Jesse

Jesse, also known by his designated number CT-5597, was an Advanced Recon Commando and Clone Lieutenant who served in the 501st Legion during the Clone Wars. Like all clone troopers, he was bred from the genetic template of Jango Fett and trained to serve in the Grand Army of the Republic. Driven by a sense of patriotism, Jesse was a loyal soldier who fought hard to defeat the enemies of the Galactic Republic. He was proud of his service in the Republic Military, wearing the Republic crest as a facial tattoo and on the helmet of his clone trooper armor.
As a trooper in the 501st Legion, Jesse served under the command of Jedi General Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Commander Ahsoka Tano, and Clone Captain Rex. He also served under another Jedi officer, General Pong Krell, who ordered Jesse's execution alongside Fives for disobeying his orders during the Battle of Umbara. Jesse was spared by his fellow clones, however, while Krell was revealed as a traitor to the Republic. By the time of the Battle of Anaxes, Jesse had joined the ranks of the Advanced Recon Commandos and was outfitted with Phase II ARC Trooper Armor.
Jesse joined the 332nd Division, a detachment of the 501st created by Skywalker and led by the newly promoted Clone Commander Rex, shortly after the Battle of Yerbana. He served with Tano during the Siege of Mandalore, but then turned against her as a result of his secret programming which compelled him to comply with Order 66—the command to exterminate the Jedi Order for treason. In the ensuing skirmish aboard the Venator-class Star Destroyer Tribunal, Jesse took command of the division and demoted Commander Rex for refusing to execute Tano. Despite the lieutenant's efforts to carry out the will of the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, Tano and Rex both survived by escaping from the Star Destroyer as it crashed on a moon, resulting in the deaths of Jesse and the other clones. Tano and Rex buried Jesse alongside his men, and used their helmets as grave markers.
==Biography==
===Creation and Battle of Mimban===
CT-5597, who in time took on the name Jesse, was a clone trooper in the 501st Legion of the Galactic Republic's Grand Army during the Clone Wars against the Confederacy of Independent Systems.
Jesse fought during the Battle of Mimban alongside Clone Captain Rex and the clone trooper Hardcase. The battle was led by Jedi General Laan Tik until he was killed and the chain of command granted Senator Jar Jar Binks leadership. After that, Rex consulted with Jesse and two others as they planned to evacuate the 501st forces while the captain dealt with a shield generator.
===Battle of Saleucami===
By the time of the Battle of Saleucami, Jesse had achieved a military rank higher than that of fellow soldiers Kix and Hardcase. When the 501st landed with the 7th Sky Corps's 212th Attack Battalion on the planet Saleucami to track down Separatist General Grievous, Jesse traveled with Captain Rex. Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi soon ordered Rex to take Jesse, Kix, and Hardcase on BARC speeders and search the wetlands. As the group traveled, they were detected by a pair of commando droid snipers, who shot and injured Rex. Jesse shouted for Kix to protect their captain as he and Hardcase chased the droids and destroyed them. Kix then contacted Jesse and told him to return quickly, as Rex was badly injured. Deciding their next move, Jesse saw that they were on farmland and took Rex to the farmstead for shelter and medical attention.
There, they met a Twi'lek woman named Suu, who initially drew her weapon on the clones. However, Jesse promised that they meant no harm and explained that they needed a place for Rex to recover. She allowed them to leave Rex there to overnight recuperate. Jesse was left in charge of the squad, and they continued through the wetlands to rendezvous with General Kenobi, Clone Marshal Commander Cody, and their forces. When Republic forces eventually converged on Grievous, Jesse and his squad tried to shoot down a shuttle that was trying to pick up Grievous, but they failed to stop the Separatist general from escaping.
===Training Ahsoka===
Later, Jesse was involved in helping Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano with her lightsaber training. Jesse joined the 501st's Jedi General, Anakin Skywalker, Rex, and several other clones from the 501st at the military operations center to help Tano with her exercises. Skywalker directed the clones to form a ring around Tano and to fire stun blasts at her so she could practice defending herself. During the first run, Tano began to struggle, and Jesse's blast eventually stunned her, leaving her unconscious for a full hour. Jesse and the others stood around together and waited for Tano to wake up, and when the Padawan rose, Jesse shouted his apologies. The training would continue, with the clones standing around and waiting between rounds when Tano was eventually stunned and rendered unconscious.
===Battle of Umbara===
In 20 BBY, Jesse was with the 501st when the Republic launched their attack to retake Umbara. After they landed and overtook the Umbaran's initial position, command of the 501st was given to Jedi General Pong Krell when Anakin Skywalker was called back to Coruscant by order of the Jedi High Council. During their first attempt to take the capital, General Krell led the 501st to the main capital road without resting. An attack by the enemy forces forced Jesse and the rest of the 501st were forced to fall back.
As the men tired out after long hours of marching, Jesse and Fives asked Rex if they could rest, but their request was denied by Krell. When they were ordered to advance directly up the main road without any recon, Jesse and clone trooper Tup complained about Krell's tactics. Their advance ended in disaster, and the advancing squads retreated after suffering heavy losses.
When they were ordered to take an Umbaran airbase, Krell commanded the troops to advance down a narrow gorge straight to the capital. This time a large portion of the men disagreed with the plan, with Jesse saying that Krell was crazy for telling them to advance without recon or air support, expressing that without knowing what they were up against, the casualties would be high. However, the clones were instructed by Rex to trust their leadership. Jesse held his ground against the Umbaran Militia's mobile heavy cannons while the clones took more heavy losses until Fives and Hardcase formed their own plan and destroyed them with commandeered Zenuas 33 Umbaran starfighters.
After establishing camp at the airbase, Krell sent Jesse to stack ordnance while Fives and Hardcase worked on the Umbaran starfighters, breaking the Umbarans' codes. By the time Jesse joined them, Krell had ordered a reckless attack on the capital in an attempt to quickly aid Kenobi and his forces. When the clones learned about the long-range missiles that were standing in their way, Jesse agreed with Fives that instead they could use the Umbaran starfighters to blow up the Separatist supply ship that was causing the problems instead of follow one of Krell's "suicide missions" through the missiles. However, when Krell refused to agree their plan, Jesse continued to work on the starfighters with Fives and Hardcase. However, Krell stopped them and insisted that they concentrate on their attack. Thus, Jesse, Fives, and Hardcase decided to attack the supply ship themselves, without Krell's support. They told Rex about their plan, but he warned them that he would not be able to protect them if they were caught.
Jesse, Fives, and Hardcase took the starfighters, posing as a recon patrol, and made their way into the supply ship. They were unable to destroy the ship's main reactor with its shields up, but as they started to question their plan, Hardcase jumped out of his fighter and told Fives and Jesse to leave. Fives was reluctant, but Jesse convinced him to leave by telling him that he knew Hardcase, and there wasn't any point in staying. Jesse and Fives made a narrow escape while Hardcase stayed behind to blow up the ship, sacrificing himself in the process. When Jesse and Fives got back, they were taken to General Krell, where he had them punished and sent to the brig.
Rex unsuccessfully argued with Krell to release Jesse and Fives, resulting in Krell ordering their execution. Just before the order came to fire, Fives spoke up against Krell's orders, and in response, the firing squad missed Fives and Jesse on purpose. They were put back in the brig to keep them out of the way to be dealt with later. Jesse and Fives were held in the brig when the rest of the clones were sent out for battle, who had unknowingly been set up by Krell so that they would attack a platoon under "Waxer" and fire on their own men. When Rex and the 501st and 212th returned to arrest Krell, they freed Jesse and Fives along the way and gave them back their armor and weapons. Jesse, Rex, and the other clones then stormed the command center to arrest Krell for treason. However, Krell escaped into the jungle. Jesse, Rex, Fives and the other clones captured Krell, who revealed that he was a Separatist agent. Jesse agreed with Fives and Rex that he should be executed. He then watched as Krell was executed by Dogma, who had previously put his faith in Krell's tactics.
===Battle of Ringo Vinda and aftermath===
Jesse fought alongside other members of the 501st at the Battle of Ringo Vinda, which saw Skywalker lead them alongside Jedi Masters Tiplee and Tiplar, and their clone forces. When Tup fired on and killed Tiplar, Jesse and the rest of the Republic forces retreated. Following the battle, the 501st returned to Coruscant, and Jesse and Kix went to 79's, a bar frequented by clones. The two were sitting at the bar when they were spotted by Fives, who was wanted for the attempted murder of Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine. Fives followed Kix into the refresher to give him coordinates to a location where he wanted to meet with Rex and Skywalker. Kix informed Rex and Skywalker of this, and they met Fives there, during which he was killed by the Coruscant Guard. Sometime after Fives' death, Jesse became an Advanced Recon Commando because of his skills in combat.
===Raid of the Separatist supply base===
Using intel from the Jedi Quinlan Vos, who was secretly loyal to Count Dooku, Jesse joined a party that would steal medications, weapons, starship repair parts, and foodstuffs from a Separatist supply storage base located on an asteroid. After Skywalker, Kenobi, Vos, and Akar-Deshu briefly investigated the site, Jesse and several other clones, including Rex and Cody, rendezvoused with them in three transports that they would load the supplies into.
As Jesse and the others loaded he supplies, Vos discovered bombs planted inside the base that were set to go off in three minutes. As they were not confident in disarming the vast number of bombs in time, Jesse and the others evacuated the base and escaped before the explosions.
===Battle for Anaxes===
Jesse later participated in the Battle of Anaxes, a lengthy campaign between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems over the planet of Anaxes. During the campaign, the Republic forces were initially left at a loss, and the planet was on the verge of falling to the Separatists. Suspicious, Rex and Cody met with Skywalker and Mace Windu to discuss their recent failures. Rex theorized that the Separatists were predicting his personal strategies, and, because of the tactics used by himself and the Confederacy, he now thought Echo was still alive.
Windu allowed Rex and Cody to bring a small squad of clones with them, which included Jesse and Kix, to go behind enemy lines and assault the Separatist cyber center to determine whether the enemy was in possession of Rex's algorithm. For the mission, Cody called for the help of Clone Force 99, nicknamed "The Bad Batch," an elite group of clones with desirable genetic mutations. Rex and Cody gathered Jesse and Kix to walk with them and greet the mutated clones for themselves. As they arrived, the clone force flew their shuttle aggressively into the hangar, leading Jesse and Kix to exchange looks of contempt. Cody subsequently introduced everybody, and the group stepped into a Republic gunship to be taken behind enemy lines.
When Bad Batch member Crosshair questioned Rex's plans, Jesse stepped up to Crosshair in Rex's defense. Bad Batch member Wrecker then got involved, taking and lifting Jesse by the throat. Rex insisted Wrecker put Jesse down, but the situation didn't resolve until Bad Batch leader Hunter told Wrecker to drop Jesse. Jesse then helped Rex and the Bad Batch invade the Anaxes Separatist Security Outpost before they abandoned it to break into a Separatist Cyber Center. While Rex and Tech extracted data of the algorithm being traced from Skako Minor, soon they were being overrun by Separatist reinforcements, so they left the Cyber Center and headed back to Republic lines.
Jesse was later present at the planning base of the attack on the Separatists' assembly complex, where Windu suggested moving their forces to the assembly complex. He participated in the combined attack on the complex to overtake it. After it was discovered that the Separatists had planted a powerful bomb in the assembly complex, Kenobi ordered Jesse to evacuate his men. The bomb would eventually be disarmed, with the Republic winning the battle.
===The Siege of Mandalore===
By the end of the war, Jesse's survival to that point made him one of the older clones of Jango Fett still alive amongst the 501st. Troopers under his command, like Sterling, were far younger than him.
Following the Battle of Yerbana, the 332nd Division was formed to take part in the Siege of Mandalore, a joint invasion of Mandalore by the Mandalorian resistance and the Grand Army of the Republic in order to capture the rogue Sith Lord Maul. Jesse was one of the clones part of this company and accompanied former Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano, Lady Bo-Katan Kryze, and others aboard a LAAT/i gunship as part of the first wave of landing craft en route to the capital city of Sundari. Before the battle, he witnessed a communication via hologram between Kryze and Prime Minister Almec. Shortly afterwards, the Republic gunships fell under attack by Maul's forces, forcing everyone inside the gunship to join the battle in the air, including Jesse, who used his jetpack to combat them.
The Mandalorian resistance and Grand Army of the Republic landed and took control of much of Sundari in the ensuing battle, forcing Maul's forces into hiding. Jesse, along with several other clones, were on their way to reinforce the entry point on C-deck in the undercity of Sundari before Maul's forces attempted a counterattack against them. During the attack, Maul easily tore through their forces, asking about Tano as he did so. Using the Force, Maul looked in Jesse's mind and realized he was an older clone, most likely having served under Tano before. Knowing this, Maul took Jesse alive to get information from him about Tano.
Maul took Jesse to where his forces were hiding from the Mandalorian resistance and Grand Army of the Republic, deeper in the Undercity. Jesse was placed in stuncuffs and held in place by one of Maul's leaders, Rook Kast, and struggled while telling Maul that he wouldn't tell him anything. As Maul mentioned the plan laid out by Darth Sidious, Jesse asked what plan he was referring to. With this, Maul explained that the plan had a grand design in which he had had a part to play, but he was cast aside when he had fulfilled his purpose. Maul turned back towards Jesse and said that he needed some information from him, but Jesse, not knowing of Maul's capabilities with the Force, refused to tell him anything. As Maul fully turned towards him, Maul explained that his mind would speak to him or it would break, reaching his hand out and using the Force to probe his mind for information on Tano. As the interrogation continued, Jesse cried out in pain.
After the interrogation, Maul brought Jesse to the Sundari Royal Palace, where he awaited the arrival of Tano, Kryze, and Rex. As they entered, Kryze rushed towards Maul and fired her blasters at him, but Maul effortlessly used the Force to push the blaster bolts aside before lifting Kryze into the air and dropping her. After this feeble attack, Maul used the Force to free Jesse of his stuncuffs and allowed him to return to his allies as a show of good faith towards them. Once he returned, he apologized for giving Maul information during his earlier interrogation. Tano forgave him, and Rex helped him out of the palace.
===Order 66 and death===
Following the capture of Maul and the defeat of his Mandalorian commandos, Jesse departed Mandalore along with the rest of Rex and Ahsoka's surviving troops on board the Venator-class Star Destroyer Tribunal. However, during the voyage back to Coruscant to deliver the captive Maul to the Jedi Council in order to stand trial, Darth Sidious, whom Maul had been growing increasingly paranoid of, initiated Order 66, activating all the clones' inhibitor chips, including Jesse's. The clones immediately turned on Tano, led by Rex. Jesse entered the command room alongside a group of other troopers, opening fire on Tano, who escaped in the smoky haze caused by the firefight. Seeing Tano had escaped, Rex ordered Jesse and the other troopers to hunt Tano down, reminding them of the directive of Order 66.
Shortly afterwards, Tano captured Rex and removed his inhibitor chip. Free of his programming, he aided her in her escape and cut all contact with the other clones, leaving Jesse to organize the clone forces hunting her. After Tano and Rex's escape from the medical bay, Jesse was informed that "Target 1" was on the move and asked after Rex's whereabouts, a conversation overheard by Maul, who had been released by Tano as a diversion for the clones, on a stolen wrist comm. When told that he was still missing, Jesse asked if Rex had assisted in Tano's escape, but no one was certain if he had. Maul later destroyed the Tribunal hyperdrive, setting it on a collision course with a moon. After Tano and Rex took over the hangar control room, Jesse was informed that the clones had lost contact. This led Jesse to order several clones to meet him in the main hangar to cut off anyone trying to escape, as the ship's escape pods had been destroyed earlier. Maul overheard that conversation as well.
When R7-A7, one of the astromech droids assisting Tano, located a shuttle in Bay 12 and opened the bay's blast door, Jesse and his men revealed themselves, running out into the central hangar from the other bays and gathering in formation atop the doors to the repair bay. Jesse told his men that anyone trying to escape would have to go through them. He was shortly informed that Maul was on his way to the hangar just before Rex entered, having apparently taken Tano prisoner and ordering the clones to hold their fire. Jesse ordered all other forces on the ship to converge on his position, before reminding Rex that he was under orders to execute Tano. Rex claimed he had the situation under control, and attempted to persuade Jesse that since Tano was no longer a Jedi, she was not technically a target of Order 66. Jesse reiterated that Rex himself had earlier said they were under special orders from Sidious to execute her. Rex tried to appeal to their long comradeship, but after a brief hesitation, Jesse, unable to resist the inhibitor chip, accused Rex of treason against the Grand Army of the Republic, stating he would be demoted from Commander and executed alongside Tano.
Before Jesse could execute the order, the hangar elevators were dropped by the droids assisting Tano and Rex. Jesse himself was Force-pushed by Tano into the hole, but survived the fall and, after waking up, began shooting at Tano, who had herself been Force-pushed into the hole by Maul and been caught by a cable from RG-G1. Jesse ordered the attack to be redirected at the droids when he realized the elevator controls were locked. Tano and Rex were eventually forced to retreat to the repair level after Jesse's reinforcements arrived and Maul escaped, leading to the droids' destruction after they had launched the lifts back up to clear the level. He led one last assault on the two targets, but he was pushed back by Tano with the Force. At that point, lateral control of the ship was lost after the command bridge exploded, causing a chain reaction of destruction through the ship. Tano and Rex escaped the Tribunal on a BTL-B Y-wing starfighter/bomber they found in the repair bay before the ship crashed. Jesse was killed alongside the other clones when the Tribunal impacted the moon. His body was later recovered and buried by Tano and Rex, as were those of his men, with their helmets being placed above them to mark the troopers' final resting places.
==Personality and traits==
CT-5597 gained the name Jesse and, as a clone of the bounty hunter Jango Fett, was a human male who stood at 1.83 meters tall, or six feet. Jesse had black hair, though he maintained a shaven head throughout the Clone Wars, and was older than the clones active during the Siege of Mandalore. Jesse had tan skin and brown eyes, and sported a tattoo of the Republic crest on his face.
Jesse was a hard-fighting patriot who proudly wore the Republic crest on his helmet, alongside a facial tattoo of the same symbol. Like his fellow clones in the tight-knit 501st Legion, Jesse was loyal to his Jedi General, Anakin Skywalker. Among his fellow clone troopers, Jesse was well known to have a sense of humor, and Fives referenced it prior to their planned execution, believing that Jesse had simply made another joke. Jesse was fiercely loyal to Captain Rex, confronting Crosshair and scuffling with members of the Bad Batch when he felt that his captain had been disrespected. However, under the effects of the inhibitor chips, this relationship was inconsequential.
Jesse had the trust of both his brothers and also Anakin Skywalker, who trusted him to help train his Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, on multiple occasions.
During the Battle of Umbara, Jesse strongly opposed Krell's tactics and felt that he was throwing away the lives of his brothers. He was one of the many clones to oppose his tactics and argue with Rex, but Jesse took matters a step further when he joined Hardcase and Fives in directly disobeying Krell and taking Umbaran starfighters to carry out their own mission instead of following his orders. By the time of the Siege of Mandalore, he was older than some of the clones under his command, including the trooper Sterling.
However, the execution of Order 66 turned Jesse against the Jedi Order, becoming blindly loyal to Darth Sidious because he was unable to resist the conditioning imposed by his control chip. As a result of his programming, Jesse lost all parts of his personality that allowed him to distinguish himself from the others. He accused his brother and comrade Rex of treason and ceaselessly attempted to kill his friend Ahsoka Tano, both without a second thought. He believed he was bringing them to justice for treason, yet his conditioning would lead him to his death when the Tribunal crashed.
==Skills and abilities==
A soldier of the 501st Legion, Jesse was skilled in both unarmed and armed combat. He also understood military tactics. Having proved himself highly capable as a warrior and trusted as a veteran soldier, he was promoted to an ARC trooper. He was proficient with several of the main blasters that were standard among the Grand Army of the Republic.
==Equipment==
Early in the war, Jesse wore Phase I clone trooper armor with custom blue markings representing the 501st Legion. While his armor was plain during a training session with Ahsoka Tano, he would ultimately retain similar blue markings and move the appearance across to his Phase II clone trooper armor. Jesse's helmet had the cog-shaped symbol of the Galactic Republic on it to match his tattoo, which was the same symbol. During the Battle of Umbara, Jesse also donned a macrobinocular set on his Phase II helmet. As an ARC trooper, Jesse wore Phase II ARC Trooper Armor, which could also be given a set of macrobinoculars. 
Jesse used a DC-15A blaster carbine over the course of the Clone Wars. As an ARC trooper, he was also equipped with two DC-17 hand blasters. During the Battle of Saleucami, Jesse drove a BARC speeder. He also managed to fly an Umbaran starfighter during the Battle of Umbara.
==Behind the scenes==
Jesse first appeared in "The Deserter," which first aired on January 1, 2010 as part of The Clone Wars: Season Two. He was voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, who voiced all clones in the show.
In "Practice Makes Perfect," the fifth episode of the 2022 anthology series Tales of the Jedi, Jesse is shown wearing unpainted Phase I clone trooper armor. However, in the episode, Ahsoka Tano's test is overseen by Tera Sinube, whom she first met in "Lightsaber Lost," which is dated to 21 BBY. Jesse is depicted wearing painted armor in his first appearance, "The Deserter", which is set before "Lightsaber Lost" in the official chronological episode order, as well as the comic "501 Plus One," which is set in 22 BBY.Star Wars: Galactic Atlas places the early events of the Battle of Ryloth and the mission to Rodia to 22 BBY. As the Battle of Mimban takes place between the events of the pieces of media the other events are attached to according to , the battle must also take place in 22 BBY. As such, Jesse must have had another suit of armor or removed the paint job from his gear for a time.
==Appearances==
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==Notes and references==
Category:Advanced Recon Commandos
Category:Clone trooper lieutenants
Category:Individuals with he/him pronouns
Category:Males
Category:Officers of the 501st Legion (Galactic Republic)