What Happens to the 501st Battalion After the Clone Wars? 

What I remember about the rise of the empire is... Is how quiet it was.

I always assumed the writers had no idea what they were talking about when it came to military terminology. "Division. Battalion. Yeah, that sounds close enough. Fuck it.".

The Battle of Coruscant would go incredibly hard as its own movie or finale of a live action clone wars series.

I really recommend playing the original Star Wars Battlefront for the PS2. The story of the 501st shines through really well there, and they go with the much more realistic assumption that clones are *slowly* phased out as they aged in favour of the TK troopers. But of course, Disney can't have the characters they built up as *heroes* in the Clone Wars fighting for the Empire, so they just had to get rid of that, no matter how much sense it made. Fun fact; The 501st are named for a fan stormtrooper cosplayer club, who do a lot of charity work. I've met some of their members -- they're awesome! At the last con I was at, they had a "shoot a trooper" booth set up, where they'd let kids shoot them with nerf blasters. They also pitched in and paid for Timothy Zahn's expenses when the shifty convention organizers cheaped out and didn't pay him to be a guest. The 501st were first canonized long before the Disney purchase, by Timothy Zahn in his novel "Survivor's Quest", where after Endor, the remaining 501st members are picked up by Thrawn. By "Survivor's Quest" in 23 ABY, their successors are happily serving Thrawn's Empire of the Hand.

I think I remember reading that Vader didn’t want to be associated with Anakin so he formed a new division called the first legion that poached heavily from the 501st & the actual 501st just became a elite stormtrooper unit

The 501st were also deployed to Serenno after Order 66, they were the guys who were guarding Dooku's treasure from the Bad Batch. You can see it's them from the markings on their speederbikes.

I think it is pretty nice that Vader still had a bit of Anakin in him when it came to the 501st. He respected and cared about his troopers and they reciprocated those feelings and were arguably the best legion in the entire army for that reason.

They kept fighting. They led actions against insurgents and rebels on Naboo, Mustafar, Kamino, Polis Massa, Tatooine, Yavin IV, and Hoth.

Band of Brothers to me should be the Gold Standard for a TV series at a movie production level. Sadly, I don't think we'll ever get to see something as good as that series.

In the Battle of Endor, along with the deaths of Emperor Palpatin and Darth Vader, the 501st Legion died alongside them.

I think that having the clone turn up in Kenobi was a missed opportunity. He was 501st, so it would not be strange for him to recognise the general who frequently fought with them. It would've been good he to recognise Kenobi and call him general, then offer to help him with his mission, dying to save Kenobi. It would give the clone one last chance to prove his worth, while also making up for his deeds during Order 66. A much more fitting end for a clone than sitting and begging.

I’m very curious about what happened the the ARC Troopers after the Clone Wars in Cannon? They just disappeared

I'll admit when watching Kanobi series, seeing Nax like that broke my heart 😔

FOR THE REPUBLIC

Alan didn't mention that Rex (in cannon) took part in the battle of Endor.

I think we can say they kept fighting until retirement. We know the Legion continued during the Galactic Civil War.

"Recieved a series of setbacks on Mustafar" had me 😂

Hi, some notes: 1. AFAIK the unit was expanded into a legion (IRL division) during the Clone Wars. Canon lore mentions four brigades. 2. A captain leads a company in both SW and IRL. Rex lead Torrent Company. He would have been one of at least 64 different company COs. 3. The highest Clone rank was Marshal Commander, who served as corps COs (2IC when Jedi Generals were present). Commanders in SW usually lead anything from a battalion to a corps (IRL equivalent of LtCol-LtGen), though it's often also used as a position title, not rank (Commander Versio of Inferno Squad).

I was under the impression that the 501st was a legion from the start but this is the second time I’ve heard in the past week it be referred to as a battalion that became a legion in the empire

When I was stationed in then West Germany, my brigade had 1 anti armor company which I was a member of, and 4 line companies A-D, with a HQ company making up the battalion. Delta company was the largest infantry in the US Army Europe, and possibly the entire US Army at the time. I know it is not a direct correlation to the 501st, however it does back up your thought that it was increased in size due to it's mission and capabilities.

I like to think that vader was a great leader when it came to foot troopers and had them well taken care of and just had a distain for imperial officers.

This is absolutely the best Stsr Wars channel on YT. Thanks for your interesting and intelligent viewpoint.

According to Nicholas Moran (The Chieftain), during WW2 the 4th Infantry Division suffered on the order of _700%_ casualties.

This issue with this whole battalion thing is that it’s not the 501st battalion, it’s the 501st legion, which a legion is one of the larger groups of the GAR. During battles there may have been a battalion or company sent in, but the 501st as a whole is a legion with over 9,000 troops. And the reason why Rex seemed to be the highest ranked clone while not being a commander is because Ahsoka was the Commander. Granted once Ahsoka leaves there’s a continuity error in Rex not being promoted. However he is promoted when they create the 332nd. Which is how I believe Appo got promoted to commander of the 501st during the events of Order 66. Also to add, the company we follow in the Clone Wars is Torrent Company which was the most elite group in the 501st. This obviously comprised of Rex, Jesse, Fives, Hardcase, Kix, and a few others. So that is why these faces seemed familiar.

If I'm not mistaken, Ahsoka was the 501st commander

Could be wrong but I thought they were a legion in which was made up of 4 regiments so that’s how they were able to spilt up during mandalore

A lot of people don't know this but this is canon the 501 legion was given to Darth Vader after the clone Wars. They were still clones because he believed clones were Superior for the longest time. They are called Vader's fist. The most deadly stormtrooper unit out there

More important question: what happened to Dr. Boll? She was vital in the process of cloning the Zillo Beast and yet she was nowhere to be seen after the Clone Wars or on Tantiss.

The Clones have become so popular in Star Wars lore that the Bad Batch can’t be the end of the Clone content can it🙁

I like the fact, whether for aesthetics or not, Allan casually has a beer next him now, fair play! I'll cheers my Guinness to it, good on you Allan 🍻

WELCOME BACK TO GENERATION TECH

Love your work sir.

Amazing and informative as ever, Alan. Also love the new location; originally though it was some fancy restaurant for some reason, probably all the plants. I think what happened to the clones was sad but inevitable, as the republic turned Empire essentially trapped itself by purchasing an expensive elite military unit that it would only use for a meaningless war over a period of four years. There never was a long term plan. Just like all the other participants in the war, such as the confederate government and council and Jedi generals, all were to be disposed of once their use to Palpatine expired. Despite all the horrific things the Empire did, a huge injustice was not appreciating the efforts of their loyal soldiers who fought and died for the empire's survival. 😥

I’m assuming you mean what happened or what happens to. Also great work on your videos

Still absolutely love that they name dropped Ridge in the final season. A 501st clone only previously mentioned in the Clone Wars movie. Meaning he survived throughout the whole war, only to be killed by Maul in the hallway of the Venator.

You must be prior service, real smart army brat or more well read about unit structure than most enlisted. Keep it up dude, always enjoy

Hi I'm a long time fan of your channel. What I think you should do next is make one on kix

We need a show about the Coruscant underworld. Maybe they can add the ground battles during the war and how it shaped the planet

So, what kind of beer are you drinking?

8:58 we all want Battlefront 3

Captain Herbert Sobel is literally Ross from Friends if he grew up in a military family.

During the civil war there was a system were a regiment was split into "divisions" of two companys.

I kinda like it better in Legends where the Clones make the conscience decision to betray the Jedi and end up fighting the Rebellion until Hoth. At least it does more with them than the having the Empire discard them like nothing.

Another significant variation in unit designation and troop strengths comes when you consider what TYPE of unit you are discussing. An Infantry Company is not the same as an Armor, or Artillery Company. A Special Forces Company is not the same as a Scout/Recon Company, or an Air Cavalry attack Squadron. The base maneuver unit Varies in size of the number of soldiers that make it up depending on equipment and function.

10:05 I would die for a show, a game, a movie (anything!) with a step by step, complete full tour of the Jedi Temple. I still haven't figured out the relation with the outside gates and the entrance hall, I don't know if it's this or not yet. For example I've seen a game with a full interior tour of Helm's Deep from Lord of the Rings, but nothing with the Jedi Temple 😔

Is Star Wars Battlefront 2 Storyline of the 501st Cannon or Legends?

Oh I would be 100% behind a show called The Last Batch. Especially if there was at least a few cameos of the gang. :)

I thought the 501st was already a legion under the Republic?

The most heart wrenching thing I saw in the Kenobi series was the old Clone. But it's wasn't that he was an old Clone asking for food or money for food, it was that it was a Clone from the 501st. We really need to see his story. Unless he was a defector who ended up in this situation, if he was loyal and served as long as he was able, it really shows us no Clones were immune to the Empire's cruelty, that perhaps in canon even Vader didn't protect his men in the 501st, which makes it so sad. If this is the case it shows just how much of Anakin was lost in this time, in some media it hints that Vader at least respected and aybe cared for his men, as they fought on the frontlines risking their lives, but if Vader by the time of Kenobi no longer cared for his troops, even the Clones he fought beside the most, then there was barely much left of the kind loving person Anakin used to be. THis shows how much of a cold heartless monster Vader became.

I'm still waiting for Alan to get into Warhammer 40k. If you start another channel focused on that, I'll watch it as well

This is the video I was looking for 🤚

Craig is a trooper to be remembered.

Clone Commander is actually the second highest rank for clone officers. The highest rank is Clone Marshal Commander, who command corps-level formations alongside their Jedi Generals and in other services would be equivalent to the rank of Major General or even Lt. General. Cody, Bly, Bacara, and Neyo are all Clone Marshal Commanders.

If there's a Season 2 to Tales of the Empire I'd love to see the 501st get featured!

Reminds me of crest from the tarkin novel. I wonder if he ever retired.

That would be funny to see you in a Star Wars movie maybe get a quick glimpse of somebody watching TV and you were a news report more Star Wars fans would recognize you.

My headcanon: General Sindula is actually a star fighter marshal or also a field marshal.

In their attempt to fix their mistake, the "creative" team actually messed things up even further in regards to the structure of the 501st Legion. We see Rex as second-in-command of a battalion on Umbara (the battalion's number/name is never identified in the episodes) and a Jedi General (Anakin and later Krell) as the commander of that battalion. Also we hear them constantly talking about platoons. Usually a battalion's direct subordinate unit is a company, commanded by a captain (such as Rex), and then the companies have platoons. Now, things don't look very well to begn with, but this could've been easily dealt with by making it known through later material after the Umbara arc (comics, novels, guides, etc.) that Rex and his company, being very elite, were tasked with leading the assault, thus General Skywalker (known to lead from the front) is with them. While a clone commander that is leading this battalion is somewhere else along the front or more likely at the back of the lines, along with his Headquarters element. Then say this battalion is originally a part of the 501st Legion, which has an ever higher ranking clone commander that IS THE ACTUAL Second-in-command of Anakin, but for the purpose of this mission, a combined Task Force was formed from a few elite battalions (this one from the 501st, the 212th Attack Battalion that is part of the 7th Sky Corps, and so on) in order to quickly capture the Capital City of Umbara. In the mean time the other battalions could be fighting on other fronts on Umbara and be led by their clone commanders. The Capital was the most important and the most defended, this is why they assigned four jedi (Obi, Ani, Krell and Tiin) and the jedi handpicked their most elite units from their Legions. Later in SW Rebels we see Rex identifying himself as the Captain of the 501st Clone Battalion. This one isn't so easy to fix, so we can just disregard it like we disregarded Obi-Wan saying to Captain Fordo "Very good, sergeant" in Clone Wars 2003. But they totally messed everything up with trying to fix this small error. Now division is less than a battalion and also we somehow have to believe all the blocks marching over the stairs of the Jedi Temple, with visible hundreds upon hundreds of troops, are actually half of the original 501st "battalion" that according to current canon has 661 troops at maximum strength. Practically 300 and something troops attacked the Jedi Temple, yeah....totally believable. I guess the Jedi were the persian infantry then.

All clone troopers is going replaced by stroomtrooper

It Wouk have made sense, if Vader had kept his love for the 501st clone troopers, would have consolidated more and more other clone units into the 501st.

Perhaps Jan Dodona holds the rank of General because he has experiance in fleet and ground command, maybe you just get the rank of Admiral for fleet command, but General in Star Wars because of the need for fleet and ground cohesion in operations makes Generals flexable for both. The Jedi Generals could command both, and we see General Hux command fleet ops and gorund ops.

501st Battalion? You meant the 501st Legion right?

ive always been a fan of the idea that the 501st is the last remnant of clones in the entire empire, clones just get moved into it by vaders orders to keep the best unit fully stocked, keep brothers with brothers but eventually even that dosent help keep it at full strength and slowly non clones are moved in when there is no more clones to find

8:18 where is this from? I want to watch that movie/show/video, it's impressive

Long live the Empire

I think the treatment of clones depended on how far they were from the core worlds. Commander Cody and presumably Commander Wolfe came from Coruscant so they were treated well because if not, they could go to the senate. Mayday and his troopers were stuck in the middle of nowhere so he was most likely forgotten.

TCW really seemed to confuse things for me. Rex was a Captain throughout and according to most sources clone captains led clone trooper companies and he often seemed to engage with Commander Cody as more of an equal than a superior officer. My head cannon is that Rex was actually an ARC trooper captain rather than a standard clone trooper captain, and so was qualified to lead much larger military units than a mere company. Also in the holocron heist trilogy (I think) Rex orders three different battalions to attack the enemy but how can three battalions come from one single battalion? Unless, the 501st was already expanding at this point. Not quite a legion but a unit made up of multiple battalions. That or the writers just used the term battalions in that episode because it sounded cool 🤷🏻‍♂️

12:40 I used to be a soldier like you. Then I took some shrapnel to the knee.

I swear that in legends, Vader kept the 501st as clones and that almost all of the stormtroopers on the first Death Star and a lot on the second Death Star were clones (even though you don’t hear any in the OT)

Another great movie is ‘The Big Red One’. I believe if you haven’t seen it yet you’d love it.

According to the game Republic Commando, the 501st stays a unit comprised purely of Jango clones, because that's what Vader wants.

2:26 they may have had an easier time in the war since Anakin was their general. Palpatine’s plans for the empire involved Anakin, the great hero of the war saving him, and with him being so popular he’d have had an easier time during the transition period

It varies Allen by Armed Forces for a given real world Nation. But as a US Vet of 2 different Branches numbers in the Army was WAY different then in the Marines. BUT in either Divisions are generally as big as a unit force gets without it turning into a Corp, Task Force, or a literal entire army if gets a lot larger. Which is generally how real world Forces Generally work. An a said Division in the Army, when i was in part of it, NG, BUT modeled exactly same. Was maybe round 10,000 ish troops divided in around 4 or so Regiments an broke further into bout 4 or so battalions each. While in Marines Divisions typically numbered bout 30,000 or so and we was broke up into about 3 to 4 Battalions each befire breaking down into the further Companies, Platoons and smaller if that gives any idea of realistic troop ideal numbers

I like legends best. Where when members of the 501st died, Vader would replace them with clones from other battalions. Trying to keep the 501st as pure as possible. Eventually he had to start using nat borns, and this created a rift in the legion. But it goes to show that no matter how hard Vader tried, there was always a little piece of Anakin left inside him.

Problem is that the numbers comparison between a battalion and legion is different, depending upon whether you go with legends or cannon lore. Though in legends, Vader post order 66, still appreciated and made use of the clones in the 501st legion, for their military efficiency and effectiveness compared to regular stormtroopers. Having the largest concentration of remaining clones in the imperial military right up to the battle of hoth.

The empire was handing out the commander rank to everyone 😭

I wish got Star wars tales of rebellion....can see Clone troopers Rex,Howtzer,Gregor,Wolffe, Cody and the rest Clone trooper's

I want a clone rebellion show so bad. I want to see how it ended up being just Rex, Wolffe, and Gregor on that rust bucket AT-TE in Rebels. It would be sad if the Rex rebellion story ends with their base getting destroyed by the CX trooper in Bad Batch and they just went to to hiding from there. I guess the early empire is the saddest era of Star Wars so it does fit, rebel cells were few and far between, isolated, and conflicts limited for a while until they got organized.

A division is 3 to 4 brigades. 2 to 4 battalions is 1 brigade. 1 division is can be anywhere from 6 battalions to 16 battalions depending on what type of unit. Medical unit divisions are on the 6 battalion size whereas infantry divisions are much larger

Echo, Fives, Dogma, Rex, Appo, Vaugh, Jesse, Hardcase, Hawk, Boomer, Kano, Coric, CT-0000/1010 Fox, Denal, Kix, Redeye, Mixer, Charger, Nax and Tup. This is the 501st lost but not forgotten, "The war left its scars on all of us." - Captain Rex.

its still annoys me that ahsoka had clones attack her for order 66 but bariss didnt have any nether of them are jedi technically

Parts of the original Clone Wars are canon I think. There is a moment in the end of The Clone Wars where Ahsoka is talking to Anakin, when Obi-Wan comes running in with news of the Coruscant attack. He mentions Mace saying he lost contact with Shaak Ti. This is a direct call out to events in the original Clone Wars.

Long live the 501st Battalion. Best in the whole GAR. Just glad the guys in the 332nd didn't have to see what become of their unit

Iirc in cannon, most of the last generation of clones end up becoming purge troopers used by the inquisition. Though, by the time of the kenobi show even they were replaced as seen by the change in armour that looks more stormtrooperish

Did you know before Disney took over in Star Wars lore the surgery for Vader took up to 10 days

What happened to the 501st is actually very easy to answer, they became George Lucas' volunteer Star Wars cosplay legion. They do things such as attend charity events on behalf of George Lucas and Lucasfilm, many of them even participated in the filming of episodes of "The Mandalorian," in particular a lot of the stormtroopers, seen in the final two episodes of season one, are members of the 501st.

i'll always go with the bf2 version that the last 501 clone died on the death star

My head cannon is legends cannon, Vader took all the clones into the 501st to protect them

When i was a kid, i always think that the reason we didn't see any clone troopers in the empire, is because of his constant captures of planets that are denying the empire and incompetence by officials causing many clones dying to a point a the end just a few were alive by the start of New Hope. (sorry for the bad grammar.)

Alan, was the 501st led by Captain Rex because Anakin was still technically under Obi-Wan who had Commander Cody, and I seem to remember in a season one or two episode it is made clear the 501st is under Cody’s unit, whose number I cannot remember right now. And also, where are Ben and American Ben? What happened to them? Did you exile them to respective Jerseys?

This guy has endless knowledge

And you did not bring up REX at the Battle of Endor?? :P LOL

To be honest, outside of that little bit with Thrawn and Pellaeon, Tales of the Empire really didn’t do too much of what it said on the tin. We really only got to see what happened to two more specific people during the rise (and fall?) of the Empire for the most part, and then kind of what happened that that specific town we were introduced to in the mandalorian. Not huge amounts to do with the actual Empire’s actions imo. I enjoyed a small bit of it, but was disappointed by being mislead.

I always like to think they continue to live out until Battle of Hoth. Like in BF2

Is that a bud light😳😳😳😳🤣

I’d like to think that Rex and Cody basically just did rock paper scissors over who got Echo and Fives

Ayyyyyy one minute gang

My head canon is that Star Wars BFII 2005 is more or less an accurate history of the 501st. I think that Vader would've tried to keep as many Clones in front line roles because he seemed to prefer Clones over conscripted Stormtroopers. I'd like to think that the Stormtroopers at Hoth were all clones and it was the last mission for the Clones of the 501st, after that there just weren't enough left. That was the last mission in the BFII campaign. And for the Clones of the 501st, it would've been ending on a victory.

I Would love to see a post sequel government decide "You know what maybe having a weak military (new republic) or no military (old republic), makes people want an empire. Lets make a strong defense force to protect people so they don't vote for an empire, but have civilian oversight of the defense force so they don't become an empire. And then we see a 501st battalion of civilian volunteers wearing a fancy new blue armor.

Question, why was Ahsoka (and Maul) targeted during order 66 and Bariss was not? In the tales of the Empire series a clone made the comment of her being lucky to not be a Jedi anymore but Ahsoka wasn't part of the Jedi order as well. In fact Jesse and the rest of the clones ignored that fact when Rex brought it up. So I'm curious, did Palpatine give Rex a personal message like he did with Cody and tell him to kill Ahsoka and Maul? Or was it because despite not being Jedi, they were still powerful force users that were not imprisoned yet (Though in that case why would the clones kill Maul when he was securely confined?). I'm not super familiar of star wars outside of the clone wars series so if there is an answer out there do let me know. Thanks for listening to my Ted Talks.