The Importance Of Mount Tantiss In 'Star Wars'
Image Source: Wookieepedia
WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR THE BAD BATCH SEASON 2 AND THE MANDALORIAN SEASON 3
In recent weeks, both The Bad Batch and The Mandalorian are connecting to the greater Star Wars universe in a most surprising way. Even though both shows are from different places in the timeline, they appear to be leading to the endgame presented by The Rise of Skywalker where Palpatine returned via cloning. Both shows are now exploring a location that was only present in Legends before, Mount Tantiss.
Let’s make a quick return to Mount Tantiss in Legends. Mount Tantiss is a secret facility located on the planet Weyland where Palpatine has been storing various dark and mysterious items along with 20,000 cloning tanks since the Clone Wars. As chronicled in Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy, Palpatine never had the chance to use the cloning facilities himself. Instead, it was used by Grand Admiral Thrawn after the Emperor’s demise in Return of the Jedi. Thrawn managed to clone the Jedi Jorus C’baoth along with the rebel hero Luke Skywalker. Fortunately, Luke and his allies were able to destroy the facility and everything contained within. The facility at Mount Tantiss would reappear later as the site where Luke found the Book of Sith and where the New Republic maintained a safe house during the Yuuzhan Vong War.
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So how does Mount Tantiss figure into the current canon? As we learned at the end of The Bad Batch Season 1, the Empire moved its cloning research to Mount Tantiss after the destruction of Kamino. Under Doctor Royce Hemlock, cloning research continues with the reluctant help from captured Kaminoan scientists. Recent episodes of The Bad Batch have revealed that Omega may be the key to the Empire’s cloning research. However, this only answers the question of what happens to cloning immediately after the Clone Wars. As we know, cloning is not discussed at all in the original trilogy.
Image Source: ScreenRant
In The Mandalorian, we discover that the Imperial remnant may be trying their hand at cloning once again in the time after Return of the Jedi. This is evident in Doctor Penn Pershing’s research and the Remnant’s interest in Grogu and his Force abilities. However. the reason behind all of this is still a mystery. Is it to fulfill one of Emperor Palpatine’s last commands? Will it link back to his reappearance in The Rise of Skywalker?
The story of cloning in Star Wars seems to be at a standstill. Doctor Pershing appears to have his memory wiped via the Mind Flayer. Does this remove any active possibility of cloning research continuing into the time of the sequel trilogy? Will someone pick up the mantle? Perhaps the upcoming Ahsoka series and the possible return of Grand Admiral Thrawn will shed some light on this. After all, what has Thrawn been doing since his departure from the known space in Rebels at the hand of Ezra Bridger? One thing is for sure. Mount Tantiss will continue to be in the spotlight.
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Source(s): Wookieepedia
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