Clone aging

Did they explain how the clones aged once they were 'finished'?

(i.e. do the clones accelerate in aging up to say, 20, and then age normally thereafter?)

This movie takes place about 20 years before ANH, so assuming that's true, the first batch of troops would be about 40 at the time of Episode 4.

I wonder who they used as the donor for future clones?

came on board:

Not in the film. I expect they sleep in a special Spaarti cylinder type thing so they can learn in the day and age at night.

Why would they need another donor? I'm fairly sure they didn't go to Jango for a new sample every batch.

usher . Rambling Old Cynical Jedi Engineer http://www.shavenwookie.com/rassm/

I don't know, but this is the first movie to deal with cloning in a more or less realistic way. In most movies that deal with cloning, the clones are produced almost instantly, complete with the personality, knowledge and ambitions of the original host.

Why not the clones themselves? Plenty of genetic material there, and no need to alter it!

'Chris Nelson'

recognized your foul stench when I came on board:

Any defects would be magnified in subsequent generations. It happens when we breed, too, but at a slower pace since we are only using 1/2 of one donors genes that way.

usher . Rambling Old Cynical Jedi Engineer http://www.shavenwookie.com/rassm/

I kind of think they might have. What other purpose is there to 'keep him here' as the geonosians put it?

came on board:

He wasn't a prisoner as was shown by his ability to leave immediately. However, keeping him there most of the time limited any competitor from getting his DNA in sufficient quantities for cloning purposes.

usher . Rambling Old Cynical Jedi Engineer http://www.shavenwookie.com/rassm/

You mean someone else wanted to clone him?

I assumed his hefty fee was the result of having to stay there giving DNA all the time and foregoing his bounty hunting income.

defects wouldnt be magnified by cloneing. you would be taking a dna sample/ cell/ cells from the donor and from that dna growing an identical copy. the only mutations that would be present would come from the mutations present in the donor dna.

And it would make sense to make fresh batches from the 'original' instead of from the 'copies'. Ever see a 5th generation photocopy?

He was allowed to come and go as he pleases but had to remain on the cloning planet so they could take a fresh batch of DNA every 200,000 units. This was stated in the movie to Obi Wan.

It's mentioned that they are only so far through fulfilling the order for the clones (cannot remember the exact figure now) There is a couple of possibilities I can think of right now. The stormtroopers we see in ANH,ESB and RotJ are a later batch of clones with different armour to distinguish them from the original clone army. Or they are just volunteers enlisted by the empire. Of course EPIII will hopefully explain all this, but it's nice to speculate none the less!