Chancellor Palpatine’s dark quest for “unlimited power” inStar Warsrelied heavily on his secret use of control chips to enslave the minds of Clone Troopers and turn them against the Jedi. Toward the end of the animated seriesStar Wars: The Clone Wars, the Grand Army of the Republic was on the cusp of victory. Obi-Wan Kenobi had just defeated General Grievous, Count Dooku was in custody, and the odds seemed to be in GAR’s favor. Then Marshall Commander Cody received a strange call on his communication device.
It wasChancellor Palpatine making his final power grabby activating Order 66. This activated control chips in the Clone Troopers that made them carry out his ominous bidding. However, ARC Trooper Fives almost uncovered his sinister plot toward the end of the Clone Wars. He got so close that a special plan was devised to take him out before he could reveal the ugly truth. But it wasn’t the first time Chancellor Palpatine’s master scheme was at risk of early exposure.
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Tup’s Chip Malfunctions
Tup was theStar Warscharacter whose tragic end was the first sign that something truly devious was in the works. He served alongside iconic characters like Captain Rex, Ahsoka Tano, and Anakin Skywalker. When he first appeared inThe Clone Wars, he was soft-spoken yet willing to stand up for what he believed in. During the Umbara Arc, Tup’s willingness to go against a Jedi was proof that he was a good person. During the Conspiracy Arc, though, it was the first sign that something disturbing was at play.
In season 6, episode 1, “The Unknown,” Tup is taken back to Kamino after suddenly killing Jedi General Tiplar while repeatedly muttering, “Good soldiers follow orders.” Tup succumbed to brain trauma before further investigation could reveal the presence of an inhibitor chip in his brain. The Kaminoans tried to claim that it was for curbing the anti-Jedi aggression that could have been passed on from Jango Fett, whom the Clone Troopers were modeled after. All of them had this same chip in their heads. The truth of the matter, however, was worse than anyone could have imagined.
Fives Uncovers the Truth
Most of the other characters inThe Clone Warswere willing to put Tup’s death behind them. More surprisingly, they accepted the explanation of the control chips as behavioral modification biochips. Fives, on the other hand, wasn’t satisfied with that explanation and decided to do his own digging. With the help ofa medical droid named AZI-3, he discovered that the Kaminoan scientists were covering up a horrible truth about the chips.
Any attempts to further uncover the truth were hindered by Nala Se secretly drugging Fives while they traveled with Jedi General Shaak Ti to Coruscant. Ironically, Fives discovered the truth about the control chips from Chancellor Palpatine himself, who then falsely accused the Clone Trooper of trying to kill him. This made Fives the first character to find out the truth of Chancellor Palpatine’s plot without being in on it. Fives later made contact with the 501st medic Kix, who then got him an audience with Rex and Anakin Skywalker. Unfortunately, he was killed by Commander Fox before he could make a difference and stop the inevitable.
Order 66
Whether the Kaminoans knew about the actual purpose of the control chips is irrelevant. They knew that a Sith Lord had dark intentions for the Clone Troopers, and that the control chips were essential to carrying it out. Right when the GAR was ending the Clone Wars, Chancellor Palpatine activated Order 66 with the only Clone Trooper capable of spreading that message to all the different battalions. Clone Troopers across the galaxy were instantly turned into little more than meat droids who saw all Jedi as traitors.
Those on the battlefields turned their weapons against the same generals with whom many had become friends. Those on Coruscant were led by Anakin in an attack on the Jedi Temple that laid waste to everyone – including the younglings. The violent birth of the Galactic Empire wouldn’t have been possible without the control chips. When the Clone Troopers fulfilled their purpose,they were eventually phased outand replaced with Stormtroopers. Chancellor Palpatine’s plot to gain total control of the galaxy had finally come to fruition.
Palpatine All Along
When Chancellor Palpatine was first introduced inStar Wars, he seemed like a kindly old senator. He was the mentor to a young Anakin. He represented Naboo with sincerity and good intentions. Then he was amassing power beyond his station as chancellor during the Clone Wars. So, Senators Padmé Amidala, Bail Organa, and Mon Motha started researching Chancellor Palpatine’s political movements. They quickly realized that he hadgained unprecedented amounts of powerbeyond what he was supposed to have.
In a deleted scene from theStar Warsprequels, those senators began planting the seeds for a rebellion that could one day defeat Palpatine once and for all. They never uncovered his plot to use control chips to turn the Clone Troopers against the Republic, the Jedi, and the very concept of freedom itself. They didn’t even know that Chancellor Palpatine was really the Sith Lord, or that he was orchestrating the Clone Wars from both sides. By the time Palpatine took his place as Emperor, all they knew was that the Clone Troopers had forged his blood-soaked path toward victory.
The control chips didn’t just turn Clone Troopers against the Jedi or anyone deemed a threat to Emperor Palpatine and his new galactic order. They also made them mindless followers who dedicated their lives to servitude. Worse, it completely erased the individual personalities they’d spent so long cultivating.InStar Wars: The Bad Batch, they took Wrecker from someone who loved his family to someone who saw them as traitors who needed to be destroyed in season 1, episode 7, “Battle Scars.”
Not all Clone Troopers had their control chips activated during Order 66. Some – like Captain Howzer and Cut Lawquane – were spared because they didn’t work with Jedi. The rest spent their final days living with the terrible things they’d been forced to do, some not even realizing they weren’t acting of their own volition because they were unaware of the control chips. Democracy might have died to a symphony of “thunderous applause” inStar Wars. But the freedom of the Clone Troopers suffered an eerily silent death at the hands of the control chips.
