A seemingly minor moment in Anakin Skywalker’s Legends-era Clone Wars adventures changes the the dark side of the Force during the three-year war, his interactions with the Republic’s Clone Troopers frequently brought out his best qualities. The Clone Troopers themselves, who are often dismissed as organic automatons by both Star Wars characters and the fandom, are in turn humanized by Anakin’s actions, creating a trend that is alive and well in the Star Wars franchise’s ongoing canon.
If one only views the Star Wars films and not its various non-movie materials in both the canon and Legends continuities, it is easy to mistake Clone Troopers for mindless drones who carry out orders without question (this is, after all, how the Kaminoan Prime Minister Lama Su describes them). What canon and Legends’ TV shows, comics, novels, and video games reveal, however, is that all Clone Troopers (including the most heavily-modified standard troopers and pilots) possess free will and truly believe in the Republic’s democratic ideology, with most Clone forming genuine friendships with the Jedi leaders. In both timelines, Order 66 activates dormant brainwashing in the Clones, compelling them to murder the Jedi and facilitate Palpatine’s fascist coup.
One notable characteristic of Clone Troopers in both canon and Legends is their tendency to adopt names to replace their Kaminoan designations. In issue 52 of Star Wars: Republic, by Haden Blackman and Tomás Giorello, Anakin Skywalker decides that the ARC Trooper A-17 would now be known as Alpha, a name that sticks for the rest of the Clone’s Legends-era history. Alpha’s renaming quickly becomes a trend within the Clone Army with numerous Clone Officers like Cody, Clone Commandos like Boss, and Clone Pilots like Odd Ball, taking on names, with the latter’s being revealed in issue 4 of Star Wars: Obsession, by Haden Blackman and Brian Ching. Anakin’s decision to name Clones speaks to his recognition of the Clones’ humanity and free will, and the practice was continued and expanded in the current canon by properties like Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Named Clone Troopers is Now in Both Star Wars Timelines
Having been enslaved as a young child and caring deeply for his friends and family, Anakin Skywalker, naturally, refuses to see Clone Troopers as disposable, a sentiment that is tragically common within the Galactic Republic. Regardless of their artificial origins, the Clone Troopers were sapient beings and therefore a part of the Force itself, making Anakin’s affection and protectiveness of them an unambiguously altruistic trait. Throughout canon and Legends-era Clone Wars material, many of Anakin’s enraged outbursts come from Clones under his command dying, so while his struggles with attachment bring him closer to the dark side, he shows that he truly cares for the troops under his command, whether he knows them personally or not.
Naming Clone Troopers became a trend not just in-universe but also in the Star Wars franchise writ large. Both canon and Legends reveal that all Clones, from the minimally modified ARC Troopers to the heavily modified infantry and pilots, have free will, but canon tends to focus on this fact slightly more often than Legends. While 2008’s The Clone Wars does not fit into the Star Wars Legends timeline, it takes heavy inspiration from the now-bygone timeline, popularizing a practice that Anakin Skywalker started.
