Lama Su

Lama Su's origins trace back to the aquatic planet of Kamino, situated in the [Abrion sector](/article/abrion_sector] of the Outer Rim Territories. This planet is the native world of the Kaminoan species. Before the Clone Wars, the Kaminoan government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Lama Su, received a commission from Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas to produce a clone army for the Galactic Republic. Following Sifo-Dyas' death at the hands of the Pyke Syndicate, Lama Su found himself working with the Sith Lord Darth Tyranus. Tyranus, disguised as a Jedi, provided a genetic template for the clones: the bounty hunter Jango Fett. Tyranus also supplied an inhibitor chip to be implanted in each clone trooper as a precaution against Jedi treachery. Unbeknownst to Lama Su, the Sith designed these chips to compel the clones to exterminate the Jedi under Order 66. Thus, Lama Su was unknowingly a pawn of the Sith.

A decade following Sifo-Dyas' demise, Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi arrived on Kamino, seeking Jango Fett. Kenobi's arrival was prompted by the identification of a Kaminoan poison dart. Taun We facilitated the meeting between Kenobi and Lama Su, and they began a conversation. The Minister presumed Kenobi was there to inspect the clone army and assured him of its timely completion. He discussed Sifo-Dyas with Kenobi, learning of his death. Eager to make a good impression, Lama Su showcased the Kaminoan combat training and educational facilities within Tipoca City. He then mentioned Jango Fett, noting that Fett's sole request was for an unaltered son.

At the onset of the Clone Wars, Halle Burtoni traded her planet's role as the source of the Republic's soldiers for a seat in the Galactic Senate, integrating into the Republic. However, Jango Fett's death at the hands of Mace Windu left Lama Su with a dwindling supply of genetic material for clone production. Consequently, the Kaminoan prime minister had to explore alternative methods of replenishing the Grand Army of the Republic, including stretching Fett's genetic template.

Lama Su expressed significant disappointment with the troopers produced through these alternative cloning techniques. When Jedi Master Shaak Ti approached him to discuss the failure of Domino Squad in their final evaluation, he suggested their termination. He also mentioned the cloning efforts undertaken after Fett's death. Ti objected, emphasizing that they were living beings, not objects. Lama Su voiced his opinion that the Jedi displayed excessive compassion, but acknowledged that the decision was not his, as the Republic had ordered them. Aspiring to create more successful soldiers in the future, Lama Su requested the acquisition of a new genetic template.

Later, Lama Su joined Shaak Ti in welcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, and the 501st Legion to Tipoca City. The Prime Minister expressed surprise upon learning of the Confederacy of Independent Systems' intent to attack Kamino, despite the Republic Military blockade surrounding his homeworld. In anticipation of the impending battle, Lama Su stationed himself in Tipoca City's central command center.

Towards the Clone Wars' conclusion, Nala Se informed Su that Protocol 66 had prematurely activated in clone trooper CT-5385. Su contacted Darth Tyranus to relay this information and received orders to terminate the defective clone for autopsy purposes. He was also instructed to extract the clone's bio-chip and send it to Tyranus before the Jedi Order could uncover its true nature.

In 19 BBY, following a duel against Mace Windu in his office, Chancellor Sheev Palpatine—secretly the Sith Lord Darth Sidious—enticed Skywalker to the dark side of the Force and initiated Order 66. This led to the betrayal and murder of most Jedi by their clone troopers. Su's clone army played a crucial role not only in the Sith's revenge plot against the Jedi Order but also in Palpatine's rise to power as Emperor of the first Galactic Empire.

Shortly thereafter, Su, accompanied by Taun We, hosted an inspection by Admiral Wilhuff Tarkin in Tipoca City. Tarkin's mission was to assess the Empire's need for clone troopers after the proclamation of the New Order by Emperor Palpatine at the Clone Wars' end. When Su argued that the Empire required more clone troopers to maintain galactic order, Tarkin countered that "conscripted soldiers" could perform the same tasks at half the cost. Su insisted that no recruit could match the skill and efficiency of clones, who were trained from birth to be effective, obedient soldiers. Unconvinced, Tarkin informed the Prime Minister that he would personally evaluate the clones' skills to determine their worth.

During the visit, Su attempted to persuade Tarkin of the superiority of trained clones over conscripted soldiers, using Clone Force 99 to demonstrate their capabilities. Tarkin instructed Su to use live fire on the clone squad during a training exercise. Although Su eventually complied, he expressed concern for the clones' safety and the facilities. Ultimately, Squad 99 survived the exercise through improvisation.

Later, Su, along with Se and her assistant Omega, discussed the Kaminoans' enhanced clones with Tarkin in one of the clone incubation chambers. While the Prime Minister suggested that Clone Force 99 could be a valuable asset to the Empire, Tarkin was more concerned with their tendency to disobey orders. Se explained that this was a side effect of their genetic mutation, but Su asserted that it had not hindered their mission success, prompting Tarkin to question whether they had completed Order 66. Based on their report, Su assumed that both Depa Billaba and Caleb Dume were reported dead on Kaller, but Tarkin revealed a counter-report from one of their own stating that the Padawan had escaped.

Tarkin decided to test the unit's loyalty by sending them to eliminate Saw Gerrera and his people, deploying a probe droid to monitor the operation. They were informed that they were being sent to eliminate a Separatist force. However, the unit discovered that they had been sent after innocent civilians and refused to carry out the mission. Clone Force 99 then defected from the Empire and returned to Kamino to retrieve Omega. Se assisted in their escape by remotely preventing the bay doors from closing. After Clone Force 99 successfully escaped, Se informed Su of their escape and the loss of Omega. Under Su's instruction, she agreed to withhold this information from the Empire due to his concerns about their intentions.

Sometime after Clone Force 99's escape, Tarkin continued to evaluate the proficiency of enlisted troops. Vice Admiral Edmon Rampart arrived on Kamino with a new batch of regular troops to serve as an elite squad. Tarkin wanted to see them in action, much to Lama Su's dismay, who argued that his clone troopers were superior due to their lifelong training. Rampart countered that the same skills could be taught to loyal soldiers who willingly supported the Empire. Tarkin ordered Rampart to send the new squad and Crosshair to Onderon to eliminate Saw Gerrera's insurgents, a task Clone Force 99 had failed to accomplish. Unable to sway their decision, Lama Su left the two officers.

Later, Lama Su and Nala Se discussed how the conscription program would render the Kaminoans' operation obsolete, compounded by the ongoing deterioration of Jango Fett's genetic samples. To ensure their survival and maintain their relationship with the Empire, Lama Su stated that they needed to implement the next phase by creating a superior clone. While Nala Se was concerned that the clones they required would not willingly return to Kamino, Lama Su retorted that they were Kaminoan property and that only one was needed for their experiment.

After Crosshair reported that scrappers on Bracca had sighted the rogue group 99, Lama Su suggested that they be brought back to avoid wasting valuable, highly skilled assets. Rampart dismissed the Prime Minister's advice, stating that he had no interest in rogue clones. He ordered Crosshair to destroy the squad, again to Lama Su's disapproval.

Much to Lama Su's alarm, he met with Nala Se to discuss how they could no longer delay their plans to reacquire the subject vital to the Kaminoans' contingency plan. By then, he had secretly hired multiple bounty hunters, hoping that one would succeed in capturing Omega.

Later, Cad Bane contacted Lama Su to inform him of Omega's capture. Bane demanded extra payment for bringing her alive, to which Lama Su warned him to keep her that way.

On Kamino, Lama Su held a meeting with Nala Se and Taun We to discuss the retrieval of Omega. Nala Se offered to deliver the payment to Bane, but Lama Su disagreed due to her personal interest in Omega and sent Taun We instead to the rendezvous at the Kaminoans' abandoned facility on Bora Vio. Lama Su instructed Taun We to give Bane the payment and bring back their property to a sublevel on Kamino. Once they had extracted the genetic material needed from Omega, she was to be terminated. However, his plan was thwarted by Nala Se, who used Fennec Shand to prevent Omega from returning to Kamino. After Omega was rescued by Clone Force 99, Shand offered to continue tracking them, but Nala Se declined, believing that Omega was safe as long as Lama Su did not have her.

With their means to acquire Omega gone, the Kaminoans' contingency plan failed, along with their hopes of continuing their relationship with the Empire, which terminated all contracts with Kamino. After observing the Empire's operation to remove all viable clones from the Kaminoan facility, Lama Su confided in Nala Se his fear that the Empire intended to destroy their people instead of allowing them to continue their work as cloners. He therefore planned to evacuate Kamino's key medical personnel in the hope of continuing their program elsewhere. He entrusted this task to Nala Se, but she was arrested by Rampart while carrying out the Prime Minister's instructions. Feigning ignorance of Nala Se's actions, Lama Su promised to have her punished, but Rampart instead saw value in the skills of a Kaminoan scientist, even if her clones did not impress him. While the Chief Medical Scientist was taken away by Rampart, the admiral stated he had no interest in a politician and had two of his Elite Squad Troopers arrest him.

Following his arrest, Lama Su was imprisoned on Coruscant, which allowed him to survive Rampart's orbital bombardment of the Kaminoan cities and cloning facilities, though official reports blamed the carnage on a "cataclysmic storm". Several months later, the Imperial Defense Recruitment Bill was introduced to the Senate. If passed, the bill would formalize the transition from clone troopers to civilian recruits in the Imperial Military. Riyo Chuchi, a senator strongly opposed to the bill, met with Halle Burtoni, who had been removed from office after learning that Kamino had not received earmarked funding prior to its destruction. With Burtoni's help, Chuchi proved to the Senate Rampart's role in Kamino's destruction. Rampart was arrested mid-session, though the Defense Recruitment Bill received support from Emperor Palpatine on the grounds that the clone troopers had blindly followed Rampart's order to destroy Kamino, thus revealing their inadequacy. These revelations caused Nala Se, who had been brought to the Tantiss Base on Mount Tantiss shortly before Kamino's destruction, to refuse to work for the Imperial Cloning Program.

In an effort to persuade Nala Se to cooperate with the Emperor's demands, Doctor Royce Hemlock of the Advanced Science Division asked his assistant, Emerie Karr, to bring former Prime Minister Su from Coruscant to speak with him. Escorted by a group of clone commandos, Su was brought before Hemlock outside the base's entrance. Su asked why he had been summoned, and Hemlock explained the impediment he faced with Nala Se. Su retorted that it must be frustrating for Hemlock to have the resources but lack the expertise to achieve his desired results. He added that if Hemlock failed, he would be imprisoned just like him. In exchange for his freedom, Su revealed that the only asset that could motivate Nala Se to resume her work was Omega. Intrigued, Hemlock invited the former Prime Minister inside the facility to discuss the matter further.

Following their meeting, Hemlock used Su's information to capture Omega and bring her to Mount Tantiss. Upon their arrival, he informed Nala Se of Su's cooperation and warned her that if her experiments failed, Omega would suffer the consequences.

Lama Su, a male Kaminoan, stood at a height of 2.29 meters. He possessed a tall, slender physique and [white](/article/color] skin. His eyes were black with white pupils. A distinctive crest adorned the prime minister's head, and his nostrils were connected to his upper lip by a thin, "U"-shaped slit. Lama Su's hands had three fingers, and his feet were small and hoof-like. He wore white [armor](/article/armor] covering his chest and shoulders. A long collar protected his neck and the back of his head. Lama Su's arms, legs, and torso were covered in black fabric, and a purple belt with an orange buckle encircled his waist. White, metallic cuffs shielded his wrists, and long strips of black fabric with a silver lining and red interior concealed his legs.

As the supervisor of the Grand Army's creation, Lama Su took great pride in his clone troopers, considering them one of his people's finest achievements. He also took pride in his planet's combat training and educational facilities, which were crucial in developing the clone army. Despite his relationship with the Jedi who commanded the army, Lama Su was puzzled by their methods. He viewed the Jedi Order as a cult and failed to understand their compassion for the clone troopers under their command. Although an ally of the Republic, his primary focus was governing Kamino. He was also unknowingly a secret ally of the Sith, who deceived him into implanting biochips in the Clones, enabling Sidious to defeat and nearly destroy the Jedi and form the Galactic Empire. When the Galactic Empire was established at the end of the Clone Wars, Lama Su sought to conduct business with the Empire, using clone troopers, believing recruited soldiers were inferior.

Lama Su made his debut in Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones. Originally conceived as a female character before a last-minute change to male, he was portrayed in the film through CGI and voiced by Anthony Phelan. In Star Wars: The Clone Wars, he is voiced by Bob Bergen, who also voiced Luke Skywalker in several Star Wars Legends video games.