We now come back to the age-old question: Do blasters really suck, or is it just plot armor? As discussed above, there are plenty of reasons to suspect that a blaster’s reduced accuracy is caused by in-universe, mechanical issues. However, that simply doesn’t explain it all.
There are times when characters shoot poorly on purpose, most famously in “A New Hope,” when the stormtroopers on the Death Star are ordered to let the rebels escape so that they can be tracked to their hidden base. Other times, there’s just too much inconsistency. For instance, on one episode of “Star Wars Rebels,” Captain Rex complains while fighting in stormtrooper armor that he can’t see anything through the helmet. Once he removes it, he starts shooting like a deadeye, suggesting that the blaster itself never caused the inaccuracy.
You could write moments like this off as simple wink-and-nod acknowledgements of the now-infamous blaster accuracy question. However, that doesn’t remove them from canon. In any story, ultimately, people who need to die will get shot, and people who need to live won’t. It’s one of those narrative conveniences that we all just passively accept in order to enjoy whatever we’re watching. Star Wars is no different. Skill has a huge impact on blaster accuracy at times, and seemingly very little at others. Such is the fickle nature of space guns in a galaxy far, far away.
To read more about weaponry in a galaxy far, far away, check out the most powerful weapons in the Star Wars universe.
