In the most recent issue of Star Wars insider, the question of why the troopers all have different voices when they were all cloned from Jango is asked. The response goes into the usual "they didn't know they were going to be clones in the 70s" answer, and then says the interesting thing:
"However, there is also an in-universe explanation, provided by none other than George Lucas himself. During the productions of Episode III, Lucas told crewmembers that the stormtroopers seen in Episode IV are made from multiple sources. That is, they're not all Jango clones. By that time in the saga, other clone hosts have been selected.
Lucas intimated that the selection proces has become more political than strategic in some cases - a highly placed officer's cousin might be selected over a more capable specimen, for example. The politicization results in less-than-ideal candidates, which could explain some of the embarrasing marksmanship witnessed in the original trilogy."
Registered: Dec 2003
Location: SECRET TUNNEL! SECRET TUNNEL!
Hmm...it makes sense, except the political thing--you'd be able to do other things with a hypothetical officer's cousin than have him be the genetic template for an army
__________________ "You can stop a rose from growing if you nip it in the bud, but you can't stop the stream from flowing and you cannot stop the flood."
I've been wondering about the troops who fought the stormtroopers at the beginning of ANH. Their helmets kind of reminded me of the ones used by officers on the Death Star in particular, the "Death Star Commander" (the one with the mushroom-like helmet--remember the action figure?). Leia was an ambassador for the Imperial Senate, right? So, even if those were Alderaan security forces, they might have had Imperial-related uniforms.
Anyway, it seems as though you can still keep with the tradition of the SW universe and accept that clones were not the only ones who were stormtroopers, AND that there were plenty of non-trooper positions within the Empire.
__________________ Evelle: "Balloons! Hey, these blow up into funny shapes 'n' all?"
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Well Superfly, as far as ROTJ is concerned, it's Huttese for food. Hence Jabba's telling Han "now you're banta food" but his huttese says Bantha Poodoo. But in TPM, Sebulba says it as a clear cut curse word. It sounds like poo which we all understand, I always thought it was one of those jokes that worked as clean jokes for kids and dirty for adults who realized what it sounded like and how it was used. It sounded more like Jabba meant now you're banta s**t because they'd eat him and crap him out. And Sebulba clearly sounded like he meant s**t, since that's what I'd say after loosing such a major competition. So it all depends on who ya ask. Unless Sebulba really was yelling "food" like maybe he was tired and hungry after the hard race.....but I doubt it.
Registered: May 2004
Location: Perth, Western Australia
But what about all the Fleet Troopers parading about, there not supposed to be Clones as well?
Why then would clones assist or check on a fallen comrade, obviously they would be trained and manufactured not to? (In episode IV a Stormtrooper is felled and then another Stormtrooper is seen checking on him, in the background action.)
Why not? The battle was over by that point, its the scene of Vader's entrance. It would be the thinking of a clone to check who's dead and who isn't because its a waste of resources to not get a medic for those who were not dead. If you can save another soldier to fight for another day, that's efficient thinking.
I thought Lucas was so ahead of his time in the seventies by introducing clones then I found out that Isaac Assimov was making references to clones when Lucas was still wearing diapers. The star wars clones are far cooler though so Lucas redeems himself yet again.
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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Chelmsford, Essex, UK
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All the officers are non-clones. All the technical and security guard positions (black funny hats) are non-clones. The diplomatic guard (white funny hats) are non-clones, as you point out.
But the STORMTROOPERS... GL has said they are all Clones, so that is that.
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Registered: May 2004
Location: Perth, Western Australia
No, actually during the battle on the Tantive, 3 Rebel Fleet troopers are running, Stormtroopers round the corner and blast one, then one of the stormtroopers gets shot, then as some of them continue to fire, one of them checks on him, while the others are still firing, that to me shows more concern then a genetically engineered and trained from birth clone.
But your explanation is sensible.
Also, is every single Stormtrooper on every single planet supposed to be a clone? Surely they coulden't keep up production of clones to supply the entire Empire with Stormtroopers?
This unthinking support of everything George says seems a little story, i know he created the entire thing and im grateful for that, but this is the same George Lucas who demanded in a cutting room that
"The baddies have red laser swords and the goodies have green and blue"
I would accept multiple candiates for clones because after a while cloning a clone from a clone detoriates the clone affecting intelligence and marksmanship. Cloning a copy from a copy eventually renders them useless and subject to faster breakdown though used for banter fodder. A variety of clones from different sources would replenish the clones. This statement is from a clone.
Registered: Jul 2004
Location: United Kingdom
earth [I think!]
Mind you clones from a single source would be alot more suseptible to god knows what sort of 'killer infections' and viri. Sharing teh same genetic make-up would also make iut easier for the rebellion to have just created a filtered virus to wipe out all the storm troopers.
So thats yet another reason to use more than one genetic template for the Stormtropers.
Plus what fun would it be if bad guys could shoot straight.....would have been a damn short film! LOL
Jun 21st, 2004 02:17 PM
