While Finn’s Star Wars story told an exciting story of a Stormtrooper who saw the error in his ways, Princess Leia helped to redeem another one of the Empire’s ruthless soldiers decades earlier in a Legends-era story. In the original Star Wars trilogy era, the Galactic Empire subjugated the galaxy under dystopian fascist rule, and one of the most feared symbols of their tyranny are Imperial Stormtroopers. The armored troops are typically depicted as ruthless, brutish, killers, but in some rare instances, the people behind the stark white armor are the focus of dark and complex Star Wars stories.
Stormtroopers are easily the most famous Imperial ground troops in the Star Wars franchise, with the Legends continuity establishing that they’re part of a separate branch from the Imperial Army and Navy. While the rarely-seen Imperial Army Troopers are a deadly fighting force, the armored troops of the Stormtrooper Corps are an elite group of the Empire’s most talented and ruthless soldiers. Stormtrooper training stresses loyalty to Palpatine above all else, making most Stormtroopers fanatics.
The fanaticism of one Stormtrooper is put to the ultimate test in issue 86 of Marvel’s classic Star Wars series, by Randy Stradley and Bob McLeod, which introduces an Alderaanian member of the Stormtrooper Corps. This unnamed Stormtrooper joined the corps before Alderaan’s destruction, yet remained loyal to the Empire for years afterward. Upon meeting Princess Leia, he displays an unusual disregard for orders and mixed feelings about his homeworld’s destruction before Leia eventually convinces him to defect from the Empire, though he tragically doesn’t live long enough to officially join the Rebellion.
The trooper makes different excuses for his years of service to the Empire after they obliterated his homeworld, ranging from feeling disrespected by the Royal House of Alderaan (he was a commoner in their employ before joining the Stormtrooper Corps), to blaming Bail Organa’s Rebel ties for Alderaan’s destruction, or simply saying he’s “only following order.” Yet the trooper’s conflicted feelings on the matter are showcased by his possession of a fragment of the planet he’d bought from a trader and wears on a chain along with his hesitance to kill Leia as ordered.
The unnamed trooper’s defection is one of the Star Wars franchise’s few instances of Stormtroopers defying their indoctrination and defecting. Along with the current canon’s Finn, the Legends universe also notably has Kyle Katarn turn against the Stormtrooper Corps and eventually become a Jedi. Imperial Stormtroopers are nearly always shown to be faceless minions of an oppressive autocracy in the Star Wars franchise, Princess Leia and this unnamed trooper prove that even the most despicable villains can sometimes have a change of heart.