Thirty years ago a rebel blockade runner was captured. The rebel guards wearing simple fatigues, vests, and helmets ready themselves to repel boarders. They line themselves along the wall and you can see their faces you can see the fear and determination. You can see they are human. They are the good guys. Soon the door is blown open and in rushes humanoid figures in case from head to toe in armor. They look eerily spectral maybe even skeletal. Some of them fall but more just keep coming. They are like a machine relentless, unstoppable without mercy. They are evil and they are inhuman.

Back when I was a kid ant the Original Trilogy was not finished yet the general consensus among the kids in my neighborhood for a while was that the Stormtroopers were droids. We had a lot of reason to think of them as inhuman machines because that how Lucas portrayed them and a lot of the Imperials. Throughout the saga there is the repetition of the primitive/natural good vs. the mechanized evil. And in no better place this is illustrated than the costumes.

The Stormtrooper is faceless nameless and just one of many in their black and white colorless armor. They are robbed of being human they are even robbed of names (TK421). Further evidence of this comes when in the detention center Hans is asked "Who is this? What's your operating number?" not "what is your name?" We never see them without their helmets on in half armor nothing happens that could give away the human incased in that shell. They are just cogs in the machine that is the empire. I wonder how much of Lucas' THX1138 found its way into the Empire.

The good guys however are human. They do not wear armor even if they are just a nameless trooper in a uniform we still get to see their face. When the heroes has to disguise themselves in the evil armor they used every chance they got to take off their helmets and regain their hero/human status. Despite being chased and being in a hurry Han and Luke take the time to take off the armor thus fully regaining their individuality and their humanity.

Stormtroopers are not the only ones robbed of their humanity. The TIE pilots and gunners are as well being covered head to toe with no skin showing. It makes sense for the TIE pilot to have a full sealed flight suit and masked helmet when flying in space. But the rebels have open faced helmet with a simple orange tinted visor over the eyes. Heaven forbid the canopy gets pierced and they lose oxygen. But that is not the point. The Rebel pilots are the good guys and are deserving of their place as humans while the black suited TIE pilots are just part of the imperial machine.

Then of course there is the most evil machine-man, Darth Vader. But I am sure volumes have already been written about him and the symbolic nature of his armor. I will just say he is the head inhuman machine robbed of his humanity leading legions of those who have also been robbed of their humanity.

Boba Fett too falls victim to this symbolism. He is the cold heartless bounty hunter who will stop at nothing to get his prey. There is mystery around him. He is without mercy and he too is to be feared. He is also seen in ESB as a servant of Vader thus not deserving of having humanity.

The clones get spared. In AOTC we are given the chance to see them without armor. We see them eating in fatigues or a shot of their face before the don their helmets. There is color to their armor as well some have red, blue, green, or yellow stripes. They are the good guys now we can see they are human we are even allowed to feel for their plight in books. When ROTS comes around they have many styles of armor with many colored patterns. One of the clones, Commander Cody, gets to be the human representative for their last hurrah as good guys. We see him with out his helmet a few times. The last is just before he gives Obi-Wan back his lightsaber as a friend. He puts his helmet back on then receives order 66 and within a second he is an enemy. We never see a clone without a helmet again.

Wearing enough armor can make anyone look like a machine. And it makes for good symbolism in films and books. But we should remember that those who don armor in real life do not become machines and they do not lose their humanity.