#the Bad Batch could potentially be the only set of clones that don't have this power because they were Designed Different™
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In the wake of The Bad Batch finale, I have some critical thoughts. If you don't want to read criticism, then please move on. I have a lot of issues with the writing in this show, which I might reserve for a different post, but after the finale this one stands out to me.
The handling of Tech's death.
When Tech died I wasn't that saddened by it. Almost every character in this show didn't get a character arc sans Crosshair, and Tech unfortunately was one of them. They got really close to doing something good with his conversation with Omega after Echo departed, but he died not very long after that. However, his death could have been a very motivating factor for the rest of the cast.
Except it wasn't.
We don't see Crosshair's reaction to evidently being told by Omega. We don't see Omega struggling with it. We don't see Wrecker and Hunter struggling without him, or Echo's reaction. When he's mentioned they woefully look at the table for half a second then move on. Mayday got more of an emotional tribute than him, and while Mayday is integral to Crosshair's arc (though I posit it could have been much different had the writing been good and logical from season one) why do we not see them mourning for their brother?
I thought surely one of the clone operatives would be him, because if he was, then not lingering on the grief makes sense. Hemlock had the goggles that he handed over to taunt them, then these crazy brainwashed clones become a threat. We spend a lot of time with CX-2 specifically and his actions, with several parallels that mirror what Tech went through in previous seasons. Say what you will about subverting expectations, but I like it when parallels are set up then delivered upon.
But no, all the clone operatives are red herrings, nobodies, supposedly. Tech is really dead for the sake of...what, exactly? He saved them on Eriadu but we don't see them struggling with that at all. No one becomes better or changes because he dies. They hardly acknowledge him at all, and not only does that reflect poorly on Tech's sacrifice, it reflects poorly on the rest of the cast. It makes them look like a bunch of jerks who didn't care about their brother (which they kind of already were with Crosshair but that's a different rant). Why they set up the CX guy as such a parallel then didn't deliver is downright bad writing, and I am salty about it. Tech wasn't even my favorite, but he's retroactively becoming more endeared to me through What Could Have Been.
Anyway, I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. I've read posts from @thecoffeelorian and @apocalyp-tech-a that sum up how I feel overall. This show had the potential to be so, so good and it ended up being mediocre at best. Only Crosshair really moved beyond the trope he embodied at the start, and Tech had the potential to, but they cut that short and not in a good or meaningful way.
I will be writing a fix-it after I finish my current "Tech is CX" fic because I'm that salty. I hope future Star Wars shows can manage to do something good and rise beyond the unfortunate writing choices.
P.S. Jimmi Simpson as Hemlock was a highlight. I will always stan Mary Lightly iykyk
#sw#the bad batch#tbb#the bad batch spoilers#crosshair#omega#tcw#tech#hunter#wrecker#echo#star wars#the bad batch critical#nala se#royce hemlock#emerie karr#cx 2#tech lives
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Corporate entities hate fanmade works and would love nothing more than to get them shut down entirely
They hate that there are people out there using their characters and their settings and having fun with them without having to pay them for the priviledge
But as long as fans aren't making money out of their IP they can currently get away with it. But we've recently seen a crackdown on people selling t-shirt designs, stickers, etc which violate this
So what can they do to try to firm up the laws on this, to get them to fall more in their favour?
Would writing their own fanfic and turning it into a show that they're making lots of money from be enough to do that, for them to sell merchandise and profit from someone else's IP without asking or paying for the use of it?
For it to maybe go to court for a very public fight over who can do what with a property they're a fan of?
Because that could well be what Disney is currently up to with their Star Wars shows
Not just making a few references to other movies or tv shows, but taking entire plotlines, blurring the edges of them, and dropping them right into their own shows
Want an example even if it risks containing show spoilers? of course you do!
Back in Season 7 of The Clone Wars (On the Wings of Keeradaks) we have a scene where Tech uses a recording of the flying lizards they encounted earlier to call them to their position and fly them out of danger
Just like Gandalf summons the eagles to come and rescue his party from the attack from Azog and his team of orcs and wargs, right down to the way some party members are left dangling over a huge drop off the mountainside
Later, in The Bad Batch (Reunion, S1), Hunter has been shot in the chest and Tech gets him up, gets him to safety, and (offscreen) medical aid is provided
Which is extremely close to that same rescue scene in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, only the part of it where Gandalf gets Thorin up and out of danger, with the assistance of the eagles, after he's been severly mauled by a warg, and then rendering medical assistance to him
Tech goes on to have a big fall (Plan 99, Bad Batch, S2), right off the end of a great big crumbling bridge. Sound familiar to any LotR fans?
And in a different episode (The Crossing, Bad Batch, S2) Tech is seen falling and landing in a similarly super familiar looking cave
Which repeats parts of the two separate scenes of Gandalf falling and 'dying' ('The Fellowship of the Ring' for the fall, and 'The Two Towers' for the cave scene) which all the characters get really sad about - until he gets better and comes back. Which has yet to be seen in Tech's case.
(How Tech will be able to come back from his fall despite not being a wizard is explained via his character specific movie source they've made repeated use of, but since that's still hugely spoilery I'm not getting into that here)
And this is only a couple of examples of one tiny instance where this is happening, the show is filled with them and it applies to all the main characters not just Techdalf
'Entombed' (The Bad Batch, S2) hits The Hobbit up HARD for it's plot and not only gives us the Arkenstone but oblong, which it directly names as The Heart of the Mountain, which is found and then lost again, but dredges up a fire breathing dragon equivalent. Add in some additional Alien themeing and a lizardy creature that can be shot in the chest with a laser arrow before being tossed out of a window in full on 'OMG it's Ripley with the airlock' style and they're really cramming it in there. They end with a reference to an opportunity to find a golden chalice, which is what Bilbo took from Samug's hoarde as proof that he'd found it
But people have been easily sidelined from thinking about any of this too hard by them throwing in a handful of surface references to Indiana Jones, the potential of a love interest being developed, and the 'dragon' being a creature previously seen in the Jedi: Fallen Order video game
And don't even get me started on how Senator Avi Singh appears to live in Dale (Common Ground, Bad Batch, S1), Roland and Isa Durand apparently live in Rohan (Paths Unknown, Bad Batch, S3) or Dr Hemlock and his former base at Dol Guldur (Paths Unknown, The Bad Batch, S3) and what that implies for the remainder of the show
They've blended together a lot of canon prequel & clone wars era Star Wars content with a range of supplementary non-canon SW content such a comic books, video games, Legends novels, etc which maintains the idea that this show is nothing more than Star Wars and keeps a lot of long term fans happy and distracted by seeing non-canon things finally appearing in a canon setting, even if they have changed some of the details
But so many concepts and images have been lifted barely altered from their original sources, not just from Tolkein's works, and just slapped down like we're not supposed to notice how much of it there actually is because they've made the animation and lighting so very very pretty
#the bad batch#the hobbit#star wars#lord of the rings#the clone wars#lotr#fandom#they're specifically taking scenes from the movie versions of these stories#which just makes it easier for them I suppose#already having a nice convenient visual to copy
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A Silly Thing Like Sleep
Tech & The Bad Batch | 1.7k words
Content: one curse word, hyperfixating, "brotherly love"
Inspiration (from @rosemarynightmares): And someone should tell Fixer Tech to go tf to sleep, I'm sensing that he doesn't do that *nearly* enough.
No one could burn the midnight oil like Tech.
There was simply too much to do. Too many ideas, too many questions that needed answers. It's what he was made for, trained for, and the movements of his hands as they tinkered and fiddled and created, in sync with his mind as it mulled and mused and imagined, is what made him feel like... well, himself. He was grounded this way. Soothed, even. How could he ever stop for a silly thing like sleep?
A little after 2000 hours brought the first of his brothers into their room.
"Tech," Hunter nodded as he passed by. The Sergeant's hair was damp from the shower; he must have just finished training. "Don't stay up too late. Big day tomorrow."
"Yes, of course."
Tech only responded out of respect, his eyes fixed on the project in front of him. To the untrained eye, it looked like he was fussing over a mere black box. But he knew it to be an old surface isotope oscillator, a rare find whose parts held potential for so many of his other projects, or potentially brand new projects he had yet to discover.
Hunter settled into his bunk, pulling a sleeping mask over his eyes and jamming in some earbuds. Tech only barely registered the lights around Hunter's bunk going out. The Sergeant would be unaffected by his tinkering so long as his custom mask and earbuds worked, which Tech knew they would because he had made them. Depriving Hunter of two of his sharpest senses would be enough to keep him asleep.
2100 hours brought the next brother, Echo, just as Tech had managed to carefully remove one of the oscillator's outer panels. The clone eyed him as he passed back and forth a few times in front of the workbench in order to get ready for bed. Echo, unfortunately, didn't have much space to call his own and had to make-do with keeping his things in various places throughout the dorm, much to the chagrin of his disciplined and orderly habits.
Tech hardly noticed, keeping his focus on the delicate nature of his work. There were some wires, some chipboards, and several high-voltage rods he had to work through to get to the good stuff. Though an experiment on the device's stress-points would be beneficial, he didn't want Hunter to put him on laundry duty for causing an explosion in the barracks. Not again.
"You uh, going to be long?" Echo finally spoke up, having finished his bedtime routine and ready to slide into his hammock.
Tech didn't respond; he was in the middle of clamping some tweezers on a little microchip.
Echo shifted to his other foot. "Well, I'm going to turn this light out now, if that's alright with you."
Still no response. So Echo shrugged and flicked the switch that controlled the overhead lights to the room. There were still the glowing lights in the bunks and the safety lights around the door to the hall. But otherwise there was a nice dim to the room that made it much easier to fall asleep in.
Tech didn't even react to the change in lighting, continuing to transport various parts via tweezers to a tray he had set aside. After setting one down, he clicked on the flashlight feature on his goggles and continued, not skipping a beat, as if that was a step he was going to perform anyway.
Echo shook his head before climbing into the hammock and settling himself in for the night.
At 2330, Wrecker dragged his heavy feet through the door. He clunked down one of his weapons kits by his bunk and the thud did catch Tech's attention, at least for a moment. He looked up at his hunking brother as if startled to see another being around.
"You're not going to be making noise all night, are you?" Wrecker asked through a yawn.
"I'll be quiet," Tech gave a dismissive wave. As if Wrecker cared about noise when he could sleep peacefully through a siren alarm.
Besides, Tech couldn't control what noises these experiments would or wouldn't make. He had now set up a complex array of other devices and systems in order to plug in the oscillator's pieces and see what they'd do. He switched from twisting things apart and together to typing notes furiously on his datapad. Sometimes they made noise, sometimes they didn't, but that detail only mattered when the noise indicated potential backfiring. Otherwise he didn't bother noting it.
Meanwhile, the thudding of Wrecker's movements also jostled awake the room's other occupants, most notably Hunter. The Sergeant often tossed and turned, thought Tech had never understood why. His mask and earbuds worked perfectly, got his brother in the perfect sensory stasis to manage a full night's sleep, but there were still periods of wakefulness he couldn't account for. Hunter usually said something about an overactive imagination, though Tech didn't like that answer since there wasn't much he could do with that sort of information.
While Hunter readjusted and tried to fall back asleep, Wrecker was already conked out in his own bunk. The lights on his side stayed on for a bit, until Hunter finally pulled him up to turn them off. He paused on his way back to his bed, addressing Tech.
"Start wrapping up and get to sleep," he instructed.
"I will, I will."
That seemed to be enough to calm the Sergeant down and he eventually drifted off again.
Tech was now making trips between the workbench and his own bunk, though sleep was hardly part of the reason. His bunk was less of a bed and more of... an area, to house additional parts and manuals, keep certain hand-drawn configurations he hadn't had the time to transcribe onto a datapad yet, and of course, his great mess of wires that he'd pulled from the ceiling.
It was these wires he was clipping from, returning to the workbench, finagling some kind of rig between various bits and bobs, and then analyzing the output of data that resulted on his screen. He was starting to generate more noise as a result, but he knew Wrecker would start snoring soon and his tinkering would get drowned out anyway.
Just before 0100 hours, the last of his brothers, Crosshair, finally slunk into the room. Though the sniper wasn't purposefully trying to be sneaky - he really was just minding his own business - he still was so quiet and quick that Tech didn't even notice for a while that a third bunk now had an occupant. Cross stayed awake a short while longer, quietly thumbing through a book of some kind, before fixing Tech with a stare. He didn't look away until Tech had noticed, and then he promptly rolled over and went to sleep. Tech knew what the stare meant, but he didn't have time to explain why he couldn't go to bed right now.
No right now, he was knee-deep in his work. Literally. Somehow the projects had spread to encompassing larger materials and machinery, such that they had to be stacked on the floor around him for ease of access. He'd have to crawl over the table if he wanted to visit any other part of the room at this point. But he was done with his business in his bunk with the wires, and was now locked into the tedious tasks laid out before him.
0100 turned into 0200, which then turned into 0300. Tech was like a machine himself... going, going, going. Was he making any progress? Hard to say; he wasn't measuring things like that. Progress implied a goal, an amount to get through, and right now he was still exploring. One piece put into one machine produced one result, which got noted and thought about, before ultimately being tried in a different machine, while a combination of different parts were put into the first machine, and continuous notes were made, and new ideas were brainstormed, and sometimes whole minutes would go by before Tech's eyes felt so dry that he wondered if he'd even remembered to blink...
"Go the fuck to sleep, Tech!"
The exclamation startled him. In part because he'd been so enveloped in his own world he'd forgotten other people existed. But also in part because the one who'd yelled at him was the last he would've expected.
The flashlight from his goggles illuminated a very upset clone trooper in a hammock. Echo was looking over his shoulder at him, his murderous stare cutting through the space like a laser. Tech couldn't help but gulp at the sight.
"Uh, apologies, Echo," he said, suddenly self-conscious, and for good reason. He could feel the eyes of his other brothers trained on him from all directions now. "I... didn't mean to disturb you."
"Go. The fuck. To sleep," Echo repeated himself, his voice a little lower this time, but still full of punch.
Tech nodded. "I will, I just have to finish--"
"Tech..." Hunter's drawl came from the shadows.
Tech stood for a moment, looking between the dozens of projects he was still in the thick of, and back up at Echo who seemed ready to fight him if he dared tried to ignore his request.
Order. It was more of a order, Tech acknowledged. Accompanied by a warning from his Sergeant. He nodded again, this time more in acquiescence than before. He clicked the light off his goggles, plunging the room into true darkness for the first time all night. He gingerly set down some pliers he was holding and made a few clicks on his holopad to turn it off. Echo was still twisted around to face him, and he was sure the others were tracking his movements as best they could too. Though, Wrecker did end up letting out a snore while he picked his way through the piles of machines on the floor, so perhaps not everyone was watching him after all.
Tech shuffled back to his bunk and made a show of getting under the covers and settling in. He debated whether he should call out goodnight when he heard the shifting of the hammock and rustling of sheets from Hunter's side of the room. They were turning back in for the night. He was off the hook.
Tech still let a few minutes go by before he stuck his head under the covers and pulled out his backup datapad.
~ ~ ~
Everything Tag: @damerondala, @dangerousstrawberrypie, @fallingforthem, @harleyevanstan, @imabeautifulbutterfly, @justanothersadperson93, @misogirl828, @itsagrimm, @error6gendernotfound, @theroguesully, @clonesimp, @techie-bear
+Bad Batch Tag: @marvel-starwars-nerd, @pandora-the-halfling, @darkangel4121, @sobstea, @rintheemolion, @bowtiesandsandshoes, @dionysuskid21, @jesseeka, @hanbetired, @thatmultifandomdumbass, @sarahtanmarvel, @call-me-a-fool, @lackofhonor, @theclonesdeservebetter, @hannahhearttcw, @kaijusplotch, @salaminus, @arctrooper69, @katzs-current-obsession, @rebel-finn, @not-a-big-slay, @writing-positivelyexisting, @nekotaetae, @the-mom-friend-dot-com, @pickle-rick-y, @flowered-bicycles, @lucyysthings
(Join my tag list here)
#star wars#the bad batch#may the fourth#tech#echo#crosshair#hunter#wrecker#one shot#sunday funday#rosa my dear friend
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I feel like aside from not white washing the clones the bad batch might be better if crosshair wasnt redeemed. Like he uses being a good soldier as am excuse for committing atrocities but he actually is just ok with it and he doesnt get a convenient out of it being a chip and he willingly works for the empire would imo work better
Sorry an pt2 to that ask but like I know timblr loves their redemption arcs and calling anyone who dislikes them cops or morally wrong. But I just feel like acting like anyone and everyone can be redeemed is also just a bad lesson to teach and that redemption has to start with the character realizing they're wrong and wanting to do better key word being wanting, and I dont see that in crosshair. He doesnt come off as someone who wants to be redeemed, he seems pretty into the warcrime and evil. I hope I'm making sense.
I also wonder what TBB would be like if they'd gone the much riskier but potentially more fulfilling route of not redeeming Crosshair. They could make him a tragic character at that point, but only if they simultaneously make all of the bad batch at complete moral odds with him, but also still have faith in him.
Crosshair as he stands now has two reasons for why he joined the empire: arrogance/superiority and because he wasn't opposed to the violence. his leaving only addresses the former, and barely. as in, he says he left because the empire wasn't loyal to him. But the violence he committed against innocents, and the violence the Empire committed against entire groups of people, don't mean anything to him. If they did, he would have mentioned them.
Sason 3's emotional arc for him focuses on all the wrong things as they try to force a redemption that, to me, doesn't feel earned. Does crosshair respect the regs? No. I don't see that, at least. He maybe, at the most, tolerates them. But the writers use saving Howzer's life as a stand in for Crosshair actually doing the work of owning up to getting a lot of Howzer's men hurt/killed. Crosshair should have had to own up to the fact that he likely traumatized Omega by a) trying to get her shot, b) trying to set her on fire basically, and c) knowing that the Empire foreced him to do (a) and (b) and still choosing them over her.
I also don't think omega should have been so gungho to forgive him.
If they keep Crosshair evil, this can give the Batch permanent emotional consequences and conflicts to deal with. Maybe they all think differently about how to address the Crosshair Question. Maybe they all beg and plead with him—really plead—to join them, and when he refuses, they leave. And then he hems and haws over maybe being good, but his fatal flaw is that he will always fight to be at the top of a pyramid that was designed to keep him at the bottom. Family be damned. He needs his superiority affirmed.
They also could still redeem him (blegh) but really show us that he respects the regs as much as he respects himself and his brothers. That he values their insights, thoughts, and opinions, and does want to see them saved from Tantiss. He doesn't do any of this, of course, and the writers make no effort to show that side of him. You'll get fans who maybe will say that he does respect regs. It'll be like struggling to plug in a lamp with a short cable into a wall and then insisting the light is on.
I saw someone else say that sometimes the conclusions drawn or themes understood in TBB are all things that could be plausible if you stretched. Like yeah, that's a conclusion you can reach, but the pieces aren't really there, you know?
Crosshair gets forgiveness for the wrong things and doesn't really work for them at any point, in my opinion. I said this on a podcast I guested on about a year ago, but saving someone's life doesn't always mean you actually, really respect them. Many people are simply not comfortable with having someone die in front of them. Crosshair, despite how severe he could be and how space-racist he could be, didn't seem the type (to me) to willingly leave anyone to die. he sucked but he wasn't evil like that, hence why I don't count him saving Mayday on that ice planet as a major leap in morals the way audiences are expected to view it.
because, again, when he says why he left the empire, does he say "Because they mistreated clones like mayday the same way they mistreated me, and i realized that the Empire was only ever going to hurt everyone regardless of how we value ourselves, which made me realize im not better than the regs and also that the Empire, which wiped out the jedi and killed civilians, is actually atrocious"? No. He puts himself first: loyalty, and loyalty to him. Yeah, he's learned to be loyal to his brothers, but their moral differences not playing a part at all in their emotional conflicts is making me believe that if TBB had all decided to join the Empire, Crosshair never would have left for any other reason. Again, the atrocities are a non-issue to him.
(Crosshair and hunter argue, but it's about HUnter's alleged guilt over not rescuing omega but Crosshair being the one to get him out. Not Crosshair's antics being part of the reason why Tech is dead. Not Crosshair repeatedly endangering the squad after his chip's out because he thinks they ow him loyalty before they're required to stick to their morals).
This post has gotten away from me, so I'm going to leave it here. I've been toying around with a rewrite of them for some time, and I might make Crosshair the epitome of lateral oppression and self-loathing in a marginalized person. He needs the oppressor's approval, the oppressor's power, even if it might cost him his life.
#ask#the more tbb moves away from him the more he doubles down kind of thing#if we'd just be Good Soldiers (''one of the good ones'') then we'd be safe#if we'd just be one of the good ones we'll have power#we dont have to be like the regs (derogatory) who dont think for Themselves#even though he only thinks that way bc--well you get the idea#ch posts#idk at the moment im actually drawing him but w a waaaay less annoying face aksjhdfsakjfda#long post#uhhh#meta#ig?#anyways reblogs off i want peace
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Alright 3rd and final Star Wars take of the day that is probably pretty lynchworthy:
Echo should have died/already been dead in the Bad Batch arc in s7. Sorry guys, I love Echo too, but the story would have worked better if he was already dead when they got there.
Like there's a lot of things that could have made this arc better in general that I'm not going to really get into here without touching on the character design or whitewashing and racism around the clones (which many much more qualified people have talked about way more eloquently than I ever could). Like the fact that this arc should have been a Cody&Rex arc rather than writing Cody out so early in or the weirdly dismissive way the writers treated the other characters in order to lift tbb up when they could have just. Not done that. Really very easily.
But specifically the Echo thing: as soon as Rex finds out the possibility that Echo might still be alive, he is immediately ready to jump in with both feet without looking, and Anakin cautions him that they might not find Echo alive and he needs to prepare himself for the possibility that they can't save him. This has huge overall narrative implications, because we, the viewers, know that in a few weeks time he is going to turn his back on the people who love and trust him and betray everything he's ever sworn to stand for bc he is worried about the possibility of not being able to save Padme.
Now Rex goes with tbb and Anakin on a rescue mission that might not be a rescue mission. Tbb are still being very dismissive of the "regs" and Rex, quite understandably, is not handling their attitudes very well.
They get there, it's a trap and so on and so forth, but here's the important part: they don't find Echo alive. The Techno Union found him after the Citadel arc and mined his brain for data through hand wavy star wars means and they had no need to preserve anything else or keep him alive after that.
The rescue mission is too late and they never had the chance to save Echo at all. And Rex breaks. He holds it together for long enough to complete the mission, they escape the Techno Union and protect the village, but once they get back on the ship and head back towards Anaxes, he just shatters. Full on sobbing on the floor devastated bc he was so sure he could save Echo. He was so hopeful that he could save this one person after everything. After Fives and Tup and Ahsoka walking away and Kadavo and Umbara he just wanted to be able to save one person that he cared about. And they were already way too late.
We can see Anakin faced with all of this and the shadow of his future actions that he will do so that he will not have to deal with his own potential grief. We can see the paralells between Rex doing everything in his power to have the possibility of saving his brother and Anakin taking extreme steps to have the possibility of saving his wife.
The shadow of RotS hangs over the entire arc and this then makes the scene with Admiral Trench hit so much harder. Because it's not just the warning of how far Anakin has already fallen, its the spectre of the future hanging over his shoulder in more ways than one, the way that throughout the arc you can see his resolve to never lose Padme hardening so he never has to face that grief.
On the other end of things, tbb are faced with Rex's very real and present grief for Echo and have to acknowledge the love and care that the other clones have for each other. They get to grow as characters and learn to respect the grief of the "regs" bc there is a shared kinship there, they do share more than they don't, and they are all horribly aware of just how easily it could have been them. The arc can end with them learning to respect the other clones and finding a closer kinship with them rather than returning to the status quo just with Echo as a member and they sort of like Rex now. Not only would that have made them more relatable as characters but could have set up a much better conflict for the future in their show rather than the weird thing with Crosshair that we did get and them still not really connecting with any of the other clones in a show centred on the clones.
Like, let the characters fail. Let them lose. Let them have succeeded in their mission without having it be a victory. Let it be bittersweet. S7 is already bittersweet. We know what is coming. We know how close it is. The shadow of it looms over every single interaction in this season. So don't shy away from it. Lean into the shadow of Anakin's choices, lean in to the paralells that you're writing in, let the events have meaning and impact and consequences like so much of the rest of the show.
#star wars#sw tcw#tcw#clones#captain rex#tbb echo#tbb#anti tbb#sort of but i'm tagging so it doesn't end up in the main tag#let them fail#let them learn#let them grow#acknowledge the fact that anakin's fall isn't just about his anger or hatred#its all centred on his fear#and let him have emotions that aren't just anger or snark#let him see other people grieve and be unable to turn away from it#this arc should have been about losing even when you do things right#and implying that anakin learned the wrong lesson from that#it should have been about the rex and anakin paralells that the show never fails to lean into but always shys away from fully embracing#and yes it should have been about tbb too#but it should have been about them learning and growing#they should have come away having learnt something the way the main characters in other arcs always do#but they didn't#they just essentially returned back to the status quo with 0 actual character development#which makes them weaker as characters#and weakens the story that is trying to be told
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Star Wars Canon Character Outfits CC
here is a list of star wars canon character outfits cc for the sims 4 that I use, their creators (if known) and where to download them:
**disclaimer: none of these are made by me. I am linking yall to where I found them and the creators who originally posted them.**
Clone Trooper armor, tattoos, bodygloves CC etc by the incredible @squidsponge: I am OBSESSED with their work. these are absolutely beautiful, they work perfectly and are spot on accurate. they are constantly updating and providing new works on their patreon, please consider contributing :)
Ahsoka armor & montrals also by @squidsponge: somehow even more incredible and beautiful is their ahsoka work. I searched high and low for someone who created a decent ahsoka and by far this is the most perfect one out there.
Mandalorian helmet: this is a bunch of different mandalorian helmet colors so you can easily use these for OCs too.
Din Djarin mandalorian armor: this is just din's armor and the only full set that I was able to find. if anyone else is able to find other mandalorian generic armor let me know and I will add to this list.
Sabine Wren mandalorian armor, helmet & dark saber: this is sabine wren's armor set that also comes with different color layers so you could potentially use it for an OC. I had to use a website to extract individual package files bc this is an rar file, so just a tip.
Hera Syndulla jumpsuit outfit: this is a complete outfit. I ended up using an aviator hat from one of the sims packs to complete this (may have been from journey to batuu). I also suggest letting her wear the flight suits also from journey to batuu.
Hunter The Bad Batch CC: this includes Hunter's tattoo & hair/headband. this one is a little glitchy, but its the best one out there. the creator appears to be on a hiatus so for now this is what we got.
Wrecker The Bad Batch CC: this includes Wrecker's scars, cybernetic eye (which is handy for other characters i.e. wolffe and any OCs) and hand wraps here wears sometimes.
Echo The Bad Batch CC: this includes Echo's plugs with or without the headpiece and his cybernetic legs from the knee down, also very handy for other characters like Maul
Tech The Bad Batch CC: this includes Tech's glasses and a little mild hair mod that I don't use.
Crosshair The Bad Batch CC: this is Crosshair's eye tattoo. I like this one bc it looks stick and poke and that so fits him.
Omega The Bad Batch CC: this is a bunch of Omega outfits, her little jewel and a hair. Omega is all grown up in mine now so I no longer use these. But you should!
#the sims 4#star wars sims 4#the sims community#the sims 4 cc#star wars sims 4 mods#star wars sims 4 cc#sims 4 cc
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Who Took Crosshair's Chip Out Anyway?
So I'm one of the weirdos that watched Bad Batch having never actually seen The Clone Wars, so I've been backtracking my way through the series and recently finished up the arc with Fives and the inhibitor chips. After I finished fucking sobbing about it though (thanks TCW writers, didn't need my heart anyway) I started turning over how it connects to Bad Batch a little more thoroughly.
I do believe that Crosshair's chip is out as of the end of season one just like he says it is, and that the removal likely happened after his injuries on Bracca. What I couldn't figure out is why the empire would take the risk of unchipping him, even if the chip was damaged. He's just one clone who they intend to eventually phase out anyway, saving his life is frankly not going to be prioritized over ensuring his obedience. So even if the chip was busted, I don't think the empire would have taken it out. Obviously Crosshair couldn't have it taken out himself.
But there is someone on Kamino that would. We're shown early on in episode three that AZI is still active on Kamino, taking part in Crosshair's medical procedures to exactly Zero gratitude from sniper boy's end. And, honestly, there's not a lot of reason for him to be here necessarily - yeah we get to see Omega have someone to bounce off of in episode one, and then he comes back for the finale, but nothing AZI does is something that couldn't be done without the character.
Instead, I think that he's being set up for a different payoff, something we didn't see happen that will get covered more in later episodes. One of the things that Fives really drills into him in his TCW appearances is his core programming - save the patient at all costs. Emphasizing this one thing let him disobey the kaminoans and try to save Tup, because it overrides any programming for obedience.
So, if Crosshair's chip was damaged on Bracca (possibly breaking down very similarly to Tup's considering the radiation from the ion engine blast) and if leaving it in could potentially have killed him? The empire says leave it, AZI's core programming says to save the patient at all costs. AZI takes it out without the empire's knowledge, the empire still thinks he's chipped and only Crosshair and AZI know the truth.
As for Crosshair's post-chip behavior - he didn't seem happy about the fact that his chip was removed, honestly he sounds downright depressed saying it. Because I think, even with the chip out, he's having aftereffects of it. The people we see having fully recovered without any side effects had their chips active for very short periods of time, only a few minutes for Wrecker, but Crosshair's was active for months, having his thought patterns altered, possibly even causing actual physical damage when the engine fried it. So he wakes up, hears in AZI's wonderfully perky tone that the chip has been removed to preserve his life... and he still can't stop thinking that good soldiers follow orders.
Yeah I'd be pretty fucking depressed about that too. The chip is gone, but his mind still isn't fully his own, of course he thinks this is just who he Really is.
Overall, this gives a more interesting track for his redemption to take - and I do think that they're still aiming for redemption. After how the season ended focusing on him standing there alone while the batch flies away, there's no way we aren't supposed to feel for him. The framing makes the most sense in the context of a planned redemption. But, in removing the chip from the equation, it's no longer a question of just a one and done surgery and he's back to normal. It's long term, permanent damage that he is going to have to deal with and learn to live with, and what comes out on the other end isn't going to be exactly the same as he was before. Hopefully that particular rocky road still leads back to his family at the end, though.
#star wars#the bad batch#meta#tbb crosshair#Some of this I've touched on before in my rambling posts but I wanted to zip it all up together into something slightly longer#Crosshair's dechipped but not deprogrammed give him time and space to recover though
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for the ask game - d, i, j, x, y!
Woohoo!
D - A pairing you wish you liked but just can’t.
This is kind of hard because there's very few pairings that I straight up DON'T like and of those I feel like there are reasons I don't like them, either because they just don't make sense to me or because I don't like one of the characters, so there isn't really a WISH to like them. There are certain pairings I wish I liked *better* than I do... SGA is my main fandom at the moment, and I wish I liked Teylabeth more than I do, or really any pairings with Weir; I feel like Sparky has a lot of potential, but I haven't found any fics for it that make sense to me.
I - Has Tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why?
Not really a fandom, but overexposure to McShep through tumblr has made reading fics that focus on it less enjoyable, and so I don't usually read new fics anymore, though I'll occasionally reread ones I already know I like. It's fine as a pairing, but I feel like a LOT of fans consider it "canon" and... okay, do what you want, but that's not something I can agree with.
J - Name a fandom you didn’t think about until you saw it all over Tumblr. (You don’t have to care about it or follow it; it just has to be something that Tumblr made you aware of.)
The Shape of Water. And in general, other movies. I feel like single movies don't have the same fandom potential as series, but I'll see people making gif sets and realize "hmm I should check that out on AO3 and see what they've got..." I found a really great fix it/continuation for the Shape of Water that I adore.
X - A trope which you are almost certain to love in any fandom.
I love it when characters are convinced of their own unworthiness or unlovable-ness and are then surprised and touched when someone is loyal and loving to them. ❤
Y - What are your secondhand fandoms (i.e., fandoms you aren’t in personally but are tangentially familiar with because your friends/people on your dash are in them)?
Merlin, Clone Wars/The Bad Batch/(anything star wars that isn't the movies/OG novels/The Mandalorian/TBOBF), Sherlock Holmes, Supernatural, Black Sails, some show called 911 that is all over my dash now, Ted Lasso. Though as we go down this list I know less and less about these fandoms. (Edit: how could I forget fucking BG3??? it's everywhere and i have no idea what's going on)
There's also a lot of fandoms I'm only "in" for one reason, like for She-ra I like the fanart but I don't read much fic and am not really interested in the headcanons, and for The Last Kingdom I like gifs and tumblr posts but also don't read much fic.
Thanks for the ask! 💕
Ask game!
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Shadow's Masterlist and Link List
Howdy all! I'm Shadow, but Shad/Shads works too! My main project is Adventures of an Idiot (And the Idiot Is Me): a self insert series following myself as I get yeeted into a slight AU of the Clone Wars universe roughly five months after the Battle of Kamino and end up entangled with the og Bad Batch. Chaos, memes, salt, and selfawareness all around!
Pronouns:
They/Them/Yee/Haw/Grim/lin
Other Places To Find Me:
Ao3|Wattpad|Instagram|Pinterest|Discord
Tag Legend:
🔞- Not suitable for minors
🥵-Explicit NSFW scenes
✨-Take place outside a GFFA
💀-Bad Batch Only (no other SW characters)
✍️- In Progress
📕- Complete
🥺- Wholesome/Fluffy
🤪- Shenanigans
💥- Clone Wars Era
🩹- Extensive canon divergence
🥰- Romance
Do I take sketch/drabble requests?
I judge requests on a case by case basis depending on my interest/workload, but they are (tentatively) open! Sketch requests should be directed here! I'm more likely to accept a request if it pertains to my series!
Can you read a summary of my stories?
Yes you can, on the Adventures!AU Database wiki! It's a WIP, so be patient, but any information covered in my stories will be there in time! There's also some art over there!
Want to support my creativity?
Consider supporting me on Patreon! Get early access to content, individual chapter PDFs, and personalized goodies such as art or even writing for higher tiers!
Below are my main stories and the "canon" storyline for my Clone Wars fix-it AU! Completed stories have the online Wattpad version and, if available, an updated PDF version that has additional editing/content! For PDFs, any chapter with potentially triggering content will have an asterisk by the chapter title.
Off to a Great Start 💥💀🤪📕
Chapters: 25- Online|PDF
Characters: Clone Force 99, Self Insert, OCs
Synopsis: While sitting in my room, vibin', I'm suddenly launched into the Clone Wars universe and find myself on a world in the Outer Rim. Salt ensues, but I soon realize I have bigger problems; the Bad Batch is after me to help them on a mission. Why, you may ask? Good question. Let's find out together.
Wordcount: 72k
Rating: Teen(15+)-Language, mature humor, brief mentions of past attempted assault
Over the River and Through the Woods🔞💥💀📕
Chapters: 66- Online|Part 1 PDF(revised)/Part 2PDF
Characters: Clone Force 99, Self Insert, OCs
Synopsis: Well, now I know what the Bad Batch needs my help with: Accessing the coordinates to a planet that could very well be one from my original stories. To obtain that information, I need to lead them over the river and through the woods to the Vault, a magical cave that houses the coordinates. It’s just a simple hike there and back. What could possibly go wrong?
Wordcount: 250k+
Rating: Adult (18+)-Language, mature content, abandonment trauma, brief mentions of past attempted assault, nightmares, brief periods of intense gore, brief horror elements, canon-typical violence, brief hint to self harm.
To the Far Reaches🔞🥵💥💀✨✍️
Chapters: Pro|1|2|3|4|5
Characters: Clone Force 99, Self Insert, OCs
Synopsis: With the coordinates in hand, or rather in my mind, the Bad Batch and I set off to my planet Kelusia to retrieve the deadly Kelusyte crystal. After convincing the local Rageryans our intentions are good and scouring the region for the materials to safely acquire the crystal, we embark on a journey into the planet's core. And, as usual, it goes about as well as expected.
Wordcount: Ongoing
Rating: Adult (18+)- Language, explicit mature content, PTSD
Commander, Meet the Cat💥📕
Chapters: 9- Online|PDF
Characters: Clone Force 99, Self Insert, Commander Cody, Obi-Wan Kenobi
Synopsis: Almost a month after joining the Bad Batch, it's finally time for me to meet Commander Cody. However, trouble soon emerges as we realize that while we don't exactly see eye to eye where the war is concerned.
Wordcount: 18k+
Rating: Teen (15+)-Language, authority trauma
Fallen Not Forgotten💥🩹✍️
Chapters: Pro|1|2|3|4|5
Characters: Clone Force 99, Self Insert, Commander Cody, Captain Rex, Domino Squad, Obi-Wan Kenobi
Synopsis: Plagued by nightmares of what awaits the ARC twins, I rescue Echo from Lola Sayu, sparing him the fate planned by the Techno Union. The Batch and I bring him back to Naboo for medical attention, but bad news soon strikes; a recording of me on Lola Sayu got out. Also, apparently, there's a portal on Naboo now too. Which leads to a particular moon base, before it was destroyed. How interesting.
Wordcount: Ongoing
Rating: Teen (15+)- Language, canon-typical violence, occasional mature humor
These stories are short, often two chapters or less, and may or may not be "canon" to the Adventures!AU storyline. Additionally, some older may be written with she/her so ignore that lol. Due to the short length, a synopsis is not given here.
With You From Dusk 'Til Dawn- 💥💀🥺📕
Frightful Flight- 💥💀🤪✍️
Bad Day Blues- 💥💀🥺📕
Back and Forth-🔞💥💀📕
Dreamland Express-💥💀🥺📕
Tomorrow-💥💀🥺📕
Wash Away the Nightmare-💥💀🥺📕
Sickfic Crosshair-💥💀🥺📕
Hot Springs- 💥💀🥺📕
HunterxReader: Rainy Day Date Night-💥💀🥰📕
HunterxReader: Fireside Snuggles-💥💀🥰📕
Snuggles, Not Struggles (Bad BatchxReader)-💥💀🥰✍️
Prey in the Sights (Crosshair&HunterxReader)-🔞🥵💥💀✍️
Scaredy Cat: Bad Batch Flash Fic- 💥💀🤪✍️
#masterlist#bad batch#the bad batch#clone force 99#fanfiction#star wars fanfiction#writing#clone wars fanfiction
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I've been looking at some species-swap art recently, and it's given me yet another idea for a Clone Wars AU. I promise this one's got more of a 'that makes sense' feel to it than most of my other more transformative ideas.
Ahem.
The Kaminoans are nothing if not perfectionists. They perfected cloning past what it was originally intended for, the survival of their planet/species, and made it into something commercialized and profitable.
Secrets of the trade are kept well locked up, and only an exclusive few know of their "illustrious services", and no one provides quite the customized service that they do.
Customized in what way, you may ask?
Very simple...
The Kaminoans design and engineer clones that are based around a single genetic template, but who adapt specifically to a buyer's species.
More under the cut!
---
This ability is something that is locked up originally, as to keep uniformity while the clones are in training. But, upon deployment, they are given an order that unlocks the full capacity of their adaptability (You could maybe even link this block and special order to the inhibitor chips).
At first no one really notices anything unusual. They just assume the battalions will stay looking like Jango Fett for the entirety of their lives (sans a bit of self-discovery and expression of the self through tattoos and haircuts here and there). But then, gradually, each battalion hones in on their Jedi and seem to start assimilating a few of their characteristics. This is most noticeable in battalion with non-human Jedi generals.
The clones know, of course, so preparations are to be had when they note what kind of sentient they'll be working with. The kitting department will always be very busy on that front, and for the most part they don't mind because they enjoy watching the Shinies blossoming into their new selves.
The 104th's helmets all have anti-ox filters installed for when they start slowly but surely becoming Kel Dor. They rarely remove their buckets once the change takes hold.
The 327th shone with pride when they started getting speckles of vibrant color indicative of their soon to be transition into Twi'leks. Bly was the very first to start growing in his lekku.
The 501st and 212th had a bet going on over which of the two battalions would stay fully human the longest, but eventually both began to assimilate Togruti aspects when Ahsoka became Anakin's Padawan. The first thing to change was the appearance of markings on their skin. Rex's pride over having jaigeyes as markings almost made the pain of growing in montrals worth it.
Not every clone transitions fully into one given species, however. It depends entirely on how much exposure they get to different species that they actively work with. They are engineered to mirror attributes that will benefit them in both their social situation and survival odds.
As such, clones who spend less time with any given alien species remain mostly human with just a few varied non-human aspects just barely showing through (the beginnings of lek, montrals or Togruti markings, speckles of distinct twi'lek skin color, slightly elongated skulls, scales, patches of fur, etc...). These little differences are celebrated, especially among Shinies who consider it a mark of pride.
Others, like the Coruscant Guard, are so surrounded by a variety of species that they go through a lot of changes, becoming something hybridized and ultimately seen as a bastardization of sentient beings. Their armour serves the dual purpose of protection and means to hide their "atrocious" appearance from the public.
There's a lot more to this idea, like how the clones are subconsciously very selective of what they mirror (None of them have any aspects they associate with what they consider the enemy), and how to some clones these changes are shameful because they don't really feel like their body is their own.
Currently I can't think of the words to do this any justice right now. But I definitely want to play around with this idea in writing...
#star wars#the clone wars#Species Swap AU#I just had the thought of the 501st becoming Ahsoka's honorary Togruta brothers stuck in my head#and then thought of the Corrie Guard getting the short end of the stick because they're surrounded by several hundreds of other species#also consider...Umbara... While the others vehemently reject any aspects of his Dogma's only non-human Jedi exposure was Krell...#not enough that he turns into a besalisk but enough that before he's carted off to be imprisoned Dogma grows a second set of arms#also Waxer and Boil definitely get some patches of twi'lek colored skin because of Numa#Gregor only has a mild mishmash of changes from people that frequented PowerSliders#because even if he had amnesia he instinctively saw Borkus as a hostile and subconsciously refused any of his traits#the Bad Batch could potentially be the only set of clones that don't have this power because they were Designed Different™#its part of the reason the other clones are so wary of them...
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Thoughts on the Clone Force 99 boys? (Can include Omega and Echo if you want)
They don't look like clones. This is probably already a pretty common sentiment in terms of just how poorly the clones were designed anyway (too sharp and eurocentric shaped features, rather than actually looking soft and round like Tamuera Morrison), but the Bad Batch takes the cake. Especially Tech and Crosshair.
There's so much lacking in the Batch's designs in terms of the Jango Template (Wrecker is the closest to looking like him), and I've seen multiple people having a blast sorting it out (I love the Albino Crosshair headcanon so much). That said, I do have a few personal takes myself that I think would explain a few quirks.
That being, the Batch aren't just clones, they're hybrids. And this isn't just because of physical attributes. The mutations they have themselves were likely not just recessive genes, and manipulating the structure of DNA that was already fragile (their template samples were degrading, Lama Su and Nala Se commented on this) would have likely ended in too many failures for the project to continue (we've seen what happens to failed projects, left abandoned in the depths of Kaminoan facilities).
The best way to get a desirable mutation wouldn't just be twisting the Batch's DNA until Nala Se got a lucky break. I think it'd be faster to just add a little bit of DNA from other species to be able to more quickly integrate recessive or completely new genes in them.
It sure would explain why Crosshair looks as gaunt and pale as he does. Maybe he has a bit of Umbaran in him that came out a bit more pronounced...
Tech's advanced intellect could be a product of having some Kaminoan in him. Not enough that it manifests in his appearance completely (he's a lanky boy but not that lanky), but enough that it gives him a much more developed brain than his peers.
Hunter's enhanced senses could be a product of being a hybrid of human and either Ranth or Shistavanen DNA, although another theory I have is that he was meant to replicate force-sensitivity rather than just being an excellent tracker, but something probably didn't go according to plan...
And Wrecker being the closest to look like Jango must have likely been put on a regiment of hormones to increase his size and strength to full human capacity, rather than having genes from other species implanted in him (which makes sense because humans can achieve feats of inhuman strength when adrenaline kicks in, Nala Se wouldn't need to add anything, just unlock the full potential Wrecker already had).
This is probably just a crackpot theory on my part, but it strikes me as odd that their particular mutations sets them apart physically the way they do... There shouldn't be such a wide range of shapes and sizes they took on, if they only had ONE genetic profile to originate from.
And this isn't even taking Omega into account. Omega is still a mystery to me in terms of whether or not she's as untampered with as Nala Se claims.
I donno... I got mixed feelings about them.
Also please for the love of god someone feed Echo and let the boy get some sun. He looks like a walking corpse, and the fact he always has a blue tint to his lips makes it seem like he really is a dead man walking...
#Star Wars#The Clone Wars#The Bad Batch#Me staring at Crosshair: Why are you white???#Me staring at Echo: Please dont actually be a cyborg zombie that would be awful to come to terms with#Me staring at the Bad Batch: None of y'all look alike and thats fucking bizarre for Jango clones! Where y'all getting so shaped?!#Me staring at Omega: I don't even want to ask how or why you just exist and are good daughter
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