Clone officers wear fully protective armor, and many distinguish themselves with unique style variations. Yet, Imperial officers don’t seem to do the same. Why is that? The answer depends on which Imperial officers we refer to.
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Clone Officers and Imperial Officers
When we think of Clone Troopers, we may picture their distinctive generation one armor. This is a full suit of armor composed of plastoid plates that could handily take on heat, impact, and pressure. With Phase II armor, we witness “a wide array of armor variants” suitable for special forces.
With the variations, we may prioritize Captain Rex and Commander Cody, but we see armor styles running across the top officers. ARC trooper armor overall stands out, not just in style, but almost fully the trooper going into combat.
Not so much with Imperial officers. We tend to see them in gray uniforms without armor. These “gaberwool” military uniforms consist of “a double-breasted tunic with a round collar”, pants to match, and resembl Nazi military officers.
In this well-known scene, we see Admiral Ozzie and soon-to-be Admiral Piett in this dress before the latter is force-choked by Vader. It reflects how Imperial officers don’t wear as Clone officers do. Or do they?
Clone and Imperial Officer Armor Explained
We may think Clone officers wear armor, and imperial ones do not, because they are involved in active combat. Imperial officers are instead behind-the-scenes orchestrating overall defenses, planning an attack, or getting choked. Some fans in this discussion indicated as much, but we should press further with our answer.
Other fans from above pointed out how Imperial officers do wear armor, just not very often “on screen.” And, we do see it occasionally, as with General Veers in The Empire Strikes Back. We can see him here decked out in combat armor as the AT-ATs come closer to destroying Echo Base.
While this explanation is on track, if we go even further, we find that the overall comparison we started with does not quite fit. We need to look at specific types of Imperial officers.
Fans on Reddit and this Quora discussion correctly indicate that we should not be comparing Clone Army officers to Imperial Navy officers. The second link goes into detail and explains how Imperial Navy Officers are “the ones with the grey uniforms” that we most often see in the original trilogy and “rarely see combat.” Hence, they usually do not wear armor.
Yet, Imperial army officers do wear armor, as with General Veers in Empire. On his Wookieepedia page, we also see him in his military officer clothes. Veers wears Imperial officer battle armor over his uniform with a plate over his torso and a helmet. The armor comes with a color-matching gray design and his rank insignia.
Officers in the 224th Imperial Armored Division wear darker-colored armor, and this division had transitioned over from the Clone troopers. In Andor, we see the distinguished members of the Aldani Heist team only wearing chest and shoulder armor alongside the double-agent Imperial officer Lieutenant Gorn.
In this situation and overall, Imperial officer armor is rather minimal compared to Clone officer armor. Clones were expecting to be engaged in full combat, while Imperials anticipated leading perhaps from safe cover.
Armor of Clones and Imperials
Like Clone officers, we see that Imperial officers do wear armor. Yet, it is reserved for army officers and tends to be less fortified than that of Clones. The Clones are more distinctive with their armor, while the Imperials tend to match their outfits. Their different armors correspond well with their different roles.