Spar

In 32 BBY, Alpha-Ø2 was cloned by Kaminoan cloners on the planet Kamino from the genetic material of the Mandalorian bounty hunter Jango Fett. He was part of the initial test class of Advanced Recon Commando soldiers created for the Grand Army of the Republic. While the Kaminoans aimed for uniformity among the clones, Alpha-Ø2 represented a rare failure in their process. Out of the hundred ARC troopers in his batch, he stood out for his independence and free-thinking, rejecting the imposed anonymity and lacking loyalty to the Galactic Republic. Like other aberrant clones, who constituted 3.5 percent of the clone population, Alpha-Ø2 underwent reconditioning. However, the process proved ineffective, and Alpha-Ø2 managed to blend in, concealing his unique traits. The Kaminoan handlers began calling him "Spar." Alpha-Ø2 formed a bond with Mij Gilamar, a Mandalorian Cuy'val Dar trainer working as a doctor. Eight and a half years after his cloning, at the biological age of seventeen, Alpha-Ø2 overheard a mention of Jango Fett's exploits, which triggered a flood of memories—not of his own life, but of Fett's. Aware that these memories would be erased, he prepared to escape Kamino. Alpha-Ø2 feigned insanity and headaches to meet with Gilamar. Gilamar eventually used a favor with Jango Fett to smuggle Alpha-Ø2 off Kamino in the hold of Fett's ship, Slave I. Alpha-Ø2's escape marked him as the first deserter from the Grand Army.

After leaving Kamino, Alpha-Ø2 chose to adopt the name "Spar." He took on various jobs throughout the galaxy, particularly in the Outer Rim Territories, as he tried to make sense of his mental state. He primarily worked as a bounty hunter, specializing in capturing targets alive. With Jango Fett's death during the opening battle of the Clone Wars, Spar decided that his purpose was to rebuild the Mandalorian Supercommandos. Spar traveled to the planet Mandalore, where he requested assistance from the local police to establish his new Mandalorian Protectors. Two hundred police officers responded, including two constables named Fenn Shysa and Tobbi Dala, along with twelve former members of the Mandalorian splinter group, the Death Watch. A rumor circulated on Mandalore that Spar was Jango Fett's son, who had come to rebuild the Mandalorians. Duchess Satine Kryze, leader of the pacifist New Mandalorians, opposed him, wanting Mandalore to remain neutral in the Clone Wars. However, following her death in 20 BBY, Spar prevailed over her faction and assumed the position of Mandalore, leader of the Mandalorians. He adopted the title "Mandalore the Resurrector" to signify the dominance of the Mandalorians' old traditions. While rumors suggested that Shysa was the true power behind Spar, Shysa was generally recognized as Spar's most loyal follower.

Fueled by a desire for order and a hatred for the Jedi Order due to their involvement in the Battle of Galidraan, where Mandalorians were killed, Spar aligned the Protectors with the Confederacy of Independent Systems. As Mandalore, he introduced the Pursuer-class enforcement ship to his unit. Drawing inspiration from the use of Mandallian Giants by the Mandalorians during the New Sith Wars, as well as Fenn Shysa's encounter with the droid C-3PX, Spar commissioned the Separatist droid foundries to produce a limited number of one thousand BL-series Battle Legionnaire droids. Spar and his Protectors fought against the Jedi and the Republic across the galaxy, including at New Holstice, Null, and Zaadja. Supercommando squads undertook covert missions for the Separatists. Near the end of the war, Spar and the Protectors aided the government of Mandalore in seizing the facilities of MandalMotors in the city of Keldabe for Separatist use. Following the death of a prominent Separatist commander, the Mandalorians and their Battle Legionnaire droids retaliated at New Bornalex and Kamino. The Republic dispatched assassins to eliminate Spar, but they were unsuccessful.

Toward the war's end, Darth Sidious, the secret leader of the Separatists, ordered the Mandalorian government to dispatch Spar and his supercommandos to Norval II to capture Senator Padmé Amidala. However, Sidious betrayed them, and the mission led them into a Republic ambush. Spar, Shysa, and Dala were the only survivors out of the Protectors. Traumatized, Spar relinquished his position as Mandalore. He remained on Mandalore for some time afterward, and Shysa repeatedly tried to persuade the former Mandalore to resume his role, but without success.

During the last six months of the war, Spar encountered Fi, a discharged-dead clone, in the city of Enceri. They met again in the Oyu'baat tapcafe in Keldabe, where Spar was joined by Shysa and Sull, another ARC trooper deserter. Hoping that a Fett could unite the people of Mandalore, Shysa tried to convince Spar to return to his role. Spar allowed Shysa to suggest that he was considering a return, but he did not commit and ultimately refused the position. The meeting concluded with the arrival of ex-Jedi Bardan Jusik. Sull, harboring a grudge against the Jedi, initiated an altercation, which Spar attempted to stop. However, Spar himself still resented Jusik for being a Jedi, and the two ARC troopers confronted Jusik and Fi as they prepared to leave for Coruscant. Jusik placed himself at their mercy, and after learning that he no longer held allegiance to the Jedi, Spar backed down, with Sull following suit. Having heard rumors that Jusik's friend, Kal Skirata, was seeking a cure for the clones' rapid aging and shortened lifespan, Spar verified the story with Jusik. Jusik confirmed it, and Spar and Sull joined the other two to head to Coruscant.

Spar reunited with Gilimar and met with Skirata a month later on Coruscant. The ex-Mandalore agreed to join Skirata in exchange for a share of any treatment they found. Skirata informed them of Ovolot Qail Uthan, a Separatist scientist who had worked on the clone genome and could help them; she was currently in the Republic's custody. He also wanted to free his daughter, Ruusaan, who was imprisoned in the Republic Detention Center in Pols Anaxes. Spar, along with Sull, Fi, and Jusik, was assigned to this mission. After nearly two months of preparation, the trio of clones infiltrated the center on Anaxes disguised in clone trooper armor, with Jusik posing as their prisoner. They claimed to the camp commander that Jusik was there to identify Ruusaan, presenting false credentials to move her to Coruscant. Upon removing Ruusaan from her cell, the girl resisted; Spar had to restrain her until Jusik administered a Force Stun. They managed to get her to their spacecraft and escape the planet. They rendezvoused with Skirata's adopted son, Ordo, on Coruscant, during the Battle of Coruscant. Jusik was able to get Spar offworld in his Aggressor assault fighter, along with Sull, Ruusaan Skirata, ARC trooper Mereel, Uthan, and Jango Fett's sister, Arla—the latter two of whom had been freed from custody on Coruscant in the days prior.

With Spar's refusal to return, Fenn Shysa succeeded him as Mandalore. Spar went to Skirata's stronghold at Kyrimorut a few months later to be immunized by Uthan against the FG36 virus, a bioweapon designed by Uthan and now in use by the new Galactic Empire. While there, Spar learned of Uthan's progress on her cure for rapid aging and volunteered to test anything she developed. Spar eventually disappeared into the Extrictarium Nebula. There, he succumbed to clone madness as his mind struggled to reconcile the two sets of memories within it. Years later, Ailyn Vel found him within the nebula. By this point, Spar was uncertain whether he was experiencing reality or hallucinating. Mistaking Spar for her father, Boba Fett, Vel fatally shot him.

Ailyn Vel took Spar's Mandalorian armor and ARC trooper kama, using it to impersonate Boba Fett in her work as a bounty hunter. She was not alone in mistaking him for Fett. Because the Protectors had known him as the son of Jango Fett, Fenn Shysa later identified his commander in the Clone Wars as Boba Fett decades later.

During his time as a clone on Kamino, Alpha-Ø2 demonstrated a level of independence that far exceeded the norm for his fellow soldiers. He found the enforced uniformity and anonymity of the Kaminoan facilities stifling to his free-thinking nature. Throughout his training, Alpha-Ø2 foresaw the fate of the clone army, which partly motivated his escape. Fi, a deserter from the Grand Army, believed that Spar did not feel guilty about his desertion but suspected that the ARC trooper harbored some regret from his past. Although never a cheerful individual, Spar was deeply affected by the war, which diminished him, leaving him traumatized and eventually leading to his descent into complete delusion and an inability to distinguish reality.

Spar was a perceptive and knowledgeable individual who kept abreast of information circulating on Mandalore. He was skilled in stealth combat tactics and could evade enemies attempting to track him. His training and the skills inherited from Fett gave him an advantage in surviving in the galaxy. Unlike other clone troopers, Spar did not adhere to rules of engagement, preferring to kill rather than take prisoners.

Spar placed great importance on the old traditions of the Mandalorians. He despised Fett for selling his genes to create the Grand Army; however, Spar was himself a mercenary, seeking payment for his services. He harbored a lasting grudge against the Jedi, even resenting those who had left the Order. Spar derived great satisfaction from learning about the Jedi Order's destruction at the hands of the clone army during Order 66, viewing it as a consequence of their willingness to lead the Grand Army.

Spar was initially created for the roleplaying game sourcebook Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds—by Daniel Wallace, Jason Fry, Craig Robert Carey, Jeff Quick, and Jeffrey Quinn—as a non-playable character for use in adventures. Spar's character description was concise, detailing his biography up to his escape and ending with a note that Jango Fett might pursue the rogue clone in the future. Abel G. Peña retconned Spar in the 2005 Star Wars Insider article The History of the Mandalorians to provide an explanation for a decades-old reference that had become a continuity error with the release of the prequel trilogy.

The Marvel Star Wars comic Star Wars (1977) 68, published in 1982, depicted the Mandalorian Protectors fighting in the Clone Wars. According to a story recounted by Fenn Shysa in the comic, Shysa and his friend, Tobbi Dala, had served under Boba Fett, fighting for the Emperor against the Jedi. During this time, they had been tasked with capturing Princess Leia. Most of these references became problematic with later revelations about the Clone Wars: Boba Fett was only ten to thirteen years old during the conflict, Leia was born after its conclusion, and the Emperor, Palpatine, was only the Supreme Chancellor at the time. The latter two inconsistencies were resolved by having the Mandalorians serve Palpatine in his guise as Darth Sidious and having them capture Leia's mother, Padmé Amidala, instead. To address the issue of Boba Fett's appearance, Peña had been considering the idea of Alpha-Ø2 for some time. With the release of Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds, Peña realized that Spar could be incorporated into the role he had envisioned. His retcon established Spar as the leader of the Mandalorians during the Clone Wars, leading characters like Shysa to believe that Boba had been leading them due to a rumor that he was the "son of Jango Fett." Peña also created Spar's clone name, Alpha-Ø2. The use of the "Ø" was a visual cue, a sign that distinguished Spar and indicated that he was somehow defective. Due to a layout error in the printing of the article, Spar's image was mistakenly placed over a heading of Jango and Boba Fett. The prominent scar on Spar's face originated in an earlier draft of the article's description of Spar. The article did not specify the timeframe for Spar's death; Peña estimates that it occurred between 7 and 11 ABY, after the Boba Fett: Death, Lies, & Treachery trade paperback.

New inconsistencies arose with the release of the novel Legacy of the Force: Revelation by Karen Traviss. While earlier works had established Fenn Shysa as a follower of Spar who was mistaken about his identity, Revelation stated that Shysa was the true leader behind Spar, using Spar as a figurehead Mandalore and claiming that he was Boba. Traviss's subsequent novel, Order 66: A Republic Commando Novel, further altered Spar's story. In the novel, Spar is said to have declined Shysa's request to become Mandalore. He never assumes the role of Mandalore and never joins the Separatists; the novel concludes with Shysa becoming what is claimed to be the first Mandalore since Jango Fett. However, this new version of events has been an anomaly; later sources such as The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, The Essential Atlas, and Galaxy at War confirm that Spar was Mandalore, with the latter source specifically addressing the Shysa aspect as a rumor. Other errors have since occurred—the sequel to Order 66, Imperial Commando: 501st, states that Spar received inoculations for Separatist viruses, a statement made difficult by the fact that Spar deserted the Grand Army of the Republic before the Separatists ever went to war against the Republic.