Cloning/Legends

"Clones can think creatively. You will find that they are immensely superior to droids."

- Lama Su

Cloning was the process of creating a genetically identical or&mdash;purposefully and specifically&mdash;modified copy of an original organism. It was also one of the key factors that facilitated the end of the Galactic Republic and the dawn of the Galactic Empire in its place. Through the science of cloning, a vast clone army was created on Kamino for the purpose of serving the Republic. Programmed with absolute loyalty to Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, leader of the Galactic Senate and secretly the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, the clones proved to be instrumental in his rise to the position of Emperor. The military applications of cloning were further exploited by the New Order through the creation of countless more clone soldiers, all used mainly for the sole purpose of spreading and enforcing Imperial hegemony throughout the galaxy.

Overview
"With the same genetic structure plus a flash-learning pattern taken directly from the template, a clone should theoretically be completely identical to the original person. But despite that, they're never exactly the same. Maybe some of the mental subtleties get blurred over in transition, or maybe there's something else unique inside us that a flash-learning reader isn't able to pick up."

- Luke Skywalker, to Mara Jade

In order to create a clone, samples of genetic code had to be drawn from a subject's cells, duplicated and implanted into donor cells. These donor cells would then grow, divide and, eventually gestate in artificial wombs, filled with nutrients and organic catalysts. Altering the nutrients and catalyst solutions that the cells received could influence the physical attributes and maturation rates of the resulting clone. The most aggressive mixtures of nutrients and catalyst solutions produced fully formed adult clones in several weeks, but forced growth acceleration often led to mental instability in the clone. Some cloners, however, discovered methods to avoid this phenomenon. The genetic material donor was generally referred to as a prime clone. Using the subject's template, it was possible through many different techniques to create exact physical replicas. This process was not only capable of producing a single copy, but also multiple versions of the original subject. Furthermore, genetic engineering could further modify the clone to augment or subdue specific traits.

Although mass cloning was considered useful because of its military applications, individual clones generally lacked the personality of the original. As such, they often needed to be educated during the process of their development. The original clone troopers that were produced over the course of a decade on Kamino were educated at a more gradual pace in comparison to their Spaarti-engineered counterparts. Clones who fully matured in just a year's time received an extremely rushed form of education through flash training. The fastest developed clones&mdash;grown in the span of a few weeks&mdash;were trained through memory imprints, taken from the original donor and downloaded into the copied subjects. This essentially enabled a clone to learn all of its template's skills, but also carried with them emotional imprints, and thus the risk of mental instability as well.

Due to the fact that growth environment was a highly influential factor, a clone could develop characteristics and identities distinct from its donor's, even if it was a genetically identical copy. A long standing debate over cloning and flash memory was whether a clone retained the thoughts and memories of its progenitor. Some believed that clones were identical to the original in every way, while others argued that clones were unique through their individual experiences.

Some cultures fully embraced the possibilities of cloning, most notably the people of Khomm who abandoned natural reproduction in favor of becoming a clone society. Khommite clones from the Dorsk lineage were active in the New Jedi Order.

Early development
"As practically everyone knows, cloning is the science of taking a cell from a living organism, duplicating the genetic code, and growing the cell into an exact duplicate of the cell donor."

- Darth Sidious, a gatekeeper of the Telos Holocron

The art of cloning technology was developed by a number of civilizations in the galaxy. Some noted species that possessed the technology included the inhabitants of the worlds of Khomm, Lur, Ithor, Columus, as well as Arkania. One of the more infamous species to possess a great deal of knowledge of cloning were the inhabitants of Kamino who were renowned for their skill in the field. The Kaminoans later taught their skill in cloning to the inhabitants of Polis Massa who used it to help develop an advanced medical and genetic research station on their homeworld. The insectoid Verpines of the Roche asteroid field also made use of cloning to propagate their worker castes.

One of the largest cloning operations was the creation of the Grand Army of the Republic, an immense army of clone soldiers&mdash;all based on the genetic template of the Mandalorian bounty hunter Jango Fett&mdash;created by Kaminoan scientists as part of an initially clandestine program to seemingly reestablish a pan-galactic military force for the Galactic Republic. It was in truth part of a complex and masterfully executed deception conceived by the Sith that would ultimately furnish them with the means to destroy the Republic and control the galaxy.

In a vast facility maintained within Tipoca City, clones were grown and trained in the cloning chambers at the city's military complex. The first attempt to replicate Jango Fett resulted in twelve prototype clones, known as the Null-class Advanced Recon Commandos, and were the subject of the Kaminoans' attempts to enhance Fett's genome. While the clones would possess photographic memory and perfect recall, and substantially bulkier frames as adults, half of the twelve did not survive the gestation period and the six who did were deemed uncontrollable by their creators. But at the behest of Cuy'val Dar sergeant Kal Skirata, the clones were ultimately spared from being reconditioned&mdash;a fate which in this case would mean death. Disappointed by their first attempt to modify Fett's genetic code, the Kaminoans proceeded with the creation of the Alpha generation, a new batch of ARC troopers personally trained by Fett. In addition, the Kaminoans also took DNA samples from Jedi Knight Falon Grey which they used to create twin Force-sensitive clones called X1 and X2.

The standard troopers were genetically altered to be more docile and susceptible to obeying orders than their genetic template, supplemented by rigorous behavior modifications to instill absolute loyalty to the Galactic Republic. A surgically implanted Inhibitor Chip was a further safeguard against betrayal from rogue Jedi. The chip, however, proved to be an integral part of the Sith masterplan.

In order to grow fully matured clones in half of the time it takes ordinary Humans, the Kaminoans modified the clones by implementing "age acceleration" into their development, thus allowing the clones to reach adulthood in ten years instead of two decades. Although the exact rate at which clones aged is unknown, it appears to be nearly twice as fast a natural-born Human and it is theorized that this rate increased as clones grew older&mdash;especially under stress, thus leading to a dramatic shortening of the clones' life expectancy. Despite these modifications, the clone troopers could still think and act creatively and possessed a level of individuality that their Kaminoan creators did not anticipate.

By the second year of the Clone Wars, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine had established a secondary cloning facility in secret on Coruscant's moon, Centax-2. Under the supervision of Arkanian Clone Masters, the facility was operated by the company Arkanian Microtechnologies and used Spaarti cloning cylinders to produce fully matured clones within a year. Hence, the clones from Kamino were supplemented by billions of clones that were roughly a year old and instructed through flash training. But with only a year to grow the clones and prepare them for war, the fighting ability of Spaarti-grown clones was noticeably lower than their counterparts from Kamino. Thus, the overall result of Spaarti technology led to clones with underdeveloped combat and marksmanship skills, including a heavily diminished sense of individuality and self-preservation.

Aside from Jango Fett's considerable price to become the clone template, Fett also requested an unaltered clone for himself. Jango regarded the clone as his son and legacy, thus naming him Boba Fett. As per Jango's terms, Boba's genetic structure was not tampered with age acceleration or increased docility programming, essentially making him an exact physical duplicate of his father. Despite receiving none of the modifications that his clone "brothers" possessed, Boba would still experience the degradation of his DNA later in life due to the fact that he was a clone. At some point during the Clone Wars, Zeltron bounty hunter Vianna D'Pow followed Jango's example and commissioned the Kaminoans to create a single clone of herself.

Although the Clone Army was evidently a significant advantage to the Republic, which had lacked a proper military force for over a millennium, it was also recognized that clone soldiers could be one of the greatest threats to the Republic if they were not created strictly under Republic supervision. Hence, the Galactic Senate issued Decree E49D139.41 near the end of the Clone Wars, thus confining all military-purpose cloning to specifically licensed Republic facilities and banning all non-military cloning of sentients with the exception of the medical cloning on Khomm, Lur, Columus, and Arkania, although even they required a license and a case-by-case evaluation. The ban also prohibited the sale of cloning equipment, the hiring of cloning or genetic engineers with the intention of cloning, and the purchase of any cloned sentients.

The Separatists also attempted to create their own army of clone soldiers to counter the Grand Army of the Republic, to which they selected the Nikto Morgukai known as Bok as a clone template. Thus, the Morgukai Shadow Army was created on the Outer Rim world of Saleucami, presumably grown from Spaarti cylinders, trained by Anzati assassins, and programmed with unconditional loyalty to the Confederacy of Independent Systems. They would never make it off-planet, however, as the facility was destroyed following the Siege of Saleucami.

Only towards the end of the Clone War did the Jedi Order learn that the Sith had been involved in the cloning program from its inception, although they knew not to what purpose. They chose to keep this knowledge a secret from the Senate, as they thought it would destabilize the Republic and undermine the war effort. Instead, they resolved to take the only path they could see available, which was to play the game they now knew to have been orchestrated by the Sith, and bring an end to the war as quickly as possible. When Palpatine ordered the execution of Order 66, the Inhibitor Chip implanted in every clone ensured it would be carried out, and the Jedi were exterminated. This gave Palpatine a free hand to reorder the Republic into the Galactic Empire. Thus the clone army that was meant to protect the Republic was instead paradoxically the harbinger of its downfall.

Reign of the Empire
"What can you teach a clone in a few months that a man takes a lifetime to learn?"

- Emperor Palpatine to Darth Vader

With the rise of the Galactic Empire, there were strict laws placed on cloning technology to prevent anti-Imperial factions from breeding their own army of clones, which then led to the Empire's attempts at seizing the technology from other civilizations. This included an attempt to confiscate agricultural and cloning technology from the Ithorians through military force. Later, Momaw Nadon used his knowledge of cloning to create a clone of Captain Alima after the Imperial Prefect was killed. Nadon decided to obey the Ithorian Law of Life, and thus he created a clone replica of the Imperial officer.

Among the reformations that transformed the Republic into the Empire, the former Grand Army of the Republic was reorganized into the Stormtrooper Corps. The remaining clone troopers that survived the Clone Wars were rechristened as Imperial stormtroopers. Despite the ban on cloning, the Empire continued to utilize clone soldiers in secret. With the exception of Imperial officers and GeNode clones, the Stormtrooper Corps was almost fully composed of clones based on the genetic template of Jango Fett.

The Clone Rebellion of Kamino in 12 BBY brought an end to the Fett clones' proud dominion over the Stormtrooper Corps. Though they succeeded in suppressing the revolt by storming Tipoca City and annihilating an army of Fett clones designed to fight against the Empire, Emperor Palpatine lost confidence in an army cloned entirely from one man. As a result, future generations of stormtroopers were cloned from a variety of templates. Not long afterward, the ranks were opened up to non-clone Humans who served as enlisted troopers alongside the clones. The Empire's dependency on cloning also led to the creation of experimental soldiers based on the Force-sensitive template of Sa Cuis, an Emperor's Hand. Even though the 501st Legion was allowed to remain pure, the Fett clones resented their sudden status as a minority within the army that they once filled as a whole.

Even before the formation of the Empire, the Kaminoan format for cloning had been virtually supplanted by Spaarti technology. In the final year of the Clone Wars, Palpatine revealed the existence of another clone army that was different from the original in two ways&mdash;the new clones were engineered on Coruscant's moon Centax-2 instead of Kamino, and they grew to adulthood in one year instead of ten years. Decades later when Palpatine recorded his legacy into the Telos Holocron, he admitted his preference for the Spaarti cloning process. Though he did admire the achievements made by the Kaminoan cloners, the accelerated growth rate of Kaminoan-engineered clones was too slow in Palpatine's opinion. Even though the Spaarti clones were far less intelligent and combat effective than the clones bred on Kamino, Palpatine was unconcerned with the apparent disadvantages. The Kaminoan clone army had to meet the best standards in order to fulfill their ultimate mission in exterminating the Jedi Order; the Spaarti clones were meant to bolster the Grand Army's depleted ranks so that the Emperor would have an efficient number of soldiers to enforce his reign the first years of the Empire.

At some point during the early phase of the Galactic Civil War, Imperial scientists tried to improve on the Spaarti method by conducting an experiment to create clones that grew into adulthood in under one year. Through the "accelerated cloning process," clones could be engineered to reach maturity in a mere few weeks while their minds were developed through memory flashes based on imprints of a genetic donor's brain patterns. But the procedure was consistently undermined by several flaws that resulted in highly unstable subjects.

Aside from the physical deformities, the accelerated clones were compromised by abnormalities in their brain development. According to the projections of Imperial scientists, all of the accelerated clones were doomed to suffer from mental instability not long after their creation. Some of the clones would remain stable enough to serve as infantry for a year before succumbing to insanity while others would never make it past their basic training. In order to correct the flaws within the accelerated cloning process, many batches of unstable clones had to be created before the system could be perfected.

Cloning the Secret Apprentice
"I can hear his thoughts. I have his dreams.''" "''Yes. Those that failed before you could not escape them. It was their undoing."

- The Dark Apprentice and Darth Vader, lamenting on the setbacks with all of Starkiller's clones.

Following the death of Galen Marek, Darth Vader endeavored to recreate his former secret apprentice through cloning technology. Thus, Marek's body was brought to Timira City on Kamino to be the genetic template for a single clone that would take the original's place as Vader's Sith assassin. To avoid taking the time required to train a new apprentice all over again, Vader chose to utilize the newly developed "accelerated cloning process." Through the highly experimental procedure, the clone would be engineered to reach young adulthood in less than a month rather than a year or a decade. The imprints from Marek's brain patterns would also be used to impart the apprentice's knowledge and skills to the clone, effectively insuring that the "new Starkiller" would be just as powerful as the original prior to his death.

But the experiment resulted in a "crash and burn" procedure due to the imperfections in the accelerated cloning process. The first wave of Marek's accelerated clones were aberrant replicas, both physically deformed and mentally deranged. The process eventually became more stable, but each version of the original Starkiller was constantly haunted by memories of a life that they never lived, thus failing to meet Vader's expectations. After many errors, one clone was able to endure Vader's training program long enough for the Sith Lord to hope that this version would be the final result of the entire project. But like his clone "brothers", this version was also confused by visions of a past that was not his, which Vader dismissed as a dead man's memories and a side effect of the cloning procedure. But the clone was ultimately unable to free himself from Galen Marek's memories, especially his affection for Juno Eclipse, the woman who was largely responsible for Marek's rejection of the dark side before his death. Before Vader could destroy his latest failure, the clone managed to escape from Kamino in order to find Eclipse. He was subsequently known by his template's codename Starkiller.

Around this time, however, Vader perfected the cloning process by creating a clone that surpassed all of the other imperfect replicas that came before him. Although he was also disturbed by the same memories of Galen Marek's life and his feelings for Juno Eclipse, this clone was determined to succeed where the others had failed. As his training progressed, the clone was began to compartmentalize Marek's memories and was able to hold them as separate from his own experiences. By freeing himself from his template's memories and having come to despise his progenitor as a "broken man" brought down by his own weaknesses, the clone was granted access to the dead body that was used to create him. The sight of the original Starkiller helped the clone realize that the cloning process had ended with him. He was the only perfect clone of Starkiller who was meant to stand at Darth Vader's side as his Dark Apprentice.

According to Ni-Ke-Vanz, a former slave who possessed intimate knowledge of cloning procedures, cloning was not the key to "immortality." Even though clones are naturally based to a very large degree on a genetic template, each clone is a new person that possesses his own identity and memories, and is ultimately a separate individual from the original. Clones that belong to the same genetic structure also possess differences from each other. They are not the same people, just different versions of the same template.

Darth Vader confirmed Ni-Ke-Vanz's assertions on cloning when he revealed some of the reasons behind the failures of various clones of Galen Marek. While Marek's clones possessed the problematic memories and emotions of the original Secret Apprentice, some characteristic traits were inherently more dominant than others in each clone. Some were haunted by the memory of Marek's father, Kento Marek, while others were affected by the young boy that Marek had once been before his tutelage under Vader. Overall, it became evidently apparent that engineering a clone who possessed all of the attributes and Force potential of Starkiller was not the real problem. The greatest challenge was to create a clone who could avoid an identity crisis by holding his memory imprints as separate from his own experience.

In Starkiller's case, he became completely fixated on Juno Eclipse, but spared little to no feelings over other things such as his progenitor's father or even the Rebel Alliance. He dismissed everything else as irrelevant in comparison to his fixation on Eclipse, nor could he comprehend the idea that any clone of Vader's original apprentice could be distracted by something else other than Marek's love for the woman who was the most responsible for his redemption. Even the Dark Apprentice was affected by Marek's feelings for Juno, only to succeed where all of his brothers failed by rising above the emotional imprints.

The Incident on Dantooine
In 1 ABY, cloning technology was discovered in the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine. Similar to Spaarti cylinders in that they produced mature clones in a very short period of time, the cloning tanks were tended to completely by droids. The facility appeared to indiscriminately clone any being who entered it, collecting genetic material and even scanning the minds of those beings so that the clones could be implanted with memories. As a result, the clones were completely under the illusion that they were the individuals that they had been cloned from. The exact purpose behind this facility was not discovered. Darth Vader himself came to believe the technology found was what remained of research done by the ancient Jedi into cloning, however, it is unknown if there is any truth to this.

Immortality through Cloning
"As one's body is consumed by the power of the dark side, the key to immortality is the growth of new bodies into which one can project one's own life essence. Unfortunately, because the clones are one step removed from the natural life process itself, they are much more vulnerable to the effects of the dark side, and age at an extremely accelerated rate. The only logical solution is to grow many more clones at the same time as backups."

- Darth Sidious, a gatekeeper of the Telos Holocron

At some point in his life, the Sith Lord Darth Sidious sought to discover a way to extend his lifetime in the hopes of avoiding death. Though his ambition ran contrary to the teachings of Darth Bane, who emphasized the importance of the Sith Order over the individual, Sidious had little intention of being succeeded by a Sith apprentice long after he had established his rule as emperor of the Galactic Empire. While he originally considered Darth Vader and Galen Marek as his potential successors, Vader's injuries on Mustafar and Starkiller's untimely death strengthened Sidious' resolve to preserve his reign by avoiding his own death. Thus, he looked to the science of cloning as a possible solution to his dilemma as early as the late phase of the Clone Wars.

By 19 BBY, Sidious used the assets of his alter ego, Chancellor Palpatine of the Galactic Republic to track down a rogue Kaminoan scientist named Ko Sai. He had hoped that her achievements as a cloner would yield some sort of discovery on how to extend his own life. Although the Chancellor had entrusted the Kaminoan's capture to the elite commandos of Delta Squad, the clones failed to prevent Ko Sai from committing suicide, nor did they succeed at retrieving her valuable research.

Darth Sidious's desire to extend his lifetime gradually developed into an obsession to live forever, causing him to develop a powerful sense of paranoia over death. Nevertheless, he finally discovered a way to cheat death, but at a great price. Through his new-found Force power, Essence Transfer, Sidious literally had the power to project his spiritual consciousness into another body. While still alive in his original body, Sidious secretly commissioned a large batch of clones that were based on his own genetic template. The clones were kept in stasis and maintained on the planet Byss in the Deep Core of the galaxy.

However, the Dark Lord of the Sith was forced to pay a heavy price for immortality. In the Telos Holocron, he lamented on the shortcomings of cloning. Due to the fact that clones were one step removed from the natural life process itself, they were easily susceptible to the damaging side effects of the dark side. A living being of natural birth had a difficult challenge of trying to control the dark side, but was ultimately doomed to experience the lethal consequences of being heavily immersed in the dark side's energies after a long period of time. A clone's body was almost utterly defenseless against the negative aspects of the dark side, thus subjecting the clone to rapid aging and decay. Although Darth Vader succeeded in creating clones, such as Starkiller and the Dark Apprentice that did not share the same imperfections of the Emperor's clones (i.e. rapid accelerated aging, an extreme vulnerability to the dark side's harmful side effects), Darth Sidious was not as successful as his apprentice was in the field of cloning. Thus, he was forced to duplicate his body many times in order to transfer his spirit from one clone body to another as each host swiftly decayed under the unbearable pressure of the dark power that became intertwined with Sidious' own spirit.

Up until the year 4 ABY, over two decades into his reign as emperor, Sidious never had the opportunity to test his experiment. But at the decisive Battle of Endor, the Emperor was betrayed and killed by his apprentice on the second Death Star. Though Vader was fatally wounded in the attempt, he succeeded in killing Darth Sidious, thus bringing an end to the Order of the Sith Lords. But even in his defeat, Sidious refused to accept his own death and finally tested his secret Force ability. With his mortal flesh destroyed, the Dark Lord's spirit endured the maddening experience of being disembodied. After painstaking efforts, he succeeded in reaching Byss where he entered one of his clone bodies. By awakening as the young man that he once was, Sidious achieved his great desire to avoid death, even if his clone bodies were only a short-term solution.

Due to the fact that the clones could only sustain their progenitor's life force for barely even a year before experiencing complete destabilization, the Kaminoan process for engineering mature clones was out of the question. The Dark Lord needed many adult versions of himself on standby in order to consistently transfer his spirit into another temporary host again and again, thus forcing him to depend completely on Spaarti technology. For six years after his first death, Sidious allowed the Galaxy to believe that he was dead. In all that time, he concealed his existence on Byss, all the while constantly enduring the painful experience of dying and transferring his soul into another clone of himself.

Post-Endor Period
As the Galactic Empire became increasingly destabilized due to the deaths of Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader, Grand Admiral Thrawn rediscovered stockpiles of Imperial cloning technology at Mount Tantiss on Wayland. Through the use of the facility's Spaarti cloning cylinders, Thrawn was able to engineer an army of stormtrooper clones in less than a year. The clones served as the Chiss Grand Admiral's soldiers in a campaign to reclaim the Galaxy from the fledgling New Republic. In addition to creating millions of clone soldiers that accelerated to maturity in a year's time, Thrawn experimented with the cloning process by engineering the creation of the Grodin Tierce clone; the Chiss's aim was to combine his own tactical brilliance with an excellent physical specimen. The experiment, however, resulted in the creation of an intelligent soldier rather than a leader, thus failing to meet Thrawn's expectations.

Thrawn's reliance on cloning also led to the creation of a clone based on his own genetic structure, mainly in the hopes of ensuring "his" survival in the event of his death. The clone of Thrawn was hidden within the Grand Admiral's fortress on Nirauan. The clone was engineered to reach full adulthood in a ten-year time frame. During maturation process, the clone's psychological development was facilitated through flash training and the downloaded memories of the original Thrawn. While Thrawn executed his war against the New Republic, the Dark Jedi Joruus C'baoth, an insane clone of Jedi Master Jorus C'baoth, created a mad clone of the Jedi Luke Skywalker by using the severed right hand that Skywalker lost on Cloud City during a duel with Darth Vader. The clone of Skywalker reached maturity in less than a year through Spaarti growth acceleration and was armed with Anakin Skywalker's first lightsaber.

In addition to cloning Tierce and Skywalker, Thrawn also experimented with cloning several Force-users, whose DNA had been obtained and safeguarded during Emperor Palpatine's reign. Created in secret on a frozen moon in the Unknown Regions, the Force-sensitive clones were developed and raised by Imperial scientists that served under Thrawn's Empire of the Hand until they rebelled against their creators. They remained isolated until the Jedi Knight Jaden Korr discovered the clones on the moon. Korr killed Alpha, a mentally unstable clone of Kam Solusar, but the remaining clones and their children escaped from the moon. The other templates for the clones included Mara Jade, Lassin, Lumiya and other Force-users that originally served the Galactic Empire.

The Return of the Emperor
"The dying is painful&hellip; the transition is not an enjoyable experience. But the suffering is a small price to pay&hellip; for eternal life."

- Palpatine

Six years after the destruction of his original body, Emperor Palpatine emerged from the seclusion of Byss while the remnants of the former Empire were devastated in the ongoing Galactic Civil War, as well as the fighting amongst Imperials. When Luke Skywalker infiltrated the Imperial Citadel, he was shocked to discover that his suspicions were correct&mdash;Emperor Palpatine had survived death itself, in a manner of speaking. Despite the fact that Skywalker was responsible for Darth Vader's sacrificial act of redemption that led to Palpatine's first death, the Emperor still desired to turn Skywalker into his new apprentice. After revealing the unpleasant experience of constantly dying and transferring his essence into a young clone version of himself, Palpatine once more offered Skywalker a place at his side. Skywalker, like his father before him, agreed to serve the clone Emperor, believing that the only way to truly defeat Palpatine was by using the dark side against him.

After Han Solo and his wife Leia Organa Solo were captured and brought before the Emperor by Skywalker, Palpatine revealed his cloning laboratory to the wedded couple, including the numerous clone versions of himself; each one was meant to serve as his temporary vessel in turn. By then, his latest clone vessel had already deteriorated to the point where he was on the verge of dying once again. But as he prepared to transfer his soul into another host, Skywalker confirmed what Palpatine already knew&mdash;the clone Emperor's new apprentice was a double agent who sought to destroy the Galactic Empire from within and secure the survival of the New Republic&mdash;mainly by ensuring that the Emperor's next death was a permanent one.

Skywalker attempted to deny Palpatine's soul another opportunity to avoid absolute damnation by destroying all of the clones. With his very existence on the line, the Emperor committed suicide by destroying his body, thus freeing his soul from the trappings of its decaying clone flesh. Though Skywalker proceeded to destroy all of the clones with haste, one clone survived the attack and became the Emperor's new vessel. Reborn once again as a young version of his original self, Palpatine easily defeated Skywalker in combat. But he ultimately failed yet again to turn Skywalker to the dark side. Together with his sister, the Skywalker twins turned the clone Emperor's own dark powers against him, thus resulting in Palpatine's death once more.

The death of the clone Emperor destabilized his Empire once again. Seeking an opportunity to seize power for themselves, treacherous subordinates destroyed Palpatine's backup supply of clone hosts in an attempt to ensure that the Emperor stayed dead for good. When the Dark Jedi Sedriss executed the traitors, the Emperor came out of hiding, thus revealing that his soul had found yet another clone to serve as his new body. But while Palpatine continued to plot against his enemies in a bid to reclaim the Galaxy, he failed to notice another conspiracy that was directed to the purpose of finally ending his constant attempts to stay alive on borrowed time.

Carnor Jax, an elite member of the Royal Guard, plotted with the Byss Clone Master to sabotage the last remaining batch of Palpatine's clones. Due to the actions of the ambitious Guardsmen and his fellow subversives, the clones suffered from an even faster rate of decay immediately after being decanted. When the Emperor occupied his last clone body, it also began to age rapidly in a very short period of time. Faced with certain death and almost no chance of returning to life ever again, the Emperor became utterly desperate to find a new way to cheat the final death that he feared so much.

As his clone stood on the verge of breaking down due to its accelerated rate of decay, Palpatine traveled to Onderon with the intention of inhabiting the infant body of Anakin Solo, a grandson of the late Anakin Skywalker, his namesake. By then, his last clone died, thus releasing the Emperor's soul. But in his attempt to take over the young Solo's body, his essence was intercepted by the dying Jedi Empatojayos Brand. Trapped within the broken body of the very Jedi that he fatally wounded, the Emperor could do nothing but curse his enemies until Brand's death dragged Palpatine's spirit into the depths of the Force, forever condemning him to experience the madness of disembodiment in darkness.

Post-Palpatine Period
"I've one of those faces that used to appear familiar to everyone."

- Boba Fett, regarding the fading memory of his father's legacy

At the time of the Caamas Document Crisis, Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade discovered the hidden clone of Thrawn that was approaching maturation. Although they considered destroying the clone before he could become as much a threat as the original Thrawn, they ultimately refrained and felt that the clone should not be punished for the actions of his progenitor. However, the clone was killed during a flooding of the hidden chamber where it was located, thus preventing Thrawn's "rebirth."

Ysanne Isard also produced a clone of herself through unknown measures. She did so in order to literally be in two places at the same time. To ensure that the clone operated under the belief that she was the exact same woman as her genetic donor, Isard went to great lengths to ensure that her clone remained unaware of her true status as a duplicate. So while the real Isard continued her leadership over Thyferra, the clone oversaw the prisoners aboard the Lusankya. However, the clone's mental stability was gradually undermined by characteristic pressures caused by being grown too rapidly, thus contributing to the clone's fall in the waning days of the Bacta War.

Later, Grappa the Hutt, along with the Black Sun, created a clone of Feena D'Asta in order to influence the politics of the Imperial Ruling Council. During the long conflicts that resulted in the Empire's fall from power throughout the Galaxy, many of the Imperial cloning facilities were either captured or destroyed, thus cutting off the supply of clone soldiers that originally composed half of the Stormtrooper Corps. After being reduced to a small remnant of their former glory, the Empire was forced to cease its reliance on clone stormtroopers by fully investing in the recruitment of enlisted stormtroopers.

During the Yuuzhan Vong War, the extragalactic invaders created Jedi killer beasts known as Voxyn, creatures that were mass produced through cloning. The production of the Voxyn beasts was conducted on a Worldship in orbit around Myrkr until its destruction at the hands of a Jedi strike team. The prime clone was destroyed in the process as well, thus bringing an end to the production of the Voxyn clones.

By the time of the Second Galactic Civil War, Kamino was virtually a faded memory of its former reputation. The once-closely guarded secrets that brought Kamino to the forefront of the science of cloning had been dispersed by defecting scientists such as Taun We. In the aftermath of the Galactic Civil War, the Kaminoan female fled from her homeworld and became employed with Arkanian Microtechnologies where she continued her research on cloning.

Behind the scenes
In Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, the security check-in droid G2-9T, upon seeing Chip and Dale in the luggage, referred to them as clones, although he claims that their noses don't make them perfect clones.

Non-canon appearances

 * LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
 * LEGO Star Wars: Revenge of the Brick
 * "An Apology"
 * "An Apology"