The REAL Reason The Empire Replaced The Clones, And It's Not Cost

The Bad Batch included an interesting sub-plot aside from the adventures of Hunter, Tech, Echo, Wrecker and Omega. In the premier episode, Wilhuff Tarkin arrived on Kamino in order to evaluate if the genetically modified clones of Clone Force 99 could be utilized in the new army of the Galactic Empire, and also decide the future of the Kaminoan cloning project as a whole. The sixth episode "Decommissioned" now gave us another reason, and probably the most important one, as to why the Empire did away with the clones so fast.

Tarkin was never especially fond of clones, even back during the Clone Wars. He saw them as a necessary tool to protect the Republic against the onslaught of the Separatists. Now that the war is over, he was free to openly show his disdain for the Kaminoans' “products” and his clear intention to end the clone project for good. He may have told the cloners that their services were no longer needed mainly due to financial reasons, since creating clone soldiers was more expensive than enlisting naturally born volunteers. However, we knew that a military force that was constantly building and maintaining a giant war machine of hundreds of star destroyers and one Death Star surely had enough financial resources at their disposal.

"Decommissioned" gave us a much more plausible strategic reason why the Empire would want to get rid of the clones. In the episode, Clone Force 99 was sent to Corellia by their new ally Cid in order to retrieve the head of a tactical droid.

These machines did not appear in any of the movies, but played an important in The Clone Wars animated series. While tactical droids did not have much of an armor, were not especially fast or agile, and carried no weapons, they were an important part of the Separatists’ army. Their main purpose was to analyze the movements, strategies, and attack patterns of the Grand Army of the Republic, including the Jedi. By constantly learning and reassessing what strategy worked and what did not, over time, they were able to gain an enormous advantage over their enemy.

The novelization of Revenge of the Sith mentioned that the droid army was completely shut down a few hours after the declaration of the Empire. Now we learn that the new regime did not waste much time getting rid of the droids. They were destroyed en masse in huge factories on Corellia (and probably on other planets as well). In case of the tactical droids, this rush may stem from the Empire's fear that the data stored within the memory banks of these droids could be used as weapon against the clone soldiers, as this was exactly their purpose in the first place.

At the end of the episode, the sisters Rafa and Trace Martez, who were first introduced in season 7 of The Clone Wars, got the information contained in the head of the tactical droid with the help of Hunter, Tech, Echo, Wrecker, and Omega. It appeared that the two women may have joined one of the rebel cells that quickly emerged in the rise of the Empire. While we did not get a clear view of their employer, he seemed to know the importance of the data contained within the tactical droid in finding weaknesses in the clones' behavior in battle.

The Empire was forced to quickly remove everything from its past Republic days that could be a threat to its future. Destroying tactical droids prevented the information on the clone army's weaknesses from getting in the wrong hands. They also needed to decommission the clones immediately. After all, it was only a matter of time before someone discovered a way to use these highly trained soldiers against the Empire.

Written By Gerald Petschk

Source(s): Screen Rant

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