erin8411

[erin8411]

How Ollo draws Clone Troopers!!

Had a lot of fun with this, as much as I ended up hyper fixating on it and therefore staying up too late and resulting in me being extremely tired 😅

Anywho, here's a tutorial for how I draw my clone troopers! It's just a simple little thing, but I hope it's somewhat useful for those who have asked about it?? If I miss anything, or you have any additional questions feel free to toss me an ask and I will try and answer as best I can!!

I admittedly work mostly digital, so if you're working in traditional, try and adapt these as best as you can to your mediums!! 💕💖💕

My Ko-Fi is here!!

[erin8411]

Temuera Morrison Reference Sheets ❤️

Let’s face it. The Clone Troopers are severely white washed. Beyond the skin lightening, their features are animated very Euro Centric. But together, we can change that!

Temuera Morrison is a Māori man. This indigenous group is a subgroup of the larger Polynesian ethnicity! Personally, I am Native Hawaiian (or Kānaka Maoli) so tonight I wanted to do my part to unwhitewash the Clones and share some thoughts and insights!

Polynesian genetics are often seen in round traits. Round faces, round noses and round eyes! These study sheets are mostly based on his facial features and skin tone, but don’t forget, Polynesians are also known for large bone structures, meaning bigger body builds!

First, I made two face studies, one of a younger Temuera, and another of Temuera around Jango’s age.

This is followed by a skin tone study. The left side is all photos using indoor lighting, and the right side is outdoor lighting. The skin color palette is then placed over a light and dark background, so you can see a comparison.

Thank you for making content that honors Temuera’s culture and provides representation for Māori and other Polynesian fans! You have no idea how much it means to see you guys put forth an effort. It warms my heart, Aloha ❤️

Happy creating!

[erin8411]

wanted to share my tips for drawing clones!

this is basically just a step by step of how I draw them n some notes :) use it however you’d like

[erin8411]

He looks simply amazing!

Hehe I did it again 🫢🫢☺️☺️☺️

[erin8411]

Galaxies Apart but Always Together

Fives finds out that his brother is still alive.

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Guess who's back on their usual bs! Yes, that's right, it's me. Thinking about Echo's rescue from the Citadel and what would've happened if Fives was still there made me think of this.

Angst but with some comfort as well because I'm not going to be that mean to you today :D

Tagging the usual suspects: @inkstainedhandswithrings @saturn-sends-hugs @the-bi-space-ace

“Where is he?”

“Fives. Calm down.”

“I said, where is he?”

His captain grabbed onto his shoulders and held him in place, face stern. “The medics are giving him a once over. I need you to calm down. Take a deep breath.”

“Calm down?” Fives’ anger felt bitter in his mouth. “I get an emergency comm asking for my immediate return and I come back expecting to be told that one of you has died only to find out that my twin is still alive. And you want me to calm down?”

“I get that you’re angry, Fives, but I need you to stay with me here.”

“You don’t get anything. You’re not the one whose batchmate has magically arisen from the dead. Let me see him!”

“You know I can’t do that. There’s no point in barging in there right now. They aren’t going to let you see him until they’ve finished running their tests.” Rex’s grip tightened slightly. “Stay here and settle down a bit. You can go and see him as soon as they give the go ahead.”

“How long have you known?”

Rex’s stoney face gave way to mild surprise. “What?”

“I said, how long have you known?” Fives’ fists were clenched at his sides. His jaw was set and he was not letting his next line of questioning go unanswered.

“We only found out today.” The captain’s hands fell down to his sides.

“So what? You just found him? By accident?” He was met with hesitation as Rex avoided making eye contact. His brother seemed to be more interested in looking over his shoulder and down the corridor rather than at his face.

“Not quite.”

“What do you mean not quite? You just said you didn’t know.”

“We didn’t know for certain.” Rex sighed and met his gaze again. He looked slightly defeated. It was only now that Fives noticed the bags under the captain’s eyes. It didn’t look like he had slept recently. “Once we found out what strategies the Separatists knew, I had my suspicions. Cody and Anakin were less convinced but-”

“Wait. Cody and Anakin knew?” He stared at his brother in disbelief, his blood starting to come back up to a boil. “What is this? Are you telling me that I’m the only man in the GAR who didn’t know his own twin was alive?”

Rex sighed in frustration. “Fives, just listen to me for a minute, okay? Yes, we thought it was a possibility. But we couldn’t know for sure. I mean, the chances of Echo being alive this long after the Citadel were almost non-existent! We felt it was best if you were kept unaware until we knew what we were dealing with.”

“So you kept me in the dark? On purpose?”

“Yes. But we did it for your own good.”

Fives rolled his eyes and turned to face away from his Captain. The sterile floor of the medical unit was far less annoying to look at right now than Rex’s face. They hadn’t told him. They hadn’t told him.

“Fives, listen.” He refused to turn back around. Rex continued anyway. “We thought it was best if you didn’t know right away. I know you. I’ve known you since you were a shiny. So has Cody. And because of that we know that you can be impulsive and reckless, especially when your squad is involved. If we had told you that there was a chance of Echo being alive you would have jumped on the next shuttle out of here and gone to find him no matter what we said. Doing it this way meant that if our suspicions were wrong, and there was a good chance they could have been wrong, then you wouldn’t have gone through the pain of losing him again.”

“Would you have told me? If you hadn’t found him would you still have told me?”

“We would have done what was best.”

That wasn’t a yes. It also wasn’t a no. Fives’ skin prickled. They might never have told him. Despite all of their suspicions and their plans and their knowledge of how much this would have meant to him, they still went behind his back. He deserved to have been there. He should have been there. 

“I want to see him.”

Another sigh. “I know. But you also know that you can’t right now.”

Fives could feel his cheeks start to burn and his eyes sting with unshed tears. A hand settled on his shoulder.

“Come to the break room with me. Sit down, take a breather, and I can tell you what I know. Then you can go and see him, okay?”

Fives swallowed the lump in his throat before giving a small nod. He pushed back the tears and stood up straighter, letting his brother lead him down the corridor to a small break room reserved for those waiting on updates from the medics. Fives slumped down on a small sofa, resting his elbows on his knees. Rex sat down next to him. He placed a hand on Fives’ leg to stop him from bouncing it up and down. With how pent up he was, there was a chance he would wear a hole in the floor before the end of the conversation. No-one said anything for a while. Fives could feel the tension in the air. It was Rex that tried to break it first.

“You feeling any better?”

“No.”

A sigh. “I just want to help, vod’ika. What can I do?”

“Just let me see him.” Fives wasn’t going to let Rex’s terms of endearment sway him. He knew his brother was trying to distract him from everything.

“How many times do I have to tell you that I can’t do that?” Despite the question, Rex didn’t sound frustrated. “Anyway, he’s not going to be much of a conversationalist when he’s sedated.”

Fives shot up, horrified. “Sedated?” The captain had failed to mention that tidbit of information before. Along with every other thing he’d kept hidden.

Rex flinched. “Err… yeah. They had to put Echo under to run the tests.”

“What? Why?”

“He freaked out when they tried to run the check up. Turns out he still has a mean right hook on him.” Rex gave a mirthless laugh. “He took a swing at one of the medics, nearly took his eye out. They thought it would be best to knock him out for the time being.”

Fives felt cold. His ears were ringing. Echo had never been the biggest fan of the medbay to begin with, but it was never so bad that he would attack the medical staff. “How bad is it?” There was no response. Rex looked uncomfortable, too uncomfortable for Fives to stop panicking about what had happened to his twin while he had been gone. “Rex. Tell me. How bad is it?” His chest felt tight.

It took a moment for his brother to answer. “It’s-” Rex paused and started ringing his hands. He always did it when the news was bad. It wasn’t a good sign. “It’s- He’s.” The captain’s shoulders slumped. “It’s worse than we thought.”

Fives felt like the ground had disappeared beneath him. He was shaking.

Rex screwed his eyes shut. He was squeezing his right hand a little too hard with his left. He was probably going to have a bruise there come morning. “He lost three of his limbs.”

That shouldn’t have been surprising but it was. Echo had blown up. Of course the chance of him losing his limbs was high. Maybe it was because Echo had already defied the odds just by surviving that up until this point Fives had assumed his brother was still in one piece. “What else?”

“I don’t know if this is the best time-”

“Rex. Please. I’m going to find out sooner or later. What happened?”

If Fives hadn’t been panicking before, he definitely was now. Rex looked like he was about to cry. 

“They experimented on him.” His voice was trembling. “We found him in a cryochamber. They had him hooked up to machines. So many machines. He was plugged in like some sort… some sort of object.” Fives felt his heart plummet. “Tech had to disconnect him from the server. They were extracting information from his brain, that’s how they knew the plans. But it wasn’t just his head. It’s his pulmonary system, his respiratory system. It’s all tied up with cybernetics.” Rex looked at him. His eyes were wet. “They were turning him into a droid, Fives. One they could command at their will. The medics aren’t even sure they can run the necessary tests, not when he’s more machine than anything else. Kix said his heart rate is lower than it should be, but that could be the new normal for him. We don’t know how much we can do.”

Fives’ stomach rolled. He felt like he was going to be sick. More machine than anything else. They’d hurt his brother. Used him for their own sick games. And they could have stopped it.

“We should have gone back for him.”

“We didn’t have a choice, Fives.”

“We should have saved him!”

“And done what?” Fives looked at Rex in surprise. He hadn’t expected his brother to snap at him. He watched the man next to him shift slightly, clearly unsettled by his own outburst. Fives didn’t know what to say, but it looked like he didn’t have to.

“I understand your anger, Fives. I do. I’ve spent the last year wishing we could have gone back for him. But we couldn’t. And even if we had, there was nothing we could’ve done. The Kaminoans wouldn’t have helped him, not with the level of injuries he had. And that would have been if we were even able to get him off-planet.

“I never wanted it to be this way, Fives. None of us did. But he’s back. He’s back and he’s going to need us now more than ever. We have to be there for him.”

Fives let out a shaky breath. “I’m so scared, Rex.”

“I know, vod’ika. I know.” Fives let himself be drawn into a hug as the two men shared their grief.

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Rex was right. It was bad. Actually, the captain had understated just how bad it was. Nothing could’ve prepared Fives for the sight that had met him when he finally entered the medbay. 

His brother was on the bed, hooked up to wires and machines that were monitoring his vitals. Kix was right, his heart rate was too low. It was unnerving. Echo’s skin was pale, sickly, his usual tan muted by the pallor he used to get on the rare occasion he came down with a virus. Fives had asked the medics about the ports in his brother’s head, whether they would stay there. He was told that they couldn’t take them out, not without doing damage to Echo’s brain. They were going to have to stay.

The decision had been made to get some new legs made to replace the ones the Techno Union had given to him. No conclusions had been made about the scomp link just yet. They were going to leave that for Echo to decide when he woke up. 

Fives shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He was starting to ache and his hands were damp with sweat from where he had been clasping onto Echo’s. He’d been there for the last few hours, but he wasn’t going to move now. He was staying by that bedside until his brother woke up.

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“What do you mean you’re leaving?” Fives stared at his brother in complete disbelief. He and Echo were in the barracks, having just come back from the mess hall. Echo had seemed tense and unusually quiet while they were eating, but never did Fives suspect that this was the reason why.

“I mean that the Batch have offered me a spot with them. And I’m going to take it.”

“But-” Fives didn’t know how to respond to that. That was it? After everything that they had been through? Rishi, The Citadel, Anaxes? He was just going to up and leave?

“I’ll still see you around, just not as often. I need to do this, Fives.”

“Do what?” Fives was angry. “Leave your brothers behind? After everything?”

“Fives…”

“Don’t “Fives” me! You're leaving the 501st! For a group of clones you don’t know!”

“They helped rescue me from the Citadel.”

“I would have too!” A fire burned hot in his gut. “The only reason I didn’t is because I would have been a liability apparently!”

“You know they made the right decision about that, Vod.”

“No! You don’t get to tell me what is and isn’t the right choice for me! Not when you’re about to go and run off with a bunch of strangers.”

Echo’s face turned stoney. He fixed Fives with a cold glare and folded his arms across his chest. “Stop. You’re acting like a child.”

Fives scoffed. “Me? A child?” He pointed an accusatory finger at his twin. “You’re the one that’s leaving us behind to go and hang out with your new friends that you’ve only known for all of five minutes!”

“And yet right now, they’re being far more accepting of my decisions than you are.”

“They didn’t even trust you!” Fives flung his arms up in frustration. “They thought you were working for the Separatists!”

“They had every right to do so and you know it.” Echo’s voice was level, but stern, unhappy. “This is my choice, Fives.”

“It’s a stupid choice if you ask me.” All he got in response was a glare. He rarely saw Echo this annoyed and that probably should have worried him, but he was too frustrated to care. 

“You’re 501st, Echo! You have been since the day Rex took us in. You can’t abandon that now.”

Echo bit the inside of his cheek, clearly mulling over what he was going to say next. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like his thought process involved changing his mind.

“I’m not abandoning anything. Things aren’t the same anymore, Fives. I have to do what’s necessary for me right now.”

And apparently that didn’t seem to involve his brothers. Nor his own twin. Fives looked Echo right in the eyes. “You’re right. Things aren’t the same anymore.” And with that he stormed out the door, barging Echo’s shoulder on the way and muttering a sharp “hope you enjoy your new family” as he marched down the hallway.

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“There you are.”

Fives look up from where he was hunched on the floor to find Rex standing in the doorway, hands on his hips. His brother came over to sit next to him, slotting himself in the small gap between Fives and the next bunk over. It was narrow enough that Fives found himself pressed shoulder to shoulder with the captain.

“Echo’s leaving.” It was all he could muster up at this point.

“I know.” Rex glanced at him before staring at the wall opposite. “He tracked me down, panicking because you’d stormed off after an argument, so I’ve spent the last two hours trying to find out where you’d holed yourself up. And there was me thinking I was done with you guys and your fights."

When the attempted joke didn’t get a reply he nudged Five’s shoulder gently. “You know he’s making the right choice.”

That got Fives fired up again. “You’re letting him go?”

“I’m not letting him do anything. It’s his choice.”

“But you're our captain. Surely you can make him stay.”

“I could, but I’m not going to.”

“Why not? He’s leaving us behind!”

Rex’s face was gentle as he faced Fives. “He’s not leaving us behind and you know it. He’s going where he needs to be.”

“But he needs to be here!”

“No.” Rex gave him a soft smile. “You need him to tell you it’s all going to be okay. That’s not the same thing.”

“You’re letting him go off with a bunch of lunatics.”

His brother chuckled. “Once again, I’m not letting him do anything. And they’re good men. They’ll look after him.”

Fives furrowed his eyebrows. “You punched Crosshair in the face.” He was hoping that his unimpressed look would show the captain just how ridiculous he found this whole situation. Rex floundered slightly as he tried to find his next words.

“Err… well.” He coughed nervously. “Maybe I did.” He quickly pulled himself together. “But tensions were running high. We were all stressed out. I have every faith that they will look after him.”

Fives was still not convinced.

“I mean it, vod’ika. Echo’s doing the right thing.”

“You’re just saying that because he’s your favourite.”

Rex shot him a grin. “Maybe I am.” Fives punched him in the shoulder. “And maybe I’m saying it because I want both of you to be happy.”

Fives curled up into himself. He felt less frustrated and more disheartened. His twin was  going to leave. “How can I be happy when he’s not here?”

“Because you know he’s going to be out there somewhere. And you know he’s going to be doing what he needs to.” Rex leant into him, putting a comforting weight on his side. “I don’t want him to leave either. But I know that we can’t help him the way we want to, not right now. It’s not going to be easy, but I’ll take comfort knowing that there are people out there who can help him heal, and you should too. He’ll always be our brother, Fives. And he’ll always be your twin. Never forget that.”

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“I’m sorry I yelled at you.” Fives was sat on the bed in front of Echo, arms wrapped around his legs, which were brought up to his chest. He tucked his chin into his knees and glanced up at his brother, who was sat with his legs crossed, looking at his twin intently.

“I know.” Echo bowed his head and picked at the end of his scomp nervously. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”

“No, you were right to wait. All I would’ve done is yell at you sooner.” Fives tried to give a halfhearted smile, but his mouth twitched sadly. After his conversation with Rex, he’d come to find his brother, hoping to reconcile for what had happened before. Things were uncomfortably tense and Fives couldn’t help but fidget anxiously.

“I’ll always love you, you know that right?”

“Of course I do, Echo.”

“No. I mean it.” Echo stared at him intently. “I know that you’re going to get all caught up in that head of yours and convince yourself that I left because I don’t love you anymore. Or that I walked away because I blame you for leaving me at the Citadel.”

Fives flinched. That cut a little deeper than he was hoping.

“My path is different now, Fives. I can’t escape what happened to me on Skako Minor, but I can learn to live with it. I’m not the man I once was, and I can’t pretend like nothing has changed. I’m doing what’s best for me, Fives. Not because you’ve done anything wrong, but because what I need right now is to be with people who understand what it’s like to be different.” Echo shuffled forward awkwardly and took one of Fives’ hands in his own. “Things are different now, vod, but that doesn’t mean I love you any less. And, hey, now I can access even more reg manuals than before.” He gave his scomp a quick spin and grinned at his brother. Fives felt the corner of his mouth twitch up in amusement.

“I’m going to miss you.” Fives mumbled, brushing his thumb over Echo’s hand.

“I know, vod. I’m going to miss you too. But remember, I’m always going to be a comms call away. If you need me to get you out of trouble, give me a call and I’ll be right there.”

“Going to use all that new insider knowledge to save my shebs?”

“Of course.” Echo looked at him with a big smile before his face grew soft. “Everything is going to be fine, you hear me?”

“You said that before the Citadel.”

“Yeah, well.” Echo shrugged. “Geniuses can’t be right all of the time.” Fives shoved his shoulder, chuckling. 

He pulled Echo into a hug, wrapping his arms around him tightly and burying his head in his neck. “You promise me it’s going to be alright?” His voice was muffled by Echo’s shoulder.

“I promise, vod.” Fives was starting to feel better. He was scared, sure, but he trusted Echo’s reassurances. Maybe Rex had had a point. Maybe all he needed was to be told it was going to be okay. Stupid Rex being right all the time.

“Promise me they aren’t going to be your new favourite people?”

Echo laughed and gave him a squeeze. “Hmm, I don’t know about that. Tech has some pretty cool stuff to play with and Wrecker-” Fives jabbed his finger into his twin's side, which just made Echo laugh harder.

“Okay, okay. I promise. You’ll always be my favourite.”

“Di’kut.” Fives mumbled.

The galaxy may be changing, but if there was one thing Fives knew for certain, it’s that the dominoes always stuck together, even if they were galaxies apart.

[erin8411]

This @isurrendertoclones

[erin8411]

A silly little reel involving adult Omega and Boba, along with two OC's (Kyber and Naak)

These guys are all from a Post-Clone Wars AU I have rattling around where Palpatine gets assasinated before his plans come to fruition.

And the whole bit in this video is these four are all connected to being clones in different ways but don'tQUITE fit into the definition of a clone.

In the AU (through shenanigans) they all end up meeting and having to work together.

(Btw Kyber and Naak are children of canon characters, so feel free to guess who their parents are lol. Though I think Naak’s parents are kinda obvious.)

[erin8411]

VERSUS... PART 1

Let's get some PVP in here, yeah? Let's start a Bad Batch Arena.

Our first contestants are Hunter and Hunter and Hunter, Echo and Echo and Echo, and Crosshair and Crosshair and Crosshair.

Tech, Wrecker and potentially more, will come at a later time.

LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!

HUNTER vs HUNTER vs HUNTER

TBB Hunter is set up to be the stoic, quiet leader type of the Bad Batch, the one who is meant to do the right thing and keep people safe in hard situations, as well as being brother to his squad and father to Omega...

Actually Portrayed TBB Hunter, is a stick in the mud (or stick up his ass, take your pick) single-minded bit of a control freak with hypocritical values, has no emotions beyond "worry about Omega", "the Mission", "yell at family members for reasons", "Paranoia", "Overly Dramatic Looks of Stoicism" with a dash of "Cardboard Cutout Writer's Hang-On"; and not only has zero communication skills as a character, but also has zero communications skills in his scripting, with no other reason beyond "He's got to be Our version Hero Guy at all costs and the Hero guy rescues the Star Kid... but only when its the most dramatic" (Effectively making him even bad at the thing he's written to be). I'm pretty certain the only reason he has never been written to be confronted (by anyone except the "bad" guys and the bad guys) for any of his actions, reasonings (or hell, even had a plain ordinary conversation), is because the moment he is, the spell will be broken and he will revert to a rock with a bandana and googly eyes glued on, and will forever after, have to be pulled along on missions by a tied on string. TBB Hunter has to make a lot of idiotic, semi-obessive and non-confrontational choices for any TBB story to work as it does now, to the point where he comes off as a paper puppet on an ice cream stick, than a character that is capable of basic conversation and meaningful communication with other characters, and has values and backstory. As it were, he si regulated to "Father figure" to Omega, and as I've pointed out in one post, he's not even good at that without coming off as being absolutely terrible.

TCWs Hunter is a mix between compulsively sarcastic, deadly thrill seeker, and anxious sensitive guy. He can either brush off all situations and conflicts with snark, or he will utterly shut down from the stress of it all, coming off as a Sergeant in-name only (Probably only promoted to such, because in comparison to his brothers, he is the quiet one that doesn't cause trouble and someone had to Officially lead the Troublemakers in the paperwork). This goes out the window the moment he has a chance to do something that gets his blood up--such as skydiving without a parachute. This is contrasted immediately by the fact that he hates enclosed spaces, or going into traps. (Though he will never say it up front) He does not talk about himself if he can avoid it, but will promote and snark at his brothers from here to back, though obviously nobody takes his snark seriously (and he is, in fact, seriously proud of his brothers--and won't take lip from anyone against them, even if Crosshair stirs up shit, Hunter will step in to defend him first). His attempts to be dramatic come off as cringe fail (cos bet you credits he's secretly a dork), as any kind of authentic emotions towards strangers is an awkward affair. [ See his bad, but successful, attempt to invite Echo onto the team ] This Hunter is far more playful, and far more willing to play around; and most of his attitude implies that, behind closed doors with the rest of CF99, he's literally just one of the guys, and is just as hurt and lost as the rest of CF99 when it comes to dealing with regular clones--and only acts as a leader to avoid Regs coming over and yelling at them.

( Unfortunately for the fandom writers, all three Hunters seem to totally lack the enhancement / mutation TCWs Tech claims he has, as even in TBB, there is never a point where it gets explored or even used in any meaningful way )

Overall, TBB Hunter comes off as a character who only shallowly is related to TCWs Hunter, as their attitudes couldn't be more different. If I had to make a observation as to why, its because they kept trying to turn TBB Hunter into Early Season TCWs Rex, and then had to be repeatedly reminded that they weren't, in fact, writing Captain Rex.

TBB Hunter and TCWs Hunter are not only different characters, they're not even in the same space ball park with each other. TBB Hunter can't even follow the setup that TBB Hunter is meant to have, some how turning the concept, the written and the past version into three entirely different characters who at no point ever connect with one another. THe only way they're even seemingly related is because they look like each other and are voiced by the same guy, but we have an entire Clone Army of nothing but that, so I don't honestly know how the writers could've fucked this character up so badly.

ECHO VS ECHO VS ECHO

TBB Echo is set up to be the connection between TCWs and TBB, and finally, be a main character beyond a familiar audience surrogate for clones. He has gotten a good TBB redesign (with OG Trilogy reference), and post-episode 1, has the set to be the lancer to Hunter's hero, when he's not paired up with Tech as the two smart guys.

Actual TBB Echo is a bitchy side-piece no nonsense tough guy, who doesn't do anything much meaningful (that isn't about the donut steel OC), and has been regulated to the guy everyone tells to shut up. Episodes that would be perfect to explore Echo as a grown and changed character, with years of history and fandom meaning, often bypass Echo entirely in favor of the shallow mission of the week. Moments that would serve to explore Echo as both main character and former TCWs character, are mere one sentence mentioned that get little more emotional impact than asking about the local weather. His only significant contribution is magically leaving at the end of one episode for Reasons that are never explored before, beyond his typical tough guy whining (and even then, it wouldn't be called a conversation, let alone communication with character or audience), and having magical off screen adventures with the group of clones we would've been better off watching instead. Only to be copy and pasted back into the series when the writers realize that they really have fucked up trying to portray the the BBs as anything but failed characters, and really need a badass to do something, and came up with the excuse that absence means a character went from level 15 to level 100 in Skyrim game logic. This Echo is just a series of STar Wars references wrapped in a poorly made breakfast burrito with only vague hints of character brushed up on and then vanishing into the wind to never been seen from again. There were attempts to lighly explore both his disabilities, his new abilities and the implied PTSD he suffers, but these are dropped in favor of giving him the "I must go my planet needs me" treatment, dropping any potential conflict or character nuance or new character challenge, and completely forgetting that he's supposed to be a main character anyway.

TCWs Echo is a guy who tends to repeat orders (hence the name, Echo) that other people already know, makes puns and has humor during stressful situations (like being in the process of being shot at), has no problems jumping command as a cadet to personally request transfer (the lion, the witch, and the audacity of this bitch)... and Yet reads the GAR regulations as a pass time (though all his prior actions show that this probably less to do with being a rules follower, and more akin to being a rules lawyer in order to see what he can arguably get away with ). He's a strategist as claimed, as there are plenty of instances in his portrayal where he does contribute strategically [ see the Rishi Moon Base episode and Battle of Kamino ] He has an military officer like composure, but he's not afraid to fight a bitch (and in fact will probably be the first one who throws a punch). In the midst of deadly situations, he'll be the one with a sense of humor. His use of humor and his anxious need to repeat orders, suggests an underlying high strung nature (that is even explained a bit in in the uncut and original Bad Batch episodes, as he's the kind of guy who can't let things lie). He'll state things firmly, but not aggressively, and he isn't one to have a temper, even when all doubt has been placed on him. Never mistake his composure for ease. TCWs Echo has had several years as a character, experiencing episodes as both main character and b-plot character, with plenty of implied unseen adventures (such surviving the second campaign of geonosis), who has a strong subtle care for brothers both living and lost (his first episode after Rishi and Cadets shows that he stuck a sticker of Hevy's, his late squademate, favorite weapon on his armor).

Over all, the Portrayed TBB Echo and TCWs Echo are total opposites as characters, as TCWs Echo doesn't bitch and doesn't lose his cool and would have definitely marched up and decked someone in the face if he disagreed with them. Only now he has a drill for an arm, and its drill baby drill time!

And would have definitely, fucking definitely, had Done Something, Portrayed Something, Painted Something, on his armor, to remember Fives.

Over all TBB Echo is a failure to make him a main character, even to his own series, as he fails to have any significant character progression or exploration, and is forever regulated to either side-piece or the mystical super secret sixth green power ranger only to be brought out for filler movies.

The only saving grace I'd take outta TBB ECho is that his armor is fucking cool, and I have to admit that's one of the few aspects from TBB I am extremely fond of.

CROSSHAIR VS CROSSHAIR VS CROSSHAIR

TBB Crosshair is portrayed to be the jerk and the fallen brother, the one who follows the bad guys and believes in their values, to the cost of the rest of his squad, and this continues as a conflict throughout his character.

And actually Portrayed TBB Crosshair is pretty good at following that set up all the way through. From fall, to misery to redemption, TBB Crosshair pretty much fuses his set up and his portrayal as a well rounded character who achieves what he is written to do, and would arguably be one of TBB's writing successes. ... Unfortunately, it comes at the cost of TCWs written plotlines and general world-build nuances, like the DM forgot half the Lore two years into the campaign, and the writing only works if you drop those nuances without any exploration or thought, making it seem like his character arc would've been better if he hadn't been written as a clone in the first place... but if that ended up being the case, it would've just been another rehash of Darth Vader. When placed against his other brothers, the squadmates and characters he has betrayed, he comes off as the most 3D character dealing with 2D carboard cutouts, but even he is weak to resist the power of the super duper donut steel mary sue, and "accepts" that all the things he did when he was drugged must be clearly his fault and not the fault of the Imperialists who spiked his drink and starved him.

TCWs Crosshair is a quiet, cuttingly sarcastic and very prideful man, who strives to press the buttons of those he doesn't like--and he tends to not like someone on sight. But unlike typical assholes, when he presses a button, its usually a button that is actually there and beholds some inherent (if harsh and bitter) truth to the character or situation he's observing, though often this is pressed as insultingly as possible. He mostly goes after tough "Reg" characters (whom he definitely detests on sight), but will avoid antagonizing those people who do prove that they care through action (such as the medic Kix, or Commander Cody). When he presses on a character with his cold keen observations, he's often backed up by the rest of the Bad Batch, suggesting that when he does these things--the rest of them do agree with him, even if they don't voice it or press on like he does. A few scenes of this suggest that Crosshair is, in fact, implied to be the second in command of the Bad Batch and probably would've been the Leader, through keen observation, confidence and his attitude of being constantly in control of situations-- if it wasn't for the fact that he's a real asshole to everyone but his squad. Unlike the rest of the Bad Batch, Crosshair is, in fact, shown to have an empathy streak in ironic contrast to his normal cold-hearted (and very face-punchable) demeanor. He's the first to inform that Commander Cody still cannot be moved after having an entire ship land on him like the wicked witch, and is the first to physically assure (and even watch over) a recently rescued Echo right after Captain Rex. Inspite of this empathy streak, Crosshair seems incapable of saying anything outright positive, as a contrast to TCWs Hunter who will praise his team and teammates over himself; though Crosshair is the only one that Hunter will absolutely not snark at (Probably both out of respect and likely because nobody wins sarcasm against Crosshair--the man is a marathon runner of the sarcastic streak) ( Out of the whole of the Batch, in their series of contrasts and parallels, Crosshair was probably trusting of Echo's intentions versus Hunter and Tech's distrust... This is just speculation however ) Crosshair, akin to Hunter, does have a playful streak in that he keeps a count of his droid kills in competition to Wrecker's, with snarky teasing.

The major difference between TBB Crosshair and TCWs Crosshair, is that TCWs Crosshair isn't an unobservant idiot.

Yes, that's a damn shame to call TBB Crosshair, who has the best written story of TBB, but any conversation with TBB Crosshair comes off as talking to a brick wall. He is asked intelligent questions and given intelligent observations, but the writing is determined to keep TBB Crosshair as the bad guy or redeemed from evil inspite of the fact that it also keeps trying to have the world build nuance of being drugged and brainwashed into a intergalactic all powerful empire with magic powers and super technology, and this makes his story rather oddly liminal.

Meanwhile, TCWs Crosshair is so full of intelligent and keen observations, even though he's such a dick about it, that he could've probably out-observed his own chip.

Which makes me truely believe that the only reason that TBB Crosshair was written to be controlled by his chip, and then to be victim blamed by the narrative to accept the consequences of being mind controlled and brainwashed into evil action--was that TBB was punishing the character concept of Crosshair for being written as a dick, and as any children's show will tell you, the jerks must always be evil.

TCWs Crosshair, bottom line, is a guy who never believed in loyalty to the cause, because by his proven empathy streak, he was always loyal to people first--and he criticized those who put the cause above other people.

Meanwhile, TBB Crosshair was the kind of guy who only believed in the caused, and has to be kicked around to believe in people.

Like Echo, TCWs Crosshair and TBB Crosshair are total opposites by their values, though they share similar attitudes, and are total opposites by their capacity for observation (TCWs Crosshair observed and learned quick, where TBB Crosshair had to have several people dead before he realized something was up--a trait that TCWs Crosshair would've never needed).

ROUND ONE, OVER!

[erin8411]

Mortis Gods of Weyland: WIP

Arla Fett, aged twelve and a half years old and also known as Arlie Junior to her friends, Little Arlie to her daddy, and Omega to pretty much everyone else, suddenly began thrashing around in bed late one September night. Whether or not she was dealing with another nightmare wasn't so clear to her three younger brothers, all of whom slept just down the hall, and so were able to hear everything thanks to her bedroom door always staying open just a crack. What they could be sure of, though, even if they were still just kids or not, was that their daddy--either Mister Hunter Jango Fett or just plain Hunter--would always be the first one in to straighten things out, especially during the rarest times of trouble.

After all, there was never any time to waste when one of 'Meg's visions showed up.

"Daddy. Hey! Daddy, wake up!" "Huh...? What's goin' on, boys?"

"It's Arlie. I think she's about to get another vision!" Hunter Fett, on the other hand, had a way of keeping everybody else calm while he dealt with the more...difficult moments between different members of the family. For example, when a few of Arlie's uncles had gotten wind of her dreaming up a rockslide several weeks ago, it had been gruff old Uncle Crosshair who took one look at her and suggested "she wasn't getting enough attention at home". For all that anybody knew at the time, she had supposedly started making things up to get a rise out of the household, if not also gain a little attention back that she might have otherwise lost after Stak came along.

"Okay, Deke, take it easy. Breathe..." On the other hand, once Uncles Echo and Tech had narrowly escaped that same rockslide later that same week, and up at Hemlock Gap during a family visit, no less...it had been Daddy Hunter himself who suggested to the rest of 'em, and not too loudly because Tech still had a little sensitive hearing, that maybe they all had better be a little more civil around their niece on account of her inheriting the Sight.

"Daddy, what if she doesn't wake up this time?" After all, their own daddy--also known as the late Mister 99, and a respected figure in the community--had inherited the Sight before her.

His gift had kept a lot of extended family members safe during wartime, and even if it had skipped a generation, Arlie surely had to deal with it now.

"Then we'll do exactly like we planned it, and go get Depa. Now c'mon..." And on this fateful evening, be he half awake or not, Hunter and all three of Omega's younger brothers--Deke, Mox, and Stak in that order--didn't once think twice about gathering 'round her bedside just in case.

In a place like Weyland, sometimes family spelled out the difference between life and death.

"H...hwm-m-m..."

"Should she be moving like that?"

"Is it a bad one, Daddy...?"

"Nah. I would have sensed somethin' by now, so it's got to be normal."

That wouldn't happen tonight, though, for this wasn't about to be anything bad...at least, not where Arlie was concerned. For one thing, Hunter already had a lot of experience dealing with monsters under the bed; monsters scraping at the windows, and all other sorts of nasty things that were known to bother children. Those things kinda had a way of disappearing when you turned the lights back on...so of course, once the boys got a little light shining on this subject, it wouldn't be so scary any more.

"All we have to do is take another deep breath, wait it out, and either she's gonna go back to sleep, or she gets a nightmare and wakes up on her own."

"Yeah, but...what if somethin' else happens?"

"Then we'll do what we always do, okay? We'll go get help."

How am I doing...?? Please leave a quick vote below, so I can better edit this before submission time. Thank you.

[erin8411]

Full Plot of the Cancelled Kashyyyk arc from Star Wars The Clone Wars: Season 7

Planet Kashyyyk is still neutral at this point in the war. Yoda travels to Kashyyyk, and his personal battalion is there waiting for him (they had been sent a couple of days earlier before the arrival of Master Yoda himself) and they inform Yoda that the Trandoshans have been doing deforestation in order to drive the Wookiees away to establish Separatists bases there.

The other reason is to intimidate the Wookiees into joining the Separatists or die off. Yoda senses Count Dooku behind this attack. It was the Wookiees themselves who called on the Republic for help, but being a neutral system – only Yoda and Clone Force 99 alongside Yoda’s personal battalion were sent there, with no additional clone reinforcements. Yodas battalion consists of 41st Scout Troopers and regular white clones with Yoda’s face slapped on their helmet.

As far as Chewbacca's role in this arc, we would have been shown his wife and family. Otherwise, the main Wookie Character is Tarfful. Other Wookies such as different tribes, elders, and children would have been shown as well.

Yoda wants to help the Wookiees so they get in contact with the few remaining villages that still live near a part of the forest which hasn’t been destroyed yet but that is about to be destroyed. Yoda advises them to leave their homes, but the Wookiees don’t want to. 

The Trandoshans come with a massive force and they drive the Wookiees out forcibly alongside Yoda, who are thus forced to retreat deeper into the forest and up a river which leads them to a water stream. Yoda and the clones then suggest to bait the enemies following them into an area of the forest so they can drive them away from the Wookiee villages.

Echo, new to Clone Force 99, would have become a sort of super-soldier due to all of his bionic enhancements. He would fit right in with the Bad Batch, and his demeanor changed, since he was now more cold-blooded and composed, as opposed to the indecisiveness that he showed in previous seasons. He serves as a foreshadowing of what Anakin would become.

His lobot-attachment would have been used for communications since he has a communicator close to his forehead, which shows him interfaces that were directly projected into his mind, so he would see them with his eyes but no one else around him would see them.

As for The Bad Batch, they were more accustomed to relating with the Wookiees than the regs. Hunter suggests bold strategies throughout the arc which the other clones weren’t really ok with since the followed more strict protocol. The Bad Batch also had their own hover boat, with their "clone force 99" symbol on it.

In Season 8, it was planned for The Bad Batch to execute Order 66, and they would have been treated as cold blooded assassins, a bane to Jedi. Though it likely wouldn’t have been shown on-screen. However, this arc is mostly to show the Bad Batch working with Yoda and the Wookies.

The clones suggest to burn all the trees down in that area of the forest in order to trap the enemy into their own nest. The Wookiees are against it but they then reluctantly agree that this is the best course of action and their only chance at success. They ask for forgiveness from the trees before doing this, and they then give the clones permission to do so.

Similar to the Bad Batch episode in Season 2, there are Kinrath and Maylyas deeper in the forest, and the elements of Wookies being one with nature is similar to how Yoda, a Jedi, believes in the force. The Bad Batch don't understand it, but they go along with it.

As for the Trandoshans, their leader, Babwa Venomor, was working with the Separatists, for Count Dooku. Some Trandoshans would have had night-vision goggles and snail tanks that they could use to tear through the forest.

The fires manage to slow the Trandoshans down for a bit, but it turns out not to be a definitive solution. After escaping the enemy, Yoda and the Wookiees prepare for war. The Wookiees ask for the help of tree spirits. They venture deep into the jungle in order to go warn the other Wookiee clans that the Trandoshans are coming and to sway them not to join the Separatists.

They use what happened to the Wookiees following Yoda as a motivating factor to tell the others that if the Trandoshans were not stopped, they would soon be coming for them too. In the meantime, the Trandoshans are preparing for battle and they are shown to be very tribal with trophies of dead Wookiee heads nailed to the walls. 

In the fourth episode, an all out war rages near the river because the Wookiees wanted to get far away from the trees in order not to harm their environment any further; and the battle ends up on a shore similar the one displayed in Revenge of the Sith.

Separatist craft land with Droid reinforcements, but the Trandoshans are the main enemy forces. One of the Wookies would have ripped off a Trandoshan's arms. Commander Gree and his forces would join the action with Yoda and the Bad Batch.

At the end of the battle, Babwa Venomor gets decapitated by Yoda in the same way Yoda kills Gree in ROTS, and he falls into the river along with his tank. When the battle is over, Kashyyyk agrees to allow the Republic to establish clone bases there, and became an ally of the Wookies, as they foresee a larger Droid Invasion coming in the future.

[erin8411]

DAY 10 of making a clone OC picrew

1.1 update!

Play HERE

New items:

heterochromia tab

Tooth gap and braces in mouths tab

Two new tattoos: crown of stars and Fives

Sideburns

French braids and carrot orange, pink colors for hair

Electric burn scar

Two new clothing bases: greys and ponchos (in full color range)

Three new armor colors: mint, pink and brown

Three new armor paints: Echo, bubbles and skeleton

Clone force 99/Bad Batch pauldron

Crosshair chest strap

4 new accessories: Echo’s headpiece, rose in mouth, toothpick and snow/sand goggles

Pride pins tab: gay, lesbian, bi, pan, trans, nonbinary, ace, aro and aroace

What you can do now:

List for 2.2 update: gauze, stitches. Graying streaks, commando armor, makeup, lipstick

[erin8411]

Reference

[erin8411]

Clone picrew 1.1 update

Day 8 of making clone picrew

Adding people’s ideas

Grays, same color range as armor base

Two new patterns: bubbles and Echo

5 other eye colors, with heterochromia or both eyes: red, blue, green, brown and white

Besides I added:

Facial hair: sideburns

Scar: electrical burns

Mouths with visible teeth: tooth gap and retainers

Carrot orange color for hair

Accessories: Echo’s headpiece, Crosshair’s toothpick, rose between teeth

One more day to give me ideas

[erin8411]

Disability Tropes: The Perfect Prosthetic

[ID: A screenshot from the movie Nimona, showing Nimona, a small white girl with red hair, grabbing the right prosthetic arm of Ballister, a knight in black armour with black hair and light brown skin. He is holding a broken bottle in his prosthetic hand while Nimona admires his arm. Overlaid on the screenshot is white text that reads "Disability Tropes: The Perfect Prosthetic" /End ID]

In a lot of media, prosthetic limbs are portrayed as these devices that act as a near-perfect replacement for a character who has lost, or was born without a limb. So much so that in a lot of cases, the use of a prosthetic has basically no impact on the character beyond a superficial level or their appearance, or it's portrayed as something that's even better than the old meat-limb it's replacing. This trope shows up most often in Sci-fi, but it shows up in all kinds of stories outside of that, even otherwise very grounded ones!

If a story isn't depicting the loss of a limb as the be-all-end-all worst thing that can happen to a person, they almost always default to a perfect prosthetic, functionally curing the amputation with it. But the reality is that prosthetics are FAR from perfect, and as someone who has used them for their entire life I don't think they ever will be. Limb difference is still and always will be a disability, regardless of the prosthetics available, and this really isn't a bad thing.

Why is this trope so common?

I meant it when I said this is a really, really a common trope, so much so that the majority of the media I've seen with amputees and characters with limb differences that released in the last decade or end up using it. Even stories where becoming an amputee is treated like a fate worse than death, ironically, aren't excluded from this. I have a few theories as to why this has happened: The pessimistic answer is that it's easy. You get to have a disabled character and claim you have disability representation, without really having to do much extra work or research because most of your audience won't notice if you aren't accurate - in fact they kind of expect it. You also, for the most part, dodge the backlash other kinds of disability representation (or really any minority representation) usually get. The more optimistic reason is that, for a long time, amputees and people with limb differences (as well as a lot of other disabled people) were predominantly shown in media as sad, depressed and unable to do anything, very much falling into the "sad disabled person" trope. As a kid, this was really the only way I saw people like me on screen or in books. And so, the limb difference community pushed back against that portrayal and were pretty successful in changing the narrative in the public's eye. A little too successful. A lot of creatives were genuinely trying to do right by our community, listen and do better, but many simply overcorrected and instead ended up creating stories where prosthetics were essentially cures instead of the mobility aids they are. I also think the public's general lack of understanding about disability plays a roll in all this. There are a lot of people who, in my experience, believe that the more visible a disability is, the worse it is. Limb differences and amputations are very visible, but prosthetics, even those that aren't trying to be discreet, make them less so. While using a prosthetic is very, very different to a biological limb, you won't necessarily see how in a casual interaction with, say a co-worker or neighbor, especially because there is a very real stigma applied to people with limb differences to keep those things hidden from the public. There are other reasons too, such as the fact that a lot of creatives don't even consider the connection to real amputees when creating characters with robotic limbs in genres like sci-fi and some fantasy, so they never stop to consider that these tropes could be impacting real people. Amputees are also very frequently used in "inspiration porn" content that uses the angle that disabilities can be "overcome" with a good attitude, downplaying the way those disabilities actually impact us. The prosthetics industry - specifically the component manufacturers, often also push the idea of prosthetics being the only way to return to a "normal" life, both to the wider public and to people with limb differences and amputations (which can add to that sense of shame I mentioned when it doesn't play out that way for them). On top of that, I also think the recent increase in popularity of concepts like trans-humanism contributes to it as well. these movements often talk about robotic or bionic body parts being enhancements and "the way of the future", and I think people get a bit too caught up on what may be potentially possible in the future with the real, current experiences of people with "robotic limbs" aka prosthetics, now. There are also inherently disabling things that come with removing and replacing parts of your body, things that will not just go away with some fancier tech.

So How do you actually avoid the trope?

So, we have some ideas about why it happens, but how do you actually avoid the "perfect prosthetic" trope from appearing in your work? The most important thing is to remember that this is still a disability. The loss of a limb, even with the best prosthetic technology or magical item in the world, will always have some inherently disabling aspects to it - and this is not a bad thing. The key is to not over-do it, lest you risk falling into the old "sad disabled person" trope. So let's go over some of the ways you can show how your character's disability impacts them. You don't have to use all of these recommendations, just choose the ones that would best fit your character, their circumstances and your setting.

The prosthetic itself is just different

Probably the most important thing to address and acknowledge for prosthetic-using characters, is the actual ways in which the prosthetic itself is different from a biological limb, and the drawbacks and changes that come with that. For the sake of simplicity, I'm mainly going to focus on modern prosthetics here, but it's worth considering how to apply this your own, more advanced/fantastical prosthetics too. One major thing that most people writing amputees fail to acknowledge is that prosthetic limbs are not fleshy-limbs with a different coat of paint. They do the same basic thing their meat-counterparts do, but how they do it is often drastically different, which changes how they are used. A really good example of this is in prosthetic feet. There are dozens of joints in a biological foot, but most prosthetic feet have no joints or moving parts at all. Instead of having dozens of artificial joints to mimic the real bone structure of a foot, which are more prone to failure, require power and make the prosthetic much, much heavier for very little gain, prosthetic feet are often constructed from flexible carbon fiber sheets inside a flexible rubber foot-shaped shell. This allows the bend and flex those bones provide, without all the drawbacks that come from trying to directly mimic it. Making the sheets into different shapes makes them more ideal for different activities. E.g. feet made for general use, like walking around the city, are simple and light, shaped to encourage the most energy-efficient steps, while still allowing their users to do things like wear normal shoes. Feet made for rough terrain often have a split down the middle of the foot to allow the carbon fiber sheets to bend better over rocks when there is no ankle, and some newer designs also include a kind of suspension using pressurized air pulled from the prosthetic socket to allow some additional padding. Running feet have large "blades" made of these carbon fiber sheets to absorb more pressure when the foot hits the ground, and redirect the force that creates to propel their user forward as quickly as possible.

[ID: A photo of 4 prosthetic feet. On the left, the foot is covered with a black shoe, the one to it's right consists of a small, carbon fiber blade, split down the middle, in roughly the same shape and size as the previous foot. Next to the right is an even simpler and smaller carbon fiber foot with no split, and finally is a very short foot that is vaguely rectangular in shape. /End ID]

These are some of my own prosthetic feet I've had over the years. The two on the right are designed to be used by someone who is less mobile, and the ones on the left are made for someone who is more active. As my needs changed over the years, I've used different designs and styles, and keep the old ones since my needs do tend to fluctuate.

There are also robotic feet available that are designed as a kind of "all-purpose" foot that use an electronic ankle which more closely mimics a biological foot, but they are not very popular as the mechanism adds a lot of extra weight and it requires a battery and power to work, with many amputees feeling the jointless carbon fiber feet do a better job at meeting their needs. The same goes for arms and hands. "Robotic" hands that mimic a meat hand exist, but they aren't really that popular, even in places like Australia where the prohibitively expensive price tag isn't as much of an issue due to government programs that pay for the device for you. Instead, most arm amputees who use prosthetics that I know prefer simpler devices that do specific tasks, and just swap between them as needed, rather than something that tries to do it all. A big part of this is because the all-purpose hands can be clunky. they often require manual adjustment using the other hand to do simple things like going from holding a deck of cards to putting them down and picking up a glass of water, for example. The few that don't require that, I've been told, are often temperamental and don't actually work for every person with a limb difference.

Altered Proprioception

Loosing a limb is a big deal and this is always going to have an impact on the body in some way that won't be solved with a fancy piece of tech. One such example is how limb loss effects your sense of proprioception. This is your sense of where your body parts are in space. It's how you (mostly) know where your foot is going to land when you're walking, or how you're able to do things like lift up a glass of water without needing to actually watch your hand do it. Your brain does this by creating a mental map of your body, but this map doesn't get adjusted if you loose a limb. If that map doesn't accurately reflect your real body, you're not going to have an accurate sense of proprioception. This might look like a leg amputee being a bit less stable on their feet, or like an arm amputee needing to look at their arm or hand to be able to grab something with it. Those born without their limbs who take to using prosthetics often have a lot of trouble adapting, as their brains aren't used to having that limb in the first place, whereas an amputee's brain can sometimes be tricked into using their outdated body map to help them adjust to the prosthetic (though its impossible to line it up perfectly). Prosthetics that directly integrate with the nervous system, while rare, do exist, and even this direct connection doesn't completely erase this issue for reasons doctors aren't quite sure about. This is something that does become less of a problem with time. Eventually, someone proficient with their prosthetic will learn to compensate, but their sense of proprioception will never be 100% perfect. At the end of the day, no matter how it attaches, a prosthetic is still not a natural part of the body, and that will always cause some issues. It also means if they aren't practicing it all the time, they may have to relearn how to compensate for it.

Extra weight

You also have to remember that a prosthetic is not a natural part of the body, like we already talked about, and so no matter how good it is, your brain will most likely always interpret the weight of the prosthetic as something attached to you, not part of you. This means that, even though prosthetics are actually a lot lighter than biological limbs, they feel so much heavier. This is because, while a meat limb is heavier, a lot of that weight is from muscles which are actively contributing to the limb working, so it doesn't really feel like its that heavy. When you have less of your meat-limb though, you have even less muscle to work with to move this big thing strapped to it, so it feels heavier. The more of the limb you've lost, or just didn't have, the heavier the prosthetic has to be, and the less muscle you have left to move it. It's for this reason that a lot of amputees and people with limb differences get tired faster when using prosthetics. Some of us are fit enough where you almost wouldn't notice the extra effort they need to put in, but once again, just because you can't see it from the outside, doesn't mean it's not an issue.

Avoiding Water

Most prosthetics also aren't waterproof, and so prosthetic users have to be very careful about when and how they come into contact with it. For amputees with electric components, contact with water at all will likely damage the device. This can even include especially heavy rain, something I was told to avoid when I got my electronic knee prosthetic and something I assume would also apply to arm amputees with complex, electronic hands. For those with non-electronic prosthetics, water can be hazardous for different reasons. If the prosthetic has metal components, water may cause them to rust, especially if it's salty water. Other prosthetics have foam covers to give the illusion of a limb with the general shape of muscles and fat, but these covers do not come off, and if they get wet enough that water seeps all the way through, it is very hard to dry it and they may become moldy. Finally, cheaper modern prosthetics may also float. Many are made of very light-weight materials and some have pockets of air trapped inside them. For leg prosthetics in particular, this means a user might, at best, struggle to swim with them on, but at worst, may get flipped upside down and become trapped underwater - something that happened to me as a very young child. On the flip-side, older prosthetics were usually made of heavy materials like wood or steel, and so had the opposite problem, acting like a weight and pulling a person down if they were to wear them in the water. Water-safe prosthetics do exist, I had a pair of prosthetic legs as a teenager that were hollow, and designed especially for me to swim with fins on when swimming in the ocean, and Nadya Vessey, a double leg amputee in New Zealand even got a mermaid-tail prosthetic made especially for use in the water. Most amputees though just swim without any prosthetics at all, and in 99% of cases, this is the easiest and safest way to go.

Prosthetic-Related Pressure Sores and Pain

Many people with limb differences also experience pressure sores from their prosthetics. Modern prosthetics typically attach to the body using a socket made of carbon fiber or fiberglass, held on either by pressure, using a vacuum seal or through a mechanical locking system built into the socket. No matter the specifics though, the socket has to be very tight in order to stay on, and this means that extended periods of use can lead to rub-spots, blisters and pressure sores. Many socket prosthetics also use silicone liners to add extra padding, but this means wounds caused by the pressure can't breathe, and bacteria in sweat has nowhere to go, meaning if the person doesn't rest when one of these wounds occur, it can very easily and quickly turn into a serious infection. In a properly fitting prosthetic, used by someone who has fully adjusted to them, this doesn't happen often, but it is something most amputees and people with limb differences have to at least be mindful of. Some new prosthetics use a different method of attachment, called Osteointegration - where the prosthetic attaches to a clip, surgically implanted into the person's bones. While Osteointegration avoids many of the issues like pressure sores that come from a socket, they have their own issues: mainly that they are incredibly expensive, and as of right now, have a pretty high failure rate due to the implant getting infected. Because the implants are directly connected to the bone, these infections become very serious very quickly. Many people with Osteointegration limbs have to be on very strong medication to keep these infections at bay, and they are generally considered unsuitable for anyone who is going to regularly come into contact with "unclean" environments.

Maintenance

[ID: A screenshot of Winrey, from Full Metal alchemist Brotherhood, a white woman with blond hair handing out the sides of a green hat. She is measuring a piece of metal from a prosthetic she is making while Ed, the prosthetic's owner, gives her a thumbs up in the background. /End ID]

Finally, prosthetics also require maintenance from a specialist called a prosthetist, and they don't last forever. Some parts, like a foot or hand, can be reused over an over, but the sockets of a prosthetic need to be completely remade any time your body changes shape, including if you gain/loose weight, you start experiencing swelling, or you're just a child who is growing. Children in particular need new prosthetics every few months because they grow so fast, and as such, their prosthetics have to be made with this growth in mind. If they go too long without adjustment or an entirely new prosthetic, it can seriously impact the child and their growth but even small adjustments can be costly, depending on where you live. While prosthetics are built to be sturdy and reliable, they need a lot of work to stay that way. The more complex the prosthetic, the more work is needed. Complicated electronic components may need to have regular maintenance done by your prosthetist or even the specific component's manufacturer, and depending on where you live, this might mean having to send your prosthetic limb away for this to be done. While my prosthetist technically has the skills and knowledge to do the maintenance on my electronic knee, for example, the manufacturer forbids anyone not from their company to provide this service, meaning my leg needs to be shipped off to Germany once every few years if I want to keep the warranty. This has the unfortunate side effect of sometimes your limbs getting lost in postage (shout-out to Australia Post, who lost mine twice), meaning it can be months before you get it back or get a replacement. Usually, you'll be given a replacement in the meantime if you need it, but walking on a leg that isn't yours, even when its correctly fitted, always feels a bit weird (maybe that's just me though).

Not every difference is Inherently Negative

We've talked about some of the negatives that come from having a prosthetic, but not every difference is negative or even really that big of a deal. In fact, often times, it's these little moments in the depiction of a disability that go the furthest and make it feel the most genuine. My amputations effect me from the moment I wake up, to the moment I go to bed, but that doesn't mean every single way it impacts me is always inherently bad or negative. For example, back when I was working a normal job and going to university, I would often come home, throw my legs off at the door with the shoes still attached and get into my wheelchair, the same way you might throw your shoes off after work and replace them with comfy socks and other comfy clothing. This is something I've only ever seen on screen once, with Eda from the Owl House (and she wasn't even an amputee yet, her limbs were just detachable)

[ID: an screenshot of Eda from the owl house, a very pale woman, laying on the couch in a bathrobe, her hair in a towel. She has taken her actual legs off, throwing them to the other side of the seat. /End ID]

After that, my day mostly looked the same as most other people working a 9 to 5, I'd make myself dinner, watch some TV or play some games, maybe do some extra work at my desk or chat with friends. The only difference is that it would all be from a wheelchair, mainly because my prosthetics were heavy and it was just easier to use the chair around the house. The fact my afternoon and evening routine was done from a wheelchair wasn't a bad thing, it was just different. Likewise, I also don't sleep or shower with my prosthetics on, for the same reasons most other people wouldn't take a shower or sleep in thigh-high, steel-capped boots. In your own stories, this might look like giving your characters similar alterations to how they go about their day. Let them take their arm or leg off when they're resting or relaxing, show them taking a few minutes longer to get ready because they have to put it back on, show them doing some things without it. Arm amputees in particular tend to get very good at going about their days without their arm prosthetics, and leg amputees often either learn to get around more relaxed spaces like their homes using a different mobility aids like wheelchairs or crutches, or just through hopping if that's something they're physically able to do. Even when everything is going well and working as intended, your limb-different character won't wear their prosthetic 24/7, no matter how much they love it. There doesn't have to be something wrong with it or painful about it to not want it glued to them at all times, just like you can love a pair of big heavy boots but not want them on when you're trying to sleep. For more action-focused stories, being an amputee, also changes things like how you fight. The specifics will vary from person to person, but for example, when I did Hap Ki Do, a Korean Martial art, my instructor heavily modified when I learned what techniques. Beginner-level kicks and most leg attacks were impractical for me, as the force from the kicking motion would usually cause one of my legs to fly off. I also couldn't jump very well, due to some complications with my original amputation that made my stumps too sensitive to withstand the force of landing again. So I ended up learning a lot more upper-body attacks much earlier than it is typically taught. By the time I got my green belt, I was practicing upper-body techniques usually saved for black belts - including weapons training that I could use my secondary mobility aids for, like crutches and my cane in a bad situation. Many holds that rely on creating tension in your target are also less effective on amputees, because either the anatomy that causes those holds to be painful just simply isn't there, or the body part in question can just be removed to escape. Whether we're talking about the negative things, or just neutral differences that come with using prosthetics, you don't want to go too far with any one example. The key is to strike a balance. Of course, the old writing advice of "show don't tell" also applies here. It's one thing to tell us all of this stuff, but unless we actually see it play out, it won't mean much.

How NOT to avoid the trope

Before we move on, let's focus for a moment on some common things I've seen that you SHOULDN'T do as a way to get away from the trope.

The Enhanced Prosthetic

A lot of sci-fi in particular will take prosthetic limbs, make them function exactly the same as a biological limb, but add something extra to it. This does change the way the prosthetic functions and is used, but it usually still ignores the actual disabling parts of having a prosthetic. A really good example of this can be seen in pretty much any futuristic setting, but personally, I think Fizzeroli, from Helluva Boss is the best one to demonstrate what I mean. Fizz is a quadrilateral, above knee/above elbow amputee with highly advanced prosthetics that function, more or less exactly like the limbs he lost, but with the added benefit of being super-stretchy. Fizz is an acrobat and a clown in service, at least initially, to Mammon, one of the Seven Deadly Sins. These prosthetics help him perform and we even do see how they change little things like how he walks and just goes about his day, but the show still treats them like natural arms and legs, but better. 

[ID: A screenshot of Fizzeroli from Helluva Boss, a white-skinned imp with 4 black, prosthetic limbs, dressed in teal a nightgown as he lays in bed, reading from a list /End ID]

We see that he never takes them off, even when sleeping, and when he needs to use them as regular arms and legs, they do everything he needs, perfectly fine - at least when they're working correctly. The only time he ever even takes them off or has any issues with them, is when they break in season 2. The word amputee is never used to describe him, as far as I remember, and the fact he is one never really comes up at all, except for when they break or when the story focuses on how he lost them. Which brings me to my next point.

The Glitchy/Broken Prosthetic

One way I see people try to avoid the perfect prosthetic trope, is to take the prosthetic and break it or otherwise make it unreliable by having it malfunction, but not really changing anything else. This approach is heading in the right direction but still kind of misses the point of the criticism a lot of limb different folks have with the depictions of prosthetics in the media. Yeah, prosthetics do break down and some do require extra maintenance, but if your character's prosthetic is still exactly the same as a biological limb (or even better, in the case of the "enhanced prosthetic") when it's not broken, and the only time their disability is treated like a disability, is when it breaks, you're not really addressing the issue. Real prosthetics, like we discussed, even when functioning at 100%, exactly as the manufacturer intended, don't function the same as a meat-limb. They are fundamentally different, and the glitchy/unreliable prosthetic completely ignores all of that. Once again, Fizz is a really good example of this - the only time his prosthetics are not perfect, is when they break or are malfunctioning (despite the criticism, I do genuinely love Fizz as a character, but he unfortunately does fall into a lot of disability tropes).

[ID: Another screenshot of Fizzeroli, this time in a torn up jester outfit, looking down, panicked, at his prosthetic arms which are fully extended and laying motionless on the ground, with his left arm visibly short-circuiting with electricity around it. /End ID]

Now this isn't to say you can't have your character's prosthetics break down or malfunction at all. just that this shouldn't be the only way you differentiate the prosthetic from a biological limb. You should also be mindful of how or why they're breaking. A typical prosthetic isn't going to break down randomly from normal use unless something is very, very wrong or your character just has a terrible prosthetist (which unfortunately, does happen). You might experience issues if you try to make the prosthetic do something it just wasn't designed to do, or expose it to something it wasn't designed to deal with though (e.g. submerging an electronic prosthetic in water and trying to use it to swim).

Just add Phantom Pain

Another common pitfall I see when people are trying to avoid the perfect prosthetic trope, is to just give the character in question phantom pain - which is a side-effect of amputation where your brain's mental map of the body doesn't acknowledged you lost a limb. Your brain tries to fill in the gaps, since there is no signals coming from that part of the body anymore, and assumes either something must be wrong and so you should be in pain, even when you actually aren't. Alternatively, it can also happen when your brain was so used to feeling pain from that area before, in the case of people who had chronic conditions before they lost their limb, that it just keeps remaking those old signals itself. Like the broken/glitchy prosthetic approach, this also doesn't really address the issue with the perfect prosthetic trope, because it has nothing to do with the prosthetic itself. Phantom pain doesn't come from the prosthetic, nor does it effect how they're used, and so including it doesn't really address the issue of the prosthetic being functionally the same as the original, biological limb. This isn't to say that you shouldn't include phantom limb sensation or pain as something your character experiences, but just keep in mind that, when used on it's own, it doesn't counter the trope. Also, just be sure to do your research, everyone's experience with phantom pain is different and it's not something everyone with a limb difference even experiences.

Why is this trope even a problem?

Alright, so we know what the trope is, we know why it became so prevalent, ways to avoid it and also how not to avoid it. All good information, but why is this trope even bad? Why should you try to avoid it? Outside of just wanting to portray a real disability that effects real people more accurately in your creations, the prevalence of this trope actually contributes to a lot of real-world issues, especially when it's as overused as it currently is. I've talked before about "the jaws effect" - where the depiction of something in the media, especially something that the public is widely uneducated on, influences how people see it in real life. The Jaws effect specifically referred to how the popularity of creature-feature movies featuring sharks, like Jaws, caused the belief that sharks were monstrous killing machines to become much more wide-spread, even going so far as to influence decisions about laws and policy surrounding real-life shark preservation and culling in some parts of the world. But sharks aren't the only thing this has happened to.

Disabled people are so thoroughly misunderstood by wider society, that when tropes like this one become popular, people can and often do start to believe the misinformation they spread - in this case, believing that our prosthetics are a perfect replacement for a biological limb, and that getting a prosthetic means you're not disabled any more. While this can be annoying and cause small scale issues for some of us, like people giving us a hard time for using disability accommodations we very much need, it can also impact us in systemic ways too. If the wrong people believe these tropes, it can and does have a very real impact on the lives of disabled people through things like changes to policies to make it harder for amputees and people with limb differences to access financial assistance for other things outside of our prosthetics we may need assistance with.

Conclusion

Despite the very real harm tropes like this can do when it's overused, I don't think it should go away entirely. Some of my favourite pieces of media even use the perfect prosthetic trope and there are even some kinds of media where I even think it's somewhat unavoidable. Characters with perfect prosthetics in kids media in particular, especially when talking about side characters, can help to correct some of the other stereotypes kids may have seen elsewhere - such as prosthetics being "creepy" or "scary" - in a way that is casual and easy for them to understand. The problem with the trope, in my eyes, is it's excessive overuse. It's the fact that it seems to be the only representation amputees and people with limb differences are getting now. Not every story with a limb-different character can or even should delve into the reality of what using prosthetics is actually like, but we need at least some stories that do, without it being this majorly depressing thing.

[erin8411]

Please y'all I need help finding a story. I can't recall all the details at the front but it is Crosshair Rejoins the Batch before S3, maybe after Kamino can't recall, and I think is actually chipless (unsure) but is having trouble integrating back into the batch. The one part I remember real well is they go on a mission to a pretty planet what Crosshair is like "This is a good place to die" and then during the mission something blows up and he gets internal injuries but doesn't realize. They return to the ship and he says he is fine then take a nap and wakes up to vomit blood in the fresher and the door has to be broken down by Hunter because internal bleeding is bad.

Please help I need it

[erin8411]

[erin8411]

I go with the assumption that his legs end mid-tights. From what I observed when Echo was freed by Rex and Tech, he still seemed to have part of his upper legs left.

It would also be interesting to know if, if he still has part of his upper legs that is, he had internal organ damage that resulted in him requiring (temporarily) a stoma (ileum/colon and/or uro).

Also, does he takes his protheses off for sleeping? Maybe the legs. But is the scomp detachable?