- “Sir, yes sir.”
- ―The clone trooper response.
Clone Troopers are cloned soldiers originating from the Star Wars prequel trilogy, first introduced as the titular army in Attack of the Clones. They later appear as the titular characters in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, as well as the main characters of its spin-off sequel series Star Wars: The Bad Batch and recurring characters in Star Wars Rebels.
They were created in secret on Kamino, and discovered by Obi-Wan Kenobi when he followed a clue to a murder. These clones, being genetically engineered for battle, with accelerated growth, were all cloned from Jango Fett, a well-known and feared bounty hunter.
Clones served in the GAR, the Grand Army of the Republic, alongside the Jedi. When Darth Sidious commenced Order 66, the control chips within the troopers activated and the clones fired upon and killed the Jedi.
After the order, the clones either became stormtroopers or were replaced by them for the first Galactic Empire. Almost immediately, Sidious phased out the clone troopers as his soldiers during his reign as Emperor due to the activation of the inhibitor chips rendering them inferior fighters (as it took away their creativity and improvisation and rendered them more bloodthirsty), the expense of the cloning process, and their vulnerability to genetic diseases that could render them useless. Within a few years, all of the clones were removed from active service except for a select few. They were instead replaced by normal human recruits, which in turn were eventually replaced by children kidnapped from families throughout the galaxy and programmed from birth when the First Order rose to power sometime after the Empire's downfall.
Background
Personality
The clone troopers are loyal and obedient, and they usually follow orders from high-ranking officials, such as Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Despite this, most clones, like Rex, have individual traits and personalities, and do not always follow orders without question.
Unlike the stormtroopers, the clone troopers are skillful soldiers, being very good at aiming for their targets and have been trained in hand-to-hand combat.
Due to the clone troopers having inhibitor chips implanted into their brains during their growth cycle, the moment they hear the words "Order 66", their individual identities will be completely overridden, and they will unwillingly turn against their Jedi comrades and kill them, having no control of their actions.
The activation of the inhibitor chips permanently altered the clones after carrying out Order 66. While they still retained their personalities to an extent (seen when the normal clones got into a food fight with the Bad Batch), they became blindly loyal to Palpatine. When Palpatine ended the Republic and replaced it with a totalitarian Empire, the clones all cheered for the new Emperor despite the fact that the galaxy then erupted into chaos.
The clones themselves then became much more aggressive and violent than before. They became a sort of police force and returned to wearing all-white armor without any markings, discarding the individual appearances and personalities that they developed during the war.
Abilities
- Marksmanship: Clone troopers are trained at very young ages to be skilled in utilizing blaster pistols and blaster rifles. Many clone troopers are very good at shooting their targets, especially compared to the infamously bad aim of their Imperial successors.
- Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Clone troopers are trained at very young ages to be skilled in unarmed combat. Many clone troopers are very effective unarmed fighters.
Film Appearances
Attack of the Clones
The clones were an army being made on Kamino for the Galactic Republic. Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi found them while looking for a bounty hunter, who was their genetic template named Jango Fett. Later on the army were collected by Jedi Master Yoda, who brought them to Geonosis to assist the Jedi in a rescue attempt. They fought the Battle of Geonosis, in which they won, and the Clone Wars began.
Revenge of the Sith
Near the end of the Clone Wars, the Clones were assisting all Jedi on different planets. After Anakin Skywalker's turn to the dark side and the death of Mace Windu, Darth Sidious ordered them via hologram to execute Order 66: kill all Jedi. Most Jedi were wiped out successfully and the Clones became Stormtroopers under the newly formed Galactic Empire.
- “With the Fall of Coruscant and the elimination of the traitorous Jedi, Palpatine's rise to power was complete. In recognition of our service and loyalty to the Emperor, the 501st were placed under the direct command of Lord Vader. Armed with deadly new weapons, blazing new ships, and shiny new armor, our presence let the galaxy know that the days of the Old Republic, were well and truly over. We were establishing a new era. An era of order and peace.”
- ―Journal entry from a member of the 501st Legion following Order 66
Television Appearances
The Book of Boba Fett
While training Grogu, Luke Skywalker uses the Force to help the child remember his experience with Order 66. After killing the Jedi protecting him in the temple, the clones notice Grogu and rush at him, bur the flashback ends before he can remember who saved him.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
The clone troopers played a major part in the series, appearing in nearly every episode. The two main clones in the show were Captain Rex and Commander Cody—Rex was created for the show, while Cody was the most notable clone in the movies. Other clones were also introduced such as Fives, Echo, Hevy, Fox, Jesse, Kix, Waxer, and Boil. The named clones were known to be killed often, with examples including Hevy, who sacrificed himself in an explosion, and Fives, who was executed after finding out about Order 66.
The sixth season opens with an arc about the origins of Order 66. During a campaign between the Republic and Separatists on the planet Ringo Vinda, Order 66 is initiated in clone trooper Tup too early, leading him to kill Jedi Master Tiplar. Separatist leader Admiral Trench contacts Count Dooku to inform him while Anakin, Rex, and Fives take Tup back to base. They find that he is out of his mind and did not kill Tiplar willingly. Dooku informs Sidious, who fears that his plan for galactic domination may be in jeopardy. He orders Dooku to kidnap Tup to figure out whether the premature execution of his Jedi general was an isolated incident. Tup, coming to his senses and learning that he has killed Tiplar, is loaded onto a medical transport and sent to Kamino to be examined.
On Kamino, scientist Nala Se finds that Tup is in perfect health despite his actions. Nala Se informs Lama Su of the situation and they inform Lord Tyrannus, who unbeknownst to them is Count Dooku. They explain to Dooku that the inhibitor chip that enacted Order 66 has malfunctioned and they want to euthanize Tup so they can do an autopsy. Dooku orders them to send Tup’s chip to him. Fives and medical droid AZ-3 sneak into Tup’s operating room while everyone is gone and perform a brain scan on Tup. AZ finds that there is a tumor in Tup’s head, which is the apparent cause of his murder of Tiplar. Unable to reason with Nala Se, they decide to tell Shaak Ti. AZ removes Tup’s “tumor”, which is actually the inhibitor chip, and he and Fives are caught by Nala Se and Shaak Ti just as he removes the chip. Tup immediately goes into shock and dies, telling Fives that the never-ending mission in their nightmares is finally over. Fives is declared too dangerous to return to the 501st and is arrested.
Palpatine is informed of Tup’s death and orders for the chip to be brought to his medical facility on Coruscant rather than to the Jedi Council as originally planned. Fives and AZ are both scheduled to have their memories wiped, but Fives refuses and escapes with AZ. He sneaks back into the cloning records hall to analyze the “tumor” and compare it to Jango Fett’s DNA. Fives and AZ learn that the “tumor” is not a tumor at all and is actually a chip implanted in Tup’s brain. They are caught by Nala Se and chased out of the facility, so Fives asks AZ to help him remove his chip too. Examining the two chips, they find that Tup’s chip malfunctioned, causing his erratic behavior, while Fives’s chip is completely intact. The two sneak into the cloning facility and scan several clone embryos and learn that they all had the chips implanted in them very early. Nala Se catches him again and claims that the chips were implanted in the clones under Master Sifo-Dyas’s orders to make the clones less aggressive than Jango. She also insists that the reason the chip malfunctioned is due to a virus. Shaak Ti enters the room and while Nala Se insists on terminating Fives, Shaak Ti ultimately decides to bring Fives to Coruscant so he can plead his case to Palpatine.
On Coruscant, Fives is brought before Palpatine, and Shaak Ti and Nala Se explain the situation to him. This prompts Palpatine to ask the others to leave the room so he can talk one-on-one with Fives. Once they are gone, Palpatine admits he is behind everything in order to goad Fives into attacking him, therefore discrediting Fives and making him look insane. Fives escapes the facility and hides in the underworld. Shaak Ti informs the other Jedi of the situation and an arrest warrant for Fives is put out, although Anakin and Mace Windu become suspicious when they note that law enforcement has specifically avoided asking the Jedi for help. Anakin and Rex decide to go look for Fives on their own, knowing he trusts them. Fives makes his way to a clone bar in the underworld. He finds his squadmate Kix in the bathroom and explains everything to him, and Kix tells him that everyone is now looking for him. Fives tells Kix to contact Rex to meet him and escapes the bar. He enters an abandoned hangar he gave Kix the coordinates to but unbeknownst to him, a probe droid spots him. Commander Fox informs Palpatine and leaves with his shock troopers to find Fives. At the same time, Anakin and Rex find Fives at the coordinates he told Kix to give them. Fives, going insane from having his chip removed, traps Anakin and Rex in a ray shield to get them to listen to him. He tells them about the chips and Palpatine’s involvement in the conspiracy against the Jedi, but they hesitate to believe him. Without warning, shock troopers enter and rush at Fives, who is promptly shot in the chest by Fox. Mortally wounded, Fives repeats what Tup said about how “the mission [and] the nightmares [are] finally over” before dying in Rex’s arms.
Palpatine informs the council that his personal doctors have done autopsies on both Fives and Tup’s bodies and deduced that the decay of both chips was caused by a brain worm on Ringo Vinda. To prevent it from happening again, a remedy is created for every clone in the army. Nala Se sends both chips to Dooku, who then contacts Palpatine. Satisfied that the truth has died with Fives, Palpatine and Dooku eagerly await for the time to come for them to initiate Order 66.
The seventh and final season introduces Clone Force 99 in the 4-part season premiere. After the Republic realizes that the Separatists on Anaxes are able to predict their strategies, Rex and Cody ask for permission to go behind enemy lines with Clone Force 99, otherwise known as “The Bad Batch”, a squad of clone commandos with genetic mutations that enhance their abilities. They learn that Echo, previously thought dead, is alive and being used as a computer by the Separatists. After they save him, he decides to join Clone Force 99 as well.
The final arc of the series takes place during Revenge of the Sith. After Anakin and Obi-Wan are called back to Coruscant to save Chancellor Palpatine from Grievous and Dooku, they decide to split the 501st in half, promoting Rex to commander so he can lead the new division to Mandalore with Ahsoka and Bo-Katan. When the clones learn that Ahsoka has returned, they paint their helmets with her face markings as a sign of loyalty. On Mandalore, Maul kills several clones and injures another group, one of whom tells Ahsoka that Maul captured ARC trooper Jesse to torture him for information about her. Ahsoka saves Jesse, while Rex and his men then capture Maul after Ahsoka defeats him in a lightsaber duel.
Following the Siege of Mandalore, Ahsoka and Rex are returning to Coruscant with Darth Maul as their prisoner. Palpatine issues Order 66 to Rex, who tries to resist the programming but succumbs to it and is forced to fire at Ahsoka. She escapes and frees Maul so that the clones will try to kill him instead of her. Rex orders his men to find and kill them both, but Maul effortlessly kills several clones with only the Force and destroys the ship’s hyperdrive, while Ahsoka learns about the inhibitor chips from a report filed by Fives before his death. Ahsoka corners and captures Rex to have his chip removed. Rex, no longer controlled by the chip, explains to Ahsoka that every single clone trooper has been affected by this order. The clones, aware that Rex is now disobeying the order, decide that he must die as well.
The pair are then forced to team up against an entire army of clones (led by Jesse, one of Rex’s long-time men) aboard the ship. In the confusion, Maul steals a shuttle to escape and Ahsoka tries to pull it back, but Rex is injured, forcing Ahsoka to choose between recapturing Maul or saving Rex. She picks the latter and Maul escapes. With their Star Destroyer heading towards a moon due to damage caused by Maul, Ahsoka and Rex abandon ship in a Y-wing as the cruiser crashes into the moon, killing all of the clones.
The clones’ corpses are recovered by Ahsoka and Rex, who bury them out of respect (as they had no control over their actions) and place their helmets on stakes as grave markers. The pair then go their separate ways and into hiding.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch
Taking place in the immediate aftermath of Revenge of the Sith, Clone Force 99 (Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, Echo, and Crosshair) witnessed Order 66, with most of the squad being unaffected by their bio-chips. Only Crosshair, the squad sniper, was affected by Order 66, and was later brainwashed by Wilhuff Tarkin into trying to eliminate his squad for failing to execute innocent refugees led by Saw Gerrera. As a result, Clone Squad 99 was forced to go rogue and flee Kamino without Crosshair, taking a young female clone named Omega with them as they deserted the Imperial Army.
The Bad Batch visit their and Rex’s old contact Cut Lawquane, a clone deserter, on Saleucami for help. Cut reveals that due to the fact that the Empire is evil, he and his family are planning to leave the planet. However, they learn that Palpatine has introduced “chain codes”, essentially government-issued IDs, which are now required for all public transport. The normal clones are overseeing public transportation; they have become a military police force and are now stormtroopers. The Bad Batch forge 4 chain codes for Cut, his wife, and their kids, and attempt to send Omega with them due to believing she needs a family, but she decides to stay with the Bad Batch.
Tarkin, looking for an excuse to get rid of the clones due to his personal vendetta against them, is introduced to four non-clone human recruits picked by Admiral Rampart to be part of a new elite squad led by Crosshair. They are sent to Onderon to murder Saw Gerrera and the refugees that the Bad Batch refused to kill, but after arriving they learn that Saw is already gone and only the refugees remain. One of Crosshair’s recruits (who has been repeatedly insulting Crosshair for being a clone and insists that human conscripts are superior) protests and says the refugees should be brought in for questioning. In response, Crosshair kills his own soldier before ordering the rest of his squad to slaughter the civilians. After completing the mission and returning to Kamino, Crosshair reflects on his actions and the clones’ future.
The Bad Batch reunites with Rex, and after he learns that they have not had their inhibitor chips removed he takes them to a downed Star Destroyer on Bracca so their chips can be removed like his. They succeed, although Wrecker’s chip is accidentally activated and he tries to kill the others before it is removed. Admiral Rampart learns of this and Crosshair is sent to kill them. He outsmarts the group because he is familiar with their strategies, but when he tries to incinerate them with the Star Destroyer’s engine, the plan backfires and he is horribly burned. Meanwhile, his men capture the Bad Batch’s ship but are killed by an unknown assailant, who reveals himself to be Cad Bane. Bane explains that he is here for Omega, leading to a tense stand-off with Hunter. Bane shoots Hunter in the chest, seriously injuring him before kidnapping Omega and leaving. Crosshair, meanwhile, shakes off his injuries quickly. Shortly after, the Bad Batch recovers Omega from Cad Bane and Fennec Shand.
Following the Empire’s occupation of Ryloth, Hera Syndulla is spying on the Empire when she is caught by Clone Captain Howzer and his squad. Howzer, unlike the other clones, has retained his personality and morals after Order 66. He brings Hera back to Cham Syndulla and promises to not report the incident to his superiors. Howzer acts as an advisor and right-hand man to Cham, trying to talk him out of shooting corrupt senator Orn Free Taa. However, Crosshair snipes Taa, injuring but not killing him, therefore making it look like an assassination attempt by Cham. He and his group are arrested, but Hera manages to escape.
Howzer continues to question his loyalties. While the Bad Batch and Hera free Cham, Crosshair sends his recruits and a battalion of clones to Ryloth’s capitol building. Howzer sees this and tips the Bad Batch and Syndullas off about the trap. Deciding he can no longer take part in the Empire’s tyranny, Howzer helps them escape out the back before confronting his and Crosshair’s men by himself. He tells them all that even though they have fought to free Ryloth from the Separatists, they are now oppressing the people of Ryloth just like the Separatists did. Several of the clones think about this and have a change of heart, breaking free of their brainwashing and dropping their weapons. Crosshair then orders his Elite Squad Troopers and the remaining clones to arrest Howzer and the defectors for treason.
Afterwards, Crosshair asks Rampart for permission to hunt down and kill his brothers. Rampart grants him permission and Crosshair prepares to depart.
The Bad Batch receives a message from Rex, who tells them that another clone defector has been captured by the Empire and needs help escaping. The defector, revealed to be Gregor, is saved by the Bad Batch (minus Wrecker and Omega) from an Imperial base. They learn that Gregor and the other commandos were assigned to train the new generation of stormtroopers, who are not clones and therefore less effective but able to be deployed in larger numbers. Though they manage to escape, Hunter misses the jump into the shuttle and falls to the forest below, where he is found and captured by the clones and stormtroopers. In his cell, he is greeted by Crosshair, who is displeased that Hunter has not brought the others but decides Hunter will be enough.
The Kaminoans, meanwhile, have had their cloning operation cancelled by the Empire since their contracts were with the Republic, which is now gone. Realizing the Empire plans to kill them all, Lama Su orders Nala Se to prepare to leave Kamino. However, she is found out by Crosshair’s squad, and Admiral Rampart admits that while he never liked the clones, he does believe them to be a impressive feat of engineering. Rampart decides that while the Empire has use for a scientist like Nala Se, they have no need for a politician like Lama Su. He then leaves Crosshair’s troopers to execute Lama Su in his own office.
Hunter is brought to Kamino by Crosshair, who intends to lure the others into a trap to rescue him. Hunter realizes none of the clones are left and only the stormtroopers remain, and tells Crosshair that the Empire will betray him. Crosshair does not care and broadcasts Hunter’s location to the Bad Batch. Echo, Tech, Wrecker, and Omega know it is a trap but decide to play along in order to get to Crosshair. Crosshair brings them all into the training facility, orders his Elite Squad to hold them at gunpoint, and reveals that he no longer wants to kill his brothers, now wanting to recruit them. He reveals that he feels betrayed by them and wants to be brothers again, but Hunter does not trust him. To gain his trust, Crosshair orders the Elite Squad troopers to stand down. When they refuse and turn against him, he fires a shot that ricochets around the room and kills them all instantly. Omega activates the training droids to buy time for the Bad Batch to escape, but by the time they are activated, Crosshair’s men are dead so the droids only target the Bad Batch. The squad is forced to team up with Crosshair against the droids and successfully defeats them all. Hunter and Crosshair try to reason with each other, with Crosshair revealing that his inhibitor chip was removed shortly after he switched sides and he has actually been acting of his own free will. Unable to find common ground, Crosshair gives up and tries to kill Hunter. Hunter, despite knowing Crosshair is too far gone to be redeemed, refuses to kill him and stuns him.
Meanwhile, the last of the stormtroopers, including ES-02 (the only remaining Elite Squad trooper), are evacuated from Kamino, abandoning Crosshair. With Nala Se in Imperial custody and the rest of the Kaminoans dead, Tarkin orders Rampart to destroy Kamino to wipe out the last remnants of the clone army once and for all. The Bad Batch flees with a still-unconscious Crosshair, but Rampart orders his fleet of Star Destroyers to bombard the city. The cloning facility falls into the ocean with the Bad Batch still inside, and Rampart incorrectly assumes that they are all dead.
Obi-Wan Kenobi
The first episode opens with a flashback of the clones attacking the Jedi Temple during Order 66
In the second episode, while on the planet Daiyu, Obi-Wan Kenobi comes across a homeless clone veteran from the 501st Legion. Obi-Wan takes pity on him and gives him some money.
Star Wars Rebels
A few clone troopers appear in the second season of Star Wars Rebels, led by Rex. Kanan at first didn't trust the clone troopers, thinking there wasn't really a difference between them and the Stormtroopers and still not having gotten over his master's death during Order 66, but he learnt to trust them. After the clones' reintroduction, Rex becomes a main character in the series, while Wolffe and Gregor return in the three-part series finale. Gregor was killed during the battle of Lothal, leaving Rex and Wolffe among the few known clones left in the galaxy.
Gallery
Trivia
- Since the Clone Wars film, all of the clone troopers are voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, with the exception of a young Boba Fett and the younger clones, who are all voiced by Daniel Logan instead (who also played them in Attack of the Clones). In the prequel films and their brief appearance in The Book of Boba Fett, they were all played by Temuera Morrison, who also played their host Jango Fett and later took over the role of Boba.
- Unlike both generations of stormtroopers, the clones in the films were entirely computer-generated, with Morrison’s head superimposed when necessary. Obi-Wan Kenobi marks the first time that the clones have been fully portrayed by actual stunt actors.
- With the same name, the Grand Army of the Republic was founded near Chicago, in Springfield Illinois in 1866 and grew to include hundreds of "posts" (local community units) across the nation (predominantly in the North, but also a few in the South and West). It was dissolved in 1956 at the death of its last member,
- Media set after Order 66 has avoided showing the clones’ faces unless they remain on the side of good. This is done to dehumanize them and cement the fact that they are now villains.
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