What if Palpatine's cloning project wasn't for himself, but for Anakin?

[ChrisIII]

Or at least, started that way? Although we don't know the exact endgame of the cloning project in BAD BATCH and MANDALORIAN-both set decades apart-it's presumed by many fans to culminate in the imperfect clones we see in RISE OF SKYWALKER-the decaying Palpatine clone and also the force-less one who became Rey's father.

In BAD BATCH we see this started right after the Clone Wars and as the Clone Troopers were being deactivated, but it seems not for making armies but for something harder to do, creating clones with the force (or at least enough "Midichlorians" to be sensitive to it). However, although his face and body are warped by the force lightning Palpatines basically at the height of his power before the Alliance starts to form more and not at huge risk of a coup/betrayal so I'm not sure he would need a fresh replacement body right away.

Vader however is still somewhat damaged goods physically and mentally and it's clear by the time Luke shows up that Palpatine is considering him as a replacement, something he eventually succeeds with later with Ben through proxy.


So could the Tantiss project have originally been intended to make a clone of Anakin without the physical ravages of Kenobi and Mustafar? Or the lingering emotional attachment to Padme that Luke reawakens? But when Palpatine himself dies, the project suddenly is switched to reviving himself, but isn't perfect in part because it was intended for Anakin?

[Kirby101]

I don't want to think about the horrible storyline of ROS. I hope they don't go anywhere near it and ruin Bad Batch too.

[The Negative Zone]

I don't want to think about the horrible storyline of ROS. I hope they don't go anywhere near it and ruin Bad Batch too.

It's apart of canon now so someone has to touch it and make sense of things. It's always been up to the tie-in material to pick up the slack of the movies.

[ChrisIII]

^Something we certainly saw with Clone Wars I think. The Sixth season in particular, although unfinished, dealt with some of the lingering threads that Revenge of the Sith didn't exactly wrap up (The whole Clone conspiracy with Sifo-Dyas, the Jedi spirits, the unfinished stuff provided some backstory for the Death Star etc)

[Ascended]

I dunno. Isn't Palpatine's desire for immortality fairly well established? Didn't he go through a few different apprentices before Anakin and had no problem casting them off? Didn't he want to replace Vader, even early on in the Imperial era before New Hope, or even Kenobi's show? I don't see Palpatine putting in that kind of effort just to save an apprentice, even one chosen by prophesy.

What's the earliest reference to Palpatine's (personal) interest in cloning? He was behind the clone army but that could be seen as just a means to an end. Odds are cloning the zillo beast had nothing to do with Palpatine's other cloning interests and was just about creating a new weapon. We still don't know what the point of Omega was, but if she was part of Palpatine's plans then he put those in motion long before the Republic or Anakin fell.