You know Order 66. Everyone does. It’s the moment the clones turned their blasters on the Jedi and wiped out the guardians of peace in a heartbeat. But there is a flip side to that coin that hardly anyone mentions because it never actually happened on screen. It’s called Star Wars Order 65.
It’s basically the "In Case of Emergency, Break Glass" protocol for removing the Supreme Chancellor.
Think about it. The Grand Army of the Republic wasn't just a mindless horde. On paper, they were a legitimate military force serving a democracy. You can't just have a massive army that only answers to one guy without some legal safeguards—at least, that's what the Galactic Senate was led to believe. Order 65 was the legal mechanism designed to arrest or execute the Chancellor if he was deemed unfit for office.
Yes, that means there was a literal, pre-programmed command that would have seen the clones hunting down Sheev Palpatine instead of Yoda or Obi-Wan.
What Was Order 65 Exactly?
To understand this, we have to look at the Contingency Orders for the Grand Army of the Republic: Order Initiating, Orders 1 through 150. This wasn't some secret Sith document. It was a standard operating manual available to the Senate and the Jedi.
Order 65 stated that if the Senate or the Security Council found the Supreme Chancellor to be unfit, or if he was acting against the interests of the Republic, the clones were authorized to use lethal force to remove him. It's wild to think about. If the Senate had just been a little faster or more courageous, the clones would have been the ones to take Palpatine out.
The clones didn't have a choice. Their bio-chips—those little organic implants that forced them to kill the Jedi—were programmed with all 150 orders. Order 66 was just the one Palpatine picked. If the Senate had officially moved against him and triggered Order 65, the clones would have marched on the Chancellor's suite with the same cold, mechanical efficiency they showed at the Jedi Temple.
The Legal Trap Palpatine Built
Palpatine was a genius of bureaucracy. He didn't hide Order 66; he hid it in plain sight among 149 other protocols. By including things like Star Wars Order 65, he made the entire list look like a boring, necessary military document.
If a Senator asked, "Hey, why is there an order to kill all the Jedi?" Palpatine could point to Order 65 and say, "Look, there's also an order to kill me. It's just a safeguard for the Republic!" It was the ultimate "nothing to see here" move. He used the existence of Order 65 to prove he wasn't a dictator.
The irony is thick.
One order was a safety valve for democracy. The other was the death knell for it. The clones were just the tools. They were programmed to follow the chain of command, and as long as the orders came through the right channels, they didn't care who the target was. That’s the terrifying part of the Kaminoan design. They were "less independent than the Jango Fett original" for a reason.
Why Order 65 Failed to Save the Galaxy
You might wonder why the Jedi didn't just use it. When Mace Windu went to arrest Palpatine in Revenge of the Sith, why didn't he just broadcast Order 65 to the clones?
It comes down to legality.
- Order 65 required a majority vote from the Senate or the Security Council.
- The Jedi were acting as a rogue element by the time they reached Palpatine’s office.
- Palpatine had spent years filling the Senate with his cronies.
The Senate wasn't going to vote him out. They were cheering for him. By the time the Jedi realized he was a Sith Lord, Palpatine had already checked and mated the entire political system. He knew Order 65 would never be triggered because he controlled the people who had the power to trigger it.
It’s a brutal lesson in how authoritarianism works. It’s not just about having the biggest gun; it’s about making sure the laws that could stop you are impossible to execute.
The Difference Between Canon and Legends
We have to be careful here because the history of Star Wars Order 65 shifts depending on which timeline you're looking at.
In the old "Legends" continuity (the books and comics from before Disney bought Lucasfilm), the 150 contingency orders were detailed extensively in the Republic Commando novels by Karen Traviss. These books gave us a gritty, boots-on-the-ground look at how the clones felt about these orders. They knew they existed. They practiced them.
In the current Disney Canon, the focus shifted heavily toward the "inhibitor chips." This makes Order 65 even darker. It wasn't just a choice the clones made; it was a hardwired biological imperative. If the signal for 65 went out, their brains would have literally rewired themselves to see Palpatine as the primary threat.
The tragedy of the clones is that they were built to be the perfect protectors of the Republic, right down to having a built-in "anti-tyrant" switch. But the tyrant was the one who owned the remote control.
Could Order 65 Have Actually Worked?
Imagine a world where Fives had succeeded.
If Arc Trooper Fives had managed to convince Rex or Anakin about the chips earlier, and they had gone to the Senate with proof of Palpatine’s treachery, Order 65 could have been the end of the Sith. The 501st Legion, instead of following Vader into the Temple, would have surrounded the Senate building.
The clones were better than droids. They were tactical. They were brave. A coordinated strike using Order 65 would have been almost impossible for Palpatine to survive, even with his Force powers. He could kill a few dozen clones, sure, but thousands? All attacking with the same singular purpose?
🔗 Read more: Why Fergie Meet Me Halfway is the Most Underrated Pop Masterpiece of the 2000s
It would have been a bloodbath, but the Republic might have survived.
Actionable Insights for Star Wars Fans
If you want to dive deeper into the lore of the contingency orders and the political maneuvering of the late Republic era, there are specific places to look that provide the best context.
- Read the Republic Commando Series: Specifically Order 66: A Republic Commando Novel. While technically Legends, it provides the most thorough breakdown of the 150 orders ever written.
- Rewatch The Clone Arts "Inhibitor Chip" Arc: Season 6, Episodes 1-4. Watch how Fives uncovers the conspiracy. When you watch it, keep Order 65 in mind—it's the legal ghost haunting the background of his discovery.
- Analyze the Senate Scenes in Revenge of the Sith: Look at how Palpatine frames the Jedi "rebellion." He specifically uses language that makes it look like the Jedi were trying to bypass the legal removal process (like Order 65) to stage a coup. This is why the Senate didn't turn on him.
- Explore the "What If" Scenarios: Understanding Order 65 changes how you view the fall of the Republic. It wasn't a lack of safeguards that destroyed the Jedi; it was the fact that the Sith Lord was the one who wrote the safeguards.
The existence of Star Wars Order 65 proves that the fall of the Republic wasn't an accident. It was a meticulously planned legal trap where every exit was boarded up from the inside. Knowing this makes the tragedy of the clones and the Jedi even more profound, as the very tools meant to save the democracy were the ones used to bury it.