Sorry for ressurrecting this dusty thread, but I saw a link to it and ...
I just read through this stuff (the first 4 plus last page worth of it anyway), and a few things seem to have slipped the discussion if I am not skimming too fast here, so a few comments.
Stravo wrote:
I finished watching AOTC with director's commentary and Gl firmly states two things that immediately jumped out at me.
...
Stormtroopers ARE the clone troopers.
It seems clear from the statement of GL that all clonetroopers/stormies where clones of Jango Fett before his dead.
However the Kamino require new gene patterns according to AOTC dialogue (why they cannot cryogenically store them may have to due with *plot device*
, but it is there and canon)
So after Jango is killed, they will have to find a new gene source!
(It appears that no-one caught on to that in this discussion.)
It would seem from the starwars.com quoted height of
exactly 1.83m that the stormtrooper gene-parents are chosen to fit the gear that is worn by the existing clonetroopers (likely they have to fit in the other dimentions too).
This assumes that the Temuera Morrison is 1.83m tall, else either GL or starwars.com screwed up, and we know who will get the shorter straw there ... either he and the stormies are all 1.83m or they have varying sizes, within a range that still allow for easy fit of standardized gear.
http://cgi.theforce.net/theforce/image. ... lones2.jpg
This article from 1981 about stormtroopers says that:
the world of star wars wrote:
... A cloned man is one of a group of genetically identical humans, ...
now this does not require all post-Jango clones to be from the same parent gene-set, just that a "group" is created from each parent set.
Thus it is possible that any two stormtroopers are not the clones of the same gene-set, and could therefore differ significantly in all but height, bulk and general high level of physical fitness. Assigning "non-identicals" to squads would facilitate both a more versatile fighting unit, and reduce confusion of identity between squadmates. (doesn't matter as much that you are a clone if your siblings are serving in other platoons, companies ... )
Post-Palpatine the scenario of no direct link between producers of (and recruitment of gene templates for) his own, special, troopers on the one side, and the conventional military structure on the other, goes a long way to explain why the Emperial Remnant runs into manpower problems and start using recruits to fill their stormtrooper armor, and why new solutions to the cloning problem had to be embraced by Thrawn, as a stopgap at least.
The cloning technique used before the return of Thrawn in itself is not too different from that seen in AOTC, so could be a variant over the same, the problem is the tapestudy until adulthood/"braintapeing".
The discovery of the utility of the Ysalamiri in cloning has likely been kept a secret of the emperor, Thrawn and a very few others; so until Thrawn returns it would not have been implimented, due to simple ignorance, and before the death of Palpatine, the use of it could have spilled too many beans to the producers of Palpys clone army about the nature of the force, in his opinion, and was unnessecary anyway: next years clones had already been ordered a decade ago ...
note also that Thrawns own clone was only force-grown at a "normal" 2:1 rate, even though he was surrounded by Ysalamiri, so Thrawn did not trust the new-fangled one-week shake-and-bake cloning technique where his own succession was concerned
, likely it makes the clones too unstable for independent command, so Ysalamiri-growns are likely only good as a stopgap measure.
The "braintapeing" however does present a serious problem that I don't see a way to wiggle out from under, unless you assume that the technique was always there, but is far less accurate/more inflexible (though maybe cheaper) then true experience, and Palpy would likely want the best skills for his most dedicated troops.
This interpretation should plug most of the holes in the dike that GL and EU have "conspired" to make on the issue, though I by no means claim it to be a perfect solution.
