How Powerful are The Imperial Royal Guards? - Star Wars Explained [Legends]

In an empire so devoid of color, the vibrantly red-colored Imperial Royal Guards not only stood out in their unique appearance but also in their perfected level of skill in combat. These guys were the best of the best the empire had to offer, and they were most likely the finest trained non-force sensitive soldiers in the entire galaxy during the empire’s reign. There’s a reason they were hand picked by the Emperor himself to guard his excellency.

And since we unfortunately never see them properly fight in the movies, exactly how powerful were the Imperial Royal Guards? Before we begin, we want to clarify that the red guards we see get knocked out by Yoda are not even near the same skill level as the Imperial Royal guards at the height of the galactic empire’s reign. The red guards we see throughout the clone wars did not go through the same intense training that the Imperial royal guards had.

Instead they were just senate guards, senate commandos, and other trained soldiers promoted by Palpatine based on their loyalty for him. Palpatine’s main reason for creating the Red Guard at the time was to surround himself with guards that were solely loyal to him above all else, so that he could attend his alter ego as Darth Sidious and do other secret things without fear of being spied on or being betrayed by one of the senate guards who would have protected him otherwise. Just to put things in perspective, a single Imperial Royal Guard would probably be able to take out 4 Red guards with relative ease.

As the Red Guards were picked mainly for their loyalty, while the Imperial Royal Guards were picked for both their loyalty and their extensive training. Said extensive training for the Imperial Royal Guards took place on the harsh, war torn planet of Yinchorr. The trainees who attended this Academy were chosen for being the strongest, most intelligent and gifted soldiers from all across the Imperial military.

An initial class consisted of about 40 to 50 students, but only about one or two of them would eventually graduate from the academy to become Royal Guards. They were mainly trained in Echani art, which was an unarmed combat style which essentially turned the practitioner's body into a weapon. Their reflexes were sharpened to perfection, to the the point that they could even sometimes deflect a blaster bolt in the heat of battle with just their melee weapons.

Much of their fighting took place amongst themselves, with the loser of each fight facing the possibility of death. Once they reached a certain point in their training, they would be greeted by Emperor Palpatine, who even he himself showed the soon to be guards with utmost respect, treating them as if they were his own children. But then again, it wouldn’t be wise to make the people who would eventually be tasked in protecting you dislike you.

So that could also be why he was so respectful towards them. Anyway, along with inspecting the remaining students of the academy, Palpatine then had Darth Vader arrive and duel with the best student in the group. Those who dueled Vader were almost certainly doomed to lose, but beating Vader wasn’t the point.

It was more of a learning experience for the other students as they watched their best mate get essentially murdered in front of them as Vader toyed with his opponent before ending his life by kicking him down into the abyss below. The purpose of this demonstration was to show them that what they believed was the best wasn’t even good enough, and in a sinister kind of way, to encourage them to train harder. That if they were going to protect the Emperor, then they would have to be almost unnatural in their level of skill in combat.

It was also probably done to perhaps show them that even if they were considered the best the empire had to offer, that they were still vulnerable to death for their failures. Many months later, and the very few remaining students were on course to graduating and only had one final test to accomplish. A final test that would be overseen by the Emperor himself within his chamber.

Two students would enter the chamber at a time and kneel before the emperor as he was surrounded by Royal guards and Vader. After they were praised for their remarkable successes, they then were presented with their final test: to fight each other to the death and the winner will become a Royal guard. Now the main purpose of the test was to test the student’s loyalty, as they would be fighting someone who they have trained with and been friends with for months, if not years.

But their ambitions for becoming a guard overcame their long friendship and they quickly fought as they were ordered, with eventually a victor emerging. After being congratulated by the emperor, the newly confirmed member of the royal guard would be reminded by Vader that he shouldn’t ever be sorry for his actions nor should he ever regret a direct order given by his master. And if the new guard shows signs of possible defiance, Vader will hurt them and put them in their place, reminding them that they are no match to the power of the dark side that both Vader and the Emperor possessed.

Anyway, these guards have demonstrated their level of skill from time to time again throughout the comics. For example they were able to hold off an entire private army of clone stormtroopers, which were secretly created by a traitorous Imperial who tried to overthrow the emperor. They did this with minimal casualties, fending them off long enough for Palpatine to kill the rest of them with his force lightning.

Another case was when a single Imperial Royal Guard literally turned the tide of an entire battle as he fought against stormtroopers who were being commanded by a traitorous Imperial warlord who sought the Imperial throne after contributing to Palpatine’s death. This single royal guard cut down scores of stormtroopers with his vibroblade, with even deflecting one blaster bolt at one point. He eventually took out his heavy blaster pistol and started to duel wield his weapons, cutting down troopers with his vibroblade and shooting them at a distance with his blaster.

Nearing the end of the battle he even took out a TIE interceptor by shooting the pilot through the glass and causing the starfighter to crash toward the other stormtroopers. This single gaurd caused the traitorous Imperials to retreat, with the commander almost having a nervous breakdown when he was notified that an Imperial royal guard was fighting alongside his enemy. So on top of their training, these guards were outfitted with some of the best armor the empire had to offer.

The armor provided far better protection than that of typical stormtrooper armor, but it was also designed to be very flexible and allowed for great movement. They were armed with force spikes which could be used to stun or kill enemies, or in some cases even torture their victims if needed. They also were equipped with a heavy blaster pistol if they required to eliminate longer ranged enemies.

The armor and blaster were hidden beneath the guard's long robes, giving a deceptive appearance that they were only armed with force pikes. Along with their physical combat training, the guards were also experts at dogfighting in space, being given their own special red colored tie interceptors whenever they escorted the Emperor’s shuttle. They were taught a secret language to use amongst each other during battle as a means to keep their tactics a secret from the enemy, and they were more than willing to die than give up any information or betray their emperor.

Actually when the death of Emperor Palpatine was confirmed, a huge portion of the royal guard committed suicide as they felt they had failed in protecting him. Those who did not commit suicide, either joined an Imperial warlord or sought to avenge the emperor by either fighting the rebels or Imperials who betrayed the emperor and sought the Imperial throne for themselves. Along with guarding they also were used for assassination missions, and in some cases they wore special red colored stormtrooper armor during special missions.

Royal Guards who were exceptionally skilled in their training and were discovered to be force sensitive were allowed to join an even more elite organization called the Imperial Sovereign Protectors or the Imperial Shadow guards. Within either of these subset organizations the guards were trained in the dark side of the force, and were either equipped with a doubled-end vibroblade or a red lightsaber pike.