Exploring Clone Dialogue And Speech Patterns

Exploring Clone Dialogue and Speech Patterns

This might be useful to writers in the Star Wars fandom! I’ve noticed these little nuances when watching TCW and TBB, and they’ve helped me when writing dialogue my fic and one-shot drafts. These are just my observations, so feel free to add some of your own wisdom, tips, and tricks to accurately writing the clones!

Brevity: the clones speak in short, punchy sentences. They are direct in getting their point across. I feel like there’s a narrative effect to this as well (and this is just my own theory. Because they speak so little and so concisely, it makes the audience hold onto their words more and feel excited whenever they speak). When it comes to romance fics, I don’t see them having these long, drawn-out declarations of love because it just doesn’t match their collective speech patterns (that’s just me though). As a viewer, you pay attention to when the clones speak because they say what they mean, they only say it once, and there's a ton of emotion embedded in their words.

Sarcasm: this goes for any clone, not just the usual suspects (e.g., Wolffe and Crosshair). After a large chunk of time on the front lines during the Clone Wars, the clones are jaded soldiers. Their humorous use of sarcasm cuts the tension in hostile situations. (Examples of sarcasm, other than Wolffe and Crosshair: [Wolfpack trooper to C-3PO] "Really, quite the adventure, huh? Get a load of this one." / [Commander Mayday after meeting Lieutenant Nolan] "I feel safer already." / [Jesse to Tup on Umbara] "That's why they're called the 'Shadow People,' Tup!")

Questions: they usually ask questions of clarification/curiosity to their superiors, fellow troopers, and civilians, or rhetorical questions to add weight to their sarcastic quips. (Examples of rhetorical questions: [Fives responding to Rex, in reference to Pong Krell's treatment of the 501st] "By raising everyone's ire?" / [Wrecker complaining to Echo when he doesn't get to go 'sightseeing' with Hunter and Omega on Pantora because he 'sticks out too much'] "Oh, and you don't?" / [Tech on the inhibitor chips in Cut and Suu's house on Saleucami] "How else did you think it worked?" / [Commander Mayday when Crosshair and Lieutenant Nolan arrive] "Did you get lost?")

They don’t always say everything they want to say: there are instances when the clones speak that they can elaborate on exactly what they mean, but they choose not to because of the context of the situation. I've noticed that they tend to suppress things out of necessity. (Examples: [Echo's apprehension of rescuing Muchi from the Zygerrian slavers, after Tech mentions they're getting paid] "Yeah, that too." / [Rex to Echo when CF99 are getting their inhibitor chips removed on how he got his own inhibitor chip removed] "I had help.")

Elimination of some words (pronouns, conjunctions, etc.): there are countless instances of this in clone dialogue. This is more of a nit-picky grammatical observation, but I've noticed that the clones drop pronouns that refer to themselves or another person as the subject of a sentence, and then they just say the verb and the rest of the sentence as the full sentence. They also drop conjunctions ("and," "but," "or") in sentences too. (Example: [Echo to CF99 after landing on Ord Mantell and going to Cid's parlor] "I couldn't tell ya. I only heard about Cid. Never actually met him.") In this example, Echo could have said "I never actually met him," but he dropped the "I" for brevity's sake. This doesn't happen for every sentence the clones speak, but it definitely happens often.

Calling any child in existence “kid” (affectionately): I feel like this is self-explanatory lol

Common phrases: “is that so/right?” / beginning responses with “well” / using “easy” to calm someone down / “figure it out” to each other / "that's what I thought" / "all right" as an affirmation (drop some more common phrases if you have them! I can't remember any more at the moment 😅)

There is so much complexity to sibling/brotherly relationships: something I see a lot in the dynamics between the clones in fanfic is that they are loving toward each other almost all the time. As someone with two younger brothers, that is absolutely not the case 😅 familial relationships are tough to navigate because there are so many emotions present in interactions: one minute you hate each other after a petty fight, but the next you're defending your sibling from getting into trouble. Of course you will have your moments where you're loving toward each other and feel like best friends against the world, but that is definitely not the case all the time. Siblings annoy each other by nature; they get on each other's nerves and they're competitive. That's 100% normal. But, at the end of the day, you'll always have your siblings to rely on if you're in a bind and they'll have your back. That's what I see in brotherly relationships with the clones, at least. Three examples of this are CF99, Domino Squad, and the 501st on Umbara. Crosshair separated from CF99 because he had a difference in ideology, Echo didn't always agreeing with the Batch's plans of working for Cid as mercenaries, and Wrecker always wanted to blow stuff up even on stealth/covert missions. Those are disagreements. Domino Squad didn't always work together during their training exams on Kamino; each member was independent of one another until they were able to work together as a unit. More disagreements. Dogma wanted to follow Krell's plans to a T where the majority of Torrent Company did not want to. Even more disagreements. It's not realistic for siblings to agree on everything all the time.

Greetings and farewells by using only names: I've noticed that clones greet each other and say goodbye to each other by just saying their name, dropping the "hi" or "hello" or "goodbye" in the beginning.

Verbs ending in "-ing": when speaking informally, the clones drop the "-g" in verbs ending in "-ing." This doesn't happen when they speak to superiors, such as Jedi generals and senators, but it happens when talking among themselves. (Example: [Tup to Jesse on Umbara] "Are you sure those bombers are comin'?")