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The Stormtrooper effect is, in fact, much older than the Star Wars trilogy, and is common in Cowboy Films , Action Movies , Martial Arts Films , Comics , Anime , and Manga . It is often a source of mockery by critics and Fandom , but it is generally recognized as bringing a Camp appeal to works which employ it. A frequent joke is to cite an Imperial Stormtrooper School of Marksmanship whose graduates are inexplicably poor shots; for example, "The Nazis in '' Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade '' must all have studied at the Imperial Stormtrooper School of Marksmanship." MANIFESTATIONS The Stormtrooper effect may manifest in several different forms.
FORMALIZATION The idea has been expressed humorously in an equation:
However, this has been proven to be incorrect during the Battle Of Geonosis (Episode II) and during Order 66 (Episode III). (Although it is possible that it was just ''really'' unlikely, and those referencing this formula are usually only considering the original trilogy.) However, on Geonosis and during Order 66, most of the Jedi who die are , which did not adequately equip those Jedi for the dangers of a hail of blaster bolts. During Order 66, the Jedi are taken completely by surprise, surrounded, and often fired at from point-blank range, at which events occur too fast for even the reflexes of most Jedi to react to ( Yoda is a notable exception to this however). It has also been explained in the ''Episode III'' novelisation that another factor in the success of Order 66 is that a large part of a Jedi's normal "danger sense" relies on sensing hostile intent through the Force. As the near-emotionless clone troopers were merely enacting orders which they had no strong opinions about one way or another, they gave off no detectable emotions which their Jedi victims would have picked up on in time to save themselves. In Yoda's case, the clone trooper receiving the order was a considerable distance from Yoda at the time and could have had second thoughts, or at least some time to form some feelings about the order that Yoda could detect. (Yoda does turn his head towards the trooper as he advances.) Another possible explanation for the inaccuracies of the Stormtooper Effect when applied to Clone Troopers is this: Clone Troopers are superior soldiers to Stormtroopers. After the events of ''Episode III'', as explained in the Star Wars Battlefront computer game, the Empire began not only using clones from Jango Fett's DNA, but also from other sources, as well as recruiting normal citizens. This means that later Stormtroopers may come from inferior stock, and that combined with the fact that the reused Jango Fett DNA may degrade over time leads to the Stormtrooper's obvious deficiencies over the earlier Clone Troopers. NULLIFICATION IN ''STAR WARS'' In A New Hope, Obi-Wan explains to Luke that Sand People were not responsible for the deaths of the Jawas but instead makes an interesting note on the Stormtrooper's accuracy; "These blast points... too accurate for Sand People, only Imperial Stormtroopers are so precise." Proponents have claimed this shows stormtroopers are accurate when they have to be, or are perhaps camera-shy, a suggestion enhanced by the fact that the stormtroopers on the Tatooine assignment are members of the same elite 501st Legion that crushed Rebel resistance on both Tantive IV and Hoth in surprisingly little time. When Luke and his companions are escaping the Death Star later in the movie the Stormtroopers fail to hit them despite numerous opportunities, but it is subsequently revealed that they were ordered to ''allow'' the escape so that the escapees could be tracked while making it look like they are serious in attacking them. This explanation seems somewhat mitigated in other cases however, such as in Return Of The Jedi on Endor in which the Stormtroopers very frequently and almost invariably miss Han Solo and Leia (though a blaster bolt grazes Leia’s shoulder, and they kill at least two Ewoks) while the protagonists once again take down numerous stormtroopers without getting killed. Here, the Emperor explicitly states that the forest moon of Endor was to be a “trap” with a legion of his “best troops” awaiting them, apparently suggesting that he had no intention of letting the rebels escape this time. This, then, shows the hand of the director in the movie, as the markmanship of the troops storming Tantive IV is first rate and they suffer minimal casualties (almost none once they clear the first corridor). In a small and unwitting reference to Stormtrooper Effect, ''The Empire Strikes Back'' director Irvin Kershner remarked during the commentary while Chewbacca and Leia are fleeing Cloud City that, for some reason, "Good guys always shoot straight. I don't know why, but they do." This inexplicable rule also holds true in the ''Star Wars'' spoof '' Spaceballs ''. THE INVERSE NINJA LAW The inverse Ninja law, sometimes called the '' Anime ninja effect'' or the ''Rule of One'', is a similar phenomenon that occurs commonly in Martial Arts movies, anime, and Role Playing Game s. It essentially states that the skill and ability of each ninja within any given group group is inversely proportional to the number of ninja in said group. While a single enemy ninja is often portrayed as a significant threat to the protagonists, a large group of ninja is significantly less of a threat, and as such is easily defeated. This is sometimes applied to other close combat–oriented minions as well. The law can be expressed mathematically in the equation : where is equal to the average ninja power (anp) of the group, is the elite jib constant, which represents the power of a lone ninja, and is equal to the number of ninja in a group. Following those rules, the ratio for determining the relative skill of any enemy group of ninja is divided by . In layman's terms, the more enemy ninjas there are, the weaker each individual ninja is (unless the lone ninja is left in a near dead state to fight a larger battle at a later date). Some shows, such as the '' Ronin Warriors '', '' Mobile Suit Gundam SEED '', and '' Power Rangers '' series, tend to explicitly illustrate the inverse ninja law. Often the heroes' first battle is against a small group or even a single member of the villains' basic foot soldiers, who will often give the entire group problems, often to the point that they have to use their signature finishing move to defeat them. In most of their subsequent appearances, however, the heroes will usually easily defeat a large group of the enemy. Sometimes this is inexplicable; other times, however, the heroes receive a Power-up , or simply find the opponent's Achilles' Heel . An example of this is Lord Zedd 's Putty Troopers in the second season of '' Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers '', whose Achilles' heel took form of a large "Z" emblem on their chest. Hitting this area would cause the trooper to self-destruct. The inverse ninja law is also the basis for many video game plots, such as '''', and many other hack and slash games. Most of the games inspired by ''Dynasty Warriors'' include battles in which the main character fights between 100 and 200 characters who are all on the same screen at the same time. IN VIDEO GAMING The Stormtrooper effect often manifests itself in computer games, given that it is easier for the game creators to program a single non-intelligent enemy and insert many of them into a level than it is to create even a single very Intelligent enemy. Thus, enemies will seem to pose more danger by their strength in numbers even though they are individually weak. This game mechanic means that the player still stands the risk of dying, increasing the challenge without necessarily increasing the complexity of the game program. The inverse ninja law is also represented in RPGs when early bosses appear later in the game, as common foes. CULTURAL REFERENCES In the episode " And The Wiener Is... " of the television show '' Family Guy '', Peter attends a firing range of the "National Gun Association" (a parody of the NRA ) where a man is shown firing and hitting a target, a blind man is shown hitting the broad side of a barn, and finally a Stormtrooper is shown widely missing every shot at a target resembling Luke Skywalker . In the cult film '' UHF '', during a '' Rambo ''-style fantasy sequence, George Newman easily mows down dozens of enemy soldiers after they fire at him and miss. Another soldier is killed after he shoots at George several times and misses, despite taking time to carefully aim, and being little more than arms length away with a clear shot. The film '' Austin Powers In Goldmember '' mocks the Stormtrooper effect, where at one point, the character of Nigel Powers states to one of Dr. Evil's Henchmen, "Do you know how many anonymous henchmen I've killed? Look at you! You haven't even got a name badge. What chance do you think you've got!?" The henchman then proceeds to lie down and play dead. NOTABLE USES OUTSIDE OF ''STAR WARS'' The Stormtrooper effect is seen in most plots involving a single, extremely important hero or group of heroes, including various Martial Arts movies and Tokusatsu shows. Some productions use the Stormtrooper effect very frequently:
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