A tragic yet crucial turning point in the development of George Lucas’ Star Wars universe was Order 66. It was a turning point that linked the Prequel Trilogy to the Original Trilogy and defined the entire franchise.

This moment marked the pinnacle of Palpatine’s schemes, which brought about the dissolution of the Jedi Order, the creation of the Empire, and the collapse of the Galactic Republic.

While the majority of Jedi perished, some lived and fled into concealment. For a long while, it was thought that about 1% of the Jedi survived, although it was later confirmed that the number was about 200 Jedi, which is double the original estimate. But that is not what interests us here.

What interests us in this report is how so many Jedi actually survived. Namely, Palpatine’s plan was supposed to be infallible, completely, as the Clone Troopers were supposed to blindly listen to his orders and simply eliminate the Jedi.

Fair enough, some of them failed and were defeated, but that is not the only reason that the Jedi survived, as a new book reveals.

As we have said, the implications of Order 66 were absolutely clear – the elimination of all Jedi. Palpatine had planted this into the Clone Troopers during their creation, so they had to obey his orders regardless of what happened.

Palpatine thought of them as mindless creations, entities without a will of their own, so he set forward his plan in The Revenge of the Sith. And we all know what happened.

The clones turned on their former allies, and while some of them managed to survive, most were brutally killed, decimating the Jedi Order and effectively making it harmless. It was thought that about 100 Jedi survived (1%), but it was later confirmed that about 200 of them survived, ending up scattered all over the Galaxy and in hiding.

We know the fates of some of them (Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Cal Kestis, Ahsoka Tano, etc.), but a lot of the stories are still a major mystery. This brings us to the topic of this article.

Namely, how did so many Jedi survive? Okay, sure, some survived thanks to their skills, but that was not the case for all of them; in fact, we know that some very powerful Jedi perished during Order 66. So, what happened?

The recently released Star Wars: The Secrets of the Clone Troopers book by Marc Sumerak actually reveals the answer to this question. In it, Captain Rex reveals the following: “Even though Order 66 was designed to be a directive that we couldn’t resist, not every clone ended up pulling the trigger.”

He further states that some of the clones were “less susceptible to the inhibitor chip’s influence due to their genetic augmentations” and that they were also “strong enough to resist, at least until their Jedi general could escape.”

This is an important and interesting piece of information. It confirms that the clones were not just mindless entities—at least not all of them. Some had the potential to develop free will and defy their programming. This adds another layer of depth to these characters, making them fascinating to analyze in the future.

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