#alpha 02

(spoiler they fucking hate each other)

Alpha-17: *Breaths.*

Spar: “Vod, your vibes are off, fix them.”

Alpha-17: “My vibes? Tsh, that’s the most bullshit thing I’ve ever heard.”

Spar: “It’s true, you mood effects your energy which is linked directly to the universe around you and influences your reality, what comes around goes around.

Alpha-17: “HA! Hippie. The only thing comes around and goes around is your mother!”

To quote Wookiepedia “when he was biologically seventeen years of age, Alpha-Ø2 heard a mention of Jango Fett's exploits, which triggered a memory in him—not of his own life, but of Fett's”

I have a million questions starting with why this clone trooper and ending with how does that work.

As far as I’m aware genetic memory — especially the way it presents in Spar — is entirely theoretical. Especially in humans. Instincts are one thing but remembering someone else life because of shared DNA? Nah.

But Star Wars is sci fi so let’s assume there are species in the galaxy far, far away who pass memories to their genetic offspring. 

Here’s where we get into theory/head canon space.

Let’s assume Jango Fett isn’t fully human (I know that idea isn’t novel, I’ve seen this fandom’s smut). Let’s assume some of his not-fully human DNA comes from an ancestor belonging to a species who have genetic memory. Now Jango doesn’t have his parents memories and neither does Arla but it’s a possibility — with the right circumstances, the right genetic manipulations it’s not impossible.

I don’t think Dooku or Jango knew about the chance for genetic memory until Kamino but upon starting the project the Kaminoans went ‘hey did you know you have the genetic possibility to have memories encoded into your DNA?’

There’s a lot of possibilities in this quirk. Imagine an army born already knowing how to aim a blaster, how to swim or throw a punch. But there’s a risk — who knows what genome controls Jango’s ability to pass on what memories. What if in trying to give the clones genetic memory of swimming they also give them Jango’s memories of learning to swim.

This is firmly headcanon/AU territory but I think to the Kaminoans that reward would outweigh the risk. Plus as self proclaimed “masters of genetics” that challenge — to engineer memories of skills but not moments — would be tempting. If sometimes a clone or two had more than Jango’s skills but his memories… well that’s what reconditioning is for.

Hi there! You are not bothering me at all, I’m always here to talk about Mandalorians.

The Legends gives some clues about Mandalorians and their role in the Clone Wars, though I wouldn’t say sources provided the full perspective in a political-economic sense. Prequel Trilogy and tie-in materials retconned some already existing elements to fit with the general course of history but the Mandalore sector and Mandalore planetary politics wasn’t flashed out much. The overall idea was that [modern] Mandalore was ”a destitute homeworld historically marginalized by the Republic”.

The earliest information (albeit Mandalorians weren’t outright named) comes from The Empire Strikes Back novelization

A human bounty hunter, Fett was known for his extremely ruthless methods. He was dressed in a weapon-covered, armored spacesuit, the kind worn by a group of evil warriors defeated by the Jedi Knights during the Clone Wars. [The Empire Strikes Back by D. Glut]

which indicated that Mandalorian warriors fought against Jedi / Republic. And frankly, this sentiment was repeated in most sources.

So we have Marvel’s Star Wars 68: The Search Begins that introduced Fenn Shysa, Tobbi Dala and Mandalorian Supercommandos / Protectors. From Shysa’s own words:

The three Mandalorians who survived were Fenn Shysa, Tobi Dala and… Boba Fett. The original version of Fenn Shysa’s backstory was retconned to fit with the new lore of Attack of the Clones and summed up in The History of Mandalorians by Abel G. Peña [Insider 80]. Here we learn that alleged Boba Fett was in fact a rogue clone known as Alpha-02/Spar, one of the Advanced Recon Commandos. He managed to run away from Kamino some years before Clone Wars and once Jango Fett died, took the mantle of Mandalore and led Mandalorian Supercommandos against Jedi:

or

Then we have Star Wars Republic comics series [issue 65: Show of Force] that mentions Mandalorians attacking New Holstice, the medical facility.

And Galaxy at War provided another informations like this:

and how Mandalorian Protectors were effective and dangerous during war:

or

Protectors were the biggest, organized group we were told about that joined CIS for ideological reasons and/or because of poverty of Mandalore. Republic Commando book series on another hand focused on individual Mandalorians while the planet of Mandalore was more or less neutral. The big difference between sources about Mandalorian Protectors and the Republic Commando’s characters is that the first had Death Watch reunited with other Mandalorian warriors to some degree, while the latter kinda ignored it completely, making DW the hated group by main heroes (the former trainers of Great Army of Republic known as Cuy'val Dar). Anyway, because of the civil war and massacre on Galidraan, part of Mandalorians was spread through the galaxy doing their own things. Some, like Ghez Hokan (supposed ex-Death Watchman [RC: Hard Contact]) worked as mercenaries and ultimately agreed to work for Separatist. In the case of Ghez, at first it was about money / work, later about personal dislike of Jedi & Republic for using Jango Fett’s clones. Some, like Kal Skirata or Walon Vau (ex-True Mandalorians, the mentioned Cuy'val Dar) who trained clone army on Kamino decided to support Republic out of loyalty to their trainees (clone commandos). And though they worked for the Republic, it did not stop them from stealing supplies from the army (Skirata and Nulls) or even robbing a bank (Vau) during one of republic military operations - their first and foremost motivation was to secure the well-being of their “boys” (clone troopers) and that desire expended soon to protect their growing “clan” by any means.

Like I said, there is little of proper informations about Mandalore and its status or politics during the Clone Wars era. It is hard to tell what a Mandalorian “civils” thought about the conflict or how it affected their daily life. We know that there were Mandalorian Protectors under Alpha-02/Spar and Fenn Shysa who joined CIS either because of hate for Jedi or ideology and Mandalorian individuals fighting on both sides - for money or as a mean to protect their family (including clone troopers).

Spar: “Damn I’m thirsty, can I get a drink from your canteen 17?”

Alpha-17: “Go for it.”

Fordo: “Trust me Spar, you don’t want to do that.”

Spar: “I’m not scared of a little back wash vod, we’re literally all the same person.”

Spar: *spits it out as soon as he takes a fat swig.*

Spar: “God damn it, it’s vodka!”

Alpha-17: “What the FUCK does that mean?”