Bleeding Red: The Grand Army of the Republic and Humanization Through Violence, Part I

By Anna Heneise 

An enduringly popular character in science fiction and fantasy is the living weapon— a person who isn’t a person so much as they are a destructive force to be aimed and fired. A living weapon is usually created by a government or a madman, and if they have a character arc at all it often centers around reconciling their personhood with their creator’s intentions. Bucky Barnes as the Winter Soldier, Murderbot, and Ender Wiggin all fall under this character type. Like most popular types, Star Wars has its own renditions, including Darth Vader himself. But before Darth Sidious created Vader, he commissioned the Grand Army of the Republic. 

In the prequels, the clones are easy to overlook as human weapons because they are an army, and because they fight for the Republic and the Jedi. They were very much created by the madman in charge of the government to be weapons, but they are not treated as such by the narrative until after they have been aimed and fired. There is mystery surrounding their origins but the clones themselves are by and large straightforward, friendly, and duty bound. They are good soldiers. They are dependable, and so the Jedi depend on them. And so the GAR is not a weapon so much as it is a trap. 

The story is already over. The trap is already sprung. 

When Star Wars: The Clone Wars was released every audience member already knew how things would end between the clones and the Jedi. But with the secret out, the creators could explore clones in their capacity as human weapons. The clone characters who get the most dedicated attention— Captain Rex and Commander Cody, Fives and Echo, Cut and Slick— are characterized primarily through the struggle between what they understand to be their purpose and their increasing awareness of their individuality and personhood. The struggle between being a good soldier and being a good man.