PT What happens to all the Clones?

What has happened to all the clones by the time of A New Hope? They can't all be dead. What does a retired clone do? I guess they'd be a bit old by ANH to still be working as Storm Troopers. Maybe some of them became bounty hunters?

Also, I wonder if Palpatine ordered any more clones between ROTS and ANH? Or were there enough from the initial 'batch' to keep order in the galaxy?

 

From TCW - most are retired. However, in various newcanon stories - there are a very few still-serving in the Imperial military.

 

Lucas said he had Jango bump his head in AOTC to indicate that trait was cloned into all the ot stormtroopers, there is also a old 1978 Lucasfilm article that states stormtroopers are clones and describes how they are grown which matches what we see in AOTC. Furthermore when Lucas wrote AOTC, he referred to them as stormtroopers, and marketing, not Lucas invented the term Clonetrooper which is never said in any of the films. This points to that the clones are stormtroopers in the OT as that is what he originally envisioned them as. For whatever reason this has not been popular among fans since the 70s. The portrayal of the clones in TCW series conflicts with their movie portrayal. In 05, Lucas said he went back in ANH and made the stormtrooper voices more similar to each other.

They probably kept producing clones until the Empire's collapse in ROTJ. In AOTC there are several batches in production.

 

Commander Rex, in an episode of Rebels, mentions that at some point Emperor Palpatine retired the Clone Army after they out-served their purpose. But, like Iron_lord said, there are some new cannon works that feature older Clones in work details transferring equipment and such. I'm sure most Clones stayed close to the Empire even after they'd been decommissioned thanks to that pesky little bio-chip.

 

Here is the old 1978 article that mentions stormtroopers are clones. http://www.theforce.net/image_popup/image_popup_global.asp?Image=timetales/misc/arcana/post4-03.jpg

In it it mentions that there is a retirement home for old clones on a holiday planet named Sochi, but not many clones make it to retirement age. AOTC states clones are genetically modified to be docile to obey orders without question. On the cardback of the 2007 hasbro stormtrooper action figures it states they are cloned humans genetically engineered for combat and are completely indoctrinated to believe the emperor's new order.

 

A good example of how there was EU even back then.

 

Execpt it was a Lucasfilm article, not a spinoff comic or novel. Also shows the idea of stormtroopers being clones existed long before AOTC in 2002 which many falsely assumed to be a retcon, the retcon is that they are Fett clones instead of general clones. This is one of those things fans will probably never agree on. There is even a mention of a few rouge clones like Rex who are ultra rare, the vast majority are loyal without question because they are made that way.

 

Stormtroopers are not clones in ANH. Their voices, heights, etc are all different.

 

Ultimately, by the time of Rebels, Lucas committed to a "They're phasing out the clones" idea:

http://www.theforce.net/story/front/Rebelscums_NYCC_Star_Wars_Rebels_Panel_Report_154734.asp

• All stormtroopers are volunteers. There is no draft.
• None of the stormtroopers will be clones. This is because, according to George Lucas' notes, the clones proved too individualistic, whereas stormtrooper recruits will be more patriotic. Some of the clones still alive went on to train the stormtroopers, while others became disaffected with the new regime.

Though, thanks to the "newcanon" there's still a few surviving clones in the military post-ANH.

 

We've found three of them right here.





Fighting alongside some old, familiar faces.

 

Some are older and retired. Remember we are told in AOTC they have accelerated aging so they are ready after just around 10 years to go to war. Some are dead from battle during the Clone Wars.
Palpatine slowly replaced the clones with regular recruits willing to serve the Emperor by the time of the OT.

Slicer87, stormtroopers being clones goes back as far as 1978. I also had the old West End Games RPG sourcebook from 1987 and it said in the stormies section that "rumors" said the troopers might be clones.

This goes way back.

 

Except the films still indicate they are clones, plus we are hearing this note second hand without context. Furthermore the films state and show the clones are not individualistic and obey all orders without question. This note contradicts everything the films show about clones. If George did change his mind, the films do not portrayal this at all. After all according to Lucas all the stormtroopers inherited Jango's traits such as his head bumping. Overall the note makes zero sense with the films. Lucas would write down all of his ideas on notes including rejected ones, this may be a rejected idea they decided to run with. The new canon doesn't fully mesh with the films.

Darth Lobot, originally stormtroopers were general clones and maybe not of the same person let alone Fett which is a 2002 retcon many fans dislike. During the production of ROTS, Hidalgo asked Lucas if stormtroopers were clones and he said yes. Hidalgo also said fan complaints about the different heights and voices was just a 1970s, limitation and fan nitpicking. In 2005 Lucas said he redubed many of the stormtroopers to make them sound more alike. The two stormtroopers guarding the DS tractor beam had identical voices along with their squad leader who ordered them there, plus the famous head bumping stormtrooper is a Fett clone according to Lucas despite not having a Fett voice. ANH has alot of dubing in it called ADR, the ADR in ANH is very crude. Lucas just had 4 guys randomly speak lines into a hand held recorder at his house with no film to time the lines to. Several of the rebel pilots have identical voices to Imperial officers, no way to explain that in universe, just sloppy ADR. To further compound this, the monotrack, version of ANH features different voice actors saying slightly different lines from the main 6 track version of ANH, nothing in Star Wars is simple.

 

lol no.

 

what?

Okay how did this become a discussion of the ADR for ANH?

 

Darth Lobot brought up how the OT stormtroopers don't sound alike, I explained why, or originally anyway since Lucas claimed to have fixed some of it on the 2004 DVD release.

Hidago from 2005:

 

LOL, no way Lucas can brush this off as flippant "fan nitpicking":


I mean, sure, if you're comparing the two at either end, I might consider that a nitpick. But no way is that guy in the middle the same as the rest of 'em. Sorry, George, but we have eyes and ears too ya know, Stormtroopers don't sound alike, nor do they look alike, and Han didn't shoot first.

 

That's a joke, not something to be taken as fact.

 

also things change. what gl said at the time of aotc is moot. he changed his mind.

 

I honestly don't care what Lucas says. I only care about what is shown in the films. It's not like Lucas hasn't changed his mind about a great many things over the years

 

ok but stormtroopers aren't clones. they are recruits. the ot films show this.

 

There's an easy explanation, if one wishes to conceive them as still being clones: they are clones from different templates.

 

I never bought that. Recruits being more docile than people genetically selected and modified to be obedient and disciplined and who have been indoctrinated from birth? B*****it!

If the clones of Jango Fett proved too unreliable, they could have used another template. But I can't buy that regular guys are more docile and loyal than clones.

I like it better that story about the Kaminoans turning about Palpatine, and the latter destroying the planet.

 

@ 2:48.



Guess the Empire likes to employ twins . Also take note at 6:50 LOL.

I agree with you IG, normal humans somehow being more loyal than clones made to be docile and loyal from birth makes zero sense and goes against the logic of the films.

Also I will point out AOTC only says growth acceleration, not aging. It doesn;t make sense to have a army that ages twice as fast, but it makes sense for a army to grow up twice as fast then age normally. Again, AOTC makes it a key ponit that the clones have growth acceleration and not stating age acceleration as growth and aginging are releated but different processes. There are some real life child aging dieases that stops child growth and begins their aging way too soon.

 

I thought the Story Group made it clear that Stormtroopers aren't clones. Clones were slowly phased out by Palpatine and replaced by recruits. While some stayed (see Smuggler's Run), they were a minority and rare. In the OT all the troops we see are recruits.

 

They did. But to a section of the fandom - only what's seen in movies counts - not out-of-movie statements, or TV serieses and books for that matter.

It might not make sense to you - but it seems to me to be pretty clear that "double-speed growth and aging" is what TCW and the newcanon novels have gone with - Rex, Gregor and Wolffe look like 50-something year olds (28 years from TPM, doubled), not 38 year olds (20 years of aging for the 10 years between TPM and AOTC to reach adulthood, plus 18 years "normal aging").