Legend of the Harp Episode I: Birth of a Jedi

Legend of the Harp Episode I: Birth of a Jedi By Hemaccabe

(Author's Note: 2018 Disney and Lucasfilm have lately been playing fast and loose with what is and is not canon. I feel that gives me, a humble fan fic author, some license as well. For me, the MOST canon components of the saga are the three original movies. They are the most mutually consistent of all Star Wars properties and they are my most beloved. Other components of what Disney and Lucas Films consider canon have major continuity errors, specifically the Prequel Trilogy. Of those errors, the most painful for me are those relating to blaster technology and the clone army.

There are consistent indications throughout the Original Trilogy that blaster technology is still something very new in the galaxy. Despite that, the prequel trilogy demonstrates far more advanced blaster tech than what we see in the Original Trilogy, which makes no sense. Why would blaster technology have declined in the period between the prequels and the originals? This is a major continuity error. What would make far more sense and what would be far more mutually consistent would be for blaster technology to be brand new in the Clone Wars, with blasters being able to be fired over greater ranges and to much more deadly effect than previously known primitive weapons but requiring long reloading times and complex, expensive maintenance. One imagines a sci-fi Three Musketeers, Last of the Mohicans or Gettysburg.

BTW, this also means that the presence of blasters pushes KOTOR badly out of continuity as well. KOTOR also has problems because of the whole "Rule of Two," debacle which makes it's continuity deeply problematic though those issues are not germane to this story so I will not review them further.

Next there is very little reflection on what it means to create a clone army. I suspect Lucas got off on the idea of tweaking the noses of fans who had always assumed that the clones would be the bad guys. I further suspect he didn't spend much time thinking about the fact that using a clone army would be a moral abomination. Creating a Clone Army is tantamount to using child soldiers in a slave army. Those Clones were denied any childhood or freedom. In addition, because of their rapid growth, the Clones would likely experience a host of health issues as they rapidly aged and died. If one described this behavior before any war crimes tribunal, it would be considered a crime against humanity, or as they might say in the Star Wars galaxy, "Crime against all sentient species." One would reasonably expect the guilty parties to face death ala the Nuremberg trials. As one watches the Clone Wars episodes, one sees an almost perfect silhouette of the issue in the form of Clone deserters, traitors and Barriss Offee among other indicators. All things one would expect to see if there was the relentless enormous controversy that the idea of using clone soldiers would create. All while the issue itself never seems to come up, like a sin that dare not speak it's name. This maintains some continuity, yes, the question is never spoken aloud, but it's effect is accurately portrayed. It would be better if they could just acknowledge it. The one error in this otherwise perfect silhouette is chips in the head.

The sin of using clone soldiers, who have been raised from birth to be perfectly obedient and genetically modified to be more compliant, then sent into combat when likely only about 8-10 years of age and having had no opportunity to broaden their experience is karmically repaid in order 66. No chips necessary. Natural consequence of evil, unethical behavior realized.

Let me be clear, I have actually warmed to the idea of the clone army as it makes a lot of sense in the context of the story. It explains why the Jedi Order was so ineffective. As the war dragged on, the Jedi became ever more morally compromised by their complicity in the crime of clone soldiers and they became ever more internally broken and externally reviled. What I am not happy about is that the issue is never stated directly. It should have been the elephant in the room in every moment of the Clone Wars. Further, the idea of chips in the head is absolutely unnecessary and hides the issue, while also breaking the continuity.