Mandalorian Armor < Stormtrooper Armor?

[Kurgan]

Just flipping through the AOTC Visual Dictionary the other day and it struck me, Jango's Armor doesn't cover his whole body, only a few parts. From his shoulder (the shoulder pad) to his forearm is exposed as are the backs of his hands. The entire back of each of his legs is exposed, and there are big gaps where his shins are (he's got a knee pad and a plate on his ankle and boot top). His chestplate has a gap between the plates in the center and his armpit area is exposed. The VD claims the segmented armor affords him better mobility (it elsewhere talks about the Clonetrooper suit not being very ergonomical).

I realize that the VD's are children's books, which tend to just use pictures of movie props and the actors posing in their costumes (not some "ultimate canon reality" ie: stuff appears to be made out of painted wood and plastic, rather than durasteel, and various characters appear to be CG rather than real flesh), but if this is supposedly "accurate" then can we assume Jango's armor isn't really more protective than Stormtrooper or Clonetrooper armor?

I mean all along I've just assumed that all the "important" characters that wore Armor in SW just have stronger armor than Stormtroopers (the Fetts, Vader, Royal Guards, etc). But Jango is like wearing a few metallic pieces over a blue jumpsuit pretty much. He's got a lot of exposed areas (then again in the movie we see his armor bend and flex like it's made out of rubber, but there you go).

Is this taking SOD too far? At least ST Armor covers more of the user's body. And it has a nice body glove rather than just some cloth (though see the discussion about Star Wars cloth)...

Obviously the Fetts are meant to be badasses and I doubt your average Joe Stormtrooper is going to take him out single handed without much trouble, but still. It seems like if I were in a fight I'd want something more along the lines of the Trooper armor for protection (though a duller color would be nice), how about you?

[Aaron]

The cloth parts of the Fetts armour are also blaster resistant.

[Master of Ossus]

More coverage with hard material does not necessarily indicate better protection. Fett's bodysuit is almost certainly blaster-, chemical-, and shrapnel-resistant, but it also gives him better mobility than a suit made entirely out of harder materials would offer.

[NecronLord]

Jango's armour is likely made of superior materials (Mandalorian Iron, ick) as well as providing better overall flexibility. It also probably weighs less.

[Kurgan]

It's also interesting in these pics, they depict of Jango (pages 40-41) there is very little space between his helmet and base of his suit. It's like he has no neck to speak of. So how the heck did Mace get a clear shot to decapitate him without damaging the armor? The only shot that shows Fett's neck is when he's flying straight up with his rocket pack on the Kamino landing pad and has his head thrown back.

Perhaps when Fett was preparing to take off (his rocket sparks before Mace gets him) he was lifting his head up, anticipating flight? It's like he was just asking for it!

Then again I'm sure somebody else has done a frame by frame and can show me if I'm wrong...

Edit: they refer to his pants as a "Waterproof layered flight suit." It appears he's wearing a same color t-shirt over the top of the jumpsuit, and some rubbery gloves. The boots appear rubbering and seperate as well.

Looking closer, his chest armor appears to be a leather-like sleev-less vest (an olive color). The Armor plates are attached loosely to the vest, and underneath is the t-shirt, and then the "flight suit" under that. The leather belt he wears is going over the metallic crotch guard (don't see if his butt has any armor behind) he wears, which has the leather holsters attached to it with straps.

[Civil War Man]

It's also interesting in these pics, they depict of Jango (pages 40-41) there is very little space between his helmet and base of his suit. It's like he has no neck to speak of. So how the heck did Mace get a clear shot to decapitate him without damaging the armor? The only shot that shows Fett's neck is when he's flying straight up with his rocket pack on the Kamino landing pad and has his head thrown back.

Perhaps when Fett was preparing to take off (his rocket sparks before Mace gets him) he was lifting his head up, anticipating flight? It's like he was just asking for it!

Then again I'm sure somebody else has done a frame by frame and can show me if I'm wrong...

It may seem like low odds, but this is Mace Windu we're talking about. Not only is he one of the best (if not the best, period) lightsaber duelist in the galaxy, he's also one of the most powerful Jedi. Mace wielding a lightsaber and deep in some kind of Force trance, IMHO, could easily hit a target that small.

[Kurgan]

He could have just swiped off the guy's legs or cut him in half, but I guess this was the cooler way.

When Lucas had Maul cut in half people still wondered if he survived and got robot legs (a la "Maw" from Dark Forces II). This way there'd be no question... (though I remember hearing rumors that General Grevious is Darth Maul, lol!)

[NecronLord]

(if not the best, period)

Not. All hail Obi Wan Kenobi!

Oh, and Maw was luckier than Maul. He was on the Vengance. State of the Art friendly medical facilities at hand. If Maul had been got in time, he too might have gotten repulsors-for-legs.

[FTeik]

Well, the clones, who pilot and drive gunships, walkers and so on are supposed to get more flexible suits, too. IIRC, the driver-uniforms of Imperial vessel-pilots are even less protective, than Fetts armor.

I'm also certain, that the last thing somebody like Jango Fett would do would be to fight like an Infantry-soldier.

[white_rabbit]

(if not the best, period)

Not. All hail Obi Wan Kenobi!

Oh, and Maw was luckier than Maul. He was on the Vengance. State of the Art friendly medical facilities at hand. If Maul had been got in time, he too might have gotten repulsors-for-legs.

Judging by this new Visionaries comic cover I saw, Maul could have ended up with way cooler backward jointed cybernetic legs...

[Kurgan]

Well, the clones, who pilot and drive gunships, walkers and so on are supposed to get more flexible suits, too. IIRC, the driver-uniforms of Imperial vessel-pilots are even less protective, than Fetts armor.

I'm also certain, that the last thing somebody like Jango Fett would do would be to fight like an Infantry-soldier.

Yeah, Jango is basically an assassin (and also a bounty hunter by trade). Boba is a bounty hunter, but neither of them really fights as a soldier (Jango's shenanigans in the arena and Boba's shenanigans on the Sail barge nonewithstanding... notice how both incidents lead to said character's deaths!).

[Lancer]

Well, the clones, who pilot and drive gunships, walkers and so on are supposed to get more flexible suits, too. IIRC, the driver-uniforms of Imperial vessel-pilots are even less protective, than Fetts armor.

I'm also certain, that the last thing somebody like Jango Fett would do would be to fight like an Infantry-soldier.

Yeah, Jango is basically an assassin (and also a bounty hunter by trade). Boba is a bounty hunter, but neither of them really fights as a soldier (Jango's shenanigans in the arena and Boba's shenanigans on the Sail barge nonewithstanding... notice how both incidents lead to said character's deaths!).

Boba survives the Sarlacc pit.

[Kurgan]

Boba survives the Sarlacc pit.

!!!!

[Lancer]

Boba survives the Sarlacc pit.

!!!!

if that blows your mind, wait till you learn how he escapes.

[Duken]

Didn't he get Thermal Detonated out by some rookie bounty hunter?

[Elheru Aran]

Didn't he get Thermal Detonated out by some rookie bounty hunter?

No, he maintained consciousness and in a moment of lucidity set off one of his own grenades, blew a fair bit of the Sarlaac apart and flung himself out. He was later discovered by Dengar, and nursed back to health. He became partners with Dengar, as seen in Dark Empire.

[Kurgan]

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought I heard that the ROTS Clonetroopers are the same as the AOTC ones, just with a new helmet...?

Though they're still different than the Stormtroopers 20 years later. Not too surprising, though I wonder what their explanation is for getting rid of the color coding? We only one instance of the colored Paudlons being used in the OT).

[Isolder74]

Wel in dark forces II, Stoormtroopers with different weapons specialities all have different colored shoulder patches. The yellow ones were so nasty!

[Vympel]

The Clonetroopers of RotS are indeed just the Clonetroopers from AotC, but with a new helmet. There are also a lot more Clonetrooper variants in RotS than in AotC- with different varieties of helmets, uniform arrangements, etc.

As to getting rid of color coding, probably because it wasn't deemed necessary anymore- color in RotS indicates which Legion the Clonetroopers belong.

As for the lack of pauldrons in TESB & RotJ, I'm not sure- in RotS the pauldrons indicate being part of the ARC Troopers, usually in an officer capacity, and are coupled with the "half skirts" and two pistols that we first saw in Clone Wars. This may indicate that the shoulder pauldrons just indicate officer rank (as stated on the databank) without being part of the ARC Troopers, though I'm not sure. A Snowtrooper had officer ranking on Veers AT-AT, for example, via the rank indicators we've seen on Imperial Starfleet personnel.

[Stark]

The movies don't provide any evidence (like his armour resisting anything, etc) so it's up in the air from a purist standpoint. I personally think xTrooper armour is superior, but that isn't based on anything other than a disregard for Fett wanking. Mandalorians are thankfully absent (although compatible with) AOTC.

Everyone, even the l337zor ARCs wear CT armour. If better was to be had, I'm pretty sure they'd have it. Note the hypocritical EU swapping!

I'm not saying 'mandalorian-like' armour isn't possible in SW: just that there's no evidence in the films that I can think of for JFs armour being special.

[Elheru Aran]

Most probably Jango's armor was intended to provide maximum manuverability and freedom of motion. Protection is secondary; the primary method of survival is to stay out of the line of fire. In this respect it's similar to a light bulletproof vest-- probably couldn't take a direct shot, but is sufficient to protect the body from most shrapnel and glancing blows. I also wouldn't be surprised if the helmet is much heavier than the rest of the armor; naturally, one would desire to keep the head protected as much as possible.

[wautd]

I always assumed Boba Fett's armor was superiour because you could see it took quite a few hits in the past

[Gorefiend]

The movies don't provide any evidence (like his armour resisting anything, etc) so it's up in the air from a purist standpoint.

Well if we go by the movie storm trooper armour doesn’t protect you from blaster fire at all, you just point a blaster at the white armoured fellows and hit him somewhere in the chest to kill them, in fact even arrows and well thrown rocks can take them out.

[Gunhead]

Stormie armor effectiveness cannot be judged from the movies.
This is because we cannot know if any of those shots fired of screen hit.
People tend to assume they we're misses but I can with equal authority say some of them hit, and were deflected by armor.

The non SOD thing of course is that it would waste movie minutes to show a hero hitting a bad guy for no effect. It would be cool, but body armor almost never works in movies anyway.

-Gunhead

[Gorefiend]

So your saying because we see storm trooper falling over, presumably dead, after being hit by a blaster shoot, we can’t say that armour does not seem to protect them all to well from blaster fire? ?_?

EU backs that up as well, they are supposed to be fine against shrapnel, and all the like, but just don’t seem to work all to well against blaster fire.