WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 1, Episode 14, “War-Mantle,” streaming now on Disney+.
When Imperial Stormtroopers were introduced in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, they were intended to be the face of the most formidable fighting force in the galaxy. Even the legendary Obi-Wan Kenobi spoke highly of them early in the film. When Luke thought that Sand People had ravaged a Jawa Sandcrawler, Obi-Wan corrected him, saying, “Only Imperial stormtroopers are so precise.”
Unfortunately, throughout the Original Trilogy, Stormtroopers didn’t really live up to the hype, mostly because of their lack of effectiveness with a blaster. In fact, they became arguably the biggest laughingstock of the Star Wars franchise, and Obi-Wan’s misplaced compliment has received much derision over the years. However, there might actually be a reason that Obi-Wan thought highly of the Stormtroopers — he might’ve believed they were still Clones.
Obviously, Clone Troopers were far superior to Stormtroopers. They were better trained, better equipped and bred to fight. But the Empire’s decision to transition from Clones to conscription soldiers wasn’t made to bolster the military — it was made to bolster the Imperial wallet. Quantity over quality was the name of the game, but it’s possible that Obi-Wan Kenobi didn’t learn out about the Empire’s decision. And if that was the case, it would explain why he thought that Stormtroopers were so capable without having seen them fight.
It sounds like a long shot, but it just might be a viable theory because something similar happened to Clone Force 99 in an episode of The Bad Batch. In “War-Mantle,” Hunter and crew go to free Clone Commando Gregor from Imperial custody, and in the process, they encounter the Empire’s new TK-troopers. While fighting against them, Gregor explains that clones are being replaced by the TK conscription soldiers, and Clone Force 99 is totally taken aback. The timeline isn’t well-defined, but it has to be at least months after Order 66. While it seems like a given that the Bad Batch would know that the Empire was changing its fighting force, in reality, Hunter’s team had no reason to think about it. Their adversaries’ armor is changing, but that doesn’t mean really anything, as there are various types of Clone armor.
Clone Force 99 also didn’t find out about the change because they were staying away from them as much as possible, and Obi-Wan was in a similar position. The Jedi was hiding from the Empire, living off of the grid and staying away from civilization as much as possible. If he saw Stormtroopers, he would’ve done his best to avoid them. On top of that, his past relationship with the Clone Army and the Republic probably kept him from looking too deep into the goings-on of the galaxy.
Obi-Wan was one of the smartest Jedi the Order ever had, but he served alongside countless Clones in the Clone Wars and clearly held them in high esteem before their betrayal. And because he knew just how effective they were in combat and didn’t want to dwell on that thought because it conjured memories of Order 66, it’s possible that, by avoiding them, he never found about their true identities.
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