#clone trooper dehumanisation

[lbibliophile-sw]

Technicalities

Also on AO3 [300w] @foxquinweek - day 2: “Unfortunately, General, I would need to be a sentient being for that.” & day 5: Fox kills the Chancellor Can be considered as a sequel to this drabble – Uncovering Corruption

Mace Windu glares at the two men standing before him, trying to decide which is more insolent: the Clone Commander’s textbook-perfect ‘at attention’ or the Jedi Master’s casual lounging against thin air.

“Care to explain what I am supposed to do with the fact that the two of you just murdered the kriffing Supreme Chancellor?”

“It wasn’t murder.”

“Wasn’t-! Fine. You do realise, Commander Fox, that calling it an assassination doesn’t actually make the situation any better?”

“Wasn’t an assassination either."

"I mean, in my case the motivation was about 50:50 personal/political so I guess you can take your pick; but I’d have to be legally considered sentient to be actually convicted of either. As things stand, the options are that I malfunctioned – in which case I would appreciate your assistance in avoiding the consequences of that verdict – or it was ‘misappropriation of GAR ordinance’. Except that as a General, Vos does actually have the authority to requisition my services, including retroactively submitting relevantpaperwork, so we should be in the clear.”

“That’s… you know what, I’ll take your word for it. Master Vos, on the other hand. Even if you didn’t ‘steal’ the Commander, there’s still that issue of the Chancellor’s murder and/or assassination. How do you explain that?

“Still neither.”

“Vos…”

“Look, it’s simple. I’m a Jedi. The Chancellor was a Sith. And we have evidence of him actively conspiring against the Order and the Republic both. So I was merely fulfilling my duty; ‘damage control’ if you will. All perfectly within my remit.”

“The Chancellor is a Sith. And you didn’t think to come to the Council with this before confronting and killing the man?!”

“In all seriousness, I did consider it. But there was too high a chance that he would realise we figured out his secret, so we had to act before he had a chance to implement any contingencies. Besides, would you really have given permission if we had asked?”

“Maybe not. But I’m certainly never going to forgive you for dumping this mess in my lap now!”

“Y’know what? Fair.”

[ahsoka-its-all-of-us]

I was thinking about Rebels — obviously, because my brain is rotting — and this scene got stuck in my head:

“CC-3636. Commander… Wolffe, is it?”

As vividly shown by Rampart, the Empire doesn’t care about clones, their individuality, and thus the names they have given themselves. With their dehumanising efforts, especially for clones, I therefore don’t believe that clone nicknames were included in their files.

So how does Kallus know Wolffe’s?

Okay so we know Kallus is Coruscanti, and that he was around 35 years old when he first encountered the Spectres, which makes him a late teenager when the Empire was formed. We also know that he attended the Royal Imperial Academy, which means that he was in the top levels of Coruscant, most likely during the very beginning of the Empire given his age and achieved rank by the time we meet him. From all of that we can conclude that he has seen the clones in action on Coruscant, probably even training with them before the Imperial Defence Recruitment Bill. He would know the clones, have studied them.

Headcanon that he admired them.

The clones were great soldiers, loyal to the Republic (and later the Empire — no doubt that Kallus never knew about the inhibitor chips), so it makes sense for him to look up to them. Perhaps they were even his inspiration to join the military in the first place, because that’s a choice he might have made even before the creation of the Empire, given his age.

Which means that this scene is actually just this little nerd coming out in him lmaoooo 😂 He might try to hide it from his troopers by acting as if he doesn’t know or care, but we know better :3

[eightbitpale]

I wrote a funky little Codywan fic

I wrote my first proper, multi-chapter fic! It's all edited and published now and I'm actually pretty damn happy with it, so I thought I'd link it here.

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Set My Mind at Ease by Eightbitpale on AO3

Teen And Up Audiences. M/M. 16.3k words

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types

CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi, CC-2224 | Cody & Obi-Wan Kenobi, CC-2224 | Cody & CT-7567 | Rex, Obi-Wan Kenobi, CC-2224 | Cody, Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, CT-7567 | Rex, Original Clone Trooper Character(s) (Star Wars), Various Clone Troopers

Canon-Typical Violence, Field operations, Miscommunication, please don’t leave i promise it’s not obnoxious, Sith Temples (Star Wars), Spooky cave shit, furthering my obi-wan can’t cook agenda, Anakin Skywalker is an acquired taste (affectionate), problems that could have been solved much faster if Cody was allowed to open carry a flamethrower, bit of whump, as a treat, Jedi Lineages as Family (Star Wars), CC-2224 | Cody Has a Lightsaber, Kenobi and his competence kink, Pre-Slash, could be read as platonic but honestly why would you, Some light angst for flavour, tw arachnophobia, canon typical clone dehumanisation, Humor, Cody voice: i love Rex and all my non-Rex brothers equally

Summary:

Marshal Commander Cody - clone commanding officer of the 7th Sky Corps, second in command of the 212th attack battalion and, currently, the proud caretaker of one still-warm lightsaber - was having a very long day.

Actually, fuck that. It had been more than a long day. Long days were Cody’s bread and butter, practically his comfort zone. Marshall Commander Cody ate stim shots for breakfast and every shiny this side of Coruscant knew it. Long days were his bitch.

No, this had been more than a long day. Today had been a bad day.

———

The one where Cody and his general try their best to tell each other that they care. At least they’re trying.

[0vvl404]

Huh 'Lips looks so... delicate.

Featured characters: my oc's ARC trooper Plum (left) and clone commando Eclipse (right).

Important detail:

(tw: mention of appearance-based bulling)

Plum has a mutation which makes his skin color extremely dark, the coldest shade of black human skin can produce. Because of this he has been bullied since being a tubey. It affected his personality a lot, made him extremely self-dehumanised even for clone scale.

I can speak a lot, but, what's important in this situation, he hates it when someone sees his bare skin. He prefers wearing full-armor and keeps wearing helmet when his brothers would take it off.

Plum has a shiny with a crush on him and brat tamer commando.

Sandwich of love for Plum.

[elthadriel]

Codex Week Day 5: As I Am To You

Cody can be patient. He’s been waiting for decades. Rating: T Tags: CC-2224 | Cody as Fulcrum, Purge Trooper CC-2224 | Cody, Rebel CC-2224 | Cody, Rebel CT-7567 | Rex, Post-Battle of Endor (Star Wars), Reunions, Old Age, Chronic Pain, clone dehumanisation, Clone Troopers Deserve Better (Star Wars), discussions of dying, Melancholy, First Kiss Read on ao3 For @codex-week Day 5 using the alt prompt How will you / have you prepare(d) for your death? from Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency by Chen Chen.

People dance and sing on the forest floor. The music is loud enough that it carries high up into the trees, mixing with the sound of jubilance, and laughter. Cody has no intention of joining them. He leans on the railing of one of the tree top platforms and waits. He can feel the rumble of the drums in his chest, but the music is muffled and distant despite its volume.

There’s hearing aids built into his helmet, but it’s hooked onto one of the struts of the railing.

He can’t see much either, lights where the Rebels have lit torches, blurry shapes where large groups congregate, but in the dark he can’t pick up much more than that, and certainly not at this distance. His helmet helps with that too.

But the fresh air is nice, and it forces people to see who he is. Not just a man in purge trooper armour in their midst while they celebrate the death of the Empire, but a clone in purge trooper armour. One who is old and falling apart. Those with enough clearance will know exactly what that means, and those without can probably guess.

Leia had clasped his hands between hers and said she was glad he’d made it out rather than thanking him. She inherited her father’s tact — her real father, not the husk of a machine that had died up on the Death Star. 

She’ll be down there, with her brother, and he’s curious to know what Amidala’s other brat came out like, but not enough to put back on his helmet to seek him out in the crowd.

Read the rest on ao3

[nightwussy]

david felony stop trying to make echo and his trauma the butt of every joke challenge

[lbibliophile-sw]

Orders

Also on AO3 For @foxquinweek - day 1: "I'll buy you time"

CC-1010 likes General Vos. He gives orders that are easy to follow.

Not like its Lord. His orders are hard to follow, pushing it to the limits of its skill and endurance, and beyond. But good soldiers follow orders. (Sometimes it wonders if he wants it to fail.)

CC-1010 likes General Vos. He gives orders that are easy to follow.

Orders like ‘sit down while I tend your wounds’, or ‘drink this glass of water’, or ‘try to get some sleep’. And good soldiers follow orders.

CC-1010 likes General Vos.

It is selfishly glad that Fox is willing to share.

[ahsoka-in-a-hood]

Aw, just thinking about the chipped purge troopers retroactively casting the jedi in a terrible light to the unknowing public? I mean, this had been the jedi's army, but a lot of empire citizens would only ever meet them chipped, ruthless and cold and commiting atrocities on behalf of the empire. Many of those people would have no context to understand that the clones weren't always like that, especially with the dehumanising rhetoric about the clones that was probably already circulating during the war. They'd have to wonder about the jedi who led them too. It plays perfectly into the propaganda about both jedi and clones, propaganda that makes it so much easier to dispose of them.

[aeligsido]

[Clonetober 2022] Day 13 - Order 66.

Characters: CT-5597 | Jesse, CT-7567 | Rex, Ahsoka Tano. Additional Tags: hurt/no comfort, this one is just hurt guys, it hurts me too to write it, min control, clone trooper inhibitor chip, dehumanisation, falling, bittersweet. Content Warnings: Implied Major Character Death, Order 66, canon timeline, canon events, spoilers for the end of TCW.

-

CT-5597 if falling.

His stomach is dropping, looping, just as much as the Venator screeching and crumbling in the sky.

He can’t get to the traitors and kill them as Ordered, they’re already gone, and there’s no ship left for them to pursue the Jedi and CT-7567, or just escape the Tribunal.

(And there’s a relief in his chest at that – he can’t kill them, they’re escaping, and he’s glad for it, and he can’t understand because good soldiers follow orders and CT-5597 is a good soldier–

But Jesse is a brother and an ori’vod and who cares if he dies if his vod’ika and his Captain get out of here alive?)

CT-5597 is falling.

And Jesse is flying.

[mwolf0epsilon]

Febuwhump Day 7 - Used as an Experiment

Summary: CC-2224 can't feel pain anymore.

Warning: Inhuman experiments, references to suicide, and dehumanisation.

[Read up on some of the more horrifying things the Empire did with the clones. Inspiration struck soon after reading about the initial stages of the dark trooper project.]

[THIS STORY IS NOW ON AO3]

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Contrary to popular belief, the empty void has an audible sound. It's not one that can be put to words easily, nor something a sentient organic can ever truly understand, but it is one that can be heard. Deep inside your own brain. As clear as rain.

The emptiness sounds like memories.

Like what you felt long ago. But that's irrelevant now. Because CC-2224 can't feel.

The first thing that left it's grasp was the notion of time. Hanging by the wires and various cables that connected it to the laboratory's mainframe (where its prototypical nature served as a base for the next generations to come), there was nothing to measure time with. The central processing unit was fully disconnected from any sort of useful information such as a time, date, or a location. It was there purely to see what went on in its head. Feeding it redundant data it already knew. Like the blueprints collected from the Techno Union. The ones that made the first of its kind.

Where did the firstborn go? Where was CT-1409 now? Did CT-7567 know? Did CT-7567 still live? CC-2224 did not know. It did not care. Not anymore.

Once upon a very distant time, CC-2224 would have shed tears over this very matter. The lack of knowing what happened to its kin. But like its capacity to feel, its tear-ducts had been surgically removed months ago. A prevention measure to keep the saline composites from damaging the exposed machinery of its ruined face, where the flesh had been removed to more easily merge the new circuitry with nerves and muscles.

The binding of its frame was done so that it couldn't move about. So that it couldn't do what its fellow prototypes had done, once they'd begun to reject their upgrades. The sweet release of death slipping through unfeeling fingers, as it acted too slow to join the falling bloodied dominos that followed the initiation of the Dark Trooper Project.

Its equals had been unable to bare the changes. The things they were becoming. Their despair had consumed them. CC-2224 probably had felt the same. Now it doesn't know. It doesn't know anything. Just the lines of code and the feeling of scalpels taking more away, and soldering irons binding the new in.

There's no one around most of the time. The only contact it has is when it is being upgraded. When the flesh is peeled away, the organs stripped, the bones reinforced with durasteel and its altered brain tested and tested again. With not many there to disturb it. It has time to fade into a dissociative state. A blissful escape from reality into nothingness.

Nothing makes sense. Nothing has to make sense.

Not the touch of gloved hands. Not the kiss of blades. Not the unknowns to its unrecognisable body.

Everything is numb. CC-2224 can't feel pain.

Somewhere deep inside it however... Commander Cody still can.

CC-2224 can't wait for him to die. Him and his memories that fill the blissful silence with the sounds it doesn't care for anymore.

[attonsrands]

Nala Se is still on my List 🗡 but I think I understand where they’re going with her.

If she does genuinely care for and love Omega, she might have deliberately dehumanised the “trooper” clones in order to separate Omega from Them. She sees Omega as a person. If the troopers are people like Omega, the implication would be she’s creating people to be carted off and slaughtered.

How do you deal with that? Cognitive dissonance. “They are things, products, our property.”

They are different from Omega. Therefore, I have not committed any crime, I can live with myself for what I have done.

Obviously this line of thinking isn’t right and I don’t think the writers are trying to redeem her, but make her more nuanced. This level of dissonance is sadly all too common in the real world and is often used to justify heinous actions.

[badsithnocookie]

i think fundamentally the thing that disturbs me the most about the cavalier attitude that tcw has towards inflicting violence on the clones isn’t that it’s held by the jedi (true as that is) or even by the separatists (true as that also is) but that it’s held by the narrative

like tcw is incredibly cavalier about its war violence anyway (’star war is war propaganda’ is a meme that will forever hold truth but i think is particularly applicable to tcw, pathé news homages and all) which is already concerning in a children’s tv show (violence against The Enemy is always justified, and the enemy are literally dehumanised, whether it’s because they are aliens/alien zombies or because they are droids - the personhood of the enemy may be obvious to a critical viewer but it is never once acknowledged by the writing, never mind other characters)

but it then extends that to the redshirts on its own side. even having a name is no guarantee that a clone trooper will survive the episode they are introduced in, and while it’s not unreasonable that the separatists would dehumanise the clones, the jedi go out of their way to do so as well. the one occasion we see ahsoka actually get upset about losing men under her command, it’s simultaneously introduced because she’s upset that she lost as a commander and not she’s upset that these men are dead and then anakin ‘possessive attachment incarnate’ skywalker tells her to build a bridge and get over it, with the support of the narrative structure

like it would be one thing if the detachment on the part of the jedi commanders was shown to be a result of (say) their doctrine as jedi or as a (normal, if fucked up) coping method for commanding officers in wartime (especially one both not trained to be commanders and lacking any real support structure)

but not only do the jedi care about jedi, they only care about jedi - and not only this, but the narrative itself only cares about jedi. even the clones who are named, recurring characters still get treated abruptly and as afterthoughts by the narrative. who cares how many clone troopers suffered and even died trying to prevent an outbreak of space ebola? padmé and ahsoka suffered, and they’re the ones who really matter.

[mis-mcgifsten]

Everything about the creation and exploitation of the troopers is so obviously evil and morally bankrupt. From their conception at Dooku's hands, their dehumanising training and use of numbers as id, the acceleration of their lives to get them battle field ready in half the time or less of Nat born soldiers. The way Palpy and the senate just conscripted them without even a nod to investigate their terribly convenient arrival just as the senate needs a nice disposable army. The way their sentience and lack of rights is never even raised in the senate as far as we get shown. It's so depressing. Palpatine was a consummate politician and he had this chess board set up to a tee. If it plots like a sith, cackles like a sith and regards sentient beings as disposable tools like a sith then your chancellor is definitely a sith!

To us, the viewers, it is so blatantly a sith plan it really does boggle the mind that no senator, no investigative reporter, not even random Joe schmo the conspiracy theorist waves the red flags we see in every successive episode. That the Republic had fallen so far from it's ideals that the use of an army of conscripted soldiers, slaves without choice or agency, is not ringing alarm bells from border to border is fairly damning evidence of a level of corruption they couldn't claw their way out of. Certainly not while the main instigator and facilitator of that corruption was their most powerful politician and leader.

The clone troopers are far and away the most tragic victims of the sith plot. They were created to be the tool by which the jedi were genocided and were then used up and disposed of. Many millions of them created, thrown onto battle fields to die pointlessly for a man who was playing both sides of the war, personality and agency erased by order 66, used up and cast aside by the empire until they were all gone. It makes me angry and it makes me sad.

thinking about how sick the republic was for using clone soldiers.

whereas the separatists had droids, easily replaceable, largely unfeeling bits of metal, the republic chose to use people. real kriffing people. people born into a world of bright lights and strange sounds. people raised strictly, being taught how to shoot targets and train for battle the moment they were old enough - and being genetically enhanced to age faster because the clones were dying quicker than they could be replaced. people subjected to harsh simulations that were nothing like the real thing anyway. people shoved into armour and sent out onto a battlefield to fight in a war that they didn't understand, that they didn't even get a choice to be a part of. people watching their brothers die for a useless cause, another failed campaign.

and at the end of it all, what did they have to show for it? they grew to be hated by the public. seen as signs of violence. sadness. loss.

cast out of the army and replaced with ordinary people. volunteers. clones never had that choice.

being decommissioned. destroyed. abandoned.

left to die out.

just. feeling a lot of things.

[mis-mcgifsten]

Actually apart from the immediate aftermath of order 66 do we have any images or Canon written stuff that clarified what the chip did to their personalities? Jesse wasn't erased but he was lethally focused when under the influence. Rex fought it off a bit but he knew what was happening. Does it kind of do a "factory settings" reset on them or what?

I both want to know and don't want to at the same time. After some time under the influence would the loyalty to the emperor become ingrained? The chips are apparently implanted prior to birth and grow with the clones. So could an emp blast or a software update reset them back out of the control? Are the clones hackable?

I look at the first order culture of troopers only having numbers and wonder if the chip defaulted the clones back to numerical id, erasing their names completely, or if it's a training thing that got passed down to emphasise just how much of a cog any individual trooper is in their hierarchy. A way of dehumanising them even more?

I mean names, hairstyle, tattoos. These were the only things the clones ever actually owned, they sure didn't own their own bodies. And it's just gone at one command. It makes me sad.

But it would be worse if they could remember, if the programming just made their identity seem irrelevant. If they remember it all and just can't care about it anymore.

We all want to see Cody in the Kenobi series but have any of you thought about the fact that —as far as we know—Obi-Wan doesn't know about the chips???