An oddly heartwarming Star Wars cosplay shows a short stormtrooper being welcomed into the Imperial 501st Legion. Princess Leia famously noted in A New Hope that Luke Skywalker was “… a little short for a stormtrooper,” which instantly became one of the most quoted and frequently memed scenes in the franchise. However, a recent cosplay proves that troopers of all sizes have a place in the Empire (for better or worse).
UK Garrison shared their wonderful cosplay of an adult stormtrooper welcoming a child wearing stormtrooper armor into the 501st:
While this moment would be tragic within the Star Wars universe, it makes for a charming and incredibly well-done cosplay in the real world.
Although the Galactic Empire was never shown to recruit child soldiers, this cosplay isn’t too far off in the context of the wider Star Wars timeline. Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones revealed that the Grand Army of the Republic consisted of clone soldiers who aged at twice the rate of normal humans and trained from childhood for combat. George Lucas originally intended for the stormtroopers in the original trilogy to still be clones, but the official Disney canon changed this so that the clones were gradually phased out of service in favor of recruits.
The Star Wars sequel trilogy took a more sinister approach for the First Order by revealing that the new generation of stormtroopers were taken as children and trained from birth. While the Galactic Empire doesn’t seem to have followed this practice, Star Wars: The Bad Batch has shown how Imperial scientists had no problem abducting children for experiments, while Star Wars Rebels explored how the Inquisitors hunted Force-sensitive children. However stormtroopers are recruited in each era of Star Wars, they turn out to be formidable soldiers (or at least overwhelm an enemy through numbers).
Source: UK Garrison
