill them and are actually quite effective in that regard. It's not until Jedi where they suddenly become incompetent.
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.
When the hell did the bad guys shoot Darth Maul?
That's not Darth Maul, that's Master Ima-Gun Di (pronounced "I'mma gon' die"). His one and only appearance is on a episode of Clone Wars, and at the end of the episode he and his clones are overwhelmed by enemy droids and he dies.
Yes, his name is just a play on "I'm going to die", because he was created with the explicit purpose of getting killed on screen.
Upon zooming in, that doesn't appear to be Darth Maul. The saber is also single-bladed and blue. I don't know who exactly it is, though...
There's electronic stuff under Mando's chest plate. I assumed it's actively drawing fire to the armored areas? This is all head canon.
There's a good theory that Beskar has some properties that draw bolts to it. Makes sense
BOBF: fever dream
