Star Wars: Is Captain Rex an ARC Trooper? Explained

Arguably, the most popular clone trooper in the storyline of Star Wars is Captain Rex, who was introduced during the events of ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars,’ where he was the most prominent clone working together with Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano in the 501^st Legion of the Grand Army of the Republic. One of the things we learned about Rex was that he was among the elite of the elite, having been able to survive until the fall of the Empire due to his skills and experience as a soldier. So, does that mean that Captain Rex was an ARC Trooper?

What is an ARC Trooper?

One of the things that we know about the Star Wars world is that the clones played an important role during the events of the Clone Wars and, more importantly, in the fall of the Jedi Order during the events of Order 66. But while it may be true that the clones were compelled to kill all of the Jedi they encountered, what was also true was that they were bred and raised to be soldiers loyal to the Jedi and the Republic during the events of the Clone Wars.

That is why there were a lot of prominent clones during the Clone Wars, and all of them were good soldiers who fought hard for the Republic to prevent the Separatists from tearing the galaxy apart. And while all the clone troopers were cloned from Jango Fett’s genes, not all were created equal.

Some clones weren’t as skilled or as good as the others, and some clones had unique personalities suited to specific tasks. This is even though all of the clone troopers didn’t have “mutations” that made them unique, unlike the clones of the Bad Batch. Still, some clones were simply better than others because they were made and raised to be the best. And there were no finer soldiers than the ARC Troopers.

The ARC Troopers were an elite variant of the regular clone trooper. “ARC” stands for Advanced Recon Commandos. These clones were regarded as the best soldiers in the entire Grand Army of the Republic, not including the Jedi Generals. The ARC Troopers were some of the first elite soldiers of the Republic as they were the ones who were in charge of training the first wave of clone commanders during the events of the Clone Wars.

ARC Troopers were carefully chosen from the Grand Army of the Republic ranks as this status was only given to those who could distinguish themselves as the elite of the elite in terms of their accomplishments and on-field performance and skills. We saw the likes of Echo and Fives getting promoted to ARC Trooper during the events of ‘The Clone Wars.’ Most of the ARC Troopers were the ones that the Jedi Generals trusted the most to carry out their orders and even to act independently when it came to certain missions involving their expertise and skills.

However, ARC Troopers were already identifiable to Shaak Ti, who oversaw the training of all of the clone troopers on Kamino. During the basic training that all clone cadets had to go through, Shaak Ti and her different subordinates already used the performances of the cadets to gauge whether or not they had the potential to become ARC Troopers in the future.

There were also ARC Troopers who were specifically trained to become ARC Troopers instead of giving them the distinction as a reward for their exemplary performance on the field. One such clone is the most prominent of all the clone troopers. We are, of course, talking about none other than Captain Rex, who was given his own unique armor set as a way to differentiate him from all of the other clone troopers and ARC Troopers, as he was specifically created and trained to have a high position of command within the Grand Army.

Rex was one of the best ARC Troopers

As mentioned, the most prominent out of all of the clone troopers we met during the events of ‘The Clone Wars’ was none other than Captain Rex of the 501^st Legion. Rex may not have appeared in the events of the prequel trilogy. Still, he was the one clone who often appeared in ‘The Clone Wars’ because of his close relationship with Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano, who were the two top commanding officers of the 501^st Legion.

We also mentioned that Captain Rex was an ARC Trooper. However, unlike most of the other ARC Troopers, Rex was trained to become one instead of allowing him to earn this distinction by performing exceptionally well on the field. That’s because Rex was one of Kamino’s first clones.

Rex was grown to be one of the greatest soldiers in the galaxy, and that was why he was raised to become a leader. He was given additional command training before the Clone Wars to become a Clone Captain. Before being assigned to the 501^st Legion, Rex was given additional ARC Trooper training.

That means he was the product of strict ARC Trooper training. As such, the Republic meant for Rex to become an ARC Trooper. After he completed his training to become an ARC Trooper, he was subsequently assigned to work under General Anakin Skywalker during the Clone Wars, as it was through his exceptional performance as an elite soldier that he earned Anakin’s trust and Ahsoka’s admiration.

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