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

By Anna Heneise

Violence is foundational to Star Wars. In fact “Star Wars” is probably the most basic and accurate name that could have been given to this sprawling story of wars happening in a galaxy far far away. Characters are defined by their proximity to violence and to power, and changes within a character and within the narrative are shaped by the same, which are often one and the same. Anakin Skywalker lost his hand to Dooku, and killing Dooku in revenge was his Fall. Luke Skywalker lost his hand to Darth Vader, and refusing to kill Vader was his refusal to Fall. 

Star Wars is the story of the Skywalkers, but it is also the story of the Fetts. The clones are a presence in the prequels more than characters, but the nature of their presence says everything it needs to say. The GAR are defined by their capacity for violence and lack of power in a way no other characters or peoples in this universe are, because just as they were created for the war, the war was also created for them. 

Sidious wanted to kill the Jedi. That is the end goal of every piece of the plot of the prequels. Darth Sidious wanted the Jedi dead and a new Sith Empire rising from their temple’s ashes. To accomplish his goal he needed a war to destabilize the Republic politically and economically and he needed a fighting force that could equal the Jedi in power. And so to accomplish his goal he created the Grand Army of the Republic and the droid armies of the Separatists, he manipulated both Republic and Separatist politics until a clash of some kind was inevitable, and then sold the citizens and politicians alike on the necessity of war by promising to outsource the violence. 

No upstanding citizen was drafted to defend their Republic. No politician had to worry about getting blood on their hands. The Republic would be defended by clones, and by Jedi. 

The Senate’s determination to engage in violence on a galactic scale paired with the wider Republic population’s refusal to personally take up arms in defense of kin and country is a recurring theme. Subplots of The Clone Wars revolve around asking neutral planets to engage, to pick a side, to do something. Sometimes the GAR works with a local militia, like on Ryloth, but these organizations exist on planets already ignored by the Republic, led by people who already know nobody else is going to save them. Civilians are a rare sight, unless they are refugees or prisoners. 

The general sentiment from Republic citizens seems to be— the GAR exists for a purpose, so let them fulfill their purpose. There is a kind of isolation created, where the weight of this war falls squarely on the shoulders of the clones and the Jedi. This too is part of Sidious’ plotting, but it takes advantage of the way violence and war are viewed in the Republic. Interplanetary squabbles are one thing, but the Republic has not seen war on this scale since it was formed a thousand years before. The people are slow to condemn the war itself but quick to refuse to participate personally in the violence.

In many ways both the droids and the clones are members of mercenary armies, except they were manufactured by Sidious and owned by the respective governments they defend. In many ways this war wasn’t a war at all, and was instead a madman’s game of chess.