A soldier, also referred to as a warrior, was a being who fought in defense of an organization, government, or ideal.
Soldiers could be trained and organized to fight as part of an army or militia, whereas others served as special units. Infantries were army branches made up of soldiers. Soldiers who fought purely for monetary income rather than political alignment were known as mercenaries. Soldiers could serve in more roles than front-line fighters, as they could be stationed at an installation or serve as guards.
Soldiers of the Rebel Alliance sought to defeat the Galactic Empire despite the odds.
Soldiers also often fought with an ideal in mind, such as honor. In fact, the rogue Sith Lord Maul believed that every soldier was bound by honor, deeming it a weakness that could be exploited. Another ideal was hope, which was often held by the soldiers of rebel movements; the Rebel troopers and other members of the Alliance to Restore the Republic worked off the hope that the Galactic Empire could be destroyed.
Officers would serve as leaders for soldiers, fighting and commanding alongside their troops or commanding from a more secure location. While officers who did the latter could still win battles, soldiers often appreciated it when their superior fought in combat with them, coming to respect such commanders. Alternatively, officers who worked away from the frontline could anger their troops, particularly if the superior's plans resulted in the deaths of many soldiers. Their soldiers could also come to mock such officers, questioning if their supposed leader lacked the fighting abilities their army possessed.
Indeed, Jedi General Anakin Skywalker felt that the only way to truly be a leader of soldiers was to lead from the battlefront, serving in the trenches of war alongside one's army. However, Captain Phasma of the First Order Stormtrooper Corps held a different opinion, believing great leaders did not command from their soldiers' front; instead, Phasma found her troops to be patriotic fools, viewing them to merely be cannon fodder who could be sacrificed to ensure her survival and victory.
Fighting in battles that they knew they could die in, difficult combat made up part of the life of a soldier. However, different soldiers had different opinions on what exactly it meant to be a good soldier; the treasonous Senate Commando Faro Argyus felt that, in order to be a good soldier, one needed to do what they thought was right, but he also believed the clone troopers of the Galactic Republic were too conditioned to understand as such. Indeed, Clone Commander Gree believed all direct orders needed to be followed and was angered by Argyus' words. Another clone, Clone Captain Rex, believed following orders upheld the honor of the Republic, but he came to change his mind during the Battle of Umbara; having seen the pain inflicted by Jedi General Pong Krell, Rex came to believe it was right for soldiers to disobey orders at times and make their own decisions.
Under the control of their inhibitor chips, clone troopers were made to believe that, in order to be a good soldier, they needed to obey every order.
Another clone trooper, Advanced Recon Commando Fives, agreed that being a loyal soldier did not mean that one needed to obey every order, saying that would mean the individual in question would be the same as a pre-programmed battle droid. However, the activation of a behavioral modification biochip in their mind would force clones to think differently; to a clone under the influence of the chip, a good soldier was one who followed every order. In fact, when Elite Squad Trooper ES-01, a human recruit brought into the Imperial Army by Project War-Mantle, objected to his orders to kill civilians by saying he signed up to be a soldier and not an executioner, Clone Commander Crosshair shot him dead, passing on the belief to the rest of his squad that they needed to follow every command given.
Republic Defense Coalition troopers lived in an era of peace until the eruption of the Nihil conflict.
The Galactic Republic was protected for centuries by the Jedi Order who served as peacekeepers, although they maintained that they were not soldiers. During the High Republic Era, soldiers, such as Galactic Republic troopers, made up part of the Republic Defense Coalition. Republic peacekeeping troops were also sent to maintain peace in conflicted locations. The Republic was also protected by the Judicial Forces. The Galactic Senate on Coruscant was protected by the Senate Guard and its elite Senate Commandos. Meanwhile, Republic member worlds like Naboo and Mon Cala typically had their own soldiers, such as the Royal Naboo Security Forces, Mon Calamari Guard and troopers, or Royal Onderon Militia.
While the galaxy at large was at peace, local conflicts still erupted across the galaxy, in which local soldiers, or even Republic troops should they need to step in, took part. During the High Republic Era, General Abediah Viess led a mercenary army of soldiers, who were identified as her warrior-kin. The rival worlds of Eiram and E'ronoh both maintained militaries, which clashed against each other in a series of wars that earned the overall conflict the moniker of the "Forever War." and were the ground soldiers of each planet. During the Nihil conflict, a number of Galactic Republic troopers of the RDC saw their first taste of real battle. In the late Republic Era, the government started to rely on the Jedi for peacekeeping operations more and more, giving the Judicial Forces less of a role in the Republic.
The Confederacy's army of droid soldiers (left) clashed with the Republic's army of cloned infantry (right) over the course of three years.
With the eruption of the Clone Wars, the Republic formed the Grand Army composed of clone troopers, who were considered the future for soldiers in galactic history. They fought against the Droid Army of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. While the Separatists notably used battle droids instead of flesh and blood soldiers, there were occasions where organic troops were deployed, such as the use of Geonosian warriors during the First and Second Battles of Geonosis, and of Umbaran soldiers during the Battle of Umbara.
Before the war, Jedi Master Mace Windu had declared to Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine that the Jedi would never act as soldiers. However, the Jedi found themselves as official generals and commanders at war who led clone troopers on the frontlines. Instead of acting in the traditional Jedi understanding of peacekeeping, young Jedi, such as Ahsoka Tano, found their life dedicated to warfare just as if they were a soldier.
Imperial stormtroopers were simultaneously elite shock troops and the standard soldiers of the Imperial Army.
After the war, the new Galactic Empire used the clones as the basis for the the Imperial stormtroopers, who served as elite soldiers and shock troops. Nevertheless, the stormtroopers also began to replace the regular Imperial soldiers. The Galactic Empire also made use of elite soldiers selected from the Stormtrooper Corps called death troopers, who were used to guard high-placed Imperial officers. The Alliance to Restore the Republic had Rebel troopers, who were its ground forces fighting against the Empire. Grysk warriors fought as soldiers for the expansionist Grysk Hegemony, which attempted to make inroads into Imperial space and engaged the stormtroopers of Darth Vader's 1st Legion during the Imperial–Grysk conflict.
The New Republic had its own New Republic soldiers, but its decision to ignore the First Order meant the Resistance had to rely on lightly-armored troopers like its predecessor. The First Order had its own version of the stormtrooper. Meanwhile, the Sith Eternal cult had raised an army in secret, whose most elite soldiers were the crimson-armored Sith troopers. Legions of Sith troopers were prepared for the final conquest of the galaxy, but the Sith Eternal was ultimately destroyed in the Battle of Exegol. The First Order then saw uprisings against its military across the galaxy.
- LEGO Star Wars: A New Hope