#I've read part of got and seen the clone wars
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Eldritch Echo
So. I haven't seen the Bad Batch and don't really intend to, but I have read some fics (please do not take that as me saying that's the same as understanding the story) and between that and my thoughts of eldritch stuff in Star Wars and a cool art piece I came across that I think was referencing something I don't have the context for, I started wondering what it'd look like if of the Bad Batch, Echo was the only eldritch/cryptid/vampire/otherwise not human one. NOT because of the Techno Union, but because of something that happened sooner OR he'd always been like that. And I might put a bit of that in my vampire clones thing but I was thinking eldritch and I ended up writing a thing. So. Enjoy:
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Crosshair’s willing to admit he doesn’t dislike Echo. He respects the guy’s resilience and his willingness to go with the flow, which is necessary for someone working with their team, even as he rolls his eyes at Echo’s tendency to twitch at the state of their ship and his reluctance to drop the “sir” when talking to Hunter. More than that Echo has zero qualms about sassing him if Crosshair picks a fight and it’s a lot of fun to rile him up.
That said. Echo is also really freaking weird.
Crosshair is very observant, between his eyesight, his role on the team, and his training he had to be and either something’s very off about Echo or he’s started hallucinating because he keeps seeing things that don’t make sense. Not for a reg and not for a cyborg.
He explains this the Hunter once, trying to see if he’s noticed anything, and Hunter frowns. “Can you give me an example?”
“His eyes for one.”
Hunter blinked. “What?”
“We all know what most trooper’s eyes look like. And we’ve seen some variations. But they don’t change color. I’ve seen his eyes go golden or violet, and it wasn’t the lighting.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes I’m sure what do you take me for?” Crosshair snapped. “Look. Next time we’re on a sunny planet. Take a look at his shadow. It doesn’t match him at all. I’ve seen it prowling around him like a tooka without him or a light source moving. It doesn’t look like him either. And remember that time we were sparring and he panicked and bit me? I asked Tech, the Techno Union didn’t do anything to his teeth, but I know what bitemarks look like and that was not it.”
Hunter sighed. “I’ll pay attention but-” He paused. “Huh.”
“What?”
“It might not be anything.” He replies and only knowing that he’s getting to the point keeps Crosshair from interrupting. “But remember how I told you guys that people smell like animals? They’re distinct from each other, and you know I can’t describe it cause I tried to describe you guys, but it’s not like they smell like flowers or old books or whatever people like to think they’d smell like unless they’re wearing a scent. Echo, he doesn’t smell like a trooper. I just never thought about it for some reason.”
“And what does he smell like?”
Hunter frowned as he tried to find the words. “Well. He does smell a bit like a trooper and a bit metallic. But he also smells like, what’s was the spice in that cake you liked so much? The one we found on that mission with the weird vultures?”
Crosshair hummed. That had been a really freaking good cake. “The lady said it was a cardamon cream cake. So he smells like cardamon?”
“Cardamon and lilies and wet dirt is the best way I can describe it and I know it’s not his soap cause he uses the same stuff as the rest of us. So yeah. I guess I’ll pay attention.”
Two days later Crosshair gets confirmation that something’s up in a way he did not expect.
Because walking around in the dark in the middle of the night is his job so it’s already odd to find Echo leaning against the cabinet in their ship’s tiny kitchen in the pitch dark. “You’re going to trip reg.” Crosshair says and leans over to get the lights when Echo looks up.
And twelve pairs of golden violet eyes meet Crosshair’s.
He staggers back, trips over something, falls. “Crosshair!” Echo grabs his hand, pulling him up, then scrambles for the lights as if he forgot they might be necessary and Crosshair yelps as the light hits his eyes.
He blames that and the shock for blurting out; “What the hell are you Echo?”
Echo blinks, looking hurt. “I’m a trooper. Like you all.”
“Troopers don’t have twenty-four freaking eyes.” Crosshair hissed. They aren’t there now, he’s got 2 brown eyes in the exact same shade of brown nearly every trooper has, but Crosshair knows what he saw. He knows what he’s been seeing.
Echo tilts his head. And he grins. It’s a smile Crosshair’s seen before, whenever Echo’s about to respond to his taunts with something cutting and clever, part “take that” and part inviting him to share the joke. There’s nothing off about that smile save for that it’s mirrored in Echo’s shadow, splayed against the cabinets behind him too dark for their lights.
“The Bad Batch.” Echo muses, like there’s a joke Crosshair hasn’t caught yet, and he’s never had a reason to call Echo dangerous even when he didn’t trust him, but he’s starting to feel cornered even though Echo hasn’t moved. “You think you’re the only strange ones. ‘Don’t worry Rex, we know how to handle a reg.’ Never mind that Torrent was always a little crazy, or it used to be. Never mind that I was an ARC and a damn good one, and we’re all more than competent. And I appreciate what you all did, in welcoming me into the squad, I appreciate it more than I can say, and I do really like you guys, but you are so freaking cocky. So certain you can handle anything. And to be fair you’re damn good at your job, but sometimes it’s annoying. So.” He grins that taunting grin again. “You want to know what the reg’s deal is? Figure it out.”
He leaves. His grinning shadow lingers a moment before following. Crosshair stares.
And then decides that a glass of water isn’t gonna cut it and goes for the stash of moonshine.
#the bad batch to me is kinda like the hotd or got shows#in that I haven't seen them and am not really interested in changing that#but I have more contextual/background information then I do most shows people I follow ramble about because I'm familiar with related thing#I've read part of got and seen the clone wars#and I like some of the fics#I like the idea that whatever Echo's got going on supernatural-wise it's completly unrelated to the Techno Union#it's something he's either always had or had for most of the war and he's comfortable with it#but he's not exactly open about it#I have no idea if i'll write any more of this but if anyone's interested or I get more ideas I could try#the clone wars#clone troopers#eldritch clone troopers#eldritch echo#eldritch#the bad batch#tbb#bad batch echo#arc trooper echo#crosshair#hunter
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✩ WEEKLY FIC ROUND-UP ✩
All the fics I’ve read and really enjoyed in the past week-ish. Reminder: This list features any and all ratings and themes. Please look at tags and warnings on ao3 before reading.
Marvel
Dumb, Dumber and Dumbass by tempestaurora
As Coach Wilson peered out the window in the living room, May said, very quietly, “You didn’t realise your brother worked at Peter’s school?”
“We all make mistakes!” Sam hissed.
Then Coach Wilson was leaning back and a figure in a hoodie and jeans stepped through the window and into the living room, and Peter’s heart sank into his stomach like a rock. Sam’s brother was, true to story, scarred from head to toe. He could see the puckered skin on his hands, the burns across his bald head. But that wasn’t the shocking part—the shocking part was that he’d already seen it before: he’d seen it when a certain vigilante’s suit had been destroyed three nights before, and Peter had walked with him back to his backpack to loan him some clothes.
“This is Wade,” Sam introduced.
Sam Wilson had two brothers: one was Peter’s gym teacher, and the other was fucking Deadpool.
OR: A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Family Dinner, during which Peter and May meet Sam's family. Meanwhile, Tony sends constant text updates about his search for whoever graffiti-ed Avengers Tower.
Death Before Inaction by hppjmxrgosg
"Fuck off, Nicky.”
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“Hasn’t anyone ever told you spider-napping is illegal?”
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“You can’t hold me here, I know my spider-rights.”
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“God, you guys are so old. What are you? Like 27?”
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“Scale of 1 to 10, how upset would you be if I told you I banged your mom?”
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Or, I got my grubby little hands on the spider-man time line and fucked around a little bit. Not much (everything) changes.
DC / Star Wars (Crossover)
Obi-Wan in Gotham by hoebiwan (+ podfic)
Obi-Wan falls through a hole in the universe and ends up in the Batcave.
Clone Wars
the war has just begun by unintentionalgenius
The first problem was that the Supreme Commander didn’t give them enough warning about what they were stumbling into, when they were ordered out into it. Someone above General Kenobi’s head sent the men planetside in standard-issue gear, without thermal clothing or heat packs or sleeping kit or enough food for more than a single day. They had no extra ammo, no tents, no heavy artillery. They had barely any warning.
The second problem was that Supreme Command underestimated the strength of the enemy; it was supposed to be an easy enough job, holding the planet long enough to route the Seppies and then right back to the ship, leaving a contingent of troopers stationed there to retain what they’d won.
The third problem - the real problem - came when they let themselves become surrounded and the Separatists cut their supply line. Cody’s partially at fault for that one; a better Commander would’ve seen it coming. A better Commander would’ve had more backup plans, been prepared for more contingencies.
Being cut off from re-supply would’ve been a problem before the snow started.
Then the snow started.
I've never made it with moderation by Trixree (+ podfic)
He’d known how some of the men are with younglings—known from Waxer and Boil how sharply those attachments can form with little ones. Hell, the men were raised to be protective, so much so that Obi-Wan has often wondered if their protective drive was not written into their very atoms, some intrinsic part of their DNA.
It wasn’t something Obi-Wan had ever questioned. He’d thought he had understood the scope of it. In reality, he hadn’t understood a thing.
Not until Kamino.
Or: Not all that dive from cliffs make a running head start. Sometimes, the Fall is only a natural progression.
Standards of Professionality by Trixree
"Are we going to pretend I didn’t just find you fucking your General, vod?” Rex hisses over private-comm.
Cody doesn’t even turn his head to look at him. Rex can hear the smile in Cody’s voice when he replies, “No, because I am not fucking my General, Rex’ika. I am fucking Obi-Wan. We are professionals.”
5 times Cody and Obi-Wan struggled to maintain plausible deniability regarding their affections for one another + 1 time they decidedly Did Not.
The Hunger Games
Lover & Loner by amateurwordbender
Haymitch once told him that he’s a survivor. It hadn’t been a compliment; he’d slurred out the words in pity after finding Finnick shaking apart from a panic attack.
Jo’s a survivor, too.
(Finnick and Johanna, from the moment they meet to the bitter end)
Original Works
for the want of a jewel by FormlessVoidbeast
With his country fallen to the unstoppable tide of the Dread Warlord, a terrified king sends a peace offering of his own flesh and blood in the hopes of buying leniency.
When Prince Damian of Miska is accepted as the symbol of his country's surrender and immediately wedded to the Warlord, he expects his fate to be both painful and humiliating, and his death inevitable. To his confusion, the Warlord and his terrible Warlock seem to have no interest in abusing that which they have claimed as their own. As Damian finds his feet and gains friends in a new land, he begins to question everything he once thought was true.
But some jewels were never meant to be sold, and the consequences of Damian's sacrifice are more far-reaching than anyone expected.
#i have also been in the trenches of hunger games fic over the past week#i've been in dark fandoms before and read a lot of heavy content#but hoo boy the hunger games fandom is BLEAK#my posts#weekly fic round up#fic recs#marvel recs#sw recs#original works recs#misc recs#hunger games recs
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Bad Batch is almost over so I'm going to ramble. If anyone can relate, please reply or reblog. Share what this show has meant to you, share your thoughts, share theories, tag people. Let's give it a send off.
Star Wars has been a massive part of my life for years.
I loved everything about the Clone Wars, the world building, the character development for the jedi, but most of all the clones. As someone who finds it hard to read faces, it was fun getting to know each of the clones as individuals with their own personalities and I actually never had any issues telling them apart. It hits hard, I think that's what makes their stories even more tragic.
Echo and Fives are my favourite Star Wars characters so I was really happy when Echo came back in Clone Wars season 7. That was why I decided to watch the Bad Batch- it then became my favourite series.
I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do when this show ends. I think the hardest part is not knowing what the galaxy has in store for the batch and where it could go from here. Whatever happens I’ll always be grateful for the experiences I've had as part of this community over the last few years.
I think that's what's great about being part of a fandom. Seeing all the different ideas and projects that get put out there every day as well as knowing everyone else is in just as much suspense as I am. I haven't interacted on here that much until the last few months, but I check the tags a lot and all the fanart has been immaculate. The writers and artists are crazy talented and work so hard, I admire the level of dedication and aspire to be like that. 😂
I'm also really grateful for the three seasons we got with Clone Force 99.
Seeing Echo go from a shiny in the Clone Wars to becoming who he is now. (I could talk about that for ages, but I'll save that for another post.)
Seeing Crosshair regain his trust in the batch and get to change.
Seeing Hunter step up for his brothers and Omega.
Seeing more sides to Wrecker's strength.
Seeing Omega go from that kid who'd never seen dirt before to learning from her brothers and proving how brave she is.
And lastly, seeing Tech make the choice he did back in season 2. It wasn't easy to watch, because he deserved more time and there was definitely a massive hole in season 3 without him.
I'm not ready to say goodbye to any of them.
My favourite episodes in season 1 were the last few, when Kamino fell. It was the end of an era as well as a new beginning.
My favourite episode in season 2 was episode 8. I was really proud of Echo, plus he got a hug from Omega which I have admittedly rewatched far too many times.
My favourite episodes in season 3 were episodes 13 and 14. The stakes have been so high and it's been great seeing Echo's ARC skills in action again. (Plus the dialogue with Rampart was top tier. Hate that guy, but it was hilarious.)
I'm well aware of all the theories for the finale. I'm choosing to ignore most of them, but I’d like to present my own.
I hope Echo gets to finish what Fives started and the clones can finally be free, including Tech if he's CX2. I hope the batch gets to burn Tantiss to the ground and fly off into the sunset with Omega and the kids from the vault, and then I hope they continue a lifetime of bullying Rampart. I also hope Emerie gets to whack Hemlock with a steel chair, and then the Zillo beast can eat him.
…After all, Star Wars is based on hope, right?
If anyone actually ended up reading this to the end you're a real one- have a great final Bad Batch eve, and may the force be with you.
#the bad batch#bad batch#star wars tbb#tbb#bad batch crosshair#bad batch omega#bad batch echo#bad batch hunter#bad batch wrecker#bad batch tech#tech tbb#omega tbb#echo tbb#hunter tbb#crosshair tbb#wrecker tbb#royce hemlock#dr hemlock#emerie karr#bad batch emerie#zillo beast#tbb s3#bad batch s3#tbb season 3#bad batch theories#rambling#ali's delusional ramblings#bad batch finale#bad batch season 3#arc trooper fives
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Since it's Star Wars day: Headcanon time!
I've seen a lot of people talk about how Hunter's enhanced senses sometimes give him migraines/sensory overload, and I am 100% with you all on that. But. Hear me out. Crosshair has a similar problem.
So, okay, this is getting longer and a bit more ramble-y than I meant for it to be, but bear with me.
I'm... a little unclear on what Crosshair's enhancement actually is. In s01e01 Tech just calls it "Crosshair's sharpshooting skills", and I haven't reached the part of Clone Wars where the Batch is introduced yet, but from what I've read/seen on tumblr, Hunter introduces Crosshair as someone who's 'not much of a conversationalist' but who can 'hit a precise target from 10 klicks' (as I remember it). My understanding is that, if Crosshair can see it, and it's within range of whatever weapon he's got at the moment, he can hit it.
But how?
The general consensus seems to be that Crosshair has enhanced vision: He can see further, sharper, more than others (I do have some questions about that, actually; some of them more serious than others. For example: Does he need reading glasses? Can he see shrimp colors? But that's another post.).
But here's the thing, though: Being able to see something isn't enough to be able to hit it. So this is where this post reaches headcanon territory: Crosshair is incredibly smart. Maybe on level with Tech, just in a different way. All those split-second calculations for distance, angle, wind, movement (direction and speed, of both himself and his target), gravity (which varies! depending on the planet/moon/whatever!), and probably a bunch of other things I haven't thought about? Yeah. Our boy is smart, okay. Maybe it's more instinctive, where Tech is more, well, technical, but. Anyway.
So that's one headcanon/Thought, which leads into the next: Crosshair is processing A LOT of information at once, all the time. We all are, when we move about in the world, or even just exist in the world - more than we realize. But I think Crosshair probably processes even more than almost everyone else, at least of visual input. Same way Hunter is constantly processing everything he takes in from his enhanced senses. It's maybe easier for Crosshair to deal with an oncoming migraine or whatever, if all he needs is to... close his eyes for a while, or go somewhere with less visual stimuli (the halls on Kamino must have been Hell). But that's just not always an option: When on missions, during training, hell, even just getting a damn meal in the mess hall with the bright lights and all the other clones.
Which leads me to the third (and final, for tonight) thought: It's probably part of the reason Cross doesn't talk much. There's more to it, most likely. Some people just don't talk much, for no particular reason other than that's who they are. But part of it is probably also that his job is to see things; to hang back a little and observe, and strike with deathly precision when the situation calls for it. But also... You know how sometimes it can be a little difficult to pay attention to a conversation while the TV is on? Or how you can't always read while the people are talking on the radio? Or how you can more or less follow along with several conversations in the room at once, but the second you have to take part in one of them, you can't pay attention to the rest? I figure it's a little like that for Crosshair. He sees so much all the time, and sometimes (often) he has to choose between talking or processing what he's seeing. And on a mission, processing less of what he's seeing might mean missing a danger to his squad, so then it's a necessity. When not on a mission, well. With the read I've gotten on his character from what I've seen so far... probably he just doesn't find most people outside his squad worth the energy.
#the bad batch#tbb crosshair#crosshair meta#tbb headcanons#star wars#may the fourth be with you and all that
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i don't play/read/watch Warhammer 40k, but i've got a bunch of friends and online acquaintances that do, so it's frequently in my orbit so i do kind of think about it frequently, especially how it seems to have evolved from "flawed critique of fascism" to "expansive sci-fi setting with many writers each doing their own things" and thus the Imperium ends up being both The Bad Guys and The Good Guys
and there's something particularly striking, the 'His Angels' comic got me thinking about it first, with how the Space Marines, the literal face of WH40K, as well as the face of it's military in universe are. hm. not voluntary? like, you don't join the Space Marines (afaik), you can't, they're test tube vat babies aren't they? some sort of clones? literally grown to be the empire's super soldiers, quite literally larger than life in their bulky armor and huge swords. they're this perfect icon of what the Imperium wants to be, wants itself to be seen as, this invincible iron god of sheer martial prowess and bravery, boot crunching down on the skulls of dead Xenos with one hand holding aloft the Imperium's flag...
...and that can never be you, right? if you're a 'normal' citizen of the Imperium, that may be a pretty image, but that's something you can never be a part of because that's not how the Imperium's military works when it comes to the Space Marines, the most you can hope for is to be cannon fodder for them. and then i think about 'Chaos Marines' or whatever they're called, i don't know a lot about them, i just know there are basically some evil smarines out there, and i guess most of them have been corrupted the evil gods or something. which is whatever, what i prefer to think about is like. putting aside the idea of magical corruption, what sociopolitical factors could lead to a Space Marine defecting or betraying or falling?! if you're put on so high a pedestal by the populace, they may one day wonder why you're so high above them what makes you so different from them, the distance between normal humans and super soldiers too far to span, which could lead to resentment on both sides. especially since, afaik, the Space Marines are fighting a losing battle, there are so many enemies out there so of course you can't win them all, but you'd be pissed if the guys born and bred for war can't even win it, like what's even the point?! that image of the Space Marine, of the invincible Imperium, is unobtainable, both for the normal citizens and the Marines themselves. and how that sort of realization must break a man, to realize what you're been trained to be is something you can never be, to see that for all the sacrifices made, humanity is still losing (maybe, i've got no idea), and then to be hated or scorned by the people you're sworn to protect because you're doing a shit job of it. i personally wouldn't call those sorts of doubters Agents of Chaos, but 40K is a setting of extremes and i can definitely see how the Imperium would label anyone who was even just feeling a little reformist as a 'heretic', which would/could then in turn push said reformers or doubters or Xeno sympathizers into the arms of Chaos or Xenos or rebels.
i dunno, it's just something i find interesting, i do find the setting as a whole pretty intrigueing despite how messy it seems in terms of management and thematic coherence.
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LittleMissManga Fic Masterlist
My entire blog is 18+ so minors begone! The asterisk (*) denotes explicit 18+ material. Please read responsibly. If it isn't for you, I got plenty of SFW content.
So far, I've only written for Star Wars, the clones in particular, including Rex and various 501st members, The Bad Batch members, Hound, Wolffe, Cody and Boba Fett.
Requests are closed!
I'm taking a small step back so I can recharge. I'll still be lurking and hopefully working a bit on WIPs, just without the self-imposed pressure to get them done quickly. If you've sent anything in, know that I am working on it! This includes all the First Kiss Prompts.
NSFW requests are OK and welcome, but please no gore, major character death, romantic/mature relationships between padawans and adults, or clonecest.
If you'd like to be tagged in future fics, you can join my taglist :)
Random Clone Shenanigans
Clone of the Month Calendar
Tooka Interviews
Dad jokes/puns
Threesome Choice* (Rex, Jesse, Wrecker, Crosshair)
TBB Meets Sailor Moon Crack
How the 501st & BB Boys Handle a Reader with Chronic Pain
Hound
Hound Thots (SFW above, NSFW under the cut)
Broadside
Maybe Among the Stars
Rex
One Last Order Part 1, Part 2* (only part 2 is spicy).
Did He Hurt You?
Date Night Pt 1
A Little Something Sweet for Breakfast
Jesse
Kiss Prompt
"Just Lay Back and Let Me Take Care of You"*
Why Is There Rope Next to the Bed?*
Hardcase
"I'm Trying to Be Sexy and You're Laughing!" (SFW but alludes to intimacy)
Fives
"Seems Like Someone Likes Being Praised"*
Dogma
Date Night Pt 3
Date Night Pt 4
Echo
The Promise In Your Eyes
Why Echo is the best smelling clone trooper (HC)
"Seems Like Someone Likes Being Praised"*
A Teasing Echo*
Bittersweet (HC)
Spicy Echo Thot*
Wedding Speech
Tell Me*
Crosshair
Don't Forget That, Okay?
"He Was Staring At Your Ass ... And That Ass Is Mine." (SFW, but implied impact play).
Song of the Caged Bird (1/3)
Song of the Caged Bird (2/3) TK
Song of the Caged Bird (3/3) TK
Tech
Spicy Tech Thot - Cerebral Stimulation*
Why Now? - TK
A Mechanic in the Sun
Tech & Non-Verbal Reader
"That's the Most Attractive Thing I've Seen in My Life"*
"Looks Like Someone Likes Being Praised"*
A Little Awkward Never Killed Nobody
Home for the Holidays With You
Wrecker
A Man What Takes His Time*
"Are You Wearing My Shirt?"*
Wrecker Headcanon Asks* (SFW above the cut, NSFW under)
Wrecker Spa Day HCs
Spicy Games Thots*
Rainy Day Comforts
When Wrecker Gets Comfortable Thot (Not spicy, but there's definitely heat)
The Slow Stretch*
Hunter
"That Is the Most Attractive Thing I've Seen in My Life"
Cody
Date Night Pt 2*
Boil
The Once and Future Brother
Wolffe
Wolffe Thots* (SFW above the read more, NSFW under the read more)
"Just Lay Back and Let Me Take Care of You"*
Boba Fett
The Daimyo's Princess
My OCs (Star Wars)
Yen Ori'ken (You can read more about her in Date Night)
SFW Alphabet
NSFW Alphabet
Yen x Wolffe/Yen x Kix hcs
Yen x Cody hcs
Yen x Echo hcs
Yen x Wrecker hcs
CT-2460, Clone Pilot Corkscrew, AKA Cor
Intro & SFW Alphabet
(I don't know why this last link isn't working so I'm putting it here, too)
#masterlist#my writing#tbb#the bad batch#the clone wars#tcw fanfic#captain rex#tbb wrecker#tbb crosshair#tbb Tech#boba fett#wolffe#commander wolffe#sergeant hound#501st legion#104th battalion#corrie guard#tbb hunter#clone trooper hardcase#arc trooper fives#commander cody#tcw dogma#oc: yen ori'ken#oc: ct-2460 Corkscrew
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Ahsoka Episode 5 Spoilers
I had to wait two days to watch the episode but I've watched it and I've read everyone else's bit and now it's my turn :)
~
This scene in SW Rebels
makes so much more sense now. Ahsoka sensed familiarity in Vader in the Season 2 opener when Vader was chasing down the Ghost. After that, she didn't talk about it. After all, she and Kanan and Ezra had Inquisitors to deal with, so Vader was out of arm's reach.
At the temple on Lothal, she gets smacked in the face with that old realization, which she's been denying, but with the context of the Ahsoka show (episode 5 specifically) I think we know more about why now. It's not just that Vader is Anakin.
It's that, if Vader is Anakin, then Vader was teaching Ahsoka. She's confronting her own Darkness (which is a lot more evident in Ahsoka Episode 5). Anakin/Vader isn't just its own problem (my master has fallen to the Dark Side). To her, Anakin/Vader is the embodiment of Ahsoka's own Darkness (I have the potential to fall to the Dark Side).
The first flashback (I think it's the Battle of Ryloth) is parallel to what Ahsoka's been struggling with in teaching Sabine. "They were following my orders. I got them killed." This part connects with what Anakin said in the Siege of Mandalore flashback: "Ahsoka, within you will be everything that I am. All the knowledge I possess, just I inherited knowledge from my master, and he from his." "If I am everything you are..." it's all connected.
(I couldn't find the right GIF, sorry)
If Ahsoka has Anakin's knowledge, then she has knowledge that led Anakin to become Vader. If Ahsoka teaches Sabine, she will pass that knowledge, and the potential to become like Vader, to her. If Sabine does fall, then she's reacting to seeds planted by Ahsoka, and it could kill Sabine, just like Ahsoka's orders once killed clone troopers.
After that vision in Rebels, then comes Malachor. Ahsoka has a moment of denial, where she stops believing Vader is Anakin, but when she slices that mask open, she sees Anakin underneath. Yes, your master is still alive, but also, it's a Luke-in-the-cave moment. Ahsoka sees herself in Vader because the Darkness in her was planted by Vader.
She refuses to leave Vader, which we all took to mean she wouldn't leave Anakin again, but now we have the additional (not replacement) context of she refuses to fight her own Darkness. Just as Anakin told Ahsoka in the World Between Worlds, if she will not live (fight her Darkness) she will die. She nearly did.
Except who pulls her out of there?
EZRA BRIDGER
She promises to find him, and it's starting to look like that's the only thing keeping her going after Rebels ends. And we've seen in her behavior how hollow Ahsoka becomes. Part of that is her growing up, sure, but I think part of it is Ahsoka trying to reject any and all of the training that Vader gave her, including the bits that were good. If there are bad apples, toss out the whole basket because it's all spoiled now.
No wonder she's so startled when she gets brought back to the Clone Wars. This is her training. All of it. The good and the bad, the Light and the Dark.
So she tries to forget, but she promised Ezra she would find him, so Ahsoka does that. She goes after Morgan, she fights Baylan and Shin, and she trains Sabine because she wants to find Ezra too. Ahsoka does not risk passing on the seeds of the Dark Side. Maybe Sabine has a hard time opening up to the Force, but maybe Ahsoka has closed herself off just enough that she can't help Sabine find her way either.
Then Ahsoka falls into the WBW, and Anakin starts probing. The last lesson is to live or die. Ahsoka says she won't fight Anakin, which is her subconsciously not fighting the Darkness (represented by Anakin) and allowing it to sit there. Anakin brings her back to the Clone Wars, and all of these pieces start to fall into place. During the Siege of Mandalore flashback, Anakin figures out what's in her head. He realizes what he represents to her, and I think he figures it out when he asks "Is that what this is about?"
(because when Ahsoka asked why they were back in the Clone Wars during the Ryloth flashback, he quite literally says "You tell me!" He's there to finish her training, but he doesn't pinpoint what it is until later, during the Mandalore flashback, which is when the fight resumes again)
Anakin/Vader makes Ahsoka fight the Darkness inside her, both literally and subconsciously. Either you fight it inside you, or you die. She does. She throws away the lightsaber, just like Luke does in Return of the Jedi, and she remains in the Light.
When she comes back, what does she do? She makes another promise to Hera to find Ezra and Sabine. She's not depending on her promise to Ezra to do what needs to be done, to fight and live. She's happier in the last fifteen minutes of this episode. Ahsoka has overcome the Darkness in her, not that it's completely gone, but it doesn't have power anymore and she can be confident in that fact. Now she makes a new promise, not because she needs something to keep her going but because she doesn't. Her search for Ezra isn't keeping her on the straight and narrow path anymore, but now that she's found her footing again, she's going to finish what she started ("The battle's not over yet").
Ahsoka the White, indeed.
Not to mention, Sabine's in the lion's den right now. She's just accepted a truce from Baylan. She's in a very apt position for the apprentice of Ahsoka Tano, who has probably passed along those Dark Side seeds whether she meant to or not. Sabine might actually connect with the Dark Side before she connects to the Light. Who knows?
The legacy will go on. Sabine is going to inherit/already has inherited Ahsoka's knowledge, which she inherited from Anakin. She's probably going to have to fight the same fight Ahsoka just won. Maybe not now, but probably eventually. Personally, I can't wait.
#ahsoka the white#ahsoka spoilers#ahsoka tano#ahsoka episode 5#ahsoka episode 5 spoilers#anakin skywalker#darth vader#sabine wren
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So, what I've gathered as far as ages (most of this is from the tfwiki descriptions on the characters, closest I've ever gotten to reading the aligned novels, and let's be real some of this might be from things that are technically aligned continuity but technically not??)
Megatron's firmly stated by the tfwiki as having been created during the age of wrath. (It's also noted explicitly that he wasn't created with a set name or personality, which tells us a bunch of the others did) Also, fun fact, the altmode we see in the show isn't really a Cybertronian jet but a shuttle built for space travel. I will proceed to use Megatron as our reference because there's more ambiguity with other characters and also he's my more favorite
The tfwiki having a sentence that Could imply Orion was born before the age of Wrath but he could not have been as well (gonna entirely not mention the Optimus to Orion to Optimus reincarnation thing right now) with him having spent an indeterminate amount of time in the while.
Soundwave was created before or during the age of wrath and the tfwiki states this outright, with it possibly placing him as older than Megatron. He was apparently originally part of Sentinel Prime's council?
Shockwave is placed at a very similar creation time range as Soundwave. Dude spent a lot of time being a cryptid on Cybertron after the whole overthrowing the Quintessons stuff.
The tfwiki is super unhelpful with trying to find around when Starscream was created, or even who he was before the war.
Bumblebee is very much outlined as Cybertron's last generation during the war (and obviously before the Well was revived post-tfp) now I've got a particular headthing where i call all mecha born during the war "Warlings" as a combo of war-sparklings, but that is just me being special decial. Ohhh he was Very adopted by autobot high command
Ratchet is firmly placed as having been born before the age of wrath, is older than Iacon definitely. Beyond that, most of his stuff is mentioned about his actions during the invasion and rebellion against the Quintessons.
Arcee was spying in Kaon before the war, and that's all we got.
Hmm, while we have nothing on Breakdown before the war, i did find something useful. Aligned Breakdown used to be far more similar to the nervous g1 Breakdown we know as a scout. His first interaction with Bulkhead and subsequent major upgrade seens to have dispelled most of it
Segueing to Bulkhead, we know he had a blue collar job and that's it. Great.
Knockout, nothing.
For Wheeljack, we actually got something again! The tfwiki states he was created during the Age of Origins (which... doesn't have a page) which is stated as when transformer civilization started to rise? Wow that's pretty old? Apparently the Wreckers are older than the Autobots, having started as a vigilante group. We might be able to use Wheeljack's age to determine Bulkhead's, and both may very well be as old as Ratchet or older. Hmm.
Ultra Magnus, who is especially old as hell goddamn, was created before or during the age of origins.
Jazz is, you guessed it, before or during the age of wrath. Great. He was an Iacon cultural investigator, apparently.
Ironhide (is this when you realize the wfc games are technically for the aligned continuity yet?) Was created during or before the golden age, which is actually fairly younger than anticipated.
Smokescreen is noted to having been an elite guard cadet at the end of the war (well... the end of the war while on Cybertron) where he got knocked into stasis to be a key container like immediately.
Predaking as we know is a clone so we cannot play by the same rules as the above, and we don't know how long Shockwave was working on him for before popping him to Earth
Darksteek and Skylynx on the other hand we know exactly when they were created as it was the spave between the tfp finale and the epilogue
There are two Sideswipes. I will dub these Sideswipe senior and Sideswipe junior. Sideswipe senior's creation and actions before the war are unknown. Sideswipe junior, also unknown but considering how he was called a teenager in the rid15 pilot, I'm going to assume he was created somewhere near the end of the war or after the war.
Strongarm is a similar situation as Sideswipe junior, and honestly I'm gonna put the RBA kids in a similar category, at the end of the war or directly after.
Oh honey I'm not going through all the RID15 Decepticons as we definitely aren't going to get any timeline answers there.
Hm... the Rescue bots yet again pose questions by defying the rules of the aligned continuity, the tfwiki suggesting they were straight up protoforms upon arriving to earth (which defies what we know that protoforms in the aligned continuity aren't exactly able to be up and walking, and there's the reference that Blades had wheels when he was on Cybertron...) who the fuck knows though, they could've been frozen for Fuck All Knows (at least I've got an Idea when Blurr and Salvage were frozen being the paleolithic-neolithic boundary, thank you Ira lol)
#ahkdkpgljdhdjlgdjlbm#this post got so frustrating#how the hell was Megatron the one with the easiest age to find???#transformers#transformers prime#some of this is canon some of this is assumptions#tfp#I'm not tagging all those damn guys#transformers rescue bots#transformers aligned#I've gotten easier timeline answers out of the fucking g1 continuity ffs#transformers rid2015#tf worldbuilding?#riot rambles#i got very frustrated towards tge end#long post
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Before watching Star Wars I expected watching it was just gonna allow me to better understand the pop culture references my therapist makes and fit in slightly better with other general scifi nerds.
But what actually happened is it completely took over my life (and fortunately also rekindled my desire to write). My obikin obsession causes me to see almost every non SW thing I read/watch through a similar lens, I'm pushing a rare OT3 which is comprised of 2 problematic ships in one, and I've seen each individual prequel movie more times in the past six months than I've seen other movies total across my lifetime.
My opinions on lightsaber colours, which of the 3 stories of Anakin's knighting should be made canon*, and how much Mandolarian culture clones have absorbed get stronger ever day.
Literally watching this all happen to my brain is part of what caused me to finally realize/admit how fucking autistic I am which I guess I'd just been planning to ignore indefinitely Because Reasons.
* I love the old Clone Wars series too but the battle of Praesitlyn is less racist + more in line with his characterization + Qui-Gon's ghost got to be involved. Biggest downside is it did not show Anakin eating bugs.
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NaNo is around the corner and I'm getting ready for Yet Another Keinatsu Longfic, so just dumping my thoughts here bc it's Friday and slow at work and it's been a while since I've done this. (Massive spoilers under the cut)
So in the game, it's mentioned that Project Ark is meant to prepare the 15 compatibles for life in the real world. The first 18 years are spent living in their assigned Sector within the simulation. The last 2 years are spent in a training session for final preparations. Due to the fuckery that happens in the game, the simulation is reset every 16 years after the Deimos invasion. Insert the events of the game here, where they finally break the cycle and free themselves.
However.
What if there were no Deimos, no Sentinels? What if everything ran its intended course? What if these poor kids were living their normal lives and wake up elsewhere and discover the truth? What would this two-year training program look like? What would be different in this AU, where everyone grew up in their assigned Sector?
Well, that's more or less this fic in a nutshell.
To literally no one's surprise, this is yet another keinatsu fic. It's very similar to WLYH in that it's got a bunch of angst and trauma recovery (all the more reason to lean into that comfort after all the hurt), but... it should be more light-hearted in comparison? Hopefully? It's hard to tell, because the abrupt shift of everyday life to "oh hey that was all a lie and now you need to get ready for the actual real world as humanity's only survivors" is... A Lot. And I don't think that's something anyone, let alone these kids, can digest in a single day, never mind two years.
Natsuno will be the main POV character, a) because I don't feel I write from her perspective enough, b) she's super fun to write, and c) I think out of everyone involved, she'd be the most excited about this reveal. She's actually living her sci-fi dreams! Why wouldn't she love that?! I'd also need to take into consideration a) what she did the extra two years in the simulation and b) the fact she didn't really have anyone else growing up, especially after Yuki moved. I looked up the rates at which high school students moved onto university in Japan each decade and for women in the 1980s it was stupid low. Like 15% ish, or so my research is telling me. So that plus Natsuno being Natsuno, I don't think she ever thought about higher education. Maybe she struggled with holding a day job. Maybe her parents pressured her into dating and finding a good man to settle down with and start a family with. All very Not Natsuno things. No shit she'd be happy to escape that and live this sci-fi dream come true.
But then on the flip side, there's Keitaro.
It guts me apart to think about how his 2188 iteration was aware of how long the simulation would run and being okay with his clone living through not just WWII, but everything pertaining to the atomic bombs and then the aftermath of losing the war. As much as I want to put Keitaro in a bubble and save him from this mess, if I'm sticking to this concept, I need to drag him through this hell. God, this is probably going to be the toughest part for me to write - this poor shell of a young man who has seen too fucking much. Which, again, is a big reason why the story will be from Natsuno's POV, because for the first half of the story, she doesn't know what he went through. She just thinks he's being quiet because he's shy, because maybe he's nervous or misses his home, because maybe he's like her and struggled to fit in due to being a weird nerd, so all the better to try and befriend him! 🫠
But overall, it's a very slice-of-life coming-of-age story that will probably read like a weird college AU. I just want to explore the worldbuilding possibilities along with what their relationship might look like in those circumstances. I really love their reincarnated soulmate vibes of always finding each other and always falling for one another. And despite the angst and trauma (yet again lolsob), I'm really excited to write about them meeting for the first time, learning about each other, and very slowly falling in love.
And according to my tracker and based on the current outline, the word count range is anywhere between 60k to uh.... 280k 🥲 it's a good thing I love these sweeties
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Star Wars Masterlist (NEW)
Tech:
There’s no reason to be sad - Tech x GNReader
Have a load of trash, think of it as a sequel of sorts to Starlit Night. It can also stand as its own thing, there's no real connection between the two and its mainly just me rambling. Enjoy!
Feelings - Tech x GNReader
A little story of how tech and the reader first meet. Like love at the first sight or something :3 idk maybe Tech a bit at a distance because he cannot classify these new feelings and so the reader thinks he hates (Y/N)
A beeping feeling - Tech x GNReader
A sitcom reality: Tech x Female reader
If you can tell where I stopped writing this then recently got back into it, extra brownie points for you. Enjoy this crap!
Why did you go? - Tech x GNReader
New trailer just dropped and I'm sad.
Howdy everyone, today I offer you a new Tech fic...mayhaps even a series? I was very much inspired by Wandavision but the plot doesn't really fit with the show so you don't have to worry about that. Hope you enjoy and perhaps want more because I have some cool ideas for this series if it goes ahead!
Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4.
Sober suspicions - Tech x GNReader
Woah, I actually released a fic on Tech Tuesday, I swear that never happens? Anyway, have this crappy excuse of a story! Would anyone like to see a part 2 for this because I've got some ideas in mind?
Drunk confidence - Tech x GNReader
Okay, so here's part 2 to Drunken Confidence! Hope you all enjoy it and let me know if you want more Tech content!
Infested - Tech x Female reader
Howdy, so this is pretty long and essentially took me all day to do so have fun reading it! It's entirely based on today's episode, lucky number 13, so definite spoilers lie ahead! Enjoy!
Coffee run - Tech x GNReader
Howdy, another Tech fic because I love him. Also, I'm probably not the first person that said it, but I totally called that no one could drive the ship unless they read like all the manuals and knew how to fix it, I totally said Tech would be the kinda guy to do that and I think it's pretty funny how it's kinda confirmed in the latest episode. Anyway, without further ado, the new fic. Enjoy!
Singer in a smokey room - Tech x Female reader
Okay so I've had this idea for a fic before but never got around to writing it, and I'm super obsessed with this song and the movie it came from; it's one of my fav movies ever made. It's a little long but probably worth it, if you know the movie I'm referencing leave a comment below! Enjoy!
A baby for hire - Tech x GNReader
"Keep up, wouldn't want you getting lost now would we?" he bartered, flicking his head in your direction. He caught your harsh gaze, trying hard to hold back a smile at the state of your hair.
Starlit night - Tech x GNReader
I'm not going to lie, I really just wanted to write a Tech fic but had literally no ideas for it so have this garbage. Enjoy!
Good soldiers - Tech x GNReader
Oh mi gosh guys I actually did it! Somehow I managed to write it all before 10.30, it's a little crap but oh well, I just need more Tech content tbh. Now this is based on episode 7, so definite spoilers for that episode, so read at your own risk. Anyway, let me know if you want more bad batch fics and enjoy!
Flying lessons - Tech x GNReader
Howdy everyone, so I've been wanting to do a Tech fic since I first saw episode one of the new series. Now I will admit I haven't seen season 7 of clone wars, I'm actually only up to season 3, so I'm a little scared if I've messed anything up; but I'm sure you'll tell me! Hopefully, I'll get more confident in writing for these characters, until then, enjoy!
Hunter:
In the past - Hunter X GNReader
You calmed down your excited breathing, but couldn't knock the smile from your face "I couldn't help but wonder if I was in the correct location of Clone Force 99?" Your hands were folded behind your back, but Hunter could hear the creaking of the clipboard, felt how tightly your fingers were gripping the plastic.
The Mandalorian:
The waiting game - Mando/Din Djarin x GN Reader
Book of Boba spoilers - episode five and six.
Dream a little dream of me - Mando/Din Djarin x GN Reader
I was listening to this song and this oneshot idea just came to me and I had to write it down as soon as I could. I'm actually really proud of this and it's currently one of my favourite oneshots I've ever written so I really hope you enjoy it!
Cockpit silence - Mando/Din Djarin x GN Reader
So this is my first StarWars oneshot so be easy on me, also I've been obsessing over The Mandalorian recently and Pedro Pascal as a whole so enjoy this oneshot and If it's good expect more to come!
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Okay, @laurelindorenan and @catkin-morgs were interested in my Star Wars thoughts, so here ya go. No particular order, just gonna ramble. Idk what all to discuss exactly, so this will be pretty broad-strokes.
I am an Original Trilogy girl at heart and I do maintain that all three are actual masterpieces. All other Star Wars media, good bad or otherwise, is secondary in my book. Not an unusual opinion or anything, but maybe a little out of step with a lot of folks my age. I didn’t actually even see the prequel trilogy until the runup to The Force Awakens.
And I just. I can’t even articulate the fondness and joy and giddy love that I have for those first three movies. For Luke, Leia, and Han. The whole supporting cast. The sound of Darth Vader’s breathing. Wookiee noises. Lightsabers and blasters and the jump to hyperspace. The sets! Hoth and the Death Star and the Millennium Falcon and Cloud City and -- and-- they’re so immersive and tangible and lived in and it always feel likes I could just step into them. The music!
I adore every single solitary thing about the romance between Leia and Han, which was probably the first love story I ever encountered that fully captivated my heart. It’s not just the bickering, it’s the fact that they change each other! They’re fire and steel together, but also Han learns to stay and to care because he loves Leia and Leia steps away from the rebellion to go after Han. He’s blind and frightened and he asks “who’s there” and she replies, “someone who loves you.”
The themes of family tragedy and legacy and love and REDEMPTION! Han coming back to the Death Star and Lando the rebellion general and “I’ve got to save you!”/”You already have.” Luke, Luke the boy who throws aside his weapon and says “I am a Jedi like my father before me.” Who risks everything on the foolish, stupid hope that his father can be rescued from the Dark and he’s right.
Thanks heavily to the influence of my dad, I’m an old fogey Star Wars fan who vehemently rejects the special editions. I alluded to the fact that I switched over to the despecialized edition to show my roommate the original Han/Greedo scene, subtitles be damned. I plan to do the same with the ending of Return of the Jedi. Idk, maybe that’s a little too rigid of me, but I can’t help it. I’m my father’s daughter.
My personal ranking of the current cannon:
The good stuff, in order of preference: Jedi Empire, ANH (tentatively- my favorite OT movie is the one I've watched most recently), Clone Wars season 7, rest of Clone Wars, The Mandalorian seasons 1 and 2.
Revenge of the Sith is compelling in spite of itself, but I can't quite bring myself to call it good. I’m ehhh on Rogue One and Obi-Wan. I have a complicated relationship with The Last Jedi.
I actively dislike Solo, Attack of the Clones, The Force Awakens, Phantom Menace, and The Rise of Skywalker (UGH), in ascending order of badness.
Haven’t seen Andor, Book of Boba Fett, or any of Rebels apart from like, 4 episodes. Waiting to watch Mandalorian s3 with my Dad over Christmas.
I also read a whole bunch of the old EU books as a kid and while the quality is highly variable, I still have very fond memories of quite a lot of it. I fully maintain that the sequel trilogy should have pulled from the New Jedi Order series. I miss Jaina Solo.
The prequels are. Um. They’re less than the sum of their parts. The opening to Revenge of the Sith is straight fire and you know I love me a good doomed romance and I swear I could get high on “This is how liberty dies: with thunderous applause.” But like. Sigh. They’re not good movies, guys. I know a lot of people my age will defend these movies, but I just. No. Y’all are nuts. The older crowd is right, the prequels are, in fact, bad, but hey, at least they gave us Clone Wars.
On the other hand, the sequel trilogy is just a blot on the series. In a vacuum, I do rather like The Last Jedi as a movie, particularly the last hour, but in the context of the original films it's terribly unfair and cruel to Luke. It had some great themes and striking visuals, though. I never much liked The Force Awakens once the initial high wore off because it was super bland and not nearly interesting enough to distract me from the fact that it broke up Han and Leia!! Like what the heck. And of course The Rise of Skywalker is utter garbage.
I wish Disney would stop it with all the new Content(tm), or at least slow down. It's just too much.
idk what else to say. I reblog Star Wars stuff on my other blog sometimes, but ironically (because it’s the biggest franchise in the world basically), Star Wars is really personal to me. I’m always, always, always gonna connect it with my dad.
#when things are really popular and also feel really personal i tend to reflexively kind of pull back with them i think#like it's weirdly hard to talk about Star Wars bc it is just so so big and yet it /feels/ like it belongs to my dad and me#idk#so like i know i haven't said anything extraordinary here but it's what i've got#pontifications and creations#also i do know i'm taking my life in my hands talking about star wars on the internet lol#if you want to disagree with anything here feel free but ya know. be chill#a star wars fan like my father before me
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Some thoughts on the Sudran Pathogen:
Damu was supposed to be able to turn people into terrifying beasts, right? But the war ended after he became an Arm, so he never got his full power.
Athetos turns his clones into... ugh, various things, mostly giant bugs/creatures of some sort. And the OST track for both Athetos and Uruku is "Apocalypse," which is the name of both the Arms ("Apocalypse Arms") and the blue flasks ("Apocalypse Flasks").
And remember the hallucination route? Trace caught the pathogen and hallucinated that he became some kind of flying creature- meanwhile, in his hallucination, he also saw himself on the ground, saying "Demon, Athetos say kill" in that semi-robotic voice. I still think the one on the ground was Trace and the flying one was imagined, but... either way, whichever one was actually Trace, he didn't look or sound fully human.
And Trace doesn't get sick until he enters Ukkin-Na (although there is that one moment in Zi where we see another Trace run off to the left... but Trace didn't see them, so I don't think that was actually an hallucination, Trace would have said something if he'd seen them). You can spend hours running around every other part of Sudra that you can reach up to that point, but he doesn't get sick until he enters Ukkin-Na. Yes, I understand how this works from a game coding perspective; but storywise, it's just very interesting how he doesn't get sick until he enters Ophelia's area- Ophelia being the one who carries Damu.
You know, they never did tell us exactly how Ophelia was able to just magically cure Trace of the pathogen.
Speaking of the pathogen- how come they always specifically use the word "pathogen" and not a more common word like "virus"? I noticed this early on in the first game. I think they sometimes use words like "plague" and "disease," but never "virus" or "bacteria" or anything else. So, it's not a virus or bacteria or any kind of germ that we know about.
It seems that Athetos was using the pathogen to create his variants. And, from what I've gathered in my research in the fandom, etc., those Xedur-like things appear in AV2 as a result of people being in the same area as Damu. (I didn't figure that out on my own, I just always thought it was weird that I'd return to an area and a Xedur would be there, but none of the people.)
I've seen the theory that Damu is somehow the source of the pathogen. Or that the pathogen is carried from the Breach. Either way... I don't think it's a "pathogen" at all, unless you count a computer virus as a pathogen. Yup. I'm saying, this isn't an actual disease, it's a result of the nanites. There are many sci-fi stories about self-replicating nanites that basically become some kind of infectious contagion. I think that's what happened here.
It would make sense. Magic doesn't exist in this game, it's hard sci-fi. Damu can't just wave an arm and turn people into giant animals. So the way he would do it is to infect them with self-replicating nanites. But his transformation into an Arm was incomplete because the experiments stopped when the war with the Udug ended. So his nanotechnology was never perfected. It's out of control, and so it doesn't just stop with turning one person into an animal- it takes over their mind and also spreads to other people.
Furthermore, while Athetos is a physicist and, apparently, something of an engineer, he is not a biologist. It makes no sense that Athetos would have the skills or knowledge to create, modify, or release a pathogen of that magnitude. Heck, he can only create clones of himself by using the rebirth chamber. The obvious explanation is that he uses self-replicating nanotech to turn his clones into the variants.
There's still a lot of holes in my theories, but I feel like I'm coming closer to understanding what's going on. What I still haven't figured out- and from what I've read so far, neither has anyone else- is why the pathogen only turns some people into giant beasts, while most people just either die or turn into white mutant zombies???
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am beg to hear your thoughts and rambles on this please
I've put some of my thoughts here, but I Have So Many lmao. Disclaimer that I've only seen part of the Clone Wars series and that while I've read a lot of star wars comics, I certainly haven't read them all, so these are mostly Just My Thoughts on my made up Mandalorian school politics that I made up mostly for the Galidraan au.
(it's also really long so here's a readmore)
So I don't think that education past age 13 is mandated on Mandalore. For the most part, education past middle school has been handled by one's clan, through apprenticeships and adults handing down knowledge and stuff like that. Perhaps there are specialized schools for like space travel and stuff. I think even elementary schools were a hard fight to institute, especially among the more traditional clans, but I like to imagine that either a) at one point the True Mandalorians and the New Mandalorians were like "education of children is very important to both of us so we should make sure all children get educations" or b) Mand'alor Tarre Vizsla was like "Education is a core tenant of both Mandalorian culture and the Jedi culture I was raised in and so I personally am making sure all kids get educated k thx."
Education inequality is fairly rampant, as big powerful clans like Kryze or Vizsla can afford to send their children anywhere in the galaxy to get education, whereas your local Vhett dirt farmer will do what they can with the clan they have, so you might have great practical knowledge on how to deliver strill whelps and you can easily calculate how much space corn seed you need per space acre but you never had calculus and you don't know a lot about how to get legislation enacted and you definitely never got the Flying Spacecraft 101 class that all the rich kids got to have at age ten.
Then the New Mandalorians decide that Mandalore needs public schools beyond just the elementary schools. I think this happens before Satine Kryze gets into power, but she definitely goes absolutely fuckin ham on expanding education. It's very divisive at first--some farmer Houses think it's a ploy to convince all their kids to move into cities and industry, others think it's a great opportunity to give their kids a chance to achieve something more than space corn. Some warrior clans think this is an evil New Mando plot to turn all their kids into pacifists, while others are elated at the chance to let their kids learn things that would never be affordable otherwise, and an educated warrior is a better warrior. So now they want to get involved in the public schools.
So now we have (more) school politics, and the politics of education is always a divisive thing.
The thing is, the New Mandalorians don't have total control of Mandalorian politics until Satine Kryze. There are Factions. The big factions are the New Mandalorians, the True Mandalorians, and Death Watch, but there are also smaller factions, as there are in all communities. There are traditionalist clans that never remove their helmets and won't even give their names to strangers, there are industrialists who want to expand their business beyond the Mandalore system and want their kids to learn languages and laws that they couldn't even hope to comprehend, there are strong clans who argue that the clan system has always worked perfectly fine, and there are people who have lost their clan or who have been kicked out of their clan, who now have kids and have no idea how to even begin teaching them.
Can you ban all weapons from school when your student populace has a lot of members from a faction where the use and care of weapons is a literal tenant of their religion? Should you include a class on the use and care of weapons in such a case, or leave that to their clan? Should the children be able to keep their helmets on all day? What about in the case of it being religious? What about the rest of their armor--especially armor pieces that double as weapons? How much security should each school have, especially when Death Watch is in the area and has been known to kill children? Would having armed guards posted around the school endanger them more--or send a message that your school board doesn't want, that it's actually really dangerous to send your kid to school? Should the school provide free breakfast and lunch to children? Is that their job? Will the parents consider it an attempt to brainwash their children into being sympathetic to the ruling faction?
Despite being extremely divisive, as soon as the New Mandalorians implement schooling for teenagers, everyone else also immediately decides to implement schooling for teenagers. Implementation and effectiveness varies. I think areas with primarily True Mandalorian rule or clans that are more like Din Djarin's clan would have fewer public schools overall, and most of the families would stick to the traditional clan-based education. Death Watch ruled areas probably have schools that are basically military schools. I think New Mandalorian schools would focus a lot on business and politics--trying to get children to be a new generation of leaders, because a good economy is very important in keeping people peaceful. In places with New Mandalorian control, weapons are banned outright on premises, but with True Mandalorian schools, I think the use of weapons is banned, maybe you have to keep it in your locker or something, but I don't think school is a weapons-free zone.
After the Mandalorian Civil War, Satine Kryze takes power. The True Mandalorian faction is dead, and Death Watch is in hiding. And Satine Kryze goes ham on education. Everything she does is for Mandalore's children, of course she goes ham on education.
She builds schools everywhere. She enacts legislation to make sure that there are elementary schools and secondary schools enough to service all the children of Mandalore. Real "x amount of schools for every y amount of population" stuff.
All schools provide free meals for all children--this is her single most popular law for a populace just starting to recover from a civil war. So many people lost everything; making sure that their kids have two meals a day even when there's nothing in the pantry at home is worth whatever the hell these New Mandalorians are teaching in these schools.
She brings in several teachers from across the galaxy to help them build a curriculum, though most of the education stuff is still decided by Mandalorian locals. What do Mandalorian children need to know in order to thrive on any planet they set their boots to? Mandalore will need to trade with other planets, and they will need to know about these other planets to not be exploited in their current state of weakness. Mandalore has a seat in the Senate; its children need to know about who else has a seat, and what their priorities are, and whether or not those priorities will conflict with Mandalore's priorities. Mando'ade will need to learn new languages, and they will need to learn math and engineering and history and politics and civics and there is just so much to learn and their population has been reduced so drastically. There are a lot of people who would teach if only they were still alive, but they are not, so we hired advisors.
She doesn't even consider involving the EduCorps--that's a Jedi thing, and even Obi-Wan Kenobi is barely welcome on Mandalore after having helped end the Civil War.
Secondary education is still not mandatory, but more people than ever are taking advantage of it. In a generation's time, nearly everyone will be sending their kids to school for at least a bit--maybe just a few months when there's no harvesting to do, so they can learn basic engineering and shop skills, or sending the kids to school for as many hours as they can go when Mom is between jobs and the pantry's getting a little thin--and regardless of Satine's popularity with the interplanetary stuff, regardless of what's happening with the Senate, the one thing most people like about Satine is the schools.
Right up until children start getting poisoned.
#asks#patchmates#thank you for the ask!#this isn't necessarily all my thoughts on mandalorian schooling but it's what i've managed to make coherent in two hours of writing lol#this is what i spend sleepless nights thinking about#this doesn't even touch school funding#maybe i'll go into taxes to fund schooling later lol#or rather a lack of taxes before the new mandalorians take power#there was probably a whole lot of schmoozing and favors to get schools funded when they first started out#especially in non new mando controlled areas#galidraan au#satine kryze#meta#long post
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In This Dark Time
Chapter 7 of Moonwalker: The Batch
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Crosshair x Fem!OC, Hunter x Fem!OC
Chapter summary: Returning to Kamino means Sarah will have to come across familiar unfriendly faces, all while she continues to worry about Crosshair's mental state as well as what he has to say about their kiss on Kaller.
Warnings/tags: Mature (minors still not allowed). Mentions of death, PTSD, some mourning. Still some O66 angst, some pining, love triangles, physical violence
A/N: This chapter turned out way longer than I expected and I'm sorry, but I promise it's good and I've added a lot of my own spin to canon events so as to not merely retell them as we see them on screen. Thank you for reading!!
this chapter covers all the events before Onderon.
Word count: 8k
The first few times Sarah had to return to Kamino were awful on her. She would have kept quiet about it had it not been for the batch’s own way of getting the whole story out of her, so Sarah wound up telling them about the time she had been there with Fives, about all that had gone through there, how it was the last time she’d seen him. Sarah knew that she and Echo would be welcome into Clone force 99’s space anyway once they were officially part of the squad, but she felt as if telling them about their backstory sparked a protective instinct in them.
Two hammocks had been set up for Sarah and Echo. They hadn’t spent many nights on Kamino in the time they’d been part of the squad, but each night, Sarah had enjoyed the rain and the faint snoring and breathing of her teammates, finding in Kamino a sense of home she never thought she’d have in that planet even before the loss of Fives. It was a bittersweet feeling, one that only got sweeter whenever she saw her teammates and the way they were truly brothers with each other, especially with Echo, who had been warmly welcomed by his fellow clones.
Tech’s bunk would always be a mess, but every time he was looking for something, he’d find it. The lights were dimmed to be easier on Hunter’s eyes. The walls had been soundproofed to dim the sounds outside the barracks to help Hunter too, and Sarah could not remember a quieter place she’d ever slept in–she’d slept far better there than she had in ages. Wrecker’s plush toy, Lula, would spend nearly every night in a different bunk, depending on who needed it most after hard missions. Sarah had slept with Lula in her arms the very first night back on Kamino after losing Fives. Crosshair’s bunk was always the tidiest, with his three shooting charts displayed proudly, the one in the middle with a C shot into it. Sarah always giggled at what a show-off he was; they’d all been show-offs to her when she first arrived.
Indeed, Clone Force 99 had made returning to Kamino less difficult each time for Sarah. She’d sleep in the hammock surrounded by teammates who showed her how unconditionally they cared about her, and she had never felt safer. The planet had become a symbol of respite, of growth, and it helped her make peace with her past.
So that day, when the war ended, when the Marauder exited hyperspace and she got a bitter premonition upon seeing the planet, Sarah’s heart sank, knowing things once again weren’t right. Everyone carried that same weight on the ship, after an abnormally quiet flight home, with only Wrecker showing happiness at the prospect of being home. Sarah felt the slightest bit envious of his optimism.
But her mind was clouded. With everything happening, the order, the uncertainty of Caleb being alive or not even though Hunter insisted he was dead; with everything that was going on, all Sarah could think of was the kiss. Sarah had tried reading Crosshair during the flight, being alone with him, but nothing worked. He had been dead silent all the time, only looking at Hunter on occasion.
Sarah felt selfish thinking about it, but knowing that Crosshair had kissed her back sparked hope in her.
The ship landed on Tipoca City, and before Sarah stepped off from the Marauder, Hunter stopped her. They met eyes, mutually seeing the worry in each other’s gazes. The others exited the ship, leaving her and Hunter inside, alone in the silence.
“Stay close to me,” Hunter said.
Sarah slightly tilted her head, picking up on the main difference in Hunter’s request. He would always refer to things collectively when speaking about matters that concerned the team, and while Sarah would have thought he’d ask her to stay close to them, the detail jumped out that Hunter was telling her to stay close to him.
“But…” Sarah said. “None of the clones hurt me-”
He shook his head and took his hands to squeeze her shoulders. She could tell that Hunter tried to keep up his stoic, leader-like front, but his gaze betrayed him, and Sarah saw in his eyes that he would have begged her to listen to him had his throat not been a knot.
Sarah then nodded at him and let him take the lead. The two exited the ship with Sarah following closely behind Hunter, letting his broad figure shield her from the sight of the diverse squads of clone troopers. The ambience was unnerving; often, squads would march through the landing bays in formation, but there would be chatter, laughter, color in the troopers’ armors that were now monotonous and white with the exception of the squads of shock troopers that were, for some reason, all the way on Kamino. It was quiet. It was eerie.
It only got worse when Sarah and her squad saw a group of troopers carrying the covered body of a Jedi, who only dropped the lightsaber onto the floor before fully being carried off. Once again, Sarah felt that distinctive cold freeze her marks.
As they made their way to their barracks, Sarah remained shielded by her squad mates even though, by that point, it truly seemed like the clones didn’t consider her in their orders to execute the Jedi–it gave them all a selfish, bitter sense of relief, like they felt bad about being happy that Sarah wasn’t considered a Jedi, yet it was still morbid to associate happiness with any current event. Still, they remained around her the more they walked, and when they all arrived, everyone scattered to their corner of the large, dim-lit room, only lacking the usual banter that would decorate their silence.
Sighing, Sarah ran her hands down her face. Being next to her hammock caused a sudden wave of exhaustion to wash over her, and now, all she wanted to do was sleep. She questioned her capability to face the following few days, feeling they would be eternal–hell, she didn’t even know what else would happen. All she knew is that her body was demanding her some rest, something she felt she couldn’t give herself the luxury of. Some deep corner, the same one that drove her to Kamino with fives back in the day, needed to get to the bottom of everything, to get everything done.
She felt light steps approaching her, and she turned around to see Crosshair next to her, finally no longer wearing his helmet. He seemed blank and unamused, the way he always did, allowing some of the tension to leave Sarah’s body. She wanted to talk to him about the kiss, possibly do it again, not caring one bit that the others were there. She wanted to reach for his hand to take it, and just before she did, she saw Hunter walking up behind Crosshair, tearing the marksman’s attention from Sarah.
Instantly, the tension between the two thickened, and it wasn’t only because of Crosshair’s behavior back on Kaller.
“What?” Crosshair sneered at Hunter.
Hunter looked just as unamused. “You wanna tell us what the hell your problem is?”
Crosshair rolled his eyes and looked away from his eldest brother. “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”
“Well, then,” Hunter didn’t bother longer. He knew his brother all too well for that. Instead, Hunter rounded Crosshair and stepped between him and Sarah, shielding her from him too.
Hunter spoke no more, his silence almost tangibly growing thicker; Sarah perched up to look at Crosshair over Hunter’s shoulder, who looked at her only briefly before turning away and returning to clean his rifle by his bunk. As Sarah watched Crosshair walking away, she couldn’t help feeling a splinter of resentment towards Hunter, who’d kept her and Crosshair from, possibly, talking about what had happened between them on Kaller.
Very briefly, Sarah wondered if that had been Hunter’s intention.
And when Hunter looked upon her again, she saw the pain she’d seen in him before, and she couldn’t bring herself to uphold his gaze for a longer period of time. He knew as much as she did that something was wrong with Crosshair, and even he seemed to be focusing more on whatever was going on between him and Sarah. She turned away from him and, for the sake of finding an excuse to not put up with any conversation, she began to lean her own rifle as well, eventually prompting Hunter to walk back to his own corner of the room, defeated by her, yet still clearly angry at Crosshair.
She cleaned her rifle, all but terrified at the lack of laughter and conversation, replaced by silent chatter, primarily between Tech and Echo. Not long after, Echo approached Sarah and gently held her shoulder. Sarah smiled at him and set her rifle down, happy to see Echo’s gentle approach to her, and it dawned on her that she hadn’t yet told him she’d kissed Crosshair. The sadness inside her spread; she’d hoped her first kiss with Crosshair would be a worthy piece of gossip she’d tell Echo about over drinks, and instead, it was anything but.
Echo’s gaze softened at her. “Tech and I have been talking…”
“About?”
He sighed. “He’s saying things about clones being programmed.”
Echo didn’t need to elaborate much more for Sarah to make sense of what he was saying, and her gaze drifted over to Crosshair. It wasn’t a surprise; she’d heard Rex and Fives talk about the clones’ engineering, even though to that day she didn’t fully comprehend how it worked. It was always a given that the clones were engineered to perform a certain way, and since she’d seen Tup first-hand when he killed Tiplar against his will, she’d never rule out the possibility that such engineering would make them do things of a larger scale.
Why Clone Force 99 hadn’t reacted the same way wasn’t much of a question either. They’d been enhanced and mutated, it only made sense for that engineering to be altered as well. However, the question as to why it had to be Crosshair who’d responded that way, it made Sarah want to curse everything, challenge the Force and the Gods as to why they were doing that to him–but she refused to go down that path.
“All personnel, please report to the central staging area for a briefing on the state of the Republic.”
Solemn looks of premonition were exchanged throughout the room. Tech and Wrecker were the first ones heading to the door, followed silently by Echo and Hunter. Sarah walked past Crosshair’s bunk and stopped in front of him, catching his gaze.
“Let’s go,” Sarah told him.
“You should stay here for this too,” Hunter’s voice came from across the barracks. “Palpatine will be the one giving the speech, and now I’m the one with the hunch.”
“But we can account for our fellow clone brothers not wanting to harm her,” Tech said. “Sarah has not been considered in the programming.”
“I still don’t want her to be present for that,” Hunter countered.
Sarah knew by that point that all Hunter wanted to do was protect her. Besides, it felt right to keep her hidden from Palpatine for the time being. As the Chancellor, he knew what was going on behind the Republic, and if the genocide was a result of programming, Sarah felt he must have been related to that. She thought back to the way Palpatine had been involved during Fives’ final days, and the very notion of the Chancellor didn’t sit well with her. If anything, she’d attempt to snipe him from afar if she had the chance.
Thus, Sarah nodded at Hunter, turning her focus to Crosshair as the others left the barracks. As he removed the toothpick from his mouth, Sarah walked up to him if only just to check on him. He was still glaring at the ground, and it took him a while before his gaze met hers. Sarah knew her eyes were pleading. She needed to hear something from him, anything at all, preferably anything not related to following orders.
She needed to hear Crosshair, her Crosshair.
Her hand made its way to one of his forearms and she gave it a gentle caress. Looking deeply into his eyes, Sarah could tell they were not empty. He wasn’t mindless, not like the programming had made Tup, or the rest of the clones, for that matter. She tried to hold on to that fact. Then, Crosshair’s arm shifted so that, to Sarah’s surprise, his fingers entwined ever so slightly with hers. That gesture, small as it was, gave her hope that it was, indeed, her Crosshair.
“Stay here,” he said so quietly it was almost a growl, jaw clenched as though he were fighting his most firm beliefs. “I’ll let you know when to come out.”
She nodded slowly at him, her throat about to burst with all the things she wanted to say to him. Before she could overcome her own silence, Crosshair let her hand go and headed towards the door, where Hunter was waiting outside with his back turned on them. Sarah’s gaze lingered on them for as long as possible until the door closed behind them, leaving her alone in the dim lighting of the barracks.
She stood there, eerily finding hidden meanings to the fact that Crosshair was just in front of her, and in the blink of an eye, he wasn’t any longer. Fortunately for Sarah, the permanent storms of Kamino were on her side, and the flashes of lightning and the rumble of thunder brought her back to the real world. As she turned her body to face the barracks once more, she noticed Lula sitting on Wrecker’s bunk. Smiling, Sarah walked over to grab the plushie, and she took it with her to her hammock where she quickly began to doze off. The sounds of the rain engulfed her and, with everyone else in the assembly, it was abnormally quiet except for the sturm. Having grown up on Jedha with little to no rain, Sarah had learned to love the rain, and she felt at ease in it.
Despite her constant premonitions, Sarah fell asleep hugging the plushie to try and make herself feel better the way it had done on Kashyyyk. After a time she didn’t have any track of, Sarah woke up to the sound of her comm beeping. She felt relieved when she’d seen it was the first time they’d called–had she slept in and not answered multiple calls, her squad would have worried. She expected to hear Crosshair’s voice at the other end, but it was Tech who told her where they were. Sarah got up, left Lula on her hammock, and went to meet up with them on one of the large corridors of Tipoca City’s central facility, arriving just as they were discussing the Republic becoming the Empire. By that point, at least, they all felt it was safer for Sarah to walk around publicly, without the need to shield her from everyone.
Sarah walked next to Crosshair, who wasn’t wearing his helmet anymore as opposed to when they’d arrived at the facility, another detail that made Sarah feel hopeful. His narrow eyes lingered on her, paying close attention to her until she met his gaze.
“Did you fall asleep?” He asked her.
“I did for a while, almost right after you left,” Sarah smiled. “That hammock does wonders, truly.”
More silence lingered heavily among the squad, until Sarah’s curiosity forced her to break it again.
“How was the assembly?”
“Odd,” Tech replied. “Have you ever seen an entire hall of clone troopers cheer in unison at a completely unjustified transition of power right after a genocide?”
“No way that happened,” Sarah’s heart broke. “That’s just awful.”
“I’m merely glad none of us were among the cheering squad,” Echo leaned in to tell Sarah, his eyes pointing at Crosshair.
Once more, a wave of relief washed over Sarah. If this many signs of hope regarding Crosshair were presenting themselves, Sarah would welcome them all.
While walking, Hunter then stopped abruptly in his tracks. As Sarah asked him what was wrong, she noticed he was more confused than he was wary, giving her no reason to fear.
Hunter then turned around and smiled softly, curious and puzzled. “We’ve got company.”
The rest of his squad followed him in looking at the direction he faced, and behind them, they noticed a girl. She was short in height, reaching about the height of Sarah’s shoulder, with curly short hair black at the roots but turning blond near the edges. Her brown eyes were filled with wonder and curiosity; she wore the clothes of Kaminoan medical personnel, along with a Kaminoan headpiece resting on her forehead. Smiling brightly, the girl waved at them.
“Hello!” She was cheerful, and not at all bashful as Sarah would have expected. “I’m Omega! I was hoping you’d all be back by now!”
Everyone around the child exchanged looks, each with the same level of confusion.
“I am sorry,” Tech began. “It appears you know us, however, we do not know you. Am I correct?”
Omega smiled at them with a touch of melancholy. “Yeah. I’ve seen you all from afar for years now. I know you all perfectly well, and when I heard you were back for the end of the war, I had to see you.”
Omega’s eyes wandered around the group of clones, and when they fell on Sarah, it seemed Omega was relieved and surprised at the same time. “I’m happy to see you’re still with them.”
She means she’s happy you weren’t killed, Sarah thought to herself, but mentally scolded at such a thought. It was not difficult to tell Omega had nothing but purity in her heart.
“What are you doing here, kid?” Hunter asked her, smiling softly at the child as if it were his own. “Isn’t anyone looking for you?”
Omega giggled. “Oh, absolutely. I’m not supposed to be here right now, but I had to see you.”
“Omega!”
As soon as Sarah heard that voice, that deceptively serene female hum coming from an old demon, she felt the hairs on her arms standing on edge. She felt her presence as she approached, and any sweetness caused by Omega quickly faded within Sarah as she saw the tall Kaminoan, the one in charge of the med bay, the one who specialized in lying and having others suffer the consequences for her dishonesty.
“I told you to remain in the medical bay,” Nala Se spoke, obviously averting her gaze from Sarah.
“Is this child sick?” Tech asked. “I have not picked up any signs of illness.”
“She is my medical assistant, trooper,” Nala Se replied. “Unfortunately, she is far too curious and often wanders away from my watch.”
“Yeah, you’d hate that,” Sarah spat out, unbothered by the venom in her tone. It caught her teammates off guard, attracting their gazes over to her.
But Sarah paid no mind to her squad at the current moment. She delighted in seeing Nala Se’s features become rugged as she reflected her mutual disgust towards her. Oh, Nala Se remembered Sarah too well. She remembered how she and Fives had made sure to make her miserable for lying.
“Why is this one here if she is not even a clone?” Nala Se spoke with anger in her features, but her voice remained as serene as she could manage it.
Hunter’s hand traveled to Sarah’s shoulder and squeezed it, though Sarah didn’t know if it was to keep her from leaping onto Nala Se and beating her like she deserved–and Fives would probably be proud of Sarah needing another trooper to stop her–or if it was a gesture of support. Knowing Hunter, Sarah realized it was both.
“She’s a part of this squad,” Hunter spoke calmly.
“Whether you like it or not,” Sarah, in turn, kept her venom in her voice, not caring about owing Nala Se even an ounce of kindness, or even formality. She became undeserving of it the moment her first lie steered and sealed Fives’ fate.
Instead, Nala Se scoffed so slightly it was nearly unnoticeable, and she led her hand to rest on Omega’s back. “Come along. We have work to do.”
Sarah looked down at the girl, whose big eyes displayed sympathy. she would have expected Omega to look at her with any emotion but that, seeing as how she was directly confronting her mentor. Even so, Omega turned around and followed Nala Se, giving the squad a cute wave goodbye before disappearing behind the wall of the next corridor.
With the air still tense, Sarah was the first one to walk in the opposite directin. By the time they all got to the mess hall, she felt like she was on auto pilot. She grabbed a tray, grabbed her food–at least the soup looked yummy and comforting, which she needed–and she made her way to their usual table, which was deserted except for her squad, just as it always was. She sat at the edge in front of Crosshair, and Echo took the spot next to her. Sarah began picking at the ration bar, her mind clearly elsewhere, when she then felt Echo’s steady gaze on her.
“You want to tell me what that was all about?” He asked her softly.
Sarah felt the tension building up in her again. Lowly, her voice formed a grumble in her chest. “It was about Fives.”
“What does Nala Se have to do with him?”
She finally snapped, slamming her hands flat on the table. “If she hadn’t been such a damned liar, Fives would still be alive!”
Realizing that had come out way louder and angrier than she had expected, Sarah noticed that everyone at her table, and even many troopers in the other tables, were staring at her. Her outburst had been so strong that even Crosshair looked worried for her in his state. But she instantly regretted raising her voice at Echo, and with a loud sigh, Sarah hugged him.
“I’m sorry,” she told him, and Echo, one of the kindest souls of the universe, instantly hugged her back like the best friend he’d always been to her.
“Hey,” he comforted her. “I miss him too.”
Her lips trembled, but she forced the tears inside. She let go of Echo and wore the best, toughest exterior she could manage, and she handed him her pack of crackers. “Let’s just eat. Here, have these. I know you like them.”
Echo chuckled and hugged her from the side using his left arm, until he realized he couldn’t eat without it and let go of her. In the meantime, Tech and Wrecker seemed to be arguing about the whole issue of clones being programmed, as Wrecker insisted he couldn’t have been programmed by anyone to do anything–and he seemed quite heated by it.
"Wrecker, that wasn't an insult," Tech spoke.
"Look, Tech, here a hypothesis for you: If I like to blow things up, then it is simply because I–" he slammed the table, "--LIKE TO BLOW THINKS UP! GOT IT?"
Sarah mentally sighed, knowing the clones around the mess hall must be loving them right now, what with yet another raised voice coming from their table.
However, Tech seemed pleased. “Bravo, Wrecker! You have used the appropriate formatting of a hypothesis!”
“Of course I did, dikut, you use them all the time,” Wrecker rolled his eyes and took a large bite out of his ration bar.
Sarah couldn’t help but laugh that time, and it was a rather open laugh at that. She knew she should have stopped; too much racket had come from that table already, so she made an effort to quiet down. As she did, she looked at Tech, and she noticed he was smiling softly and nodding at Wrecker, who gave him a thumbs up, pleased to hear Sarah laughing again.
She felt touched at how much those two cared for her. But the charm was cut by Hunter arriving at the table, sitting down with the look of a heavy heart. “It looks like an imperial’s been sent to evaluate the clones. All of us.”
“Do we know who it is?” Sarah asked Hunter.
“Does it matter?” Echo said. “I can’t imagine they’ll be much different from one another.”
Sarah shrugged, knowing he had a point. If the Empire is evaluating the clones, it would only be because they wanted to get rid of a large number of them. She could imagine why that would be such a cause for worry. But then, even that train of thought was interrupted when the small Omega arrived at their table and took a seat with her tray. Sarah had to hold in a laugh at how gigantic the bowl of soup looked beside her, which in turn, reminded her to begin eating her own soup before it got cold. However, while she delighted in her soup, the rest of her teammates gave Omega a weird-bug look.
“Um…” Omega said, doubtful. “Hi!”
Hunter sighed, releasing his tension with a groan. “Kid… Why are you following us?”
“I just want to be around you,” Omega said. “I’ve been waiting ages for you guys to return.”
“Yeah, but why us?” Hunter continued to question. “Don’t you have a family here?”
Omega’s eyes widened, gleaming with nostalgia, with longing. The look in her eyes tore Sarah’s attention from anything else in the present moment, forcing her to focus on the young girl, barely able to keep herself from voicing her thoughts.
You are my family.
“Alright, defect squad’s got a new recruit!”
A group of troopers from an adjacent table, about four of them who looked to be shinies, fresh off the line and inexperienced, were sneering over at the direction of the batch. Things had gotten better for them over the years, what with the war making mature men out of its soldiers, but clone Force 99 always had some trouble being well-received by the younger troopers who didn’t take kindly to any special treatment they received.
“You might want to take your pick with any other squad, kid,” one of the troopers said. “You can only get so far with a group of defectives and their pet.”
“Alright,” Hunter stood up, only for Sarah to reach across the table to stop him.
“We are enhanced
While the shinies rolled their eyes at Tech, Sarah gave Hunter’s wrist a tug, drawing his attention to her, seeming baffled yet comforted by her touch.
“They’re not worth it,” Sarah said. “Let’s just ignore them, alright?”
Unfortunately, by the time Hunter had calmed down, Omega was already throwing her wrap at the trooper who had begun talking crap at the batch.
“Apologize to them!” Omega cried, not sounding overly angry, but definitely not heavenly as she usually did.
Wide eyes stared at the young girl. The trooper looked like he was about to retaliate, but before he could, Wrecker had launched an entire tray at him.
“Pick on someone your own size!”
“Okay, stop–” Before Sarah could finish her sentence, hell broke loose. Hunter threw a punch at one of the troopers who had yelled an insult at Sarah, and subsequently, Tech joined in too. Echo groaned, running his palm over his face in displeasure as joining in the fight seemed inevitable.
“Not again,” he grumbled.
Sarah sighed. “We’re a team, and as far as I’m concerned, you’re the ARC trooper. You’re the last person to back down from a fight.”
Sarah noticed a random trooper charging at her and echo, who she deflected and proceeded to smear the filling of her wrap all over his face, shoving him away. She noticed Crosshair had been sitting out too, finding it hard to believe he’d back down when usually he was the one beside Wrecker picking fights and pushing people to their edge. It brought Sarah’s sense of premonition back to her, until she noticed Echo had been pushed onto the table, knocking over her and Crosshair’s remaining plates, smearing food all over her outfit.
As Sarah gasped, she heard some of the troopers laughing at her, teasing her for being there whilst not even being a clone, and next thing she knew, a tray flew past her, hitting one of the troopers and bouncing onto another, knocking them both to the ground. It was all happening so fast that Sarah couldn’t even keep track of it all, and next thing she knew, Crosshair was tugging at her wrist, trying to get her out of there.
“Come on,” he slurred, puffing his chest out and appearing as menacing as he could to keep anyone from approaching them.
Sarah absently walked along with him, but on the corner of her eye, she noticed Echo on the ground looking up at someplace with attention, until a trooper took advantage of him and charged at Echo to hit his head with a tray, and Echo’s body fell limply. Sarah struggled against Crosshair’s grip, slipping from him and running towards Echo to check on him.
And she felt herself filling with rage at the sight of Echo unconscious in her arms. With her eyes blazing, she looked up at the trooper as though she were ready to rip him apart.
“You knocked him out?!” Somehow, Sarah’s voice boomed above the rest of the yelling, making multiple troopers look at her. In her anger, Sarah leapt at the trooper and tackled him, pinning him to the ground before landing multiple punches of him. Two pairs of arms belonging to Hunter and Crosshair had to pull her away from the trooper if only to keep her from leaving him unconscious too.
“Let me go!” Sarah yelled, kicking and screaming like an animal. “He knocked Echo unconscious! Let me go!”
“Sarah!” Hunter yelled, but he couldn’t get her to stop. It was Crosshair, the man who always observed everything silently from afar, who knew how to get to her in the end. Firmly, Crosshair held Sarah’s jaw, but his grip gradually softened, and his eyes looked deeply into Sarah’s.
“Are you done?” He asked her bluntly, finally getting Sarah to quiet down.
“Tech,” Hunter said. “Get Echo to the med bay.”
Sarah looked into Crosshair’s eyes, and it wasn’t until she saw his gaze soften that she decided not to fight anymore. Sarah squirmed out of the grip of her teammates’ strong arms and walked back to Echo, reaching him before Tech did. She struggled, but managed to pick him up and carry him out of the mess hall, and not a single pair of eyes wasn’t on her. As she walked, she felt the energy surge from earlier begin to die down, and Echo’s body began feeling heavier with every step.
*
They’d caught up to her on the way. Seeing how angry she’d gotten twice that day, Tech insisted he take Echo to the med bay while the rest of them had Sarah go back to the barracks to blow off steam. She managed to stay in the barracks until it simply became too much, and then she opened the door onto the hall, where they were all waiting for her, or rather, guarding the door.
“I’ve had my time out,” Sarah said with a groan to her voice. “Now can I see Echo?”
Everyone exchanged difficult looks, until finally, Hunter gave her a sad sigh.
“You’d have to go to the med bay,” he said.
“Yeah…” Wrecker added. “You may wanna stay here. You might get bad memories if you go there.”
“Or try to rip Nala Se’s throat out,” Crosshair grinned, visibly proud of Sarah.
“Either way, I have to go,” Sarah said. “I’ll be fine. Echo’s more important to me right now.”
“Are you sure?” Hunter asked her one last time.
She nodded at him and soon, at the edge of the corridor, she saw Tech approaching all by himself.
“Where’s Echo?” She asked.
“Still in the med bay,” Tech answered. “They have to run more tests on him before he can leave, and plus, he is still unconscious.”
Sarah sighed, clenching her jaw in an effort to keep her composure. “You shouldn’t have left him alone. If he wakes up, his PTSD is going to act up.”
“He’s not alone,” Tech’s hands rested on Sarah’s shoulders. “Omega insisted in staying with him.”
“Well,” she shrugged. “It’s something.”
“Do you not trust her?” Tech questioned. “I find her unlikely to cause anyone harm.”
“I trust Omega,” Sarah replied. “It’s her mentor I better not catch anywhere near Echo, or any of you, for that matter.”
Leading the way, Sarah began to head towards the medical wing. It didn’t take them long to get there, but none of them would be allowed inside to see Echo immediately. The medical droids said it wouldn’t be too long, though, so the squadron remained waiting nearby until he was ready. Sarah noticed Crosshair leaning on one of the walls, placing a toothpick between his teeth, grimacing slightly. She made sure to catch his gaze, and when he looked at her, Sarah made her way over to one of the offices next to the room Echo was in.
The office was empty, quiet, and dimly lit. Crosshair didn’t delay in following Sarah inside, where the two remained in silence, but Crosshair’s gaze on Sarah was soft. She mirrored that softness and walked up to him, hoping he would feel safe enough in her presence to talk, and she couldn’t help but be grateful she was finally alone with him.
“How do you feel?” She asked him.
“Normal,” replied Crosshair.
Slowly, Sarah shook her head. “Don’t say normal, you aren’t acting normal.”
Crosshair glanced over to his side as though to avoid Sarah, and she feared for a moment that he was, even if for the past couple of hours he’d been acting more normally then he did on Kaller. But Sarah had to know, and it was killing her that everything was lining up just so that she couldn’t know what he was thinking.
“Do you remember what happened on Kaller?” She asked him in a hushed voice, not sure if she meant him responding to Order 66, or the kiss.
But Crosshair’s gaze snapped to meet hers, his narrow, strained gaze softening just a bit more, and Sarah then knew which part he was remembering.
“Of course I do,” Crosshair said.
Sarah nodded gently. She didn’t know what else to say, all she knew was that the heating of her cheeks at Crosshair being aware of the kiss was all too familiar. Sarah looked him in the eyes, and he responded–if there was anything she loved about the relationship she had with him, it was the way they could communicate without even having to talk. She trusted her instincts, and just as she was about to reach her hand to remove the toothpick and free his lips, readying them for hers, Tech appeared at the door, looking awkwardly at them.
Tech cleared his throat. “We can see Echo now.”
Sarah doubted Tech even saw her nodding at him from how quickly and awkwardly he had left, as quickly as he had appeared. Sarah looked down, not yet daring to look Crosshair in the eyes, and just as she began to walk past him, Crosshair grabbed her wrist and stopped her. His touch was firm, but it was not abrasive, it was not possessive or harsh. It was merely letting her know how much he wanted her there. After that, Sarah’s eyes met Crosshair’s again, but she heard Echo struggling in the other room, breaking all of her attention.
While Crosshair would usually seem unbothered, he had a note of pain to his gaze as he gave Sarah’s arm a squeeze.
“Go,” Crosshair said. “He needs you.”
Sarah knew Crosshair was right, she knew she should be in there with Echo. She walked away when Crosshair released her wrist, but she made sure that her hand would brush his. She figured that, with the war being over, she would have time to see to her feelings for Crosshair sometime later. Now that the two were on the same page, Sarah figured little could go wrong, so she focused on Echo, rushing over to him as she crossed the door to the room with Crosshair following not too far behind her.
Sarah grasped his hand and his shoulder, gently giving Echo a shake and shushing him to calm his nerves.
“It’s okay,” Sarah said. “It’s us.”
Echo seemed to relax but appeared slightly confused; Sarah assumed it was because Omega had been with him. Finally, Echo let out a deep sigh and allowed himself to return to the present moment, giving Sarah’s hand a squeeze.
“I’m fine,” he said. “Really.”
Sarah nodded at him and exhaled in relief too, and she then looked down at Omega’s curious eyes that radiated a happiness and comfort that expanded onto Sarah, causing her to smile at the young girl.
“Thank you for being here with him,” Sarah told her.
Omega smiled brightly in return. “No problem.”
As the rest of the team arrived and surrounded Echo’s bed, with Crosshair standing at Sarah’s right, a small droid hovered over to them. Its big round eyes and small speaker, its curvy body, they resonated within Sarah’s mind and made her heart squeeze with grief.
“AZI!” She exclaimed, knowing in her heart it was the same unit. She could have sworn he would have been dismantled, given what he found out alongside Fives, all the support he’d given him.
But the little droid looked at Sarah too, tilting its head as if it were a cub, unresponsive to Sarah’s emotion. “Can I help you with something? Are you this trooper’s general?”
And Sarah’s heart broke. AZI hadn’t been dismantled, but his memory had been wiped. He had no memory of her, much less of Fives or anything that he may have discovered.
Sarah shook her head, pushing the feeling aside. Loss wasn’t new to her anyway. “How is he?”
“CT-1409 is in stable condition,” the droid replied. “He will be able to proceed with his tests.”
“Tests?” Sarah asked. “I thought you’d already run all the necessary tests on him.”
“The droid is referring to the tests we have to undergo before Imperial command,” Tech said. “It is what the imperial is here for, to evaluate us.”
“Yeah, and speaking of which,” Echo began, his grumpy attitude returning. “I know who it is. It’s Tarkin.”
“Fuck,” Sarah said a little too loudly for a medical bay. “Tarkin? Are you sure?”
“I saw him with my own eyes,” Echo said, though a faint gleam of mischief appeared in his gaze. “Yeah, he never liked us. Remember?”
Sarah chuckled as her mind was sent into reminiscing. It was bittersweet to remember the Citadel rescue, but she found herself smiling nonetheless. “You mean, do I remember how it was Fives’ idea to casually knock him over with the excuse of needing an exact angle to accurately shoot droids?”
Echo and Sarah laughed softly at the memory of Fives’ little smirk just before he donned his helmet and went over to shove Tarkin out of the way, having made him flop on his bottom on the ground. But even then, Sarah and Echo’s laughter died down.
“Anyways,” Tech cut in when he deemed appropriate, just as a group of shock troopers entered the medical bay. “It appears we have to be en route to our evaluation too.”
Hunter sighed. “Let’s get it over with.”
Sarah and Tech helped Echo up from the bed and the squad followed Hunter over to the doorway, where the shock troopers seemed to want to escort them out, but stopped Sarah from moving.
“This evaluation is for clones only,” said their captain. “You are to remain with Governor Tarkin in their stead.”
Sarah felt a pang in her chest, and Hunter took notice of her change in mood and walked over to her defensively. “She stays with us.”
“Do not make me repeat myself, trooper.”
Sarah and Hunter exchanged a worried look–it pained Sarah to have to separate from her squad. She knew all too well what splitting up on Kamino could do. But Sarah knew it was unwise, even dangerous, to not follow these troopers’ command, and with a gulp, she tried her best to appear calm.
“I’ll be overlooking the evaluation,” she told Hunter. “We won’t be out of sight.”
“Are you sure?” Hunter asked her, letting her know he’d be willing to fight every single one of those shock troopers if only it meant Sarah’s tranquility.
But she nodded at him. “Go.”
At that moment, the little Omega ran up to them as the troopers escorted the remainder of Clone Force 99 outside. As Omega tried to persuade Hunter to let her go with them, Sarah’s gaze wandered over to Crosshair, who briefly looked at her over his shoulder as he walked away from her.
“Then let me stay with her,” Omega said after she’d been defeated by Hunter’s argument. “She won’t be in the battle simulation, so I could stay with her, right?”
Sarah knew by Hunter’s expression that he didn’t want Omega to come, and Sarah knew she’d already put Hunter through enough bitterness that day with everything happening with Crosshair. She wasn’t in the mood to let him down another time.
And the truth was, she wasn’t sure keeping Omega around, at least for the time being, was a wise idea.
“I don’t trust Tarkin, Omega,” Sarah said. “I think it’s best if you stay here in the meantime.”
Omega’s hopeful eyes saddened, breaking Sarah’s heart all over again. Ultimately, Hunter led her out of the med bay, and they were stopped by a single shock trooper who wanted to escort Sarah over to where she’d watch the simulation from. With a wary look, Hunter joined the others, clearly apprehensive at the thought of leaving Sarah alone under these circumstances. Sarah tried her best to be convincing when she nodded at Hunter before disappearing over the corridor, but she barely felt confident that everything would be alright eventually at that point.
She was taken to a platform overlooking the training facility, where Lama Su and Tarkin were already waiting. Sarah instantly felt apprehensive at the sight of both of them–she couldn’t help but notice Tarkin had aged terribly. But age hadn’t made him any kinder, and he still looked like the vile serpent that he was.
“It has been a long time,” Tarkin greeted Sarah. “I must say, I am surprised to see you still involved with the clones.”
“Well, we must not forget I never was a Jedi, nor will I be,” Sarah brought up the order purposefully. She wanted Tarkin to know he wouldn’t be messing with her.
“Indeed,” Tarkin said as Sarah finally reached him and Lama Su. “I am pleased to see you still fighting for the right side.”
Sarah smiled with deceptive kindness. “I’ll always fight for the right side.”
Unamused, Tarkin returned his sight to the simulation that had just begun, and as the troopers took their positions, Sarah couldn’t remove her gaze from Crosshair. All the time, she’d fought alongside him, but she’d never truly appreciated him during battle. He was incredible, even beautiful. Agile and smart, cunning, precise. Sarah felt her heart squeeze as she saw him climbing on a tower to snipe from there, feeling both love and worry, even if this was just a simulation. What she wouldn’t have given to hold him in her arms that very moment.
“What can you tell me about them?” Tarkin interrupted her thoughts.
Sarah looked over at him. “Well, I don’t wish to bore you by repeating anything the prime minister has already told you.”
“I have the prime minister’s perspective as the head of this facility, but I want your perspective as a soldier who has fought alongside them,” Tarkin said.
Sarah looked back at the simulation. “Wrecker’s strength is not a joke. I’ve seen him lift entire gunships. Anything that requires strength, he can do it. Tech’s mind works faster than the most advanced computer in this facility, he can engineer anything from scratch and have it working in a matter of days. Echo is experienced, more than the others. His battle tactics used in the right hands will win any battle. Hunter is an extraordinary leader, his senses prove a strength more often than they are a weakness and he’ll have insights no other squad will. And Crosshair, you’ll never find a finer marksman than him.”
Tarkin delayed in his response. “You always did seem fond of clone troopers. But they are not impressing me the way you have described them.”
“Well, with due respect, they won’t perform in all their glory in a simulation,” Sarah said. “They’ll truly shine in actual battle.”
“So I hypothesize,” Tarkin said as he turned to Lama Su. “Switch to live fire.”
Sarah managed to hide her leap of indignance, while Lama su was clear in his distaste for Tarkin’s proposal.
“I am afraid I cannot allow that,” Lama Su said. “My clones could be damaged, as well as my facility.”
Sarah couldn’t help but frown at Lama Su, and she’d never found it more difficult to keep a remark unsaid. They were not his clones.
“Do it,” Tarkin ordered.
At Lama Su’s order, the batch were faced with a bigger challenge and were proven overpowered, instantly struggling against the droids they were put against. Sarah wasn’t able to keep her emotions in when she noticed one of the droids shooting at Crosshair up on his tower; she gasped at the sight, more than obviously worried particularly for him, and sighed in relief when he managed to get away.
She didn’t ignore the fact that Tarkin had noticed her reaction.
Eventually, her boys prevailed. The simulation had ended after Crosshair pulled a trickshot on the final droid, shooting Wrecker’s knife into the droid’s head, ending it swiftly. By then, Crosshair was the antidote to Sarah’s scarce abilities to hide her emotions, and she smiled widely at the sight.
That’s my Crosshair.
As the boys regrouped down at the training grounds, Tarkin warily looked at Sarah before watching them too.
“Impressive, I will not lie,” Tarkin said. “But you feel that way already.”
“I do,” Sarah said, proud of her boys. “They’re a fine squadron.”
“Yes, though I believe it would be best to see them in action in a real mission, would you not agree? You did say they perform far better in battle rather than simulations.”
Sarah couldn’t help but feel she’d walked into a trap, and her marks instantly began to burn with warning.
“They must have plenty of records around this facility,” she said. Sarah didn’t trust Tarkin to not send her and her squad to do his dirty work.
“Ah, but you see, I like to keep my data up to date,” Tarkin told her. “Now, regroup with your squadron. I will be with you to brief you on this mission shortly.”
She tried, and failed, to hide her disgust. Sarah didn’t even bother saluting Tarkin in military custom, and she could care less about the prime minister. She walked out of the platform, eager to regroup with her squad.
She couldn’t stand being with Tarkin one more second. It was proving impossible for her to shake the feeling that whatever he had planned would be awful, whatever it was, and she felt in her marks that somehow, his presence sealed her squadron’s fate.
Walking faster, she felt the urge to find Crosshair immediately beginning to crush her.
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Re: TCW as meta commentary
A little while ago, I commented on a post about the electrocution that Anakin experiences during The Clone Wars animated series, but since my response turned into a bit of a rant I decided to make a separate post instead. It’s become almost a meme these days to say that Anakin must have 'brain damage' from all that electrocution during the Clone Wars. I realise that tumblr just likes to joke around, but I personally get frustrated with these sorts of 'readings' because it's just...not how I personally view these kinds of things at all. When I watched TCW back in the day, I just presumed that the reason there was so much electrocution was to give a ‘nod’ to Vader being so averse to Palpatine’s Force-lightning in RotJ. Having Anakin tortured countless times in a similar manner to how Luke is at the end of RotJ then explains why Anakin/Vader can’t abide seeing his son tortured that way any longer (he knows all-too well what it’s like!) and finally snaps and kills Palpatine. The fact he hates and is maybe even terrified of Palpatine’s Force-lightning by that point (knowing it will almost certainly kill him) also lends his final sacrifice in RotJ another level of pathos and heroism.
Of course, one could just dismiss the electrocution as the writers being sadistic and saying ‘let’s torture Anakin all the time’ (which is definitely part of it, lol), but I also feel like there's more going on there. Everything in the (original Lucas-era) seasons of TCW was constructed as a sort of ‘meta analysis’ of the PT x OT saga, explored via the Clone Wars-era characters and themes. One of the reasons TCW was even made in the first place was to shed further light on the Prequels at a time when SW fans were still fairly hostile to it. And particularly to shed light on the Prequels in relation to the Original Trilogy. That’s why Anakin was explicitly shown to be the Chosen One in the Mortis Arc—because at the time there was still tons of confusion from fans on the subject (despite Lucas confirming it many times in interviews) and the show was trying to clarify that.
I think people these days get tripped up because they’re trying to take every detail of TCW way too literally. Some aspects of the show can work on a literal level, but not everything. Simply due to the fact it's an animated series (where the rules of gravity don’t even apply at times), there is no way that every single moment in it could be considered 100% canon anyway. Acknowledging that some elements of the show couldn’t possibly be meant to be taken literally was easier to do during the pre-Disney times when the series was still just another entry into the Expanded Universe. It’s only because Disney has now absorbed TCW into their ‘official canon’ (and keep churning out content related to it—something I’m NOT happy about) that there’s all this sort of external ‘pressure’ to view it as completely canon.
Speaking of which, I’ve noticed a lot of polarised opinions on the series lately, ranging from people who accept it wholesale to those who flat out hate it and see it in the same vein as the current Disney material. I can't comment on the 'final season' released under Disney because I never watched it and probably never will. That being said, I personally have a great fondness and nostalgia for the 2008-2013 series, in part because I watched it with my husband when we first got together. If the OT represents my childhood and the PT represents my teenage years, then TCW is from a charmed, golden era just prior to the Disney takeover when I was bonding with my husband over our shared love of SW. Sure, I have issues with some parts of it at times, but it was never a big deal for me in the past because I never viewed the series as canon on the same level as the main six-film saga. Rather, I've always seen it as an interesting illumination on the saga, some of which I agree with and some of which I don’t, and some of which I accept into my own personal headcanon, and some of which I discard.
Things I adore and have taken fully into my heacanon: Ahsoka's character and Snips and Skyguy's relationship. They mean too much to me to not do so. Likewise, all the cute, romantic, and (positive) emotional Anidala moments, as well as the Obitine ship (aka the only ship for Obi-Wan that ever made sense from my perspective). I also view Rex and several of the other Clones as canon additions, because fleshing out the Clone characters was always very important worldbuilding and I'm glad it was included. Similarly, I love all the humorous moments and banter, especially in the early seasons. But on the other hand, there are several story arcs in the later seasons that are either too ‘out there’, blatantly ooc, or even incredibly disturbing (Zygerrian arc, for instance), and I refuse to accept these as literal ‘canon’. Nevertheless, I can't fully dismiss them either because there are still moments of these episodes that I enjoy and value. In those instances, I sort of step outside the story for a moment and look at it from a meta perspective to discern what they were trying to do and say with those storylines, since taking them literally would be too jarring. Likewise, no matter how many times I watch TCW (and even having seen most of Rebels as well), I’m NEVER going to accept the idea that Maul was somehow still alive and wreaking havoc during the Twilight of the Republic and even during the Dark Times. I don’t accept it as canon because I feel it detracts not only from the impact of the Duel of the Fates in TPM, but also from the symmetry and beauty of the perfectly mirrored PT x OT saga as a whole. I can acknowledge that some of the Maul storylines in the animated series were interesting and even emotionally impactful (and can enjoy Sam Witwer's voice acting for him), while also sticking to my guns and saying ‘this whole premise is just plain silly, I am not accepting this as real’. (I would have actually been more amenable to Maul if he'd been 'ressurected' in a different manner, but that's a subject for another post.)
So, while I enjoy TCW, I personally think it’s more enjoyable if you stop believing everything in it is meant to be taken completely literally or realistically, and instead view it as part fun, entertaining romp, part ‘missing moment’ fanfic, and part serious (if somewhat dark and twisted) meta-commentary.
#just my thoughts and ramblings#the clone wars#tcw#pro-lucas saga#anti-disney#expanded universe#i view TCW in the same vein as old-school Expanded Universe#because that's the context it was originally created in#i feel like i'm the only person in the world with this particular perspective#and it's getting lonely in here#hoping to find others with similar view....
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