While re-watching Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones, something occurred to me. I don’t know if this was meant to be hinted at, or if it’s entirely untrue, or what, so maybe someone with better Star Wars insider info than I can confirm or deny this:
The clone army was created on the order of Jedi Master Sypho Diaz, who was obviously operating under orders from Darth Sidious, a.k.a. Senator/Emperor Palpatine. Ten years or so later, the existence of the clone army is discovered by Obi-Wan, who says that Sypho Diaz has been dead for quite a while.
Is it possible that Sypho Diaz had secretly been Darth Maul? Clearly, Palpatine liked taking his disciples from the ranks of the Jedi (Tyrranus, Vader…and trying to seduce Luke as well). It was probably somewhere in that time-frame that Maul was killed by Obi-Wan in Phantom Menace. The clues would seem to fit…
Doesn’t make sense, cmkeller. Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon (say, what the fuck was the thinking in giving them such similar names?) both saw Darth Maul face-to-face. If they knew him, you’d think they would have recognized him and given some sign.
Isn’t Darth Maul the guy with the red and black face and horns, who killed Qui-Gonn in Episode I? If so, he can’t be Sypho Diaz, because in Episode II (which I was watching on TiVo five minutes ago), Obi-Wan says Darth Maul has been dead for ten years, but he just died in Episode I.
Supposedly (according to some EU stuff that I’m totally unfamiliar with,) Palpatine had been training Darth Maul since he was very, very young. Presumably too young to order up a clone army.
In the script, Sifo-Dyas was originally called Sido-Dyas, i.e. Sidious. But George Lucas changed that idea sometime, renamed him, and reshot some scenes to make him out to be a wholly separate character after all.
The best we fans can figure is Sifo-Dyas (a Jedi Council member) was manipulated by Palpatine to order the clones, and then probably disposed of by Palpatine too.
“Extended Universe”
One might think of it as glorified, commercially released “fan fiction”. There are zillions of novels (and comics???) that take place in the Star Wars universe that include characters from the movies. The authors are held to certain standards and must follow some basic rules, but otherwise they can tell any story that their imagination may produce.
However, none of the EU stuff is canon. Nothing is “true” unless Lucas writes it. EU is bound by what Lucas lays down, but Lucas is free to and will completely ignore any story lines or character histories/ relationships created by EU writers.
From what I’ve heard, the story is that Palpatine convinced Sifo Diaz to order the clone army, and then had Dooku kill Diaz as a test of his loyalty. I’ve got to wonder if Dooku and Diaz were both Dark Jedi, and Palpatine had Diaz killed because he was afraid of Diaz replacing him as Lord of the Sith.
I’d always assumed that Dooku betrayed and killed Sifo-Dyas while both were serving as Jedi. Then working under the instructions of his secret master Sidious, pretended to be Sifo-Dyas on a visit to Kamino to order the Clone Army. Wasn’t it about 10 years previous to AOTC that Dooku left the Order? Or was I imagining that? If so, I’m not sure how I came up with such an elaborate idea since I’m not all that great at telling stories anyway (well, not making them of any interest at least )
The Close Encounters aliens aren’t very clever folk, and believe Obi-Wan to be Syfo-Dyas’ pal, without any reference at all. Is it so hard to believe Dooku burst in one day, saying “Hello. I’m Syfo-Dyas. Could you direct me to the Cloning department? Thank you.”? That’s what I always thought.
I’ll have to say, after defending Revenge of the Sith in the several currently active threads, that the whole Sypho-Diaz thing is just bad writing and the unfortunate result of a last-minute change of mind by the director. For the sake of clarity, it should have been Dooku that ordered the clone army. As it is, it’s a loose end that a Dark Horse comic writer will get a couple of issues out of tying up.
There are some instances where things created in the EU have influenced Lucas and company.
For example: Dash Rendar’s (the Han stand-in in the Shadows of the Empire ‘event’) ship the Outrider being inserted into the Mos Eisely sequence of ANH.
The female blue Twi’lek girl, Aayla Secura, from AOTC and ROTS was originally an EU character. Lucas saw the artwork for a cover of a comic with her on it and liked the design so much that he wrote her into the script. Also in ROTS a reference to Master Vos is made. Quinlan Vos is Secura’s master in the comics.
Coruscant, the capitol planet was essentially created by Timothy Zahn for his novels.
Has Sypho Diaz appeared in any of the movies, specifically Phantom Menace? I don’t remember much of TPM and frankly, I have no urge to go rent the damn thing just to check.
Syfo Dias was killed before he supposedly showed up to order the clone army. That’s what had Obi-Wan confused.
I simply pretended to be Sifo Dyas when I showed up on Camino and ordered the army “for the Jedi.” Now if you’ll excuse me, I feel a little light-headed and need to rest.
)