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At the beginning of the beach part of Rogue One, two stormtroopers are discussing something that they say is being rendered obsolete, followed by 'It was about time'.

It sounded like AT18, which is not a thing. It cannot be an AT-TE, as in Star Wars: Rebels it is obsolete already. What was it?

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  • While watching it, I assumed that whatever they said was the class of droid that includes K-2S0. From the answers it seems it probably isn't, but that would make sense in the context of the film.
    – N. Virgo
    Dec 24, 2016 at 1:24
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    Not precisely related, but the Jedi Knight games have similar stormtrooper banter if you stop and listen to them without them noticing you sometimes. I find it an amusing and clever way to make a scene feel more natural, presumably they talk about something all the time, right?
    – Jamie
    Oct 10, 2018 at 14:43
  • Given the word-of-god confirmation from LucasFilm in my answer, I'm a little surprised that your acceptance is still sitting with the (now-revealed-to-be) incorrect answer.
    – Valorum
    Feb 6, 2021 at 20:15

7 Answers 7

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It's referring to the T-16 skyhopper. It's the airship Luke owns in episode four. When they say that there is a replacement they specifically say the T-15. In A New Hope you also see Luke playing with a model of it. T-16

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    Is it? I mean, Luke "used to bullseye womp rats in [his] T-16 back home, they're not much bigger than two meters. "
    – user40790
    Dec 16, 2016 at 22:45
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    @Axelrod you're right, now that I think of it. Maybe the stormtroopers are avid womp rat bullseyers
    – CBredlow
    Dec 16, 2016 at 23:24
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    Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, this answer does not make sense! Why would the successor to the T-16 be named the T-15? Especially if the T-17 was then released during The Force Awakens timeframe? Or, if the T-16 was the successor to this "T-15", how would backwater farmboy Luke Skywalker already own the newest model to bullseye Wamp Rats in his T-16 back home?
    – pk_
    Dec 22, 2016 at 22:43
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    It is a nod to the fans from the new generation of film makers. In A New Hope , 2 stormtroopers in the Death Star are discussing the "new T-16". In The Force Awakens , we hear First Order Stormtroopers talk about "the new T-17". And to complete the circle, we hear stormtroopers mentioning "the old T-15" in Rogue One .
    – jeroen_de_schutter
    Jan 3, 2017 at 15:25
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    The closed captioning says "T-15"
    – WhiskerBiscuit
    Aug 31, 2017 at 3:23
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I believe they're discussing the VT-16. This is the same topic the Stormtroopers in A New Hope discuss while Obi-Wan Kenobi is disabling the tractor beam.

Curiously the Wookieepedia article suggests this is a droid seen in Return of the Jedi. Personally I'd dispute that as it seems an odd thing for Stormtroopers to discuss, and I'd assume that VT-16 and BT-16 are different things. But the link above does quote the conversation from A New Hope.

EDIT: After a second viewing they definitely say T-15. I now believe the quote on Wookieepedia is misplaced, and that those Stormtroopers are actually discussing the T-16, not VT-16.

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This line in Rogue One was apparently a mis-quote by the voice actors that somehow made it into the completed film. They were trying to back-reference the line from A New Hope complaining about the famously obsolete VT-16 (an item that has no canon existence other than to be complained about).

“Without saying a word, without being called upon, and without even looking at each other, Sam and I stood up from our chairs and walked up to the array of microphones in front of the movie screen. Matthew said, ‘Okay, we need some kind of stormtrooper dialogue here, guys . . . oh, looks like you’re ready, let’s go for it.’

“Sam spoke first, and I spoke second, delivering the line about T-15s being made obsolete. He reacted in that great trooper monotone, and then we both performed a vocal for being taken down by rebels. The room laughed. We did a second take, and that was it. The whole thing went down in less than two minutes.

Stormtroopers: Beyond the Armor

and

[The picture above shows a] frame of two stormtroopers having a conversation about the obsolete T-15. The exchange was intended to set up the conversation overheard during A New Hope regarding the new VT-16. However, the Rogue One conversation identifies the previous model as a T-15, incorrectly calling out the letters as that would link the two references.

Stormtroopers: Beyond the Armor

We can assume that the VT-15 is also a non-object that troopers complain about periodically (although I've heard that the T-17 is going to be a vast improvement).

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It's a nod to A New Hope, "You seen that new VT-16?" "Yeah, some of the other guys were telling me about it. They say it's… it's quite a thing to see…" ―KE-829 and his partner aboard the first Death Star The BT-16 perimeter droid, also known as the VT-16, was a bulbous, spider-like droid.

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I thought they said "C-15"; I assumed it had something to do with a Clone army and was a passing reference to the imperial army weaning itself off of clone troopers.

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  • That would have been a really cool easter-egg. Except that they were talking about a single thing and not a group. :(
    – Matteo Ferla
    Dec 17, 2016 at 19:07
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I think that this is a reference to the non canon characters, Tag and Bink! It also could be a reference to episode 4, when Tag and Bink are talking about the BT-16.

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  • Can you explain your reasoning?
    – Gallifreyan
    Dec 19, 2016 at 16:10
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They are talking about the T-15 Snub Rifle that stormtroopers carry.

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  • Can you back this up?
    – Adamant
    Dec 17, 2016 at 4:34
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    This needs to cite a source. Wookieepedia says the T-15 is Legends only. Granted, Rogue One just barely came out but the Wookieepedia editors have been actively updating pages related to the movie.
    – Null ♦
    Dec 17, 2016 at 5:13

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