Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi Finally Answers A Key Mystery From Attack of the Clones

Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi is now streaming on Disney+, and it answers one key mystery that’s been lingering in the franchise canon ever since Star Wars: Attack of the Clones was released in 2002. The Prequel Trilogy made clear just how long (and methodically) Palpatine plotted in order to bring down the Galactic Republic and Jedi Order, in one fell swoop. The Prequels also made clear the tragic folly of the Jedi, who remained blind to Palpatine’s machinations as Darth Sidious for decades.

Attack of the Clones highlighted one particularly big blindspot the Jedi had: the creation of the Clone Army, and the brainwashed soldiers that would help destroy the Jedi Order. The film’s first Act is largely Obi-Wan Kenobi’s investigation of an assassination attempt on Padmé Amidala – an investigation which leads to the ocean planet Kamino, where it’s discovered a Jedi Master with the power of foresight (Sifo-Dyas) commissioned an entire clone army on behalf of The Republic, a decade prior. The deeply unsettling question Yoda and Obi-Wan are left with is: who had the power to commandeer Sifo-Dyas’ clone army project, and erase all records of its existence from the Jedi archives? 

Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi makes it clear: Dooku was the one who kept Kamino off of the Jedi’s radar. 

One of the short stories in the new Star Wars animated series sees Dooku in the act of erasing the records from the Jedi Temple archives. The story catches Dooku when he is still very much in conflict about his service to Darth Sidious, who has lured Dooku to his side under the guise of establishing a better and fairer universal order. Dooku finds himself troubled after doing the dark deed of espionage – especially when he runs into his former pupil Qui-Gon Jinn, who has grown up and taken on a student of his own (Obi-Wan). 

This small detail is actually a major payoff on 20 years of fan theory. The question of who could’ve gotten to the Jedi Temple archives and deleted Kamino always seemed to center on Dooku as the likely culprit, but Dooku’s larger history and timeline in the Star Wars canon was too vague to know for sure. Tales of the Jedi’s arc for Dooku across three short stories is highly effective in showing how the seeds of his turn to the dark side were always there, and how Sidious used a tactical and methodic process of luring him over years – with his final fall being the killing of Jedi Master Yaddle. 

MORE: Every Big Star Wars Canon Reveal in Tales of the Jedi

Star Wars: Tales of The Jedi is now streaming on Disney+.