Clones! Thousands of 'Em!

[Tower75]

Hello, all.

Now, as we know, the Republic Clone Troopers are the best thing to come out of the Star Wars prequels, this fact is sacrosanct and isn't in question.

However, there's been a few things about the story that I've never been able to figure out.

We're led to believe that the Jedi knew nothing about the Clone Army - the army being commissioned by a long-dead Jedi. (How the Jedi didn't sense this army with Da Force, or how they didn't notice a huge chunk of credits being diverted to Kamino to pay for the Clones I don't know).

At this point the Republic is gearing up for a war with the Separatists, so if we are to believe the Jedi know nothing about the Clones, then that means that they didn't do anything to prepare for a war; they just, what, got lucky and was given a billion-strong army to fight with the day before war were declared?

The Republic is millions (?) of worlds strong. So, does no other world in the Republic have a standing army? You never hear or see worlds mobilising troops or actually doing anything to prepare for war.
It would make much more sense for the Republic to be mobilising its armies and then they find out they have a army of clones to use. The Clones would then be fighting alongside the armed forces of the Republic.

With just the movies to go on, it really feels like the Republic of millions (?) of worlds have no army, did nothing to prepare for a war, but then suddenly started using a clone army they didn't know anything about, much like finding a tenner in the couch cushions. No one even questions the fact that they have a clone army.

Thoughts.

 

[Justin Swanton]

All these questions will be answered in the next installment of the Star Wars franchise: The Emperor's New Clones.

 

[Tower75]

All these questions will be answered in the next installment of the Star Wars franchise: The Emperor's New Clones.

Get out!

 

[Rodders]

I always assumed that it was an agent of Palpetine posing as a Jedi who ordered the clones. He needed the war to establish control over the senate and he needed an army to enforce his rule. This future, seen through the force enabled him to manipulate even the Jedi, to a certain extent.

 

[Tower75]

I always assumed that it was an agent of Palpetine posing as a Jedi who ordered the clones. He needed the war to establish control over the senate and he needed an army to enforce his rule. This future, seen through the force enabled him to manipulate even the Jedi, to a certain extent.

Depends on what's canon now. All the lore of Star Wars has been retconed by Disney. However, most certainly it was Palpetine that planned it. But what I mean is, the Republic knew there was a war on the horizon, but they didn't do anything about it. It wasn't until they were literally given an army gift horse on the eve of war did they do anything. Doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Rodders]

As an aside, I find it the morality of a clone army lead by the Jedi to be pretty interesting.

Here we are believing in the goodness of the Jedi, yet they have no issue with breeding a clone army to fight a war and not one of them seems to have a choice in the matter. Millions killed without care because that's what they were raised to do.

 

[HareBrain]

Yes, why didn't they spend their money on making their own battle-droids? They surely couldn't have made them any more incompetent than the separatists' ones.

 

[ctg]

Yes, why didn't they spend their money on making their own battle-droids?

Because at that point the clone army was ready, and there was no reason to order something else.

 

[Overread]

The way I see it:

1) The Republic has existed for so long that it had gone through an extended period where there was little actual large scale inter-planetary warfare. As such there was no need for a galactic space fleet and supporting ground troops on such a vast scale. Armies are expensive and maintaining one designed for inter-planetary warfare was just beyond what the Republic was willing to spend.
Further individual worlds were very much like Naboo in that they also had no reason for large standing armies nor space-fleets. They had armies and warriors for basic domestic issues, but otherwise I suspect futuristic warfare is very much like we are seeing wars in the world today - that is small uprisings or terrorists which simply don't require fast armies to deal with.

2) Groups like the Trade Federation took advantage of this fact and built armies of robots which were cheaper to maintain (and hide). Much like how trade groups in the past had their own sea ships armed with guns. Further as the Trade Federation was intergalactic trade they had more reason than many worlds to have a larger space-fleet even if it was likely spread out over a large area. However even then they didn't turn to actual warfare; the blockade and invasion of Naboo is basically the first we are seeing in the Star Wars history in a long while when one faction is actually performing such a large and hostile manoeuvre against another world.

3) Palpatine had a foot in both camps and designed the increasing levels of hostilities and instability; building upon what was there to encourage things into a war-state situation. For him it didn't actually matter which side won, all that mattered is that the Republic shifted from a democracy into a military-state system; giving him individual power at a much greater level than he could wield under a democratic republic.

4) Yoda and the Jedi make use of the clone army because its there; ready and trained up. They basically have no choice as Jedie are not in great enough numbers to counter vast armies (esp of robots which can't be forced tricked). They are powerful warriors but can't stop a tide of warriors. They need back-up of a full army and the Clone army is the only single force large enough.

5) Its likely that individual worlds might have bonded together to create large ground and space fleets; but with the rising instability and decadence within the Republic its likely that raising such a force would have been a very slow process. The robot army would have gained significant foothold before alliances would have formed up of sufficient size to counter it effectively.

 

[RX-79G]

I'm not really up on the history of the "clone war" concept, but I remember a 1970s Marvel comic referring to it with an image that didn't suggest identical clone soldiers.

I think the popularity of Boba Fett and the compulsive need to do "origin stories" caused whatever the original clone wars idea to morph into a Fett/Stormtrooper origin spectacular. Then a flimsy plot was concocted to use this new concept. The whole idea of massive infantry battles being led by guys with swords and bathrobes is ridiculous.