Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones

Question: A trivia entry for this movie reads: "One of the droids in the arena battle has 1138 written on his back." Forgive my ignorance, but this means... what, exactly?

Macalou

Chosen answer: George Lucas first movie (made in college I think) was called THX-1138. It is referenced from time to time in a lot of his movies.

Grumpy Scot

Question: Does anybody know why Mace Windu is the head of the Jedi council? It just seems as though there are or were better or older Jedi who surely would have rose to become head Jedi. I thought at first that he may have a high Midi-chlorian count, but it seems his is quite normal by Jedi standards. No wonder Count Dooku left, he waited until he was seventy and still didn't become head of the council!

Answer: Mace Windu is not the head of the Council. Yoda, as Grand Master of the Jedi Order for all intents and purposes is head of the council, but each councillor is equal in terms of voting power. Though the councillors are all powerful force users, power seems secondary to wisdom as far as the selection process is concerned. Dooku left the Jedi Order not due to issues of rank, but because he had become disillusioned with the council.

Darius Angel

Question: Is it true that Keira Knightly almost played Padme in this movie and Episode III, because Natalie Portman didn't want to do it anymore?

Answer: No. All the main actors were contractually obliged to do all three prequel movies.

GalahadFairlight

Question: Did the Clones know that Tyranus/Dooku is the one who ordered the clone army?

DFirst1

Chosen answer: Most likely yes. As pointed out in a correction in this page, they did not shoot him in the pursuit scene on Geonosis with the Gunship lasers as they knew he was a leader of them. They might have known that he was the one who placed the order, but they followed Sidious whether they knew or not.

It's also possible that they were ordered to capture Dooku alive to gain information on his master and the Separatists, and shooting him down would probably kill him.

Question: Why not take over this planet's cloning process instead of shutting it down and recruiting others to be Stormtroopers, when the clones were 100% obedient and loyal to the Emperor?

Rob245

Answer: I think recruiting people is one of the sneaky ways of controlling the galaxy. Many Stormtroopers might have spouses and children back home. They could be receiving a tiny salary. Maybe some younger adults are eager to get away from their home planets, as Luke and Anakin both were. Still, others could be criminals who agreed to serve as Stormtroopers instead of another sentence (in "Game of Thrones", some convicted criminals can choose to join the Night's Watch order). These would all be ways to convince more citizens to support the Empire, instead of just training clones.

Azalea

I'd like to add besides these points that it's possible the cloning process is just too slow and cumbersome for the Emperor. They were useful as shock troops, to fight droid armies. But their numbers were not great enough to cover the entire galaxy as a security force. This especially once the Rebel Alliance shows up. I'd say recruiting people gives him a much-needed manpower boost in a shorter time.

lionhead

Time-consuming, cumbersome, and not a great number produced as you pointed out, as well a a massive expense.

raywest

Answer: There would be serious moral and ethical issues about cloning sentient beings just to become mindless, obedient servants/slaves/killers to achieve your cause, regardless of its good intent.

raywest

But the Empire clearly doesn't really have moral/ethical issues about most stuff, so that's not really an argument.

But not every member within the Empire would agree to using clones, especially knowing if the clones are blindly loyal to the Emperor, he could weaponize them against anyone not fully aligned to him.

raywest

Ray West mentions "mindless, obedient" servants, which is a good point. I think an army of "mindless" clones would actually be less effective. Instead, the Emperor claims that the Jedi wanted to overthrow the Senate. If he can persuade a decent number of people to support him, and spread his way of thinking, he can slowly gain more influence around the galaxy.

Azalea

So he can only do one or the other? He may want to recruit the Jedi, but he still needs an army to back them up with. Think of the Jedi as the generals and the clones are the troops.

raywest

Sorry. I misunderstood what you were saying in your comment.

Azalea

Question: When Dooku invited Obi-Wan to join him and destroy the Sith, what did he really want? Surely he didn't think that Obi-Wan would believe him?

Answer: I don't think that Dooku, nor Palpatine, really cared much about being actual Sith Lords. They wanted to be rulers in their own rights. Hence why Palpatine becomes Emperor Palpatine and abandons the "Darth Sidious" title. Dooku might have "destroyed the Sith" in the sense that he would kill Darth Sidious/Palpatine with Obi-wan's help.

Answer: Siths are often delusional, trying different ways to come out on top, kill their master. I think Dooku was serious in trying to recruit Obi-Wan, the apprentice of his apprentice Qui-Gon.

lionhead

Question: Before the Clone Wars, what situations did Jedi handle most of the time? I only ask because at Padme's apartment, Obi-wan says it's not their job to investigate the assassination attempt. Anakin says that local security could guard the apartment; it's not a matter for Jedi. So apparently, Jedi don't watch over people nor investigate crimes. What do they do?

Answer: Their job is to protect the integrity of the republic with diplomacy and advice to politicians. They do not enforce laws or rules. They can also be security for senators or be taken to places in crisis to help resolve difficult matters (like the blockade of Naboo). They protect and secure. That was their job during the time of the 'old' republic.

lionhead

So, in a way, are the Jedi similar to involving the FBI in a situation, instead of contacting your town/city/county police?

Maybe more like UN Peacekeepers.

Question: I know that Boba was the only clone of Jango that wasn't modified. But was he the first Jango clone ever created?

Answer: Yes, Boba was the first clone of Jango Fett. This is confirmed in the Topps Star Wars Card Trader trading card series which includes canon details on many Star Wars characters.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: When Obi-Wan is told by Dooku that the republic is controlled by Darth Sidious, he does not immediately believe it. Later in the movie he mentions it to Yoda and Mace Windu and he remarks that it does not feel right. Why were the Jedi not able to connect the dots and figure out a pattern when Palpatine stayed in office longer than he should have? That should have been a red flag. Are the Jedi not clued in at all?

Answer: The influence of the dark side of the force clouds their judgements, it causes a disturb in the force so they can't see through it to discover the truth. Even at the end of the war all they feel is that the dark side of the force surrounds the chancellor but they can't figure out what that means.

lionhead

Question: If the clones believe Dooku is their leader, why are they against the droids, who are his allies?

Answer: The pilots didn't refuse to shoot down Dooku - they explain they have run out of rockets and they can't. The clone troopers have no idea that Dooku originally ordered for them to be made, only the Jedi council at that time know, which is explained earlier in the film.

Answer: The clones do not believe Dooku to be their leader. Dooku is the leader of the Separatists.

BaconIsMyBFF

But they believe he was one of the people who was helping with ordering them (which he was) and refused to shoot him down when Anakin asked.

No, they believe Sifo Dyas was the Jedi who ordered their creation. They do not refuse to shoot down Dooku, they tried and failed.

BaconIsMyBFF

They believe it was both. They used "we're out of rockets" as an excuse to not kill him as they knew he was one of their leaders. Some of the corrections even state it, and one of the answers does as well.

The Jedi and the Chancellor are their leaders, not Dooku. Dooku is the enemy. Dooku's plan was to gather the largest droid army in the galaxy to counter the republic so that the clone army would be deployed. For Palpatine the seperatists were only a distraction for the Jedi and an excuse to deploy the clones. The clones obeyed the Jedi and Republic until order 66. Dooku was led to believe he would become one of the leaders eventually, if he knew about order 66, but Palpatine had other plans.

lionhead

So are you saying the people who were saying that in the corrections and questions are wrong?

There's one correction I saw that says that, and yes, I believe that correction to be incorrect. There is nothing in the film to suggest that the clones were aware (either consciously or otherwise) that Dooku played any part in their creation and chose not to kill him. If that was the case and George Lucas wanted the audience to be aware, it would have been less subtle and more obvious. It's not even supposed to be obvious that Dooku and Darth Tyranus are the same person until the end of the movie but that reveal was ruined by pre-release marketing and merchandise.

BaconIsMyBFF

But you can see the rockets in the gunship when the clone pilot refuses to fire them at Dooku.

Plus, they could've also used lasers or etc. instead.

Plus, why wouldn't Dooku and Sidious have had this feature installed anyway if they knew they would've been against him otherwise?

Sidious already was the leader of the clone troops, as Chancellor of the republic. All he had to do was wait for the war to spread the Jedi out over the galaxy so they will be more vulnerable and then execute order 66 to take them out. Dooku or Grievous were never a part of that plan. This is proven by Sidious ordering Vader to go to the Mustafar system and kill the rest of the separatist leaders. If Grievous was still alive he would have been eliminated too. Sidious' new apprentice Vader had already killed Dooku by then anyway.

lionhead

That's not exactly the point though.

The point the clones did not refuse to fire on Dooku. Dooku is not protected against them. Not by Palpatine, not by himself as Tyrannus.

lionhead

The programming of the clone troopers has been explored extensively in additional canon materials outside of the films. There has never been any mention of specific programming put in place to keep the clones from killing Dooku and Sidious. The ship still having rockets after the clone says they are out is more likely to be a simple continuity error rather than a subtle hint (and if this theory is to be believed, the ONLY hint at all in any Star Wars media) that the clones were programmed to not kill Dooku.

BaconIsMyBFF

There's also the hint that he finished up the job with ordering them.

We can go on and on for pages but the fact of the matter is the clones were not what you expected them to be. Dooku never had any idea he would be in danger of being captured or killed by the clones as he was supposed to be coordinating the war on the background like Sidious.

lionhead

Question: If Count Dooku took over with ordering the clone army for Dyas, did he ask for the clones to have the biochip that would turn against the Jedi? If so, why wouldn't the Kaminoians inform Obi-Wan of this?

Answer: Order 66 was an extra implaced by Dooku later on to the clone army. It was a secret order and the Kaminoans are very loyal to the customers. The fact Obi-Wan came there to inspect the army doesn't mean they should reveal the secret order, they had no reason to do so as they thought Obi-Wan already knew.

lionhead

Question: Why can't Dooku sense Obi-Wan on Geonosis? In ANH, Vader could sense Obi-Wan on the Death Star.

DFirst1

Chosen answer: For one thing Vader is significantly more powerful than Dooku. Vader also has a strong emotional connection with Obi Wan and thus it is easier to sense him.

BaconIsMyBFF

How come? Tyranus, Obi Wan and Vader are all force sensitive. So we could expect Dooku might have sensed Kenobi.

DFirst1

There's nothing in the film to suggest he did. In A New Hope, Vader specifically mentions sensing Obi Wan. In Return of the Jedi, Luke specifically mentions sensing Vader. There is no mention that either Obi Wan or Dooku could sense the other on Geonosis. Dooku being able to sense Obi Wan would go a long way to explain the hilarious ease of Obi Wan's capture, but it can't be said that he could sense him just because he can use the force and force users can do that. We aren't shown it and he doesn't mention it.

BaconIsMyBFF

Maybe Dooku sensed Obi Wan. But, I think it's part of the plan to get Kenobi captured. Because Dooku is going to reveal a "dark secret" to the Jedi.

DFirst1

Answer: Dooku knew that Obi Wan was spying him. But he did that on purpose, by luring him into a trap. As you can see in the film, he was captured so that Dooku would plant a seed with the Republic in order to ensure the Clone Wars began as Sidious and Tyranus planned.

DFirst1

Revealing mistake: When Amidala and Anakin are eating and he cuts her a piece of the fruit and "floats" it back to her, the bite appears in the fruit a split second before she actually eats it. [This appears to be fixed in rereleased versions]. (00:53:40)

More mistakes in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones

Junkie: Do you wanna buy some death sticks?
Obi-Wan Kenobi: You don't want to sell me death sticks.
Junkie: I don't want to sell you death sticks.
Obi-wan Kenobi: You want to go home and rethink your life.
Junkie: I want to go home and rethink my life.

More quotes from Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones

Trivia: The first scene in which Obi-Wan and Anakin appear was filmed after principal photography had finished. Ewan McGregor had shaven off his beard, so he had to wear a fake one.

Cubs Fan

More trivia for Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones

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