#assumptions about the clones being 'obedient' are common and there is still an underlying mindset of clones being tools

[clone-wars-retteyo-au]

I think sometimes I get so caught up in the concept of how clones connect with each other, I forget how they might have very different perceptions of community and clone-to-clone relations (it's just one random thing I find kind of neat about the concept of clones as a whole).

One concept I don't explore quite as heavily in my AU (though I honestly should more often) is that while they do get there own planet, there are factions of clones who refuse to live there and decide to go off and do their own thing. They have automatic citizenship, but personally do not identify with this new planet and society. They still identify as clones for the most part, but do not consider themselves to be a part of this new specific society.

So I repeatedly switch back and forth between using the term "Retteyans" (the planet in this AU is called Retteyo btw) and "clones" because they become two separate identities. "Clone" is categorized as an ethnic/racial identity that verges on being its own species due to the major biological differences between them and humans. "Retteyan" is a national identity with ties to ethnicity.

Someone may identify as a clone, but not identify as a Retteyan, and its considered somewhat offensive to assume all clones are Retteyans, because there are plenty who do not identify with the planet. Plenty of clones make spaces for themselves outside of Retteyo across the galaxy, though those are smaller spaces. While Retteyo is seen as the main representative of the clones as a species(?), it is not the default one. There are plenty of specific ethnicities within the broader clone identity. Retteyo is just the biggest and loudest and lowkey established itself as the "official" homeworld for all clones (which could be its own source of conflict).

A major influencing factor in my AU is that the vast majority of clones are unable to reproduce. This will play into the reason they start cloning on Retteyo in the first place.

The reason they begin cloning on Retteyo is actually a bit complicated yet simple: they have created their own culture, and many of the younger clones who never fought in the war develop a sense of cultural pride/ethnic identity that they grow very attached to. When people begin to realize that the clones will eventually die out, the younger generation of clones on Retteyo is horrified at the notion that they will all eventually die out, and with it, a large portion of their culture (not fully realizing that certain elements of culture will fade either way due to it being affected by the trauma of the oldest generation). Even if they did pass down their culture to natborns, there is an inherent terror in knowing one's ethnic group is dying out.

(Note: This might get a little heavy as it touches on notions of ethnic purity and fears about ethnic erasure. The AU generally does end up covering some pretty heavy topics at points because I couldn't help myself and wanted to explore a variety of stuff)

One thing that's also fun to write in this AU is the acknowledgement that cultural flaws and problematic mindsets exist and would develop. Even if the clones were able to reproduce with natborns, this would still occur due to a complex and slightly darker reason. The clones are unable to reproduce with each other, and so while it goes unstated, some clones who were raised solely by other clones and aren't as close to natborns hold concerns over the idea of, to put it bluntly, "pure" clones dying out. Clones with the 100% traditional clone DNA.

Some have wrapped up the idea of being a clone with the aspect of all sharing the same DNA, which also may have small ties to Kaminoan eugenics. Because lets be honest, not all clones will fully reject Kaminoan ideals, and even if they reject Kamino, their mindset is still influenced by the lowkey brainwashing they've received since childhood. I am mixed race myself (half white, half black plus maybe some other stuff but mostly black), and am aware that there are a lot of complexities related to this overall topic.

I am a primary example of the fact that just because someone is mixed race doesn't mean their identity is invalid. However, I also have sympathy for some marginalized minority groups fears about being erased in a specific way. The concept of gradually being "replaced" until the only people left who are a part of that ethnic group share more DNA with their original oppressors than they do with the marginalized group. It's a kind of personal topic that would be tricky to touch upon, and I might not even add it to the AU, but it could be interesting.

The purity mindset as a whole is pretty gross, but again, the AU does not just explore culture and what their society would look like. It actually tends to explore the issues that would arise from the clones gaining freedom and independence, among other things. It is about the culture, but also has become more and more about the conflicts and evolution of culture as trauma is either passed down or fades away with each generation.

One major plot point is the oldest generation of clones (those who fought in the war) suddenly all developing severe mental health issues later on in life due to the intense amounts of trauma they faced coming back to bite them. The biggest conflict in the story is the generational differences between clones who fought in the war, clones who were born on Kamino but never fought in the war, and clones who were born on this new planet post-war.

Not all the clones have the same mindset, and in fact develop very different mindsets on a lot of things (between generations, between battalions, between individuals, etc.), which ends up being the driving force of the AU's plot.

I've decided that Rex is the one who paints Kanan's eye mask with his bird of prey design.

Kanan's feeling pretty low still just after Malachor, he's still distancing himself from everybody, and Rex decides to go try to talk to him at one point and the first thing he comes up with to say is to point out that his new mask is pretty plain. It's awkward, he regrets it immediately, but then Kanan says that it gets the job done and Rex is abruptly reminded of himself so so long ago back at the beginning of the war.

He sits Kanan down and tells him a story about how, at the beginning of the war, only a few of the clones had paint on their armor, to designate things like rank and battalion in order to make it easier for officers to find them in the middle of a busy battlefield. The paint was practical and it was limited to a very select few. But the Jedi almost immediately started trying to encourage the clones to utilize the paint less sparingly, suggesting that maybe everybody could wear at least a LITTLE paint and use more individualized designs so that it was still easy to tell the commanders and captains apart from the others when needed.

Some of the clones had taken to it with gusto, but others had been more hesitant, and Rex remembers having been one of them. He remembers telling Obi-Wan that there was no real REASON to paint everyone's armor and especially not to come up with personal designs. The armor was practical and it served its purpose with or without the paint and special designs. But the Jedi had insisted on at least TRYING to come up with his own design and if he didn't like it, he could always take it off, so Rex had given in and chosen something to paint on the armor. And, somehow, it felt a little lighter the next time he put it on. It didn't erase the horrors of war or the pain of loss or anything like that, but it helped.

He tells Kanan that the mask right now is just a reminder of the pain of the injury and whatever other feelings he's still got all caught up in the Malachor mission (guilt over what happened with Ezra, grief over Ahsoka's loss). But if he puts his own design on it, it might turn the mask into something other than a constant reminder of something bad. Instead, it's a reminder of who he is, the combination of the person he once was and who he's become. He is more than just his injury or this mission and he can use the mask to declare that if he wants to.

Kanan says he never realized Rex and the other clones had cared so deeply about their armor and Rex says that the armor itself was meaningless. It's better than what's being handed out to stormtroopers, but not but a LOT. It was the design on it that had meant something and, more than that, it was what the design REPRESENTED: having a choice about how you were perceived by others.

Kanan asks why Rex had chosen his particular designs, the bird of prey eyes on his helmet in particular. Rex explains that he chose it because he liked birds and thought it looked cool, but he's kept the helmet for as long as he has because it's come to mean something ELSE now. It's not just a cool-looking design, it's a reminder of a better time in his life. It's a reminder of when he'd been a part of something greater than himself, with the other clones and the Jedi. It's a reminder of a time when he'd had hope that he and his people could one day come out the other side of this war towards a brighter future.

Kanan looks at the mask he'd grabbed from storage somewhere or something just to keep light from hurting his eyes as they recovered and to cover up the injury from other people's stares (even if he couldn't see them staring), then hands it to Rex and asks if Rex minds sharing that symbol because he'd like a reminder of that, too. Rex remembers the 332nd and their helmets that they'd painted to look like their chosen Jedi, almost blindly giving away their individuality in favor of that loyalty that had been stripped from them anyway. And then he looks at Kanan, choosing to make himself look LIKE REX, someone who had shared his face with millions once, because he wants to honor both the connections he'd lost as well as this new connection the two of them have built together now. And Rex says he'd be happy to share.