Discussion EarlyInstallmentWeirdness / StarWars

• As explained below, the fact that EU writers got the idea that clones were willing participants in Order 66 (instead of being a product of Mind Control biochips as shown in The Clone Wars) for a reason: when Palpatine issues such order in this movie for the first time, he contacts Cody, with no other clone close enough to him to hear Palpatine, who prefaces the command by saying "the time has come". Cody then orders his men to shoot at Obi-wan, and his orders are carried out without question or opposition. A similar thing happens with Commander Gree, who has no other clone in his vicinity when Palpatine contacts him, walks to another nearby clone and simply nods to him, before the two of them raise their guns at Yoda. The way these scenes are framed not only implies that clones went with Order 66 willingly, but that they expected that at one point or another they would have to kill their Jedi generals.note These scenes are rather jarrying to (re)watch if one has seen The Clone Wars and other EU works that followed it, which not only introduced the aforementioned biochips, but vastly humanized the clones (which were treated as little more than organic droids in the movies) and gave them a much greater agency: not only do the clones become genuinely loyal to the Jedi but are also shown willing to protest or flat out refuse to carry out orders they find objectionable, with some clones even downright deserting the army or even defecting to the Separatists. With this in mind, the ideas that clones knew beforehand of Palpatine's plan to eradicate the Jedi or that they would turn on the Jedi simply because their commanding officer ordered them to are much harder to stomach. Therefore, "Execute Order 66" was re-codified as a Trigger Phrase activating the "inhibitor chips" as the sci-fi equivalent of post-hypnotic suggestion.

Listen I really don't want to be that guy but that is not EIW, that is a straight up retcon. The brain chips didn't exist until fairly recently, well after Revenge of the Sith actually came out.

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