The surprising revelation that Palpatine returned from the dead in the Star Wars sequel trilogy was set up by the Legends continuity, which included clones of Starkiller. Cloning has been part of Star Wars from the start, with Obi-Wan Kenobi making a throwaway mention of the Clone Wars in the first movie. Both Star Wars canon and Legends have explored cloning; while the galaxy’s most famous clones are the Kaminoan-created clone troopers, the franchise has also explored cloning Force-sensitives.
Given the mystical nature of the Force, it would be understandable to assume that clones of Force-sensitives do not necessarily share their template’s powers. That is, until George Lucas introduced midi-chlorians – a microscopic life form that help beings communicate with the Force. The precise science is debatable, but they seemed to raise the possibility of cloning a Force-sensitive. There are, however, still major problems with the process – as seen in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in canon.
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Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 Showed The Problem With Cloning Force-Sensitives
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
The Star Wars Legends continuity is, for the most part, consistent about the potential pitfalls of attempting to clone a Force-sensitive. James Luceno’s novel Darth Plagueis notes that the galaxy believed Force-sensitive clones were not possible. On the contrary, however, Force-sensitive clones could be created, but they often suffered from mental and, at times, physical instability. One famous example is Joruus C’baoth, a clone of a Master. C’baoth used a clone of Luke Skywalker as a pawn, though this clone had no free will, allowing C’baoth to effortlessly control him.
2010’s Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II explored the problems with Force-sensitive clones. Darth Vader himself created clones of his secret apprentice, Starkiller. Most of these clones were unstable, but one (the player character) was relatively stable, aside from flashes of memories from his clone template. Another clone, who appears prominently in the game’s alternative ending, is perfectly stable and serves as Darth Vader’s faithful assassin. The 2009 video game Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron also features a pair of stable Force-sensitive clones, grown from the template of the Jedi Falon Grey.
Just as in canon, Palpatine cloned himself in the Dark Empire comic book miniseries, by Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy. Palpatine ensured the clone bodies were mindless, allowing his consciousness to inhabit them through the dark side ability of essence transfer. After his death in Return of the Jedi, Palpatine transferred his mind into these clone bodies, allowing him to wreak havoc on the galaxy once again. This idea, along with the Legends continuity’s established lore for Force-sensitive clones, would inspire similar ideas in the modern Star Wars canon.
Rise Of Skywalker’s Palpatine Clones Were A Failure
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker appears to be inspired by Dark Empire, having Palpatine return from the dead and unleash a hidden portion of his deadliest military forces on the galaxy. While the film does not explain how Palpatine was resurrected, canon lore establishes that his methods were extremely similar to his original Legends counterpart. One difference, however, was that Palpatine struggled far more to create a clone body that could hold his consciousness. Palpatine’s early experiments with strand-casts did not yield the results he wanted but they did grant him a useful proxy in the form of Snoke.
According to Adam Christopher’s novel Shadow of the Sith, Palpatine’s cloning experiments created Dathan, his cloned “son.” Dathan had an extremely weak connection to the Force, proving that clones, like biological children, do not necessarily inherit their ancestors’ Force abilities. Dathan’s child, however, inherited a strong connection to the Force. As shown in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, Rey has an extraordinary aptitude for using the Force, but this also makes her a target for her grandfather. Like his Legends counterpart, canon’s Palpatine sought to transfer his essence into another being, in this case, Rey.
While the Legends continuity’s Palpatine struggled to maintain a healthy clone body in part due to sabotage, the canon continuity simply made the clone bodies intrinsically less stable. As shown in Rise of Skywalker, Palpatine’s clone body was decayed, with a ghastly, corpse-like appearance. Palpatine was confined to his Ommin harness and thus could not leave his citadel on Exegol, relying on puppets like Supreme Leader Snoke to rule the First Order in his stead. It was only through draiining the power of the Force Dyad that Palpatine managed to stabilize his cloned body.
Star Wars Is Consistent About The Problems With Cloning Force-Sensitives
The Mandalorian
While the Star Wars canon and Legends continuities do not handle the concept of Force-sensitive clones identically, they are at least fairly consistent with each other. The Force interferes with the process of cloning in some way, making it extremely difficult to create a stable clone with a strong Force connection. There are a few rare instances, however, of stable Force-sensitive clones, but neither timeline has explained how this was made possible. Meanwhile, the modern Star Wars canon has addressed another concept: can a clone be given the power of the Force, even if their template was not Force-sensitive?
The Mandalorian season 3 reveals that Moff Gideon’s experiments on Grogu were meant to imbue a batch of clones with artificially-imbued Force-sensitivity. Gideon claimed that his attempts to give the clones the power of the Force were successful, but since Din Djarin killed them in their pods, Gideon’s assurance would not be put to the test. The idea will hopefully be explored in future, because the idea of granting clones the Force is an exciting one. Moff Gideon may not be able to profit from this, but his successors – whether members of the Imperial Shadow Council or something else in Rey’s lifetime – could well continue his experiments.
