History of "Order 66"

Krash · Jedi Knight Joined: Mar 20, 2004 Posts: 3495

THis got posted over on TJA and other forums, and I figured it was worth a "did you know" mention. We all know GL is fond of working historical references into writing the SW saga, so something to ponder:

It was rumored that Order 66 was a directive ingrained in the clone troopers during their training. This rumor was debunked by George Lucas, creator of the Star Wars universe, in an interview with Star Wars Insider, who stated that it was simply an order. Fans have expressed bafflement that the Jedi were unable to sense duplicity on the part of the thousands of troopers with which they had contact over the course of the Clone Wars.

Palpatine was able to pull off this master stroke against heroes renowned for their ability to detect traps by utilizing the absolute devotion of his army to its Chancellor. As clones were incapable of deceit, most Jedi were not able to sense the deception in advance (only Yoda was shown to have become aware in time to save his life). The soldiers were completely loyal to the Emperor instead of the Republic and had no reservation or feelings on the morality of Palpatine's commands whatsoever. In the novelization, for example, Commander Cody's only regret upon receiving Palpatine's holo-message was: "Would it have been too much to ask for the order to have come through before I gave him {Obi-Wan Kenobi} back the bloody lightsaber...?"

Possible historical and religious references
The idea for Order 66 may have come from the 1944 assassination plot on Hitler. The assassins had made arrangements after the assassination took place to implement Operation Valkyrie in Berlin which would turn the German troops against the Nazi regime. This however never happened due to the failure of the assassination attempt.

Order 66 may allude to other previous historical incidents. Among these are the Jewish Holocaust, and the Japanese-American interment during World War II, which was demanded by President Franklin Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066. Joseph Stalin's Great Purge following his consolidation of power in the USSR in the '30s is also a possible reference point.

As for possible religious references, the number 666 is listed in Revelation 13:18 as the Mark of the Beast, a sign of a servant of Satan that will come in the last days of the earth before (or shortly after) Christ's return. In fact, Order 66 and the 666 are more similar that it appears. In the modern numerologic system(a=1..z= Cool

, the numerical value of the word Order is 6. This makes 'Order 66' a symbolic equivalent of the number 666.

In addition, Order 66 has a great deal in common with the historical elimination of the Knights Templar order. Like Order 66, it was a command spread though secrecy and suddenly implemented. Virtually all of Templars in France were simultaneously arrested on October 13 (the unlucky Friday the 13th), 1307. Many were tortured and sentenced to death. In most other countries, the Templars were forced to leave the order or join other orders. A few Templars escaped and lived in exile, mainly in Scotland. King Philip the Fair of France at this time also seized the Templar's treasury for himself, putting an end to the monanstic banking system. These events are largely seen as manipulated by Philip to gain greater powers. Like in Star Wars, this began an era of Military fiat.

Trivia: Order 66 is now also slang for mass layoffs in a workplace.