Star Wars doubles down on a massive Clone Wars plot hole

Star Wars has just doubled down on a massive Clone Wars plot hole that dates all the way back to Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
. until 2002, Star Wars Viewers generally assumed that the clones were the bad guys in the Clone Wars. In fact, they were led by Jedi generals, and fought on behalf of the Republic – at least until Order 66, when Palpatine turned them against the Jedi.

But there was always one massive problem with the clone army. The Star Wars Galaxy is a vast one, with reportedly 1 billion inhabited star systems. The Clone Wars were mostly fought on the Outer Rim, far from the human inhabitants of the core worlds, and that was no accident; Palpatine wanted to pull the Jedi away from the Galactic Core, and he cared little for the Rim, meaning he didn’t care about damage to the worlds. But this is still a massive area, so Just how big would the Grand Admiral of the Republic need to be?

Just how many soldiers were in the clone army?

When Obi-Wan Kenobi met with the Kaminoan Lama Su, he was told Two hundred thousand units were ready -“With another million well on the way.“ This was the first generation of clone troopers, and it’s easy to imagine how shocked the Republic would be to suddenly have an army of that size. It is not enough, though, and in Star Wars: The Clone Wars There is an entire arc exploring Palpatine’s decision to order another five million clones.

But is even an army of over 7 million clones enough for a galactic war? To give a sense of context, on the ground, China currently maintains the largest standing army worldwide – with 2.18 million active military personnel. India has an army of 1.45 million, America has one of 1.33 million, and Russia has 1.2 million soldiers. That’s over 6 million soldiers from just four countries on earth. Suddenly the clone army looks pretty small.

Making matters worse, the Clone Wars are fought against battle droids. There can be no doubt that the Separatists have turned entire worlds into gigantic manufacturing plants, rolling out a continuous assembly line of droids. The comparatively small number of clones would never have been able to stem such a tide, simply because the droids would have been advancing on too many fronts.

Fans have tried to explain this plot hole

Naturally, there have been many attempts to correct this plain Star Wars Plot hole. The most notable is simply the idea that Lama Su spoke of squads when he spoke of “units.” Each clone squad consisted of nine soldiers, so that would mean the six million number would be multiplied by nine. That’s over 54 million, which still sounds a bit small for an actual galactic war.

Some went further, suggesting that Lama Su was referring to clone platoons (four squads, meaning it would be an army of over 216 million). There was even speculation that one unit was a clone battalion, 576 troopers in all, which would mean the Grand Army of the Republic would be over 3,456 million in number. These feel a little more reasonable – but there is only one major problem. Star Wars Just debunked all the theories and explanations.

Star Wars doubles down on the original Clone Wars numbers

Marc Sunerak is excellent The secrets of the clone wars Doubles down on the original number, dismissing any attempt to explain the plot hole away. It is told from the perspective of Captain Rex himself, and he recalls the events of Attack of the clones. “The first generation of clone troopers – 200,000 soldiers, including yours truly – are now fully grown, highly trained and ready for deployment,– he writes. Aunit,“Therefore, is definitively the same as an individual soldier.

To be fair, there can be no doubt that this was how George Lucas intended it. He certainly did not intend “unit” to refer to fleets or even battalions, because he really did not think of the numbers that are there. Rather, he simply picked some numbers that sounded impressively large, unaware that they became insignificant in the context of an entire galaxy locked in the throes of war. Star Wars has effectively stuck with Lucas’ intent for Attack of the clonesWhether it makes sense or not.

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