I may be guilty of being over-analytical when it comes to Star Wars. Another subject that troubles me about episode II is how the Republic and their Jedi Generals can trust the clones to do their duty when their template is a known accomplice of the Separatists. Jango Fett, an unabashed bounty hunter, is hardly the type of man I would base a race of beings on. If the Galactic Senate was truly going to sign off on the creation of a clone army wouldn't they want a loyal citizen to be the role model for their artificial beings? Someone both skilled in the art of war and highly moral, like a Jedi. This would be the logical step in the escalation of the Clone Wars. However, there would of course be the moral dilemma among the Jedi if it is right to sanction the use of clones and in the height of arrogance base them on themselves. The more interesting debate might center around whether a clone would inherit the ability to use the Force.

Timothy Zahn focused on this idea with Joruus C'Boath in the Thrawn trilogy, with dire consequences. C'Boath was an insane dark Jedi, but as we learned recently in Outbound Flight, the original master was not that different. So for the sake or argument let's suppose that a cloned Jedi could harness the force, just perhaps not as well as an authentic Jedi. I believe Zahn's original concept was that the C'boath character would be a clone of Obi-Wan Kenobi, OB-1 if you will and the good folks at Lucas Licensing wisely nixed that idea. However, that could have explained why Obi-Wan Kenobi's powers diminished in episode IV and why he took on the pseudonym 'Ben.' Perhaps it was he that died in the encounter with Darth Vader and was reborn as Ben. Or instead Lucas could have gone in the opposite direction and created the ultimate cop-out. An alternate telling of the prequel story could have Anakin Skywalker, powerful Jedi and hero of the Clone Wars, die and since the Jedi and Republic hold him in such high regard they insist that he is cloned. The horrible consequence of this decision could be the twisted clone's fall to the dark side and adoption of the mantle of Darth Vader since he craves the power of Anakin and cannot experience it for himself so he chooses the quick and easy path of the dark side.

I don't particularly like this concept since it would render the original trilogy hollow in that Darth Vader couldn't really reclaim his identity as Anakin Skywalker. It's just an idea which I'm glad George Lucas dismissed.