I have always wondered why everyone in Star Wars seems to fear Stormtroopers and regard them as elite troops when their on camera performance is so poor. The armour doesn't seem to do much against blasters, they can't shoot for beans, and generally seem pretty dumb.
But the truth is the reason the Rebel Alliance is cooler lies in the eye candy value of the respective leaderships. A wrinkled old prune vs well...
Except when they perform poorly it is generally against main protagonists, not common rebels.