What was your Clone Theory?

Darth A, my image of the Clone Wars was actually somewhat similar to yours.

I had always considered the Clone Wars to be something like the US Civil War - fought over the issue of clones basically being used as slaves. Some systems in the Republic would have created clones for use as slave labor, household servants, or even defensive forces. Other systems would have seen this as morally wrong, and sought to stop it through legislative and later military force. Individual regional conflicts would have sprung up between pro- and anti-clone systems, resulting in chaos throughout the galaxy. The Jedi, of course, would have sided with the abolitionists, though not as a bureaucratic arm of the Senate - I always considered that they would be more like ronin/knights errant, loosely organized but mainly wandering the galaxy and allowing the Force to bring them to where they were needed the most.

Clearly, Alderaan would have been an abolitionist system, and Obi Wan Kenobi would have found himself there, organizing what was probably more of a defensive action against strikes from pro-cloning forces who resented Alderaan's principled anti-clone stance in the Senate. This could, of course, have led to the main conflict in Episode I, in which Alderaan is besieged by an enemy fleet.

This scenario could, of course, have brought both the Mandalorians and the Trade Alliances in on the side of the pro-cloning worlds and in conflict against the Jedi (the Mandalorians for cultural reasons, and the Trade Alliances for profit-related ones.) And, of course, Palpatine would have taken full advantage of the situation, perhaps not orchestrating the entire thing but certainly exploiting it and guiding it.

IMHO it would have made far more sense than the nebulous rationales for blockading Naboo in TPM and for the secession of the Separatists in AOTC.

 

I also tought they were the enemy as a kid, when Obi-wan mentions them.
I imagined Jedi being the army of republic and clones were countless of no-name cloned soldiers who fought against republic, with the Empire nowhere in sight.
Was surprised later in Episode 2, that they were actually on the republic side, prototypes of the Imperial army and all that huge plot going down into ROTS and OT.

 

To be honest, as a child I knew about the Empire coming from the Republic, and I do remember the (single time in the OT?) mention of the Clone Wars by Obi-Wan. Other than that, I honestly never really thought of it until EPII came out. It seemed unimportant to my young mind -- I didn't realize it played the key role in the formation of the Empire, you see.

 

You should have been involved in the making of Episode 1. There are some really cool ideas in here.

 

I never had a clue about them lol The first time I realized the Clones were originally on the side of the Jedi (to start with) was from the Jedi Starfighter game. My brother and I were playing it and we started the Geonosis level. So, assuming these Clones were bad/ Stormtroopery guys that had to go down (had no clue of the film's plot at that point), I immediately started shooting them and failed the mission o.O

So the fact they were working with the Jedi and effectively the 'good guys' to start with, was a real surprise to begin with.

 

TL;DR: The original Clone Wars wasn’t a clone army- it was a separatist army led by insane dark Jedi clones vs. Manalorians and the last few remaining Jedi trying to save the Republic and the galaxy.

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Lucas was heavily inspired by the Dune books. The Clone Wars would be something akin to the Gholas seen in 1969's Dune Messiah

Less and less candidates with Force potential to become Jedi were being found in the galaxy and the order was dying off. The Jedi cloned remains of ancient Masters to regain lost knowledge and powers. These clones all went crazy and broke away from the Republic.

The Mandalorians were the old republic guards I.E. the Stormtroopers. The original concept of Boba Fett had his past being a mystery except that he was a relic leftover from that bygone era, alive and still spry because by Luke's time he was a cyborg, still wearing the old, battered armor.

The original Clone Wars wasn’t a clone army- it was a separatist army led by insane dark Jedi clones vs. Manalorians and the last few remaining Jedi trying to save the Republic and the galaxy. The Republic's forces were increased through conscription. Non-Humans would be sent to the front lines.



At the time of Star Wars:
General Kenobi served with Bail Organa and was good friends with the best Jedi star-pilot in the galaxy named Anakin. He was murdered by Kenobi’s student, a Jedi named Darth Vader.

Changes made after Star Wars:
General Kenobi served with Bail Organa and was good friends with the best star-pilot in the galaxy named Anakin. Kenobi attempted to teach Anakin in the ways of the Force like Yoda taught Ben. Anakin became a Jedi.


President Palpatine of the Republic declares himself Emperor, like Caesar. He exploits the Clone Wars to his own advantage, seizing power when the opportunity presents itself. He has learned the Jedi inadvertently caused the Clone Wars and turns the galaxy against them once their numbers are depleted and they are spread thin over far distances. Anakin falls to the dark side trying to stop Palpatine. He’s badly hurt in this attempt. 'Proto-Vader' (kind of like Grevious but not as extreme an organics-to-cybernetic ratio) begins secretly hunting the routed Jedi under orders of his new Master with help from bounty hunters and the Mandolorian elite troops. I could see Boba Fett in the 'Rex the Clone Trooper' role at this time.

The purge of the Jedi was never something that happened all at once. They were hunted down and exterminated across the galaxy. Ben learns Anakin is behind the assassinations. Ben confronts Anakin and defeats him, kicking him into a volcano. He survives and the Emperor’s forces rescue him. He starts going by the name Darth Vader. 'Darth' wasn’t a frigging title. That was just his first name. His title (even in the first published schoolastic materials) was 'Lord of the Sith' There was no ‘Rule of Two’ nonsense until the Prequels either.

Ben doesn’t seem the least bit put out that Anakin had a son so celibacy was probably something strictly followed by Masters, but not expected of Knights.


Droids of that era:
The older Droids (Pre-Clone wars era) were skeletal in nature like EV-9D9, 8D8, IG-88. Etc. I think another idea Lucas lifted from the Dune books was similar to the Butler Jihad. That is, that robots and computers got too advanced and rebelled long ago so they backed away from depending too heavily on that kind of tech. Things like assassin droids IG-88 and the only thing that eventually made it into the prequels that fit those original concepts - the 'IG-100 MagnaGuards' would be dangerous technology developed and used by the mad dark Jedi.

If you look in Star Wars (1977) you can see the precursors to the 3PO protocol Droids from the old republic. They are white. One is rocking/dead in the sandcrawler and another can be seen walking the streets of Tatoonie and looks like a homeless crazy person having a one sided conversation with itself.. it’s real twitchy xD

 

My first taste of Star Wars was Empire. My first chance to see ANH was years later after ROTJ. I assumed as a kid that the clone wars were just some previous Big War that involved the rightness or wrongness of the use of clones.

 

he he he
loved the first series

 

Love the second clip with the walker going on a walk about.

 

Ok, back in the 90s...
I never much speculated on just what the clone wars were about. Other than clones being involved, of course. Zahn made some references to it with a group of lost Republic dreadnaughts being focal in Dark Force Rising.

But I will note that I did not consider the Clone Wars to be the end of the Republic. The timeline in Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels inferred that there was a short expanse of time between the War and the Fall of the Republic. I will also note that I never assumed that the Republic would be without an army of some kind. I certainly felt the war's result would become a catalyst for the Republic's end, though. I also thought the Jedi purge would take place gradually over some time. I did suspect the Jedi would have been weakened via attrition from their former glory by the time the purges began.

Also, the term used, Clone Wars, emphasis on the 'S', led me to beleive that this was actually a series of military conflicts that were clumped together by a common thread. I thought this might have encompassed a ten year period or more.

 

I never gave it much thought in '77.I just assumed it was some war long ago that the Jedi were involved in where Obiwan met Anakin and convinced him to become a jedi. I was 4

 

I guess TPM cleared that theory up.

 

I thought the clone wars would be Jedi fighting enemies who are using clones
of course I was wrong but oh well.

 

I thought so when both armies would be clones, instead it was droids against clones in a phony war cooked up by Sidious.

 

I thought the clones were of more than just one person, and something went wrong and the clones rebelled against the non-cloned people. The Jedi helped fight against them.

 

Never gave it much thought before AotC came out. I didn't think much of the "clone" aspect as much as the word "wars" which intrigued me in the sense that it was plural, because how can it span multiple wars? Normally, war is just singular, a la 'Civl War' or 'World War'.
Unless you're talking about the 'World Wars' combined, which means there was a period of peace between WW1 & WW2.

 

Before the films of the prequels, I assumed that The Clone Wars were waged when The Galactic Republic Backed Jedi Knights formed an alliance with Spice Smugglers/Freighter Pilots/Space Pirates to take on a coalition led by The Mandalorians, who had an Elite squad of warriors (similar to The Jedi Council), which oversaw the creation, training, and development of THOUSANDS of Cloned Stormtroopers (The pre-cursor to the Stormtroopers that exist in the Original Trilogy).

I assumed that Obi-Wan would discover Anakin as a Freighter Pilot (When Anakin was 17-19 years old, not 9), and urge him to join The Jedi, and learn the ways of The Force.

I always assumed that the Clone Army would consist of 3 to 5 Mandalorian templates, taken from the DNA of the Mandalorian Council Members, and to make it less confusing, taken from the "Mandalorian DNA Vault". Maybe they keep samples of all of the top warriors. I would like to think the Clone templates would be LEGENDARY Mandalorian Warriors, long dead, from centuries past. It makes more sense to assign the Mandalorian Council as the "Clone Army Generals", leading the thousands of Clone templates into battle. I never once assumed the clone templates would be just ONE guy. And I never expected the template to be Boba Fett's Dad! However, I thought a Younger Boba Fett would use the Clone Wars as a way to make a name for himself, and rise up the ranks on the Mandalorian Council. I assumed after the War, after the disbanding, he would become The legendary bounty hunter.

Some of these assumptions I made based off information from the original trilogy, yet, some of it, I developed in my own mind, and they evolved over the years. This story perspective is so engrained in me. I never once thought that there would be anything resembling Battle Droids or Gungans, etc. So can you imagine how shocked I was when I saw the prequels? It completely blew my mind the way it played out, some things for better, some things for much worse.