Please...make This Happen...😫🤧

Zuko Crosshair Alone

Spoiler Warning: TBB season 2 episode 3

Content Warning: discussion of depression

Im not going to lie, Crosshair sitting by himself was a bit too real for me. Like, I'll be in a lecture and no one wants to sit with me (to be fair though, everyone avoids everyone).

I also just wanted to say that, regardless of whether or not you like him, you have to feel for Crosshair because he is so alone. Sure, you can say that these are the consequences of his actions and yes, I agree. But it doesn't negate the fact that it is a very sad state to see someone be in. He is turning out to be quite the tragic character and it reminds me of a few other characters from other series; specifically Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender, Sasuke from Naruto, and Red Hood from DC Comics. Moreover, this episode (at least to me) really embodied what depression can look like. He's a shell of who he once was, he doesn't know what he wants, what/who he cares about or what to do with himself. The days seem to blur together and most importantly, he's completely and utterly alone. No one to rely on, no one to fall back onto. And that really just spoke to me on a personal level.

I go into a lot more detail about this episode and how I personally think it's a masterpiece so if you're interested, go check that out. It's divided into two parts:

Part 1

Part 2

So anyways, yeah. Me too bro, me too.

The Bad Batch - Season 3, so far

Spoilers Ahead!

Hey you guys, I'm back! So before I hop into any discussion, just a quick debrief on what's going on for me in regards to tbb: I've been trying to control my excitement and hope for this final season, as I don't want to set myself up for anymore emotional damage (it'll happen anyways). That's not to say I'm not excited or hopeful, but I'm just very nervous and still healing from the heartbreak of you-know-what.

Onto this season so far. A very strong start with the first three episodes (haven't watch ep 4 yet). They wasted no time getting right into it and I'm honestly surprised that Cross and Omega escaped as fast as they did. I'm glad they didn't waste too much time on their escape. I will say though, things are feeling sadder than ever, with so many characters out of the picture. Echo is with Rex, Tech is...well I'm not too sure, to be completely honest (more on this in a min), and Cid backstabbed the gang. All I can say is that I anticipate more sadness but I'm cautiously optimistic for a mostly happy/good ending.

okay, now onto the elephant in the room. my previous theory post of Tech being alive and having a Winter Soldier situation is looking to be more real by the day and that makes me deeply uncomfortable. It was just a theory (a game theory) I made up, albeit using my English degree to hyper analyze the story, but sometimes (most times) my big brain is a burden. I honestly don't know what's worse: Tech dying, or Tech surviving and becoming something horrible (probably the second). Which brings me to this random ah dude:

There is actually no logical reason for this dude to be shown 3 separate times in an episode for it to not be important later. He also stands with the sass of our beloved engineer, not to mention his helmet and outfit contains small stylistic callbacks to Tech's armour (maybe I'm just delusional though). Which makes me violently ill, to say the least.

Anyways, whatever happens, we're all in this together besties. God speed

The Unseen Tragedy of the Clones

Alright folks, I am back once again with another Star Wars discussion. And yes, I could be putting my time towards actual school work yet here I am…we live with the choices we make….anyways! 

MAJOR SPOILERS ahead for both The Clone Wars and The Bad Batch! 

CONTENT WARNING! Mentions of torture, eugenics, and slavery. If any of these topics are sensitive or triggering to you, please do not proceed.  Mental Health first, take care of yourselves!

With out further ado, enjoy!

I’ve been thinking about this for a really long time and it has finally reached a point where I need to formulate my thoughts. Basically (as you can probably tell from the title), I wanted to discuss the tragedy that is the clones. I know this is not a new concept whatsoever, and that most if not all people have thought and/or talked about this by now, but I wanted to post about it regardless. 

The clones, right from the moment of their creation, were tragic. They were bred to fight in a war they had no choice in, and in turn, were never given the opportunity to think about what they were truly fighting for. Their opinions, thoughts and feelings simply never mattered. By design, literally right down to their DNA, they were made to be subservient and obedient child soldiers. Moreover, they were subjected to cruel and unjust treatment at the hands of the Kaminoan’s, undergoing inhumane procedures from the [standardized] accelerated growth of all clones, to random biopsies and other enhancement operations. Yet, when a clone failed to meet Kaminoan expectations, they are “decommissioned;” in other words, eugenics. However, it can be argued that the whole Kaminoan cloning operation is eugenics (selecting desirable traits, etc.), but that’s a topic for another time. 

Referring back to the clones disposition of accelerated growth is another point of concern. Sure, it was a “necessity” in order to get an army ready as fast as possible, but when you take a step back and look at what’s really going on, you have an army of clone children (chronologically); albeit, they are physically and mentally adults. Irregardless, it is an extremely fine line and depending on who you ask, it can be acceptable or unacceptable.

 Now for the rancor in the room: the clones are literally slaves. They were unpaid (chronologically) child soldiers who were not viewed as humans by the general public, they did not have rights whatsoever, they were not allowed to make any decisions for their own lives (have a life beyond being a soldier of the GAR) and most importantly, they were viewed as replaceable cogs apart of the ever-turning wheel that is the war. This looks extremely bad on its own, but when you apply the fact that this army is the army of the Republic? It’s far worse, let me explain. The Republic, a government that not only preaches but actively advocates for peace and liberty, has an army made of soldiers who do not have liberty. The hypocrisy is unrivalled. And sure, you could argue that this is due to Palpatine and his master plan to destroy the Jedi and the Republic. But when you remove him from the equation, the hypocrisy remains. The “Great” Republic isn’t as great as its made out to be. As all things are, there are a lot of grey areas here. What remains though, is the fact that not many, if any, senators or civilians advocated for clone rights. Only Senator Padmé Amidala had ever advocated for them when she was trying to stop their needless production. And we all remember how that turned out. Sure Palpatine was the devil on the shoulder of a lot of senators, egging them on to one direction over another. But the fact is, those senators and those civilians never bothered to consider any of this. They remained complacent and were happy to accept an army of expendable soldiers. 

Even with all of these disadvantages in their lives, the clones made the best of it with what they were given. Not all people were against them. They made strong bonds among their brothers and found friendship in their Jedi generals. They also found a way to be unique, through different hair styles to tattoos and even armour paint. They made their lives bearable. But what really cemented the fact that they meant nothing to the people they protected was during order 66. This is not the fault of the people but rather their failure as a people to question the unethical operations of the Kaminoan’s and protest against it. Had they done something small like that, it would’ve put a lot more into question, like what were the ethics of the clone production, what did they do or didn’t do to them, etc. It is the job of the people to constantly challenge the politics of their government in order to keep it in check and to always strive for an even better democracy. Where the Republic had failed, the people of the Republic failed as well. The clones were merely the physical embodiment of the failure of a democracy that had died long before episode 1. And the clones, along with many others (civilians, sovereign planets, etc.) were the victims. That is the unseen tragedy of the clones.

THIS! Very well said.

Regarding Tech and one reason I think we’re all reeling:

So, we’re all pretty hurt right now. Even if you’re firmly in the “Tech lived” camp, which I am, it still hurts—it still feels like a death, and something that needs to be mourned, even if or when he makes it back. I’ve seen a lot of people say it feels like they’re grieving a friend, not a fictional character. And one reason for that, beyond Tech being a well-developed, beloved character, beyond him being a fantastic piece of representation, even beyond the way that our brains can react to fictional characters the same way they do to real people, is that Tech’s story is so unfinished.

He’s developing this amazing relationship with Omega. He has the chance of staying on Pabu in peace and being something other than a soldier. He maybe discovered a passion for racing. He’s branching out and appreciating the galaxy beyond the war, the republic, the separatists, the Jedi, and being allowed to appreciate how broad it is in ways he hadn’t before. He’s falling in love with someone who’s falling for him. He’s pushing to get his brother back and reunite his family. And then—

His story gets derailed. The batch’s story gets derailed—by something none of them could have accounted for. No one expected there to be someone else infiltrating Eriadu. But there was, and it sends the whole trajectory of his life, all of their lives, figuratively and literally—they’re on a train when this happens, guys—off the tracks. Suddenly Tech has to let himself fall to give his family a chance. It’s fast, it’s brutal, and it’s almost nonsensical. It shouldn’t need to happen—but it does. And that’s how loss happens in real life, a lot of the time.

Sometimes there’s closure, and sometimes the people we lose get to live out their whole full lives, but not always. A lot of the time, they had plans. They were just going about and being themselves. The walk out the door and you think nothing of it and then—they’re gone. And now there’s so much left to do, so much unsaid, so many things that will never happen because they’re gone. You come home after hearing the news and their room is empty. There’s a half eaten bowl of cereal they left on the table. Their favorite chair is empty. There’s no satisfying conclusion or narrative closure—it’s just life, interrupted, suddenly and brutally, in a way that’s impossible to understand. That’s often how it is. And right now, for the batch characters, and for us, that’s Tech. He has everything to live for—and then he’s ripped away.

Now, this is something that rarely happens in fiction, because it’s incredibly unsatisfying. Maybe because loss is so sudden and cruel in the real world, we want our fictional deaths to come with purpose and feel like a natural conclusion. And while the unsatisfactory nature of Tech’s “death” is one of the many (many) (seriously there are so many) reasons why I don’t think this is permanent, it does (for now) put us on the same emotional footing as the characters in a way it wouldn’t if it had happened in a narratively satisfying way. We’re not just sad, we’re grieving him right alongside them. It feels unfair and wrong because it is. It wasn’t supposed to be like this! This wasn’t supposed to happen! And no, it wasn’t. But things got derailed on Eriadu.

Tech is NOT Dead - A Theory

Okay before I go MIA in order not to kms, I need to put my theory out there.

Maybe I'm just coping here in my delusions of grandure, but I don't think Tech is actually dead. They're going to Winter Soldier his ass. Why? Because his death was lowkey out of pocket. Why did they dedicate the whole season to him, give him a love interest, character development, and make him a canonical character with asd (in other words, be fantastic representation for a community that rarely gets any), just kill him off? It's not adding up. That's waaay too much effort just to throw it all away like that. And why did Dr. Doofenshmirtz (Hemlock) feel the need to confirm his "death" by showing the goggles when both the batch and we, the viewers, saw him "die." That's suspicious as hell, if you ask me. I'm thinking they recovered him and brought his ass to Tantiss.

If Hunter can fall and break his ass but still survive, then so can Tech. NO BODY, NO PROOF.

Okay, see you guys later. I'll be in therapy🫡😮‍💨

Thank you ♡

Now that The Bad Batch has come to a close, I wanted to make a little appreciation post.

It has been such an honour to be apart of this beautiful community. The past 3 years have been truly wonderful. Through all of the ups and downs, the happy and sad, the exciting and tragic moments. I have so much fun and have deeply loved the camaraderie, the discussions, the memes and the absolutely stunning art works. Thank you to everyone who have been apart of this journey. I will miss this show and its characters, but I’m also grateful to have experienced their story. While I still wish certain parts of the show had ended differently, I will forever miss them, especially our goggle nerd. And lastly, thank you to the amazing and talented folks who worked on this show, Especially Dee Bradley Baker and Michelle Ang.

Thank you everyone, I’m sending all my love and gratitude to you! ♡

If I think about it for too long, I'll literally burst into tears. Please, for the love of all things good in this world, let Crosshair return to his family. Let them be a happy family again. I'm begging. I cannot take much more of this shit. My mental state is decaying as I speak.

Also, if anyone dies, I'm going off the grid and living in a forest. That will be the 13th reason. I won't emotionally survive. I'll never recover.

Tech is King🛐

Miss my boy 🤲

Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Crosshair Crosshair Crosshair Crosshair Crosshair Crosshair Crosshair Crosshair Crosshair Crosshair Crosshair Crosshair Crosshair Crosshair Crosshair Echo Echo Echo Echo Echo Echo Echo Echo Echo Echo Echo Echo Echo Echo Echo Echo Echo Echo Echo Echo Echo Echo Echo Echo Echo Echo Echo

That's it. That's the whole post.

Wonderful art, thank you op. This is exactly how I've hypothesized his survival.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THIS ISNT WHAT HAPPENED??? this is the scene i saw, what show were y’all watching???

+bonus