This question hit me hard after re-reading Darth Vader (2017) #10. There’s this one scene that makes you stop and think – did clones even know what a Sith was supposed to look like? Because clearly, they thought Vader was a Jedi. A guy in all black, with a red lightsaber, just shows up, and they open fire like he’s any old general from the war.
Table of Contents
That One Time Clones Shot At Vader Thinking He Was A Jedi
The issue takes place not long after Order 66. Jocasta Nu, the Jedi Archivist, sneaks into the ruins of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. She’s trying to retrieve a hidden datafile that lists every Force-sensitive child in the galaxy. The plan? Rebuild the Jedi someday.
Things go sideways when she runs into Vader. She knows who he really is – Anakin Skywalker – and she calls him out for becoming Palpatine’s tool. She attacks with a lightsaber-powered rifle, but after it overheats, she grabs a green saber from the archives and fights her way out. She ends up down on the lower levels, where clone troopers are already sweeping the area.
Then comes the part that starts the whole debate: Vader shows up, and the clones immediately shoot at him. They think he’s a Jedi. Not even the red saber or his terrifying armor makes them pause. Commander Fox tries to call off the attack too late, and Vader kills him for the failure.
Most Clones Didn’t Even Know What A Sith Was
This is the core reason things played out the way they did. The Sith hadn’t been seen in public for over a thousand years before the Clone Wars. Most people – especially soldiers – had no clue what the term “Sith” even meant. As far as they were concerned, lightsabers = Jedi, end of story.
Sure, some clones saw Dooku, Ventress, or Maul in action. But even those figures were often viewed as rogue Jedi, not part of an ancient dark side order. There was no training on how to spot a Sith, and saber color wasn’t something they were taught to read into. The average trooper just saw someone with a laser sword and reacted.
You see this same kind of confusion in other places too. Pirates in The Clone Wars call Maul a Jedi until Maul corrects them.
Order 66 Made All Lightsaber Users Targets – Color Didn’t Matter
Most clones never fought anyone with a red saber. At first, the war was mainly clones vs. droids. Maul, Dooku, Ventress – those were rare exceptions. For the average trooper, seeing a red blade in action wasn’t common. And even if they had, it didn’t matter. Clone training didn’t include saber color theory – it focused on one thing: identifying threats.
When Order 66 hit, all that nuance got wiped away. If you had a lightsaber, you were a problem. Period. Doesn’t matter if it was green, red, or blue. You were Force-sensitive and not in clone armor, you were marked for elimination.
That’s why in The Clone Wars Season 7, clones turned on Ahsoka even though she wasn’t a Jedi anymore. Same with Maul – he was just another lightsaber-wielder loose on the ship. No one paused to ask questions. They followed the protocol drilled into them.
In Darth Vader #10, it plays out again. Jocasta Nu shows up, clearly Force-sensitive. Vader shows up too – with a red saber and dark armor – and they still shoot at him. The clones had no idea he was “on their side.” They didn’t even know what a Sith was. All they saw was another lightsaber, and their Order 66 instincts kicked in.
Even when Jocasta calls him Anakin Skywalker, the truth doesn’t register fast enough. And by the time it does, it’s already over – Vader cuts them down. Not out of malice, but because their training and ignorance turned them into threats.
So yeah, saber color never really mattered to them. The entire point of Order 66 was to purge Jedi – and to clones, “Jedi” just meant anyone with a lightsaber and Force powers.
Red Sabers Didn’t Always Equal Sith, Even In Legends
To make things even more confusing, red lightsabers weren’t always used by Sith in Legends. In 18 ABY, Leia was given a red-bladed lightsaber by Luke Skywalker. He built it from scratch using a synthetic crystal, and it was described as slightly smaller than her previous saber.
There are other examples too. In earlier EU material, a Jedi Council member like Adi Gallia was shown with red sabers in games like Jedi Power Battles. These depictions weren’t always consistent, but they show that blade color didn’t strictly define allegiance.
Even in Canon, saber colors aren’t limited to a simple good vs. evil rule — Ahsoka uses white, Temple Guards use yellow. So expecting clone troopers to make the right call based on saber color wasn’t realistic, especially in the middle of a chaotic war.