Once upon a time, a wise and humble man who may or may not be responsible for my paycheck asked the internet if anything is more worthless than stormtrooper armor.

It's a fair question. After all, what point is armor that limits your visibility and mobility, makes you a walking target, and provides no protection from random smugglers on your Death Star?

For those who aren't Star Wars nerds, we‘re gonna take a quick detour through some lore for a hot parsec.

Stormtrooper armor was meant to be three things: cheap, light, and protective in hostile environments. The overlapping layers of plastoid can stop glancing shots and the occasional direct hit by disbursing laser fire throughout the armor.

The Empire being an evil regime bent on galactic domination, however, it wasn't concerned about providing top-notch armor to its regular soldiers. If the armor was easy to make and generally protected its wearers from heat, cold, the vacuum of space, and toxic atmosphere – all while providing some coverage from lasers, knives, and shrapnel – that was good enough for Papa Palpatine.

It is worth noting that some troopers had much better armor, and then there are Mandalorians with their legendary beskar that deflects blaster fire and can even withstand lightsaber blows.

But you didn't just come here to learn the breakdown between plastoid, durasteel, beskar, and cortosis. No, you came wondering what could be worse than that generic trooper armor that gets blasted time after time after time.

Here were some great answers from the internet:

There ya go! You may have subpar armor if you're a stormtrooper, but at least you're not a mask-wearing socialist reading about critical race theory in a gun-free zone while watching CNN under a Biden administration!