In new canon, what do we know about Sifo-Dyas commissioning the clone army?

Question

Initially, I was under the impression that Sifo-Dyas was killed before the army was ordered. Obi-Wan said the same in Episode II and it was never contradicted.

However, according to this article, he did commission the creation of the clones. I watched Season 6 of the 3D animated Clone Wars series, and I remember the arc about the Clones, but I don't remember it being claimed that Sifo-Dyas was actually the one who placed the order. I suppose I will have to re-watch it, but that creates a number of problems in my mind.

The biggest of which is how Sifo-Dyas ever planned to pay for them. I have no problem believing that Tyranus could foot the bill, but Sifo-Dyas never intended to be taken over like that. So what was his original plan?

This question addresses the problem from a Legends perspective, but as far as I can tell, none of the information there is canon anymore.

A second problem that I have is the fact that Sifo-Dyas was kicked off the council for his extreme views on military creation. I simply cannot believe that Windu and Yoda would forget about that and act like they didn't know who commissioned the army.

Finally, the issue of inconsistency with Obi-Wan as mentioned earlier. If Obi-Wan was wrong about Sifo-Dyas' date of death, he should have been contradicted by another character. I'm not sure if any explanation exists that takes care of this.

If we have any canon information that explains these problems, I would love to know it.

Answer 1

  Sifo-Dyas definitely did place an order for a Clone Army, but details are unclear

In canon, Sifo-Dyas did indeed place initial order for an army, but how he made the initial payment is unclear. Sifo-Dyas did not provide genetic template for said army, this was done by man called Tyranus (Dooku). We know from Clone Wars TV show that Kaminoans contacted Tyranus when the secret of inhibitor chip was accidentally discovered, so they definitely differentiated between the two (i.e. theory that Dooku introduced himself as Sifo-Dyas is not correct). How did Tyranus persuade Kaminoans to let him take over Sifo-Dyas's order after his death is also unclear.

In Legends, novel Darth Plagueis gives some explanation how did Sifo-Dyas acquire sufficient funds to finance Clone Army. He was approached by wealthy banker Hego Damask (public persona of Darth Plagueis) under the pretense of mutual worry about the fate of the Republic. Under their agreement, Sifo-Dyas would place an order for an army, and Damask would provide the funds. In this version, Dooku was a close friend of Sifo-Dyas, but that still does not explain how did he took over.

Note that the novel Darth Plagueis could be considered as a semi-canon, because writer James Luceno continues to work for Disney, and he put some characters from that book into the new canon (like droid 11-4D for example).

Answer 2

I always assumed that Count Dooku placed the order for the Clone Army under the alias of Sifo-Dyas after the actual Sifo-Dyas had died, so that no-one would ever be able to trace the order back to the Sith. The Kaminoans, who received the order, certainly wouldn't know that it wasn't the real Sifo-Dyas, never having met him; and Obi-Wan would have to have been exceptionally sharp-witted to even suspect that his 'Sifo-Dyas' and their 'Sifo-Dyas' might not be the same person.