Star Wars has a lot of great characters but some of the most beloved are the clone troopers, something no one really expected. Star Wars: The Clones Wars did a lot of things right and one of the biggest was fleshing out the clones, making them into fully realized characters. These amazingly skilled soldiers were the backbone of the Republic's defense against the Separatists and were the Jedi's valued comrades.

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The war ended badly for everybody, but one of the things that are not often talked about is how bad being a clone trooper would actually be. There are a lot of very harsh realities to their existences, ones that make their lives quite tragic.

10 Deserters Are Hunted Down & Killed

Star Wars Bad Batch Cut Suu Family

More than once throughout The Clone Wars and The Bad Batch, clone-kill squads are shown hunting down deserters. There are no trials, no military tribunals. Just a blaster bolt. The clones are human beings and them not wanting to fight after going through the carnage of the war makes sense. To be so callously dealt with is terrible.

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Desertion is a crime but in the military, there are ways to go about things. The fact that killers are sent to deal with deserters instead of bringing them in for trial speaks to how the clones are perceived by the Republic.

9 They're Treated As If They Are The Same When They're Anything But

Captain Rex and the Bad Batch on Bracca

The Clone Wars debuted a lot of great characters and some of the best were the clone troopers. Characters like Rex, Cody, Fives, and Ninety-Nine showed just how different clones could be. Yet, too many times, they are treated like, well... clones. It starts with the fact they are given numbers rather than names, and goes on from there.

Many Republic officials, from non-clone members of the military to Jedi, are shown treating them as if they are meaningless and replaceable cannon fodder instead of human beings. That's not a great way to live.

8 They Are Prohibited From Having Families

Yoda standing on a hill with some clone troopers

In the military, one's family is a great source of comfort, and letters from home are a godsend. There is none of that for the clones. They are housed in barracks in active war zones and while there are definitely situations where they fraternize with civilians, it's almost certainly frowned upon. Clones are almost never shown to have any kind of family outside of the military.

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The one time that viewers do see it, the clone deserted to start a family and fears for his life if he's caught. This is a terrible fact of life for them, that most of them will see people with families and love but never actually experience it.

7 They Have No Rights

Star Wars clone troopers

The clones live a military life, one where everything they need is taken care of. There are no indications that they are paid, though, or that they have any personal property beyond their weapons or armor. They also don't seem to have any rights, either. If they did, there wouldn't be literal kill squads sent after them if they desert.

While they fight for the Republic, they are basically property of the Republic in all but name, given serial numbers and housed on Republic bases. Beyond being flesh and blood, they are little different than the droids they fight.

6 They Have Inhibitor Chips That Can Control Their Minds

Bad Batch Wrecker inhibitor chip

Beyond basically being property, the clones don't actually have free will. Sure, they can make their own decisions, come up with tactics, even disobey orders but at any time, that can be taken away from them. This is because of their inhibitor chips, which are ostensibly put in to keep them from going berserk and killing civilians.

They're actually more fiendish than that, as they are really just means to take control of them and force them to destroy the Jedi. They are cogs in a machine, in the end, made for one purpose: to kill anyone Palpatine tells them to.

5 Their Entire Life Is War

Star Wars Clone Wars Battle of Genosis

The clones, from birth to death, only know one thing and that's war. They don't have parents or lives outside of the military. All they have are their brothers and the battles. Their entire life is one battle after another, with periods of rest. They only have the one purpose and while viewers get to see a clone bar on Coruscant, that's the closest they get to recreation.

Clones live only to fight a war. That's an empty, stressful life and it's all they have. They are trained for it and then thrown into its meatgrinder. They have nothing but what the military gives them and don't even seem to have any retirement options. It's all war until they die.

4 The Jedi Aren't Always A Picnic To Work With

Pong Krell stabbing a Clone in Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Prequel era Jedi are nowhere near perfect. At this point in the Jedi's existence, they are at the height of their power but their culture is fundamentally broken. They're bureaucratic and hidebound and they get thrust into the position of being generals after years of working in small-scale operations. They have disparate personalities and the way they treat the clones is very different.

So, while there are Jedi like Anakin and Obi-Wan who treat their clones well, there are also some like Pong Krell who don't. They don't always know how to treat soldiers and often believe their way is better than the military way, costing clones their lives.

3 They Don't Seem To Have A Retirement Plan

Star Wars' Clone Troopers head into battle on Geonosis

One of the big plot points of The Bad Batch's first season is the phasing out of clone troopers. No one really knows what is happening to clones at this point, although the second season might have some things to say about that. By the time of Rebels, there are no more clones in Imperial forces.

With the way they are shown being treated and how they are looked upon by Republic and Imperial officials, it's safe to assume that it isn't good. Either they are kept in the service until they're too old and then quietly disposed or they're just simply disposed of. Both of those have the same ending, a terrible fate for men that went through what they went through.

2 All Of Their Sacrifices Are Ultimately Meaningless

Palpatine and Sly Moore Empire

Fan thrilled to the adventures of The Clone Wars but one of the most terrible things about the show is just how meaningless it all is. The entire war was one man throwing two different armies at each other in order to erode democracy to the extent that he could take power and destroy the Jedi. All of the casualties, from civilians to clones, were in the service of this goal.

While most of them certainly never discover the truth, the fact of things is that everything the clones went through, every injury, every lost brother, all the stresses of war are completely meaningless. All of it happened so one evil man could become more powerful than before.

1 They Don't Have A Culture

Special Ops Clone Trooper Star Wars

The clones are grown on Kamino and immediately put into training upon decanting. They form bonds with each other but beyond that, all they have is that camaraderie and training. While these things sustain them, imagine being a clone in the greater galaxy, learning about all of the species around you, and seeing their cultures.

The clones would immediately know there was something important missing from their lives, something that was replaced by combat drills. They are fighting to save countless species and cultures and yet they don't have one of their own.

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