Once in a while I will come across a Star Wars fan wondering if the Kaminoan Nala Se could be in the Mandalorian. I’ve haven’t given it too much thought before. However, with both the Bad Batch and the Mandalorian season 3 overlapping this year, I thought it might be a good topic to visit.
Who is Nala Se?
As a brief introduction, Nala Se is a Kaminoan doctor and researcher who was first introduced in the Clone Wars. She featured in several story arcs, in that series, and has gone on to be a pivotal character in the Bad Batch.
I’ve written much more on Nala Se in regards to her experiments with the Bad Batch here.
She is both a fascinating mother figure to Omega, even going so far as to give her the Kaminoan jewelry of her people.
At the conclusion of season 1 of the Bad Batch, Nala Se was taken by Imperials to the planet Wayland. She is working at the Imperial cloning research station on Mt. Tantiss.
We know this is a cloning facility because the researcher that speaks to Nala Se at the conclusion of season 1 has the same insignia of cloning operations that Dr. Pershing has in the Mandalorian.
Does it even work with the timeline for Nala Se to be in Mandalorian?
This is the first question we need to ask. Do Kaminoans even live long enough to be in 9 ABY (nine years after the Battle of Yavin aka New Hope time). Supposedly, Legends states that they live up to 80s years. I seem to recall a video somewhere that Halle Burtoni was much older than most, but I will go with 80s years for Nala Se.
We don’t know Nala Se’s age in The Clone Wars or The Bad Batch. She is obviously and adult, and advanced in her position both academically and in terms of her work history.
If Nala Se is as young as 30 in The Bad Batch, and 28 years have elapsed between then and the first season of the Mandalorian, she could be at least 58 years old.
If the Kaminoan doctor was 50, perhaps she would be 78 years.
Since we don’t know her real age, we can’t be definitive if she’s even alive at in 9 ABY. However, if she was on the younger side, she could absolutely still be around. But would the Empire allow Nala Se to live to old age? That’s the real question.
Will Nala Se even survive on Mt. Tantiss
This is actually the real question here. It’s entirely plausible that Nala Se could live long enough to be around during the time of Grogu. But would anyone allow her to live at all?
I have serious doubts the Empire would let Nala Se live once every useful aspect of her cloning abilities were learned and practiced by Emperor Palpatine’s chosen loyal Imperial scientists and geneticists.
The Empire wasted no time in destroying Kamino and quickly killed Lama Su. Just as Lama Su would have had Omega killed as soon as her DNA was extracted, so I believe the Empire will discard Nala Se.
So, personally, I think Nala Se’s chances of surviving the age of the Empire are slim.
In fact, my speculation is that Nala Se will die to protect her clones and/or Omega. However, it’s not completely impossible she’ll die, so lets delve more into Mt. Tantiss and the future of Imperial cloning.
Mt. Tantiss and the future of Imperial Cloning
My guess is that Nala Se will institute the first updated cloning tanks. I’ve theorized that she may focus on fast-made clones, aka Spaarti clones. This will be useful for Palpatine (and later Moff Gideon) to generate clone bodies quickly.
In fact there’s even an interesting theory that Gideon is a clone himself. After all, Cara Dune tells Din Djarin that supposedly Gideon was dead.
Well guess who else was supposed to be dead? Yeah, Palpatine.
We’ve seen Snoke tanks in the Mandalorian. We know from the Rise of Skywalker that multiple Snoke tanks exist on Exegol.
So what happens between Mt. Tantiss and Exegol? By the time we meet Din Djarin and Grogu, Palpatine has already been placed in his new, flawed clone body on Exegol. Yet, these Snoke tanks exist outside of Exegol.
We also know from Shadow of the Sith and the Darth Vader 2020 comics that that Palpatine had already been using his Acolytes to make clones. Dathan himself was already a teenager by the time of Return of the Jedi.
It seems like the Imperial cloning centers will undergo a split at some point. One group will go to Exegol for more arcane Sith procedures, but some elements will remain in the main Galaxy.
Personally I think Gideon is trying to be the new Mandalore, and is trying to make himself force sensitive.
But will Nala Se still be around and working with Dr. Pershing?
It’s not impossible, but I really don’t think so. Most likely the acclaimed Kaminoan doctor will be forced to pass on her knowledge and she will die. Whether she dies on her own terms or another’s is a separate question.