Karen Traviss’ Republic Commando series paints a dark portrait of the execution of Order 66, more nuanced than what is depicted in the Star Wars canon.
Order 66 was the most infamous order given Star Wars history, which heralded the end of the Galactic Republic and began the near-collapse of the Jedi order. While Clone Troopers were forced to obey Order 66 because of the biochips implanted in canon, the Karen Traviss’ Legends series Republic Command paints a much darker portrait of its execution.
The Republic Command series shows Order 66 as a command that all Clone Troopers were taught, rather than one they were required to obey. At first glance, the Order seemed perfectly reasonable, as it was originally created by Sifo-Dyas as a way to take down the villain Jedi who went against the Republic. This order was also higher than Order 65, which was intended to take down the Supreme Chancellor should a similar problem arise.
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In Republic Commando: True Colors, Order 66 is described as follows: “ In the event that Jedi officers act contrary to the interests of the Republic, and upon receipt of specific orders directly from the Supreme Commander (Chancellor), GAR commanders will by lethal force, and command of the SRB will revert to the Commander in Chief (Chancellor) until a new command structure is established. “
Traviss shows the brutal reality of the Clone Wars, which created a lot of tension between Clone Troopers and their Jedi commanders. Bred essentially as soldier slaves for the Republic, the life of a Clone trooper was essentially the same as that of a droid. Their accelerated aging process meant that Clone Troopers would never achieve a satisfying life outside of combat, even though clones were biologically identical to humans and capable of biological reproduction. Clones were also capable of a whole host of human emotions that caused inner turmoil over their short existence.
Many Clone troopers also grew tired as the war dragged on, being forced to watch their brothers fall into battle. Republic Commando: Order 66 Describes Delta Squad Commando Scorch’s inner frustrations over this loss of life, while hearing the names of thousands of fallen Clone Troopers. Scorch couldn’t name half the squads in his group at the Tipoca training center now, let alone the men in them. He was ashamed as if he had betrayed them, ”the passage reads. As the war dragged on, many Clone troopers began to resent the Jedi for these casualties, even questioning their competence.
The Jedi’s attitude towards Clone Troopers was no better, considering them only as disposable. They were especially indifferent to Clone Commandos, who they viewed as state-sanctioned bounty hunters for the Republic. Despite their indifference to these squadrons, the Jedi understood their necessity in the war. “That’s the problem with having intelligent clones trained by a bag of undisciplined thugs – they’ve become wayward at best, disobedient at worst. But they’ll probably win the war for us. They’ll tolerate them,” Jedi Master and Director of Special Forces General Arligan Zey explained in Republic Commando: Triple Zero
As a result of this shared dissatisfaction, it was not difficult for many Clone troopers to aim their guns at their former commanders, but a few notable outliers remained. The Ion Team, led by Captain Climber, not only ignored the order, they also aimed their weapons at Commander Salvo’s troops who were trying to ambush a group of Jedi. Other Clone squads, such as Omega Squad, Delta Squad, and Ordo Skirata, also obeyed the order, but feigned compliance to avoid suspicion from the Empire. While clones in those latter squads had a tenuous relationship with the Jedi, they were much more skeptical of Palpatine revealing new Centax clones that normally aged.
While canon takes the Clones off their guilt in the execution of Order 66, Legends confronts their betrayal head-on. This nuanced rendering of Order 66 is darker than canon, but Republic Command gives depth to the execution by humanizing the Clone perpetrators and their suffering.
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