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I just returned from watching the movie, and I'm not sure if I heard this wrongly since everything was going on for the first time to me and I was busy absorbing everything in the movie as it happened:

When Finn defected and escaped with Poe, Kylo Ren requested for information on him, whether he is a defective trooper or something. The reply was that, if I remembered correctly, nothing is wrong with him on record, that he had just returned from conditioning, and this is a first-time offence.

Looking back at the movie, who/what are the First Order stormtroopers composed of?

One theory I had in my head is that he is a clone, especially since early in the movie - around or before the time of the scene mentioned in the last spoiler tag, I seemed to have heard the mention of a clone program (or could have misheard it). Some elements that seem reminiscent of it is Finn having been called FN-2187 all his life - like a birth number - and this mention of conditioning. I am reminded of concepts that exist in the EU such as the use of multiple clone templates, and flash memory training that has been used to condition troopers, including Darth Vader's own apprentices partly to instil loyalty. Some may perhaps argue the First Order to be unable to afford clones, but hey they can afford a superlaser the size of a planet instead of a moon...

I may have heard wrong in the movie, however, especially since

When Finn confessed to Rey that he is a stormtrooper, he mentioned how he has never known his own parents. This may suggest he is birth-born, but then again that could have been a clone grappling with his own identity, or some plot device of a clone being deceived into believing what he is actually not.

Regardless of whether my own theory is correct, it seems clear that the stormtroopers of the First Order are different from the stormtroopers of Palpatine's Empire - they aren't simple trained conscripts, but something more. What is this more:

Are they clones, babies seized from birth to be trained and indoctrinated - a practice somewhat similar to what Republic-era Jedi do - or something else?

thegreatjedi
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  • "I am reminded of concepts that exist in the EU..." I assume you don't mean European Union... ? – cat Dec 28 '15 at 17:11
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    I believe your question is entirely covered in http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/111963/are-the-empire-or-first-order-not-using-clones-any-more-if-not-why/111987 In short, it's complicated (there may be clones used by the First Order somewhere), but Finn and his cohort are not clones. – recognizer Dec 28 '15 at 17:20

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I thought it was explained at one point in the movie that children were taken from their families at very young ages and trained to be Storm Troopers by the First Order.

gotorg
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In the film it is cleared by talks between Ren and Hux that the first order contemplated using clones but people like hux (I THINK hux and his father I read) managed to convince them that clones are not needed.

Thus they took normal young children from their families indoctrinated them and trained them and indoctrinated them again and again to form the stormtroopers of now.

This also explains why they are regularly looked at if they show signs of strange behaviour and are sent to corrections if so (as Finn was)....thus more indoctrination for those. For clones this is normally not necessary as their free will,... as seen with the clone troopers (reference episode 2) is reduced and their loyality programmed.

Thomas
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