Lately I've been noticing a lot of pictures of people dressed as Star Wars stormtroopers doing decidedly unstormtrooperlike things. Here they are at the London Eye. Here they are as zombies. Here's one washing a car.

That's when I realized it: Stormtroopers are the fursuiters of the sci-fi fandom.

No, think about it! They get their kicks by going out in costume to some highly-visible public place, but under the security of anonymity. They get their picture taken, they pose with the kids, they ham it up for the crowd. There's probably some weird subset that engages in clunky plastic stormtrooper sex.

So the next time some sci-fi nerd makes fun of furries using fursuiters as the scapegoat, you have your rebuttal.