Star Wars: Why Sifo-Dyas Ordered The Creation Of The Clone Army
The Star Wars prequels shed light on the Clone Wars, the mysterious conflict first mentioned by Obi-Wan Kenobi in 1977’s Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. The beginnings of the Clone Wars were unveiled in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, which introduced the Grand Army of the Republic. That in turn led to Star Wars: The Clone Wars which revealed the events of the war itself — as well as new Clone characters such as Captain Rex — before the Clones brutally turned on the Jedi following Palpatine’s Order 66.
The Clone Troopers of the Republic’s military forces were engineered on the planet Kamino. However, their creation had been ordered long before the Jedi Council or any Republic powers had authorized it. During his search for the bounty hunter who had attempted to kill Padmé Amidala, Obi-Wan Kenobi traveled to Kamino, where he discovered Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas had placed the order for a clone army 10 years ago — around the time of his death. Sifo-Dyas’ story was never revisited in the prequels, but The Clone Wars provided further insight into this mysterious figure from the Jedi Order. Considering how important his activities were to the course of galactic history, his comparatively small presence in the saga merits a closer examination.
Updated on January 26, 2024 by Robert Vaux: The fallout from Sifo-Dyas’ actions continues to reverberate in more recent Star Wars projects like The Bad Batch. The fact that he has almost no direct onscreen presence — relegated to holograms, flashbacks, and mentions — merits an extended examination of who he is and why he commissioned the creation of the Clones. The article has been updated to include additional material on his background and motives. It’s also been updated to match current CBR guidelines.
Rey actor Daisy Ridley tiptoes around a question about whether she will miss working with her sequel trilogy co-stars in her upcoming Star Wars movie.
Sifo-Dyas was a human Jedi, gifted with the power of foresight. According to the canon sourcebook Star Wars: Timelines, he joined the Jedi Council in 39 BBY: seven years before the events of Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace and 17 years before the beginning of The Clone Wars. Season 6 of The Clone Wars dived deeper into the story of Sifo-Dyas in the episode, “The Lost One.” The episode began with Jedi Master Plo Koon discovering the lightsaber of Sifo-Dyas on a crashed ship, prompting a fresh investigation into his death. The episode shed more light on Sifo-Dyas’ history before the events of the Star Wars prequel trilogy. While Attack of the Clones left doubt hanging over whether Sifo-Dyas was truly responsible for the clone army’s creation, or whether the order was placed after his death, The Clone Wars revealed why Sifo-Dyas did indeed travel to Kamino.
After Plo Koon reported the discovery of Sifo-Dyas’ crashed ship and lightsaber, Obi-Wan Kenobi reminded the Jedi Council that he was told Sifo-Dyas had placed the order for the Republic’s Clone Troopers on Kamino. At this point, Mace Windu offered further insight, revealing that Sifo-Dyas had been a member of the Jedi Council prior to the blockade of Naboo, but was removed when his ideas became too extreme. Plo Koon then explained that Sifo-Dyas had foreseen a coming war and believed the Republic needed to raise an army, but the Jedi Council had wrongly rejected his ideas.
Their reasons are briefly touched on in the prequel trilogy: the Jedi considered themselves peacekeepers rather than generals and were only reluctantly forced to concede that the Separatist crisis would take more than a handful of Force users to end. That forced their hand, and with the Clone Army already created, it became fait accompli. Over a decade before the crisis point, Sifo-Dyas’ warnings were rejected as unnecessary, and he was eventually forced off the Council for continuing to advocate for the creation of a Clone Army. Had they listened and been more responsive, the outcome might have been different.
Sifo-Dyas Had Ties To Count Dooku
Count Dooku and inhibitor chips
During his Jedi training, Sifo-Dyas had been close friends with Count Dooku, perhaps explaining their shared destiny to act in defiance of the Jedi Order. In “The Lost One,” Dooku told Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker that “Sifo-Dyas understood. He saw the future.” Evidently, Dooku had faith in his old friend’