YOU GUYS!!! I noticed something while rewatching the Mandalorian today and needed to share it with my fellow Star Wars nerds!!! (Galactic geeks perhaps? We need a name for us Star Wars nerds!)
They specify in Mando that the last 4 digits of the chain code tell the individual’s age!
Which tells us a few things:
1) there are at least a few species of interest to the empire that can live up to or beyond 1000 years of age, or they wouldn’t really care about that. We know over 100 years is fairly common, Ugnauts for example, but only a few examples of species over 1000. Even Yoda didn’t live for 1 whole millennia, tho it’s hard to say if that’s common for his species or if his life was actually cut short because Jedi have a tendency to have shorter lifespans than their natural species
2) with every year that passes the chain code changes. Making it easy for them to catch someone if they type the wrong age, whether accidentally or not
3) it’s also why it’s hard to hide a clone. Even with forged identities and fake ages, they’d have to keep forging new identities every few years, or the empire is gonna notice that their ages increase too fast for a normal human
Layer upon layer, the empire has built bias into everything they do… but in such a way that it is easy to miss and difficult to avoid. Tho, making them “chain” code is very symbolic. They really are chains shackling all people of the Galaxy to the Empire
I wonder if Thrawn gave them his real age…
I wonder if the chain codes also include a species code… and what else is contained in them? Anyone know more details about these chain codes?
This also means that Din’s age might be on screen in that one episode with Jack Black and the Lizzo when Din and Bo show their chain codes! Will update this if I find it when I get there!
Side note: I also love the way the subtitles translate “e chu ta” as “hey” in episode 1, as though it’s just a minor thing