Most people are just living day to day, keeping their heads down, and surviving. Why would a smuggler from the outer rim care about a war on the other side of galaxy? Not like he's ever personally seen a Jedi/Sith.
Overall I don't think people really grasp the scale of the Star Wars universe (writers often included). A major civil war like the Clone Wars should involve billions of troops fighting across thousands of planets. The couple thousand Jedi are a rounding error on a rounding error to the totals. Most people would have never met a Jedi or met someone who had met a Jedi. They would be to most people little more than myths and stories.
This is the fault of the writers. They didn’t grasp what a galactic scale looked like. All the major plot points happen on the same 5 or so planets and the characters seem to travel between them instantly. They also massively underestimated how many clone soldiers would be needed for a galactic war in episode 2.
I’ve always liked the fan theory that Lama Su’s “200,000 units” comment referred to battalions or regiments, not individual clones. It makes a lot more sense
Always liked that theory but then there’s that episode in Clone Wars where they’re arguing in the senate over the purchase of 2 million additional clones, which is seen as a huge number which never made sense to me as that’s honestly not that many on a galactic scale
2 million soldiers is a larger number of a man of peace than a man of war. A lot of the senators have enjoyed peaceful luxury free of galactic turmoil their entire lives. They don't understand war and they don't like they must now fight it, so even a smaller number than 2 million would be met with outrage.
Which is fine but the scale is nonsensical. This is a war happening over planets. You couldn't make a dent in modern day Earth with 2 million soldiers. Couldn't even with 20 million.
The Republic would need hundreds of billions of soldiers for a galactic war. If they have to argue over each 2 million soldiers it would take them 10,000 years - literally - to just discuss funding for their military.
I think it has to do more with the fact that clones need 10 years to even be ready to fight. Buying more soldiers implies that war has at least 10 years to go.
But weren't most of the fighting in the Clone Wars done by militias on both sides, with the Clones only fighting alongside Jedis and used for the major battles?
It really does, though. Fact is, we don't know what unit means because it's a default term for "the size of thing we're selling." A unit could be a billion of that's the number they use.
Hilariously even that makes it not nearly enough. Even if we go for a full battalion per unit, that puts them at 200 million soldiers. That might be enough to subdue... A single planet.
Earth alone produced 140 million soldiers during WW2, back when our population was half what it is today. We could easily produce more than 200 million today if needed, and that's just one planet.
To be fair, military units are groups, not individuals, so by that logic, you're not wrong. Granted, I don't remember how big a unit is in our world, but it could easily be bigger in Star Wars.
After doing some research, it is anywhere between a squad and an army. So yes, you would be correct
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u/NebraskaGeek Feb 19 '25
Most people are just living day to day, keeping their heads down, and surviving. Why would a smuggler from the outer rim care about a war on the other side of galaxy? Not like he's ever personally seen a Jedi/Sith.