As always at CloneIntel, only Lucas-era on-screen material is canon, as well as disney-era on-screen material which does not conflict with
Lucas canon. Legendary universe material, disney-era guides, video games, books, and comic books are not canon. Any information
from them is used only to fill informational holes, and only if said information serves to clarify and reinforce the Lucas canon.

Dooku, Sifo-Dyas, and the Clone Army
There was a great deal of confusion among fans and even SW creators about the timing of events critical to the story of the Republic era SW
material. When did Dooku join the dark side? When did Dooku leave the Jedi Order? When did Sifo-Dyas order the clone army? When was
Sifo-Dyas killed? Obi-Wan seem certain Sifo-Dyas "was killed almost ten years ago" when Lama Su surprises him by mentioning Sifo-Dyas.
After what can only be at most an hour or so, Obi-Wan tells Mace and Yoda that Sifo-Dyas had ordered the army "almost ten years ago",
but then says he "was under the impression he was killed before that." One of his two estimates of when Sifo-Dyas died must be inaccurate,
and it is certainly his first statement to Lama Su. It's a good thing he made that speech error, or the Kaminoans might have started asking
questions Lord Tyranus wouldn't want them to, unless of course the Kaminoan leaders were fully aware of the plot against the Jedi. These
statements by Obi-Wan made it difficult to sort out the order of events, something that wouldn't have been a problem if George Lucas
hadn't cut critical lines of dialogue from the final version of Episode II. These lines can be read in the script or seen in unfinished deleted
scenes which were later released. In addition, early drafts of Episode III contained some further details about Sifo-Dyas and the history of
these events which would have left things less uncertain, but were ultimately removed in development when the story focus was shifted.
This confusion also further complicated attempts to make sense of confusing issues surrounding the clone army and its timeline. Despite
episodes of The Clone Wars answering many of these questions within canon, non-canon material continues to be produced by fans
and disney-Lucasfilm which directly contradicts the script and dialogue of Lucas' films and shows, which is the only canon that matters.
The need to address these issues was ultimately recognized, and canon fixes to most issues were introduced in 2022 in Tales of the Jedi.


Canon History
Master Sifo-Dyas, who ordered the clone army for the Republic, was killed almost 10 years before Episode II, according to Obi-Wan when
speaking to Kamino's Prime Minister. Since Lama Su doesn't seem surprised that a dead man ordered an army from him, that means the ordering
of the clone army took place very close to the Battle of Naboo and Episode I. When Obi-Wan contacts Yoda and Mace he now says Sifo-Dyas
ordered it almost 10 years before, putting that event just before the Battle of Naboo. Obi-Wan then says that he was under the impression
that Sifo-Dyas was killed much earlier than that. Since Yoda does not disagree and the conversation moves on, it's uncertain which is correct,
and odd that Obi-Wan told Lamu Su that Sifo-Dyas died almost 10 years ago when he seems convinced otherwise shortly after. This would
mean that the clone army was ordered just before the Battle of Naboo, and Sifo-Dyas was killed in between those events. Since we learn
in The Clone Wars that Chancellor Valorum sent Sifo-Dyas on his fateful last mission, we know that those events must have been prior to
Episode I. Since it is absolutely certain that Episode II takes place in the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th month of 7955 (22 BBY), this places Episode I in
the middle or later half of 7945 (32 BBY), which was "almost ten years ago" at the time of Episode II, and was only shortly after the ordering
of the clone army and Sifo-Dyas' death. All of this leads to the inescapable conclusion that Dooku was already an agent working for
Sidious before he left the Jedi Order and during Episode I. This would also mean that Dooku left the Jedi Order shortly after
Episode I, which was correctly identified by SW creators who finally showed this in canon in Tales of the Jedi.


Dooku and Darth Sidious
The deleted dialogue between Jocasta and Obi-Wan in the Jedi Archives about Dooku, right before they discuss how Kamino isn't in the archives,
was meant to illustrate that Dooku was the Jedi who removed the Kamino starsystem from the Jedi archives. This was before he officially retired
from the Jedi Order, and thus Dooku was already working with Sidious when Darth Maul was Sidious' apprentice and he was still a Jedi Master.
There is no canon reason why there cannot be more than two Sith at a time, and in legendary material alluded to in canon, for most of history
there were many more than two Sith. The Rule of Two was created by Darth Bane, about 1000 years before the prequel films, which limits
the number of Sith Lords to two, a master and his apprentice. While the purposes of this rule, namely keeping the Sith Order hidden from the Jedi
and limiting internal conflict amongst the Sith, would suggest limiting the number of Sith Acolytes and other dark side agents, it in no way prevents
Sith Lords from employing other dark side Force-wielders. In fact, this rule doesn't actually prevent anything, since whoever is the Dark Lord of
the Sith could simply ignore it and train two Sith apprentices at the same time. Sidious may have been doing this, as Maul was intended to be used
as a distracting and devastating weapon against the Jedi while Sidious' plans developed further, and was probably not intended to survive. Dooku's
Jedi past, political standing, and charisma made him a far more useful apprentice to be leading a Sith Empire disguised as a Separatist movement
during the Clone Wars. At the same time, Tyranus may have been a mere agent or Acolyte before Maul's fall, and only after made a full Sith Lord.

This is ultimately what Lucasfilm chose to show in Tales of the Jedi, where Maul is already dead before Dooku fully joins the Sith, however
the episode 'The Sith Lord' (S1E4) heavily implies that converting Dooku to inevitably replace Maul was Sidious' intention all along. While legends
and disney books had gone into detail about Dooku's history with Sidious and his motivations, this was the first definitive information in canon
about the timing of their initial introduction and eventual alliance. Jocasta does explain his motivations in the script of Episode II, which
highlights both the similarity between Dooku's path and Anakin's, and how Dooku represents the dark side of the same coin as Qui-Gon, saying,
"Count Dooku was always a bit out of step with the decisions of the Council... much like your old master, Qui-Gon Jinn. They were alike in many
ways. Very individual thinkers... idealists... He was always striving to become a more powerful Jedi. He wanted to be the best. With a lightsaber, in
the old style of fencing, he had no match. His knowledge of the Force was... unique. In the end, I think he left because he lost faith in the Republic.
He believed that politics were corrupt, and he felt the Jedi betrayed themselves by serving the politicians. He always had very high expectations
of government. He disappeared for nine or ten years, then just showed up recently as the head of the Separatist movement." The Separatist
movement did not appear with galactic political traction overnight, and it is fair to assume Dooku has been back in the public eye for a year or
more, which is precisely when supplementary material released around the film placed the beginning of the Separatist Crisis, in 7953 (24 BBY).
This suggests that Dooku left the Jedi Order in 34 or 33 BBY, however based on later Lucas canon, it must have actually been in 7945 (32 BBY),
and was either immediately before, during, or immediately after the events of Episode I. Season 1 of Tales of the Jedi establishes
that Dooku remained in the Jedi Order until just after Episode I, and had already been in league with Sidious before he joined the Sith.

Dooku and Sifo-Dyas
Sifo-Dyas was a member of the Jedi Council before Episode I, but was removed from the Council after the others judged his ideas to be "too extreme".
He had become fixated upon a prophecy he had seen through the Force of the Clone Wars, and insisted that the Republic would need an army. When
he was removed for his views, he took it upon himself to requisition a clone army in secret. The Jedi records indicate definitively that he was killed on
Felucia, the world he had been ordered to by the Jedi Council on a mission. The records about his activities were sealed by Chancellor Valorum, who led
the Senate at that time. Valorum sent Sifo-Dyas and his own personal aide Silman to Oba Diah on a secret mission as part of an effort to deal with trouble
in the Coruscant underworld in early 7945 (32 BBY), just before Episode I. The Jedi Council were unaware of this mission, when they contacted him
to travel to Felucia to serve as a negotiator. The Pykes, who he came to meet, wanted to gain an edge over their rivals and had made many alliances,
including one with Tyranus. He paid the Pykes to shoot down Sifo-Dyas' ship, which they did, killing Sifo-Dyas and capturing Silman, who the Pykes held
on to for over a decade for insurance purposes. Tyranus then took Sifo-Dyas' body to Felucia, where he led the negotiations himself as a Jedi traveling
with Sifo-Dyas without revealing his name, allowing the talks to break down. In the ensuing fighting, he was able to stage Sifo-Dyas' demise on Felucia.

Putting aside their well-developed association in legends material, within canon it is clear that Sifo-Dyas and Dooku were associates and friends during
their time as Jedi, and that Sifo-Dyas confided in Dooku about his visions and his plans to raise an army for the Republic. This is how Sidious learned
about the vision and the plan for a clone army, and ingeniously engineered a way to use this to destroy the Jedi. Whether Sidious' plan to take
the leadership position in the Senate was going to happen anyway is not certain, but considering the timing of the events it is entirely possible that
Sifo-Dyas' visions and choice of actions inadvertently caused Sidious to alter his plans having been presented with the perfect means for achieving
his goals. Dooku tells Obi-Wan, "Sifo-Dyas understood. He saw the future, that is why he helped me." This lends credence to the idea Lucasfilm
suggested several years after the prequels were released, where supplementary material implied that Dooku gave the idea of a clone army for
the Republic to Sifo-Dyas, who decided to go through with it. Thus the idea may have been Sidious' in the first place, ultimately prompted by the Force
which set all of this in motion by showing Sifo-Dyas the visions. Dooku's friendship with Sifo-Dyas and insider access within the Order made this possible.

Dooku, Sifo-Dyas, and the Kaminoans
It is unclear if the Kaminoan leaders knew that Sifo-Dyas was dead, or if Lama Su was genuinely surprised when Obi-Wan informed him, however it is
most likely the later. Silman tells the Jedi that Sifo-Dyas was killed by "someone who wanted to be Sifo-Dyas", which implies that Dooku at some point
took on the persona of Sifo-Dyas in order to deceive someone. Since the Felucians described there being two Jedi present, obviously it was not them.
Since the Kaminoans have no problem working with Tyranus or lying to the Jedi, it is unclear exactly why or how this was used by Dooku. It could be
that Sifo-Dyas had contacted the Kaminoans about raising an army, but had not yet met them in person. Dooku could then have played the part of
Sifo-Dyas, and instructed them to take further instructions from Lord Tyranus. Dooku also stated that Sifo-Dyas "helped" him, presumably with this
project to create the clones. Assuming that Dooku was being truthful, and in this instance that seems likely, that means that Sifo-Dyas had allied himself
with Dooku in the clone army project prior to his betrayal. While Dooku was privy to the project, it seems unlikely that he had been introduced to
the Kaminoans prior to Sifo-Dyas' death, since that would have left no need for Dooku to assume Sifo-Dyas' identity after the fact.

Nala Se and Lama Su were clearly involved in deceiving the Jedi, as Nala Se expects Clone Protocol 66 to be utilized, calling the chip malfunction which
occurred late in the Clone Wars a "preemptive execution" of the protocol. Lama Su decides that they "must contact Lord Tyranus", who tells them that
"the chip is a safeguard against rogue Jedi. Master Sifo-Dyas was the only Jedi who knew of this, but with his passing, we alone know of this secret,
and you must keep it that way." This seems to imply that Tyranus has never told the Kaminoans the full extent of the plan, and that they only know that
Lord Tyranus is in charge of the program, presumably as instructed by Sifo-Dyas, and that the regular Jedi aren't supposed to be told about this protocol
in their chips. Tyranus tells them that "the true nature of the inhibitor chip must not be discovered by the Jedi", which indicates that they clearly
understand there is a conspiracy they are being paid handsomely to participate in, but not necessarily how it is intended to be used. It doesn't seem like
they conceive of any distinction between the Jedi and the Sith, as Lamu Su reflects that "these Jedi are a curious cult", immediately after speaking with
Tyranus. Their confusion is probably partly intentional, as Dooku manipulated his friendship with Sifo-Dyas to kill him, and then assume his identity
with the Kaminoans, and subsequently transfer the project to Lord Tyranus. The Kaminoans were an isolationist society which hadn't interacted with
intergalactic civilization for a very long time, and have been introduced to these Jedi and this Lord as essentially working together, with Sifo-Dyas and
Tyranus being seen as part of a different circle or degree within their religion. There is no overt evidence to suggest any Kaminoans know that Tyranus
is a Sith, what that would mean, or that Tyranus has murderous intentions towards the Jedi. Nala Se doesn't seem to know Palpatine is connected to
Tyranus, nor is there any evidence that the Kaminoans know of Sidious, which makes sense as they were likely told as little as possible.

Order of Events
The creation of the clone army "almost ten years ago" mentioned in Episode II places the beginning of clone production just before, during,
or after Episode I. This would be cleared up by The Clone Wars series, which places the ordering of the clones before Episode I, which is
set in 7945 (32 BBY). This means that the events of that film took place about half-way through that calendar year, as Episode II takes place
early in 7955 (22 BBY) based on the other canon events in that calendar year. The opening crawl and early dialogue of that film establish that
the Separatist movement has been growing larger and more vocal for at least enough time to have gained political momentum, which doesn't
happen overnight. Supplementary material released around the film indicated that this Separatist Crisis began sometime in the calendar year of
7953 (24 BBY), meaning it has been building publicly for 14 to 25 months at the time of the film, with Count Dooku having emerged as its public
leader early in that period. The script of Episode II contains dialogue between Jocasta and Obi-Wan which was shot but ultimately cut from
the scene in the Jedi Archives. This can be seen in deleted material later released, in which Jocasta states that after leaving the Jedi Order, Dooku
"disappeared for nine or ten years, and then turned up recently as leader of the Separatist movement." This placed Dooku's leaving the Order in
7943 (34 BBY) or 7944 (33 BBY), but since this did not appear in the film, fans and later SW creators subsequently made a mess of the timeline
trying to make sense of what they did know. This semi-canon statement by Jocasta must be taken as an inaccurate approximation, since Lucasfilm
eventually retconned the timeline in 2022 without violating Lucas canon. This was the apparent order of events based only on Episode II:


Legends Material and Supplementary Additions (as of 2014)
After Episode III was released, and all canon information was assumed to be known, the expanded universe material of books and reference
material began as always to attempt to answer plot questions, explain the background details and motivations, and to add their own elements
to the story. As usual, this mostly hurt more than it helped, although most of their mistakes are understandable. Not only did these authors
clearly not read the script of Episode II or reference the deleted scene information, but this was over a decade before the release of
the episodes of The Clone Wars which would have helped them get the order of events right. Based on Episode II, these creators usually
focused on the creation of the clone army being nearly simultaneous with the events of Episode I. This is not far off, however the rest of
this timeline is engineered so that there are never more than two Sith at the same time, which they took as some kind of impossible to violate
rule. This is despite the fact that the series Clone Wars had already aired in its entirety, and it was shown definitively in canon that while
there can only be two Sith Lords at one time according to the Rule of Two, that doesn't preclude additional Sith agents. Legends creators also
introduced a strange and stagnated fall to the dark side for Dooku where he was inclined to explore it on his own before falling under Sidious'
influence. This non-canon backstory would persist in expanded universe material until the disney era. This order of events was established in
early 21st century legendary material, principally by the book Labyrinth of Evil, as well as other non-canon and supplementary material:

After nearly a decade, this had become something of a mess, and fans had been asking questions, so Lucasfilm decided to try and sort things
out in their supplementary material. This was still prior to the writing and release of The Clone Wars Season 6, released in 2014, where
the timing of Sifo-Dyas' death is established as happening before Episode I. Without that information, and determined for Dooku not to
have been working with Sidious until after Maul was apparently killed, their order of events is similar in concept to the earlier legendary
material. They did attempt to expand upon the notion that Dooku was becoming dark on his own, and even developed the idea that Sidious
through Dooku had given Sifo-Dyas the idea for the clone army in the first place. This order of events conflicts with the intent of the script
of Episode II, and would be rendered non-canonical a few years later by The Clone Wars Season 6, and therefore has already been disproven,
however its most unfortunate change has persisted with Lucasfilm even after its takeover by disney. In this order of events, Dooku leaves
the Order before the plan to make clones is hatched, and even before he joins Sidious, thus making him unable to erase Kamino from
the Jedi Archives. This order of events was based on canon and pre-disney Lucasfilm supplementary material, but not The Clone Wars:


Disney-era Supplementary Material
Disney era order of events was at first much closer to the actual order, mostly because it benefited from The Clone Wars Season 6 material
having already taken care of the biggest issues with previous timelines. After the disney takeover, legendary and some earlier supplementary
material was stricken from canon, and disney-Lucasfilm began to establish its new "canon", which includes its own books and reference
material, including Dooku: Lost Jedi. This order of events completely ignores the script of Episode II and the deleted scenes from
that film, and instead introduces a completely new narrative where Dooku leaves the Jedi Order almost a decade before George Lucas had
intended when he created this character. This means that once again Dooku was not a Jedi when the Kamino plan was hatched, and could
not have erased Kamino from the Jedi Archives. Every book and supplement produced or authorized by Lucasfilm has maintained that
Dooku was the Jedi who removed Kamino, even though they avoided trying to identify when he did this until 2022, probably because they
realized it would have made their order of events invalid. Disney era order of events was possible, but only if Sifo-Dyas was the Jedi who deleted
Kamino, which they had never suggested and is absolutely not the intent of Lucas' backstory. Although disney-Lucasfilm has insisted that all of
its books, video games, and other non-film media are canonical, they have fortunately abandoned this policy, or at least Dave Filoni has, since
this backstory and order of events has since been invalidated. This order of events was principally based on canon and the book Dooku: Lost Jedi:


The Actual Order of Events
Ultimately, the actual order of events could only be determined if some new canon material would answer at least one of the major questions
of timing. The most essential question was exactly when Dooku left the Order, something disney-Lucasfilm seemed to have answered in a very
unhelpful way that heavily conflicted with canon. SW creators seem to have recognized all of this, since the brief series Tales of the Jedi
ignored their supposedly "canon" books and correctly showed that Dooku was still a Jedi around the time of Episode I. There is now only
one order of events which adheres to logic, the scenes and script of Episode II, the material in The Clone Wars, and these new episodes.
It is unknown exactly when Dooku became an agent of Sidious, only that it happened before Sifo-Dyas first contacted the Kaminoans about
a clone army. As usual, Dave Filoni seems to have corrected inconsistencies with a retcon, while still preserving as many of the non-canon
backstory elements as possible. This series doesn't show Dooku going to the dark side on his own, but it does show that like Anakin, he had
dark elements to his character all along, meaning that non-canon additions like Dooku beginning to explore the dark side on his own are not
ruled out, and whether or not this is implied in these episodes is dubious. Similarly, the conversation in these episodes does not explicitly state
that the clone army was Sidious' idea in the first place, but was ambiguous enough to support that or not if future material addresses this.
It is also possible that Sifo-Dyas' visions began before Dooku became Sidious' ally, although neither or these questions are necessarily important.
It may in fact have been the case that Dooku's descent towards the dark side narrowed the range of future events, contributing to Sifo-Dyas'
vision of the Clone Wars. It is also not exactly known before or after which other event Tyranus assumed direct contact with the Kaminoans.
Similarly, exactly when Fett was recruited is uncertain, it is only known it happens after Tyranus took over the project and before clone
production started. Nevertheless, the important points of the order of events have finally been made compatible with Lucas canon:


The Clone Army
Shortly after mentioning how dangerous it would be if "droids could think", Obi-Wan discovers the clone army, who are "far superior to battle droids",
but are likewise nearly identical to each other and given obedience chips and programming; essentially they are the organic version of a battle droid.
If battle droids in huge numbers pose enough of a threat to the Jedi to require an army to escort them, that army would undoubtedly pose an even
greater threat, especially if it has earned the trust and friendship of the Jedi and has them mostly surrounded before being turned against them.
Sidious cannot have a war in the galaxy without two armies, so after uniting the largest droid armies on one side, he plans to provide the Republic with
a better one, since they are the side intended to win the war. The entire point of this scheme is that the Republic and the Jedi cannot be defeated by
an external force, as the Sith have tried endlessly throughout history. Not only can the Republic only be destroyed from within, if the Jedi are dealt with,
the Republic is the ideal basis for the very empire Sidious intends to create. This is also one of the essential points of the clone army from a narrative
perspective, as they are essentially slaves of the Republic who are treated by the Republic's leaders, citizens, and even by the Jedi as something expendable
like battle droids who were created to fight and die. The dystopian nature of the Republic is only one aspect of this civilization, but it is present nonetheless.
This is tolerated and accepted by those in Republic society who believe that freedom and democracy necessitate some people to be exploited.

George Lucas' original thinking was that the clone army would explain where Sidious got his stormtrooper army, and while this remained the origin
of his forces, canon material eventually moved away from the idea that the stormtroopers seen two decades later in the original trilogy were all
clones. The slowly shifting concept amongst SW creators of where the clones were headed in the timeline, the nature of clone production, and
details about the army as a whole lead to a number of questions and issues of continuity. None of these issues are serious continuity errors,
however it does take a great deal of mental gymnastics to fit everything developed in The Clone Wars into a cohesive concept.

Growing Clones
Based on the timeline established in canon, the clone army was first ordered by Sifo-Dyas months before Episode I. Not long after, the project
was taken over by Lord Tyranus, who was presented to the Kaminoans as Sifo-Dyas' sole representative. Tyranus presented the Kaminoans with
Jango Fett to be used as the clone template. Given that there must have been a development and testing phase, it can be assumed that physical
production of the first clones began just before, during, or immediately after Episode I. Lama Su states that growth acceleration was used
because "otherwise, a mature clone would take a lifetime to grow, now we can do it in half the time." The implication seems to be that it
ordinarily takes a decade and a half or two decades for a Human to reach maturity. The fact that 200,000 mature clones are ready with a million
more almost completed by the time of Episode II suggests that a mature and fully trained clone takes just under ten years to produce.
The group of adolescent clones is described as having been created about 5 years earlier, meaning the infant clones in the pods and the younger
clones won't be ready for a decade. Perhaps the Kaminoans contract stipulates they will supply the Republic on a steady basis for years to come.
Perhaps they have found ways to accelerate their growth even faster in the meantime. Perhaps they took time to develop and perfect the clones at
first, and the actual production time is more like 7 years, which would make more sense, but that doesn't seem to be the implication from other
canon which strongly suggests that a mature clone takes about 8 or 9 years to produce.

Regardless of whether or not clones were still around in the Imperial military at the time of Episode IV, it was certainly Lucas' intention that the Empire
would begin with clone soldiers as the backbone of Sidious' forces. The many years of consolidation of power and tenuous political stability during
the transition to the Empire made having an army of soldiers programmed to obey him personally an important bulwark against rebellion or coup.
Clone cadets who are 3 or 4 years from being adult soldiers are still being trained during the Clone Wars. While The Bad Batch has since retconned
the clone production out of existence less than a year after Episode III, the idea originally was that Sidious first of all was uncertain how long the war
would need to last to accomplish all his goals for shaping the galaxy, and even after the war would still need troops for years to come to police his
new Empire. What happened to clones who were not yet fully mature after the destruction of the cloning facilities is not known.

Ordering Clones
In The Clone Wars, Lama Su mentions stretching the original DNA due to the loss of Jango Fett, and suggests to finding a new donor. The problem
of replicative fading, or similar degradation of the cloned genetic material, is moved passed very quickly in the series, and is never mentioned
again. Troopers nearing graduation who were part of the "million more on the way" mentioned in Episode II are seen, who are at that early
stage of the war desperately needed to reinforce the 200,000 clones the Republic began the war with. If the process of producing an adult
clone takes 8 to 9 years as is heavily suggested by canon, the number of new clones available should be directly related to how many clones
were created in the generations started during the first few years of the cloning process. Unless the Kaminoans have figured out a way to
accelerate their growth even faster, it seems strange that the Republic Senate is constantly debating ordering more clone troopers which won't
be ready for nearly a decade. These debates are not discussing the long-term shape of the war, but rather are focused around ordering more
clones to increase troop numbers to address immediate shortages. There is no possibility of these infant clones, or any newly ordered clones,
of making a difference in the war for around a decade. On the other hand, based on historical galactic conflicts, it is conceivable that war could
last many years, or even decades, however most of those conflicts were fought in time periods where technology was generally less devastating,
the total forces involved were smaller or less mobile, and were mostly fought when hyperspace travel was slower or required more complex
navigation. Despite this, the Jedi often remark that the war should already be over, or that the war was dragging on longer than expected.

Eventually the idea of ordering more clones as an ongoing political debate became a staple of The Clone Wars, leading to further discussion
in the series that only compounds how illogical this is. As subsequent generations of clones continually reach maturity and complete their
training, the Republic pays for them, as stipulated in their contract with Kamino, providing the reinforcements which are always in need.
There is nothing in canon to suggest that there are fully completed clones just sitting around waiting for the Republic to pay for them
before they can fight. Kamino's Senator Burtoni suggests in the Senate that the Republic "purchase an additional five million clone
troopers." Exactly how that will help address the urgent situation and the casualty numbers is difficult to make sense of.

Clone Designations
The first clone designations were given by prequel supplementary material, where the CT and CC designations originated, as well as in
Clone Wars, where the ARC designation originated. Clones seen to have been part of the first batch of 200,000 clones seemed to have
low numbers, like CT-411, as did clones who made it through the war and had achieved high ranks, like CC-2224. Clones who were
presumably newer during Episode III had more complex designations, like CT-55/11-9009, which also made great sense, as it was
3 years later and millions more clones from later generations had graduated. The creators of The Clone Wars, including Executive
Producer George Lucas, very quickly forgot to care about the details of this, briefly tried to introduce a plausible explanation, then
spent the rest of the series introducing contradictory information which often made little sense. Relatively early in the series, about
a few months into the war, clone trooper CT-1284 Spark is referred to as a rookie, and is replacing a lost team member in a special
forces unit. Even if Spark was only new to the team and had been part of the original group of finished clones, nearly every clone
that is identified at any point in the series has a CT or CC number less than 10,000. Later episodes introduce the idea that part of
a clone's number used in training is dropped when the graduate, as Fives was CT-27-5555 in training, and later is called both
ARC-555 and CT-5555. That strange theory may explain some of this, but also renders the system bulky and pointless. There would
be dozens or potentially hundreds of soldiers with the same CT number, making them of limited use as a unique identifier. It is likely
it was decided clone designations shouldn't be particularly long, and the system as a whole was never considered. The fact that
birth numbers read like droid designations is a direct comparison between the battle droids, which serve the Sith in this war, and
the programmed clone soldiers, which ultimately serve the Sith as well. Cadets are shown to have designations like Cadet-1174,
suggesting their designations change several times over the course of their training. Rex refers to 7567 as his birth number,
and it is possible Rex has a number as low as 7567, but there is no way these cadets are part of the first 9999 clones.

In Season 4, Fives is called ARC-5555, as he had been made an ARC trooper in a previous episode. This was likely an attempt to maintain
continuity with Clone Wars and supplementary material based on that series, where ARC Troopers had ARC numbers. The issue
with this is that Rex is also an ARC Trooper, and other ARC Troopers shown also haven't had their designations changed with their
assignment. In 'Conspiracy' (S6E2), Fives is identified as CT-5555, which fits best with the other ARC Trooper designations in this series.
As such, it is assumed to be his correct designation, however both ARC-5555 and CT-5555 could be equally valid. Commander Ponds
gives his designation directly in dialogue as "CT-411." All other clone Commanders we have seen have CC numbers. Supplementary
material first tried to retcon this by giving him a 'true' designation of CC-6454, and then later material calls him CC-0411. Others have
suggested he was giving disinformation, or some other convoluted explanation. While the CT designation is questionable, it doesn't
require any of these retcons. Some clone Captains have CC numbers, some ARC numbers, and others CT numbers. He said his
number on screen, that makes it canon, unless it specifically violates something established, in which case it would be a continuity
error. This is a continuity issue at best, since nothing in canon tells us a clone Commander cannot have a CT number. Nothing in
actual canon says that CT stands for 'clone trooper' and CC stands for 'clone captain' or 'clone commander'. This was probably
the origin of the letters with the creators, and was picked up by fans and supplements, but this association has no canon basis.
The creators seem intent on 'fixing' such issues episode to episode rather than devising an overarching system off-screen.


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