Clone trooper

The Clone Troopers or Clone Troopers of the Grand Army of the Republic are fictional characters from the Star Wars franchise created by George Lucas. They have appeared in various Star Wars media, including the live-action films Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002) and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005), the animated film Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) and its television series of the same name (2008–2014; 2020), the animated series Star Wars Rebels (2014–2018) and Star Wars: The Bad Batch (2021-), as well as comics, novels, and video games from the Expanded Universe of Star Wars Legends.

Within the mythology of the Star Wars franchise, clone troopers are artificially produced soldiers. Clone troopers were created in special cloning facilities on the planet Kamino from the DNA of bounty hunter Jango Fett to serve as the military for the Galactic Republic during the Clone Wars, named after the troopers. All clones are genetically engineered to age at twice the rate of a normal human in order to be ready for deployment much faster and to be loyal to the higher chain of command. During the Clone Wars, they served under the command of the Jedi Order and fought against the droid army of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, a movement organized by numerous planets seeking to secede from the Republic. At the end of the war, Palpatine, the Supreme Chancellor (ruler) of the Republic and secretly a Sith Lord who used the conflict to gain political power, issued Order 66, which branded the Jedi as traitors and provoked clone troopers, under the influence of an inhibitor chip implanted in their brains, they will execute without hesitation. After the formation of the Galactic Empire, clone troopers became less and less common as they were slowly replaced by stormtroopers. One notable legion that remained composed entirely of clones was the 501st Legion, which served directly under Darth Vader.

During the development of The Empire Strikes Back, Lucas initially envisioned a planet of clones, which is why the Clone Wars were first mentioned in the original Star Wars (1977). The clone trooper armor was designed to suggest an evolution towards the stormtroopers of the original trilogy, and incorporated features from both the stormtrooper armor and Boba Fett, who was revealed in Attack of the Clones. as an unaltered clone of Jango. The armored soldiers in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith are CGI voiced by Temuera Morrison, who played Jango. The younger clones were played by Bodie Taylor and Daniel Logan, who played the younger Boba. Morrison and Taylor portrayed clones not wearing helmets, who wore suits to insulate their heads, with some clone troopers featuring a combination of the actors' features. In the movie The Clone Wars and all of the animated television series, Dee Bradley Baker voices the adult clone troopers and Logan voices the child clone troopers.

While the prequel trilogy depicted clone troopers as soldiers with no personality, The Clone Wars featured numerous clones with distinctive features, which quickly became fan favorites. The television series in particular humanized the clones, exploring their motivations and feelings about the Clone Wars. Since then, numerous Star Wars works set during the Clone Wars era have featured clone troopers as main characters. Clone troopers have become cultural icons and a widely recognized element of the Star Wars franchise.

Concept and creation

Development and design

Writing The Empire Strikes Back, Leigh Brackett's first draft of the film initially developed Lando Calrissian as a clone from a clone planet involved in the Clone Wars mentioned in A New Hope and were nearly made extinct by the war, but this concept did not appear in the final film. Later, George Lucas came up with the alternate concept of an army of clone shock troops from a remote planet used by the Republic in the ensuing war. Lucas intended the prequel trilogy to represent the evolution of the galaxy's fighting forces, with clone troopers being the next step up from flawed battle droids.

The clone troopers were designed to strongly suggest the evolution of the army into the stormtrooper army of the Empire. Concept artist Jay Shuster said of the armor design: "It follows the formula of much of the prequel trilogy. Take something preconceived in the existing trilogy and degenerate it". Design director Doug Chiang incorporated both features of Boba Fett and stormtrooper armor into the design, acknowledging the "vague statement in Star Wars" that Fett's armor was connected to that of the stormtroopers. Initial concept models implied that the first generation armor was thicker and bulkier than stormtrooper armor, and this feature was retained by the Revenge of the Sith art department. Lucas expressed his desire for individualized soldier armor early in the artistic development of Revenge of the Sith. Several variations were largely dictated by environmental needs, but others were influenced by the animated series Clone Wars from 2003 and the desert stormtroopers from A New Hope. Clone trooper designs "progressed" closer to the stormtrooper designs, and the film featured variant designs similar to the Sandtrooper, Scouttrooper, and Snowtrooper armor from the original trilogy.

The designs of the clone troopers in snow and cold weather clothing, seen in the first season of The Clone Wars, are heavily inspired by Ralph McQuarrie's initial concept and costumes, Joe Johnston and John Mollo for The Empire Strikes Back.

Representation

In Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, all clone troopers are CGI and voiced by Temuera Morrison, who played the template Jango Fett clone. The child clone soldiers were played by Daniel Logan, who also played Jango's clone son Boba Fett, and the young clone soldiers were played by Bodie Taylor, who was cast because of his resemblance to a younger Morrison. Taylor was filmed multiple times and composited to complete crowded shots set in Tipoca City, and in some cases, such as distant shots, went entirely digital.

Commander Cody, seen in armor without his helmet in Revenge of the Sith, was played by Morrison. He wore a blue suit and only headshots of him were used for Cody; he was holding a stormtrooper helmet to approximate the digital clone trooper helmet Cody is wearing. Like Morrison, Taylor also played armored, non-helmeted clones in Revenge of the Sith, wearing a blue suit that insulated his head. Some clone troopers were fully digital, featuring a digital combination of Morrison's and Taylor's facial features. The armor was animated to match the bodies of the actors.

The clone troopers are voiced by Dee Bradley Baker in the 2008 animated film The Clone Wars and its related animated television series of the same name. Baker attempted to give each clone trooper a unique voice, taking into account personality, age, and position within the unit, sometimes describing the clone with a single adjective and focusing on that descriptor for voice work. Each clone was voiced individually, with all of the clone's lines for the episode recorded at one point before transitioning to another character, and dialogue edited together.

Logan voiced the young clone troopers in seasons two and three of the 2008 television series. Baker reprises his role in the 2014 animated series Rebels and The Bad Batch of 2021.

History

They were created by cloners from the planet Kamino from the blood sample of bounty hunter Jango Fett. They were genetically altered to be more docile and obey any command without question, and were given a growth boost allowing them to reach adulthood in half the time a normal human would.

Clones served as the primary weapon during battles that raged across the galaxy, known as the Clone Wars. Among the important battles we can find: Geonosis, Muunilinst, Mon Calamari, Dantooine or Hypori.

Clones served the Republic, and ultimately its leader, the Supreme Chancellor. Thus, after the discovery of the truth by the Jedi and his assassination attempt by Mace Windu, the Chancellor gave the order to kill all the Jedi, executing Order 66 through the inhibitor chips that they had been implanted into the clones' brains in their embryonic stage, which ruled that any and all Jedi were now enemies of the Republic. Thus began the extermination of the Jedi across the galaxy.

Throughout the Clone Wars certain clones distinguished themselves above others, and their Jedi generals came to give them names or nicknames as an appreciation of camaraderie. Among the best known were:

• Commander Cody, Attack Battalion 212 and Seventh Celestial Corps
• Commander Gree (Advanced Alpha-17 Recognition Command, 41st Elite Body and 9th Assault Corps)
• Commander Bly (Legion 327)
• Commander Deviss (Legion 327)
• Commander Neyo (BARC Speeder Pilot and 91st Corps of Recognition)
• Commander Bacara (Galactic Marines)
• Commander Odd Ball (ARC-170 Pilot)
• Commander Appo (Legion 501)
• Commander Thire (Coruscant Guard)
• Commander Bow (Legion 501)
• Captain Rex (Legion 501) First Commander-in-Chief
• Commander Fox (Coruscant Guard) and Lieutenant (Legion 501)
• Commander Vill (Legion 501)
• Commander Jenks (Intelligence Service)
• Commander Keller (Galactic Marines)
• Commander Faie (41st Elite Corps)
• Commander Gett
• Commander 71 (Bathion 416 "Stars")
• Commander "Salvo" or "Munition" (32nd Combat Air Force)
• Commander Kevet
• Commander Mayday
• Commander Jag (after degraded to captain) (ARC-170 Pilot)
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• Commander crc-09/571
• Commander Fordo(arc-77)
• Commander of Tsui Choi
• Commander Wolffe (Wolfpack squad)
• Commander Gregor (Special Operations Brigade)
• Commander Fil
• Commander Jet
• Sergeant Hunter (Force leader Clon 99 or also known as the Bad Batch)

After the Clone Wars

In the aftermath of the conflict, many clone troopers will retire from service due to war injuries or premature aging. These clones will go on to form maintenance groups.

The Galactic Empire mixed the surviving clones of the Wars, and the new generations of clones, with new recruited troops, the vast majority human (with few cases of other species) thus forming the Imperial Soldiers. As in the case of Commander Appo (From the 501, Vader's Fist) there were also other commanders who continued fighting, or according to Legends training new human recruits like Commander Cody.

Troop Classification

Shock Trooper

The shock troops are the members of the Coruscant Guard. They maintain order on Coruscant, patrolling public places, government buildings, and landing pads on the planet. Coruscant is the political center of the galaxy, requiring shock clones to keep watch and quickly restore order when peace and stability are threatened.