Stormtroopers

"These aren't the droids you're looking for. These aren't the droids we're looking for."

- Obi-Wan Kenobi and an unidentified stormtrooper

Stormtroopers are soldiers that appear in the original and sequel Star Wars trilogies as the secondary main antagonistic factions. They served the Galactic Empire and later the First Order as basic foot soldiers.

Galactic Empire
Stormtroopers were originally the skilled, Republic-serving clone troopers. After order 66 was executed all the clones began killing and hunting down all the Jedi. All the troopers were clones of famed bounty hunter Jango Fett and look exactly alike, except for designs they would put on their armor to express a degree of individuality. Once the Empire made it's first reform, all troopers were to embrace uniformity. Eventually the empire began to use alternate DNA specimens for cloning and even began recruiting members of imperial planets.

Stormtroopers would usually alongside one or two other stormtrooper squads, each counting at nine stormtroopers total. Stormtroopers main tactic is to outnumber the enemy in a similar fashion to Battle Droids.

After the Republic's conversion to the Galactic Empire, they lost many of the advantages Clone Troopers had such as the leadership of jedi generals.

First Order
Thirty years since the Battle of Endor, the remaining Stormtroopers entered service to the First Order. These Stormtroopers were raised from birth to fight as soldiers for the First Order.

Imperial Remnent
The Empire began to decline after the Battle of Endor and stormtroopers became less common until the Empire was just a small territory ruling only a few planets called the Imperial Remnent. Since stormtroopers were less common and the Remnent did not have the economy of the former empire, stormtroopers became much better soldiers because the Remnent knew they had limited troops at their disposal. With their better training, the stormtroopers of the Imperial Remnent led the Remnent to victory in the war against the dreaded Yuuzhan Vong.

Fel Empire
Several years after the Yuuzhan Vong war, a man nammed Jagged Fel became the Remnent's leader, and under his rule, the Remnent began to grow strong again, but unlike the former Galactic Empire, the Fel Empire was quite benevolent. It rejected the dark side of the force, and embraced the light side and trained their own force sensitive faction, the Imperial Knights. As for Stormtroopers, they became more numerous, but the training from the Remnent stayed the same and they continued to be great soldiers who protected the innocent. And for the first time ever, aliens were allowed to become stormtroopers.

Darth Krayt's sith empire and Empire in exile
While the Empire began to grow again, the Galactic Alliance of free Planets began to decline due to false-flag terrorism by the One Sith. The Sith cult framed the Yuuzhan Vong for altering planet terraforming projects,mtricking the alliance into thinking the Vong were continuing their war. As war and chaos erupted in the Alliance, the Fel Empires council (Who had members that clung deeply to Palpatines way) decided to restore the Empire as the dominant power in the Galaxy.

The Stormtroopers led the Empire to victory in the war, and briefly the Fel Empire ruled with wisdom and generosity, the Evil Darth Krayt staged a coup and broke the Empire into two factions, Darth Krayt's Sith Empire, a government some consider even worse then the first Galactic Empire, and The Empire in Exhile, a rebellion group determined to restore the glory of the benevolent Fel Empire. Every single stormtrooper was forced to choose sides, some sided with Darth Krayt, others sided with Emperor Roen Fel, the ruler of the Empire in Exile.

The stormtroopers of Krayt's Empire became just like the ones of The first Galactic Empire, cruel, without mercy, but poorly trained and taught to rely on numbers(but still effective against less important protagonists.) The stormtroopers of the Empire in Exile were well trained and proved crucial in winning the war, but Fel died in the final battle and the Empire became part of a new government called the Galactic Federation Trumvirate that united the entire galaxy. Stormtroopers continued to serve the Empires side of the government and still remain great and benevolent soldiers.

The 501st Legion
This special legion of stormtroopers were selected during the events of the Clone Wars. They received extra training on Coruscant beyond the standard clone training received on the planet Kamino, where all the clones were "born". During the course of the Clone Wars the legion members were assigned many duties, but several ended up serving alongside General Skywalker and Captain Rex. Eventually these troopers served directly under Darth Vader and were notably the last squadron to be comprised completely of Fett's clones.They also fought for the Remnant in the Vong war, and fought for the Fel Empire and Empire in Exile, and proved crucial in winning those wars.

Weaponry
Standard issue for the stormtrooper were the BlasTech E-11 Blaster Rifle along with a SE-14r sidearm. The Blaster Rifle was modeled after the Clone Troopers DC-15 Blaster in most respects, but was more powerful and much less precise. This fact must also have contributed to the Stormtrooper's famed lack of accuracy. After the Empire became the Remnant, E-11 Blaster Rifles received numerous upgrades making them more accurate, the upgrades remained in the Remnant and Fel Empire, but Krayt's empire removed the upgrades making their stormtroopers just as incompetent as Palpatine's soldiers were. Despite this, Stormtroopers proved to be greatly effective in combat situations and are varied in different classes, such as Darktrooper or the Scout Trooper as well as the Shock Trooper. The stormtroopers are also armed with thermal detonators, but the Shock Trooper can also carry mines. The stormtroopers can also carry other weapons if permitted by the imperial officer or the general.

Training
Stormtrooper training starts at childhood. Children who display the proper health conditions are shipped off to their local training academy where they are given rigorous training in order to turn them into elite soldiers. They are taught to disregard fallen comrades in battle and press on, no matter how much the odds are stacked against them.

Both boys and girls are permitted to become stormtroopers but are placed in units comprised entirely of only one gender. Cadets are armed energy blasters which they use for shooting and are also taught how to pilot Imperial Walkers. They are also regularly put through obstacle course to test their strength, reflexes and skills. Failure to make it through the course is harshly punished.

Trivia

 * They appear to derive their name from Adolf Hitler's soldiers, who were referred to as s.
 * There is a popular fan theory that suggests that the Stormtroopers aboard the Death Star were ordered to deliberately miss the heroes while shooting at them so the Empire could track them to the rebel base, hinting that Stormtroopers are actually good shots.