laughhardrunfastbekindsblog

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

Depending on the severity of Crosshair's condition, saying he "healed quickly" could mean he took, say, 3 weeks to recover rather than the expected 6 weeks (for example). But I don't necessarily think weeks or months passed between the Crosshair scenes in 2.12 and 2.14. I DO think weeks or months passed between the Pabu scenes in 2.13 and 2.14, meaning Crosshair got the message out to the squad and weeks passed before Echo came to Pabu and Tech discovered Crosshair's message.

Basically, I think 2.12 and 2.13 happened roughly the same time, we jump back to Crosshair relatively quickly (timeline wise) in 2.14, and then there's a significant time lapse between the Crosshair scenes and the Pabu scenes in 2.14.

A few characterization points that I thought were pretty well established in the show and were also reinforced in Sanctuary: (spoilers below the cut)

- Hunter is SO STRESSED OUT, even more so now, but he tries so hard to lock it all in/up/down for his siblings' sake... but they all know. They all know. (Dude just needs a break, but he can never get one 😭)

- Hunter knows his family is capable, but he still feels responsible for them. And he really is an excellent leader - though it also means, again, that he takes on too much personal responsibility for their welfare.

- Omega LOVES adventure, LOVES traveling, LOVES exploring and seeing new things. (Even more crushing to realize the trauma of losing Tech [temporarily because he's coming back of course] is what leads to her agreeing with Hunter - and, by that point, Wrecker - about actually settling down permanently on Pabu.)

- Wrecker doesn't mind being a soldier - he'll just go wherever he's needed, and his family needs him so he'll go wherever they are.

- Tech's combat prowess in "Ruins of War" was NOT, in fact, a fluke. As he himself says, "While my brothers and I each have our specialties, the things we're best at, relatively speaking, each of us is good at everything."

- TECHPHEE IS CANON!!! ❤️❤️❤️ They like each other a lot and they both flirt in their own unique ways and Tech has no idea how to tell her how he feels because he's still analyzing it all himself and I love them so much!!!

- Phee really is a trustworthy pirate and don't you dare mess with her friends because she will take it personally.

- As an aside - I've seen some fans speculate only a week passes between "Pabu" and "Tipping Point." There's not been much before now to prove anything different, though I've personally always assumed at least a few weeks, maybe even more than a month, had elapsed. The timing in this novel, however, seems to indicate that at least a few weeks pass before we get to the events of the latter half of "Tipping Point"... Meaning Crosshair is captive on Tantiss for a while before they discover his message 🥺

- As another aside - I think Hunter relied on Echo a lot. Like, A LOT. (No wonder he is wound so tight during the events of this book.)

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

A detail in "Rising Malevolence" that I never picked up on before: Plo Koon staying outside the escape pods to wait for all the other men to get inside first.

That is just SO in character for him and makes me love him even more 🥹

Also the fact that the clones make jokes in the previous episode about how "they all have the same face" so there's really not much point to Yoda seeing their individual faces, added to them stating here that they're "meant to be expendable," just breaks my heart. We don't see much (if anything) about what life on Kamino was really like for them before the war started and the Jedi came in to oversee things; but we get a good idea here of what general attitudes were toward them their entire lives up to this point and how much they just... accepted it as a fact of their existence 💔

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

Just started rewatching TCW show (again).

And I have to applaud the choice for the story for the opening episode "Ambush."

First and foremost, it establishes that the clones truly are unique individuals - which is some much needed characterization after their presentation in the prequels. For me at least, Yoda's talk with the clones in the cave definitively marks the moment I started appreciating the clones as more than just "the soldiers who carried out Order 66."

The episode also establishes that Yoda (and, we can infer based on this and other episodes, the Jedi at large) recognizes, appreciates, and encourages the clones' individuality.

And the events there lead me to believe that if the war was a "fair fight" in the sense that Palpatine wasn't working both sides, the Jedi + clones would have handily won the war within a week, Sith notwithstanding.

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

And this is why Tech isn't mentioned in the epilogue.

He's off with Phee doing THEIR thing and they're taking care of each other.

(No but seriously every post-season 3 TechPhee scenario I've ever thought about has always included Tech joining Phee on her travels. It's my default scenario for them. It just makes perfect sense to me.)

Phee's idea of settling down would be calling her home on Pabu "our domicile" and clearing off a shelf in the Providence's refresher for Tech's razor and hair gel, because zipping around the galaxy liberating ancient wonders just became their thing.

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

The Jedi regarding lightsabers: My lightsaber is a highly personalized weapon. I underwent a special ritual to find my kyber crystal which has a personal connection to me individually, after which I built my own saber by hand using the Force. This weapon is my life. It is an integral part of the Jedi lifestyle. In many ways it is an extension of me as a Jedi. It is a reflection of my soul.

Also the Jedi regarding lightsabers: Here, Kenobi and Skywalker, we brought y'all some spares. Figured you'd need them since you each go through a minimum of three every week.

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

I watched Attack of the Clones when it first released in 2002, and Revenge of the Sith in 2005.

At that point, I saw the clones as simply the ones who mindlessly carried out Order 66 on behalf of Palpatine without question. I didn't dislike them per se, but I didn't care much for them either. Mostly I just didn't think about them much at all.

Now I'm rewatching Attack of the Clones, I get to the Kamino scenes and catch a glimpse of the clones and here I am squealing "EEEEK there are my boys!!! 😁😍😘" and I cannot believe there was ever a time I wasn't totally enamored with them 😂

(So glad Mandalorian got me interested enough in Ahsoka's backstory that I decided to watch The Clone Wars 4 years ago. It's been a wild ride ever since!)

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

For some reason I cannot explain, watching Attack of the Clones in Spanish makes the Anakin/Padme scenes roughly 2% less cringe-y than usual.

Still very cringe-y, but slightly less so. Like, I'm grimacing but don't quite feel like I need to crawl out of my own skin.

I feel the need to note here that Anakin's awkwardness isn't what makes their relationship cringe-inducing for me. It's stuff like Anakin ignoring Padme repeatedly and openly telling him no, Padme ignoring all the red flags, there being next to nothing to explain why Padme starts ignoring the red flags, etc. I will also note that I tolerate their relationship better in TCW because the show has the leeway to showcase Anakin's good side more so than being limited to emphasizing and foreshadowing Anakin's downfall.

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

I probably should have waited a few more months before rewatching the Fifteenth Doctor's run, because I ended with pretty much the same opinion of it now as I did then.

- Ncuti Gatwa is brilliant as the Doctor and I wanted more of Fifteen.

- Ruby Sunday is an absolute joy, just a ball of cheerful enthusiastic fluff, and I love her.

- Belinda Chandra is fantastic (which is saying a lot considering how badly the writing and inconsistent characterization let her down) and I adore her and hope she shows up again at some point!

- "Space Babies" is about on par with "Sleep No More." I don't hate it but I'm also really meh about it.

- All the other episodes, minus the finales, are really very good.

- The first season finale is a bit of a letdown but actually isn't too bad. I put it just about on par with "Last of the Time Lords" as far as finales are concerned.

- The second season finale is... a mess. I just have to say it. I thought the Flux finale dropped the ball pretty hard but "The Reality War" completely redefines "dropping the ball."

- Favorite episodes: "The Devil's Chord," "Dot and Bubble," "Lux," "The Well," "The Story and the Engine."

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

I hoped a rewatch would make "The Reality War"... better, somehow.

It didn't.

"Little scraps of memories, yours and mine, coming to life in a child of our own" - with the child in question being Poppy - would make so much more sense if Ruby was the main companion for Fifteen's second season. As it stands, the first half of that sentence is directed at Ruby, and the second half is directed at Belinda, and it not only makes Belinda even less of an autonomous individual but also makes no sense. No wonder Belinda looks rather confused by the statement even though she's smiling.

Okay no but really what was the genetic explosion? At first I thought it was referring to what the Master did to make the CyberMasters but now I'm not so sure? Is there something that happened in extended media that explains this?

No but seriously Belinda is an entirely different person in the finale compared to the rest of the season. I'm trying, genuinely trying, to rewatch this with the understanding that Belinda always had a daughter that was written out of existence in the first place; but I still don't see anything that solidly backs this assumption up so it just ends up feeling like Belinda is no longer Belinda. And what's wild is that it wouldn't feel out of character at all if Ruby was the one insisting on doing everything possible to keep Poppy safe.

Speaking of: Ruby showed up this season enough times that it easily could have been written as Ruby wanting to protect Poppy the whole time. Maybe just change things so Belinda is the one who confronts Conrad, maybe give some hints as to the two of them having some real history together (especially since Conrad asks the Doctor in "Lucky Day" if he's met Belinda yet) and Belinda talking him down would work just as well as Ruby doing so.

"I was meant to meet you, Belinda. It was all for this, so Poppy could live" with the Doctor still convinced Poppy is his daughter - DIDN'T WE START OUT THE SEASON WITH BELINDA BUCKING AGAINST THE WHOLE "DESTINY" IDEA???

Between Ruby's finale and the whole Poppy-is-the-impossible-child-but-not-really story, it seems RTD is really trying to dismantle the whole "companions are uber special/mystery boxes" trope, which would be fine if he did it with some form of logic or finesse instead of going at it with a sledgehammer. As it stands, there are still a TON of unanswered questions about Ruby, and the Poppy mystery turning into "Sike! Poppy was always just human!" derails the entire finale all on its own.

With Thirteen referencing the dangers of what Fifteen is about to do, I am still convinced Billie Piper is the TARDIS herself taking the form of Bad Wolf to fix the absolute disaster Fourteen and Fifteen created between letting the pantheon into the universe to play and trying to shift reality the way he did. We'll see how this all pans out in the future.

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

All of this. ALL OF THIS.

I will never forget finishing watching 3.01-3.03 for the first time and sitting back like - wait, does Crosshair know yet what happened to Tech? And I know I wasn't the only one who had to think through the context clues to figure out that he did know and the show had entirely skipped over that conversation: that question was raised multiple times in the post-episode discussion threads I looked up.

Even if the writers intended to leave the door open for Tech to come back, Crosshair's story here SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN LEFT OUT OF THE SHOW. And the fact that it was left out makes Crosshair's arc incomplete, makes the arcs of the other titular characters incomplete, makes the main themes of the entire show incomplete - and that just makes the ending unsatisfying, because clearly their stories haven't ended but we're being led to believe they have because the show has ended.

Also... Ugh, don't get me started on that "Clone Force 99 died with Tech" line. It could have been a brilliant way to showcase the fact that Crosshair was still grieving and led directly into him finding closure and peace and resolution there. Hunter and Wrecker could have talked him through it and shown the viewers that they had indeed found closure themselves and understood the point of Tech's sacrifice. Instead, that line ends with his brothers telling him "Don't go die alone, if we're gonna die let's all go die together" and that's the last we ever hear about Tech in the show. It drives me absolutely bonkers.

I know it's been said before but Crosshair not finding out about Tech's death on-screen is such a bizarre writing choice. Tech's death is so thematically relevant to Crosshair's arc that this scene's absence is just this glaringly unignorable hole... Crosshair's arc is great, and there are some wonderful moments in it, but I feel like him hearing about Tech's death, how it came about, and then processing it would have been such a great way to round it out. It would have been a great next major beat for that story line after the events of The Outpost.

Crosshair's whole deal is loyalty, who deserves his and what that looks like. He also clearly expects it to be a two-way street. He believes that, if he's a good and loyal enough soldier to the Empire, they will keep him around (and maybe even favour him) because they will return that respect and loyalty. That's how loyalty works to Crosshair. His brothers are disloyal because they chose their desire to get themsleves (and Omega, who they just met!!) away from the Empire over their desire to stay with him. Even once his chip is removed, he doesn't change this stance. They chose someone else over him. They are disloyal. It's not until it's shoved right in his face just how much the Empire doesn't care for the Clones, for him to witness how Mayday and his men were treated like used objects ready to be discarded, that he truly realises that the loyalty was never flowing both ways and never would.

So now we have a Crosshair who accepts that the Empire doesn't give a bantha's backside about him.

And we have Tech, who has just made the ultimate sacrifice out of his loyalty to his siblings, inlcuding Crosshair. Tech, who insisted on going on this mission to find Crosshair because he's their brother and they can't just leave him at the mercy of the Empire. Tech, who saw that the best way of guaranteeing his family's safety, including that of Crosshair, was to forget about his own safety. On numerous occaisons throughout season two, Tech pushes his own wellbeing aside to protect others because he is loyal.

And that loyalty extends to Crosshair. It always did.

And as I've said, Crosshair is deeply concerned with loyalty. Tech, one of the people that Crosshair has been calling disloyal for about a year at this point I believe, just killed himself to protect their family in a mission intended to help them rescue Crosshair. A mission Tech insisted on going on because he wanted to save his brother. Tech, who seems to be the one who understands Crosshair the most. Do we not think that it would have been massively relevant to Crosshair's arc to discover that this is how Tech went out? Do we not think that Tech's sacrifice for the good of his family would have been a wonderful contrast to the events of The Outpost, where the Clones aren't even treated as people? Do we not think it would have been gloriously gut-wrenching to watch Crosshair grapple with just how misplaced his loyalty had been this whole time, especially after everything he's done in the name of that misplaced loyalty?

"Clone Force 99 died with Tech! We're not that squad anymore..." Amazing! Now where's the rest of it?

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

First off - there ARE Tech Lives believers out there (I'm one of them) who didn't really want CX2 to be Tech in the first place, and whose primary reasons for believing Tech would come back centered around a plethora of other narrative choices. The fact that the show kept hinting at Tech being one possibility for CX2's identity is on the show, not the fans; so if you're going to be upset with anyone about fans picking up on all the parallels between Tech and CX2, put the blame on Lucasfilm. (As an aside: if Omega can forgive Crosshair for all the times he tried to murder them all with the chip and then capture them without the chip, I don't see why she wouldn't extend the same sympathy to a brainwashed Tech if that was how the story played out, especially since even Rex understood the CXs were brainwashed and he wanted to help them if possible... But that's a moot point now.)

Secondly - especially at this point in the conversation, there is PLENTY of discussion around Tech coming back without involving the CXs at all, so why the knee-jerk reaction against Tech being alive when so many theories center around him coming back WITHOUT being a CX? Would it really be so awful to tell Omega "Your brother's alive, but he needs help remembering" or "Your brother's alive, but he needs to be freed from cryostasis" or "Your brother's alive, but Hondo is Hondo so it's taking a while to get him back to Pabu"?

Thirdly - of course I wouldn't walk up to Omega and say what you describe. Just as I hope no one would walk up to Omega when she's protesting to Hunter that Tech can't be gone, and say "HA you're so delusional! Wanna know what your brother looks like on the ground right now? Take your pick between me using the terms "goo" or "pink mist" yet somehow his goggles only got cracked. Also it gets worse since the rail car absolutely 100% fell on him even though physics actually says there's a good chance the rail car fell faster so it wouldn't have landed on him so have fun imagining that!"

It's one thing to share reasons why one didn't want CX2 to be Tech - that is respectful discussion. It's another thing altogether to dismiss every theory out of hand with "Delulu!" and "But splat!" and "He's dead, get over it already."

And I'll say again: if every Tech Lives discussion - including non-CX2-related ones - really doesn't sit well with you, it's okay to not get involved in those discussions.

I have seen more Tech Lives posts/discussions (apart from my own) both here and on Reddit the past few weeks (maybe because of Sanctuary being released?) and with these posts I have seen more than a few complaints from people who are "getting sick of" the Tech Lives crowd and "why are you so obsessed with this?"

And I can understand the frustration of people not sharing the same opinion when it seems so obvious what the answer is. I also genuinely enjoy hearing others' opinions so long as the discourse remains respectful on both sides.

Given what I've seen of the discourse, however, I just need to get this off my chest:

If someone saying "I think Tech is alive and will come back, and here's why I think so" is seriously as gut-wrenching and even traumatic for a "Tech's dead" viewer to hear, as a Tech fan who was simply seeking closure for him hearing over and over again "You're delusional, he's dead, deal with it even though the show won't, and to emphasize my point let me describe in detail what I imagine happened to him after that fall," then maybe avoid the Tech Lives posts just like some of us avoid the "Tech's dead" posts.

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

That one scene makes me giggle so hard every time I think about it, and all of this makes me laugh even harder 😂😂😂

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

I agree with all of this. I was slightly thrown for a loop at first with some of the descriptions since they didn't exactly fit my preconceptions of the layout based on what we see in the show, but - well, that just meant I needed to adjust my understanding of the layout.

A couple thoughts on the Marauder in Sanctuary:

1. There isn’t an officially released layout. Everything about the layout is fan speculation, and us assuming that we’d seen everything even though that didn’t have to be true. The most comprehensive fan layout I’ve seen is here, with this addition. Also, Lamar Giles wouldn’t have written this in a vacuum and might have access to info we don’t have. Who knows!

2. I…kind of already figured most of the stuff that’s described in the book was there. The ship is 99.5 feet long and we only ever get a good look at four main areas that don’t make up that entire length. They live on the ship most of the time; there would need to be a bathroom, somewhere to store and prep food, etc. Tech mentions having a bunk in “Aftermath” that seems to be near a storage area since he doesn’t want Wrecker’s torpedoed by it, but we never see where it is. There’s just probably parts of that one long hallway (and that attic area) we didn’t see on the show because we didn’t need to see them because there was never a scene that required it so why build those sets. I mean, I figure the Falcon has rooms we haven’t seen, too. The reason those areas are mentioned here is because there are scenes that require them. Sets exist for the needs of the plot.

3. I sort of get the impression that people are imagining full size rooms, and I have to admit that that would force my brain to hit the brakes. I’m imagining something in between a motorhome (longest of these is about half the length of the marauder and could fit all of the features mentioned) and a small submarine (a 220 foot submarine would get packed with almost ten times the number of people as you’ve got in the Marauder, and those had galleys, sleeping quarters, etc) where everything is dual use and you have to be really economical with space.

Rooms are tiny (I’m imagining the ‘fresher as being about the size of an airplane lavatory, Hunter’s room could be a slot in the wall in that upper storage area we catch a glimpse of in “Cut and Run,” an episode which, if nothing else, informs us that there are panels in the ship that open into areas we don’t see), and anything that isn’t in use can be folded up and used as something else (I think this is the case with the table). The kitchen can be a space burner, space toaster oven, and a cutting board’s worth of counter space hidden behind a sliding panel in the more narrow part of the ship. Plus, there’s probably some dual use, like how Omega’s room is really just the gunner’s roost. None of this requires adding any extra space to the interior.

4. The one nitpick I do actually have here is that Giles doesn’t necessarily convey a sense of space or location within the ship, which does make it a little confusing. I’m not going to ding him too hard for that, though.

5. The additions make the ship feel even more like a house, which ties into the idea of the Marauder as clone force 99’s home, which is something that was emphasized in seasons one and two (and a little in three). Whiiiiich…is another thing that makes me think we aren’t quite done with these characters. While I assume Hunter and Omega, at least, have a house on Pabu by the time of the epilogue, the present day part of the series cuts off right at the moment everyone is able to sit down for two seconds and think they’re safe but before they’re really able to react to anything that happened, including losing the Marauder. These characters technically end the series homeless. We never see where they live, we never see anyone but Hunter really settled, and given both some of Wrecker’s and Omega’s conversations in this book and the fact that Crosshair is, as far as we know, still suicidal at the end of the series, I’m not sure they are. I think they will be—I just also think we haven’t seen it yet. And that dealing with the loss of the Marauder (which, okay, if Tech is coming back it makes sense to deal with it then and not before, because it’s his ship in a lot of ways and otherwise you’d have to deal with it twice) is going to be part of that. So I feel like these little additions support some themes in an interesting way.

6. I do think some—not all, it’s fine, I get why some people have an issue even if I’m seeing it differently, but some—of the Marauder complaints are coming from a place of bad faith not entirely unlike that time a YouTuber complained about the use of screws in Andor. Again, some.

7. I will also admit that this is the kind of thing I tend to care about the least. I don’t think these are continuity errors, it’s just stuff we didn’t know about the ship, but even if they were, I’m willing to overlook this particular kind of continuity if it’s well used and if the story is well told.

8. The dinner scene at the end was a great way to bring the book full circle, so….

9. I had to get this out because, honestly, I do not care for this discourse and I will be ignoring all of it from this point onwards.

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

Apparently, the French writer Alfred Jarry's last words were: "I am dying... Please, bring me a toothpick."

Cue me instantly imagining a very sarcastic exchange between Crosshair and Echo that includes this line.

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

I have seen more Tech Lives posts/discussions (apart from my own) both here and on Reddit the past few weeks (maybe because of Sanctuary being released?) and with these posts I have seen more than a few complaints from people who are "getting sick of" the Tech Lives crowd and "why are you so obsessed with this?"

And I can understand the frustration of people not sharing the same opinion when it seems so obvious what the answer is. I also genuinely enjoy hearing others' opinions so long as the discourse remains respectful on both sides.

Given what I've seen of the discourse, however, I just need to get this off my chest:

If someone saying "I think Tech is alive and will come back, and here's why I think so" is seriously as gut-wrenching and even traumatic for a "Tech's dead" viewer to hear, as a Tech fan who was simply seeking closure for him hearing over and over again "You're delusional, he's dead, deal with it even though the show won't, and to emphasize my point let me describe in detail what I imagine happened to him after that fall," then maybe avoid the Tech Lives posts just like some of us avoid the "Tech's dead" posts.

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

Star Wars Stories Masterlist!

***All stories are canon-compliant (based on what has been depicted to date) unless otherwise indicated.

Mandalorian

✨ Honor Bound series - AU!!! (Largely canon-compliant through Book of Boba Fett given that I first started writing this right around the time that show aired.) A continuation of Din Djarin's story, including (but not limited to) Din coming to terms with his decision to remove his helmet, Grogu's return and his story after leaving Luke, the Dark Saber legacy, the gathering of the Mandalorians, and the reclamation of Mandalore.

Honor Bound / Honor Bound II / Honor Bound III

✨ Mandalorian retellings - events of the show from the limited first-person perspective

The Mandalorian, as told by the title character

The Mandalorian, as told by Grogu

✨ Related Events

Alzoc-III - an account of the events Din and Xi'an alluded to in "The Prisoner." (Angst/hurt/tragedy)

Survival is Our Strength - the Purge of Mandalore, witnessed by the Armorer. (Grief/hurt/loss)

Quiet and Still - Grogu's story before meeting Din. (Grief/hurt/loss/comfort/trauma/happy ending)

Bad Batch

***Note: I am a firm Tech Lives believer, though there are a few post-season 2 stories where the Bad Batch doesn't yet know he's alive. (I have written two versions of Tech returning, one version detailed in "Rise: The Clone Rebellion" and one in "Lost and Found" / "The Lost One")

✨ Cadet Batch

All Together, Always - Cadet Batch face the mess hall. (Family/apprehension/comfort)

The Little Aiwha - Cadet Batch adopts a pet. (Fluff/hurt/comfort/happy ending)

✨ TCW era

Out of Darkness, Into Light - a brief recounting of Echo's perspective from the Citadel to his rescue. (Angst/hurt/comfort)

Fight to the Very End - Echo, recently rescued, reflects on Fives. (Angst/hurt/comfort)

The Jar - Echo is still getting used to his modifications. (Whump/comfort)

Where He Belongs - Echo questions whether he really should have joined the Bad Batch, or if he should have stayed with Rex. (Angst/happy ending)

✨ Seasons 1-2

Stay - Crosshair's perspective as his brothers leave Kamino. (Angst)

Tug of War - AU!!! Events of Spoils of War/Ruins of War, but with Crosshair having rejoined his family after the destruction of Kamino. (Humor/hijinks/shenanigans)

Ignorance is Bliss - a Tech infodump goes awry. (Humor)

Style and Error - the story behind Omega's new season 2!haircut. (Humor/shenanigans)

While You Were Gone... - Hunter and Echo, just back from delivering nerf nuggets, find out what happened to the others. (Fluff/humor/family dynamics)

Touched - Tech has nerves of steel... Most of the time. (TechPhee/humor/fluff)

Three Little Words - Omega starts a new trend with her brothers. (Fluff/humor/family)

What Needs to Be Done - brief glimpse into Crosshair's thoughts after he parts ways with Cody, leading up to "The Outpost." (Angst/whump)

✨ Season 3

These Scars Remain - Wrecker processes losses, as a cadet and as a soldier. (Angst/hurt/comfort/grief)

Bring Her Home - Hunter, Wrecker, and Echo's efforts to find Omega, covering the time between "Plan 99" and "Paths Unknown." (Angst/hurt/comfort/whump)

Revelation - Crosshair learns from Omega what happened to Tech. (Angst/hurt/comfort/whump/grief)

Can You Hear Me? - Omega, captured, talks to her brother. (Angst/hurt/comfort/whump/hopeful ending)

She Held His Hand - Crosshair and Omega reunite with Hunter and Wrecker; Crosshair and Hunter both have a lot to process. (Angst/hurt/comfort/whump/hopeful ending)

Safe Again - Wrecker comforts Omega and Crosshair after their return. (Hurt/comfort)

Release - Echo wants Crosshair to open up about Tantiss. Also, hugs. (Angst/whump/hurt/comfort/hugs)

Resolve - Crosshair visits the memorial for Tech in the Archium. (Angst/hurt/comfort/grief)

✨ Pre-epilogue

Rise: The Clone Rebellion - a complete story telling the exploits of the clone underground, featuring Rex, Echo, the Bad Batch, Howzer, Gregor, Cody, and more. (All the emotions/happy ending/Tech lives)

Safe and Secure - when Omega has nightmares, her brothers are there for her. (Hurt/comfort)

Out of His Depth - Crosshair, kids, and swimming lessons. Need I say more? (Humor/fluff/shenanigans)

Protector - Safe on Pabu after the events on Tantiss, Hunter knows he should be at peace - but how can he be at peace when he has failed so much? (Angst/whump/hurt/comfort/happy ending)

Photo Op - The Bad Batch take a family photo. (Fluff/family shenanigans/Tech has returned already)

Radiant - Tech and Phee's first kiss. (Fluff/romantic fluff/TechPhee)

✨ Post-epilogue

The Sniper and the Jedi - Crosshair is confronted by events from his past - events he wishes he could forget. (Angst/whump/comfort/forgiveness/happy ending)

Lost and Found / The Lost One - Two Tech returns stories (one from the perspectives of Tech/Crosshair/Phee, the other from the perspectives of Echo/Omega) with Tech being found after Omega joins the Rebellion. (Angst/hurt/comfort/reunion/happy ending/TechPhee)

The Start of Something New - progression of Tech and Phee's relationship, from Hunter's perspective. (Fluff/family fluff/romantic fluff/TechPhee)

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

Okay I'll admit it:

The mention of Hunter having quarters, and the dining area/kitchen, DID make me go "... Huh."

(Also... Very minor nitpick, but early in the book there's a mention of Echo saving clones from experimentation and I was like "Wait... Do they know about the experimentation yet? I don't think they do." (Did they??))

Anyway, it wasn't enough to make me dislike the book, and I ended up coming up with my own explanations for these details:

My brain re-envisioned Hunter's "quarters" as Hunter putting up a sheet over his rack so he wouldn't have to keep looking at the unwelcome passengers 😂 (I know the book description doesn't support that interpretation but I don't care.)

And I ended up imagining that Phee brought a fold-out dining table and compact stove when they insisted on taking the Marauder, because Phee has standards and will NOT be eating rations over the console for a days-long mission 🤣

Thoughts about The Marauder in the new TBB "Sanctuary" novel

Spoilers below the cut:

I'm certainly not the first person to bitch about the inconsistencies in the Marauder's layout between the TCW/TBB series and the "Sanctuary" novel.

None of these features were ever seen in the show before, and don't work logistically or thematically to varying degrees.

Admittedly, I only read the book once, so please correct me if I get some of the details wrong.

Hunter's private quarters

For instance, all of a sudden, The Marauder has private quarters for at least Hunter. I can't remember if it says anything about the other brothers getting their own quarters too.

But there are two big problems with this:

Where are these quarters in the layout? There is no space on The Marauder. That's kind of the whole point. It's an attack shuttle. It was made for combat, not for comfort. The only area in the entire ship that seems dedicated to rest is the single bunk bed in the back of the ship, and even that only sleeps two at a time. And it's in a common area -- not a private room.

If any of the brothers have a private room, why didn't they ever give it to Omega? She's a growing preteen girl on a ship full of men and she's never had her own room before. That was the whole point of Wrecker turning the rear gunner's mount into her room. There are no private areas on the Marauder, so he had to put up the curtain in the rear gunner's mount so she'd have some semblance of privacy.

Seriously, did writing/editing team watch the show at all? Did they get any notes from the showrunners on these things?

The rear ramp and armory

Admittedly, these two things don't bother me as much, but I wanted to mention them briefly. This is the part I'm the most fuzzy on, so correct me if I'm wrong.

But, in the novel, there's a rear ramp that people can use to go in and out of the ship. Never heard about that before.

I'm positive the Marauder does have some cargo space below the main deck, but I don't think we ever see or hear anything about accessing it from the main deck. It has to be accessed from the outside.

Also, there's now an armory??? This is probably the easiest for me to believe. No doubt they were carrying weapons on board. They had to. But we never see it, so I don't know where it is in the layout or how it was accessed. Was it on the main deck? Was it in the cargo hold?

Logistically, you'd probably want to keep some stuff on the main deck that you can grab easily, and then keep the heavy stuff underneath.

The galley and dining area

But the other big thing that bothers me is the new kitchen and dining table we've never seen or heard of before. Apparently, the dining area is big enough to fit five people and still have room left over for their 'missing members.'

Again, where is this area in the ship's layout? There is no room. It is an attack shuttle.

Plus, you know the Kaminoans wouldn't give a shit about ensuring comfort.

It was probably a little nicer on a large Jedi cruiser, for instance, where they'd have to have a galley and mess hall for a crew of hundreds of clones and their Jedi commanders.

But the Marauder was assigned to The Bad Batch, who only had four members initially; and unlike the Regs on the Jedi cruisers, they were special forces.

Their missions were about getting in and getting out as quickly and effectively as possible. They wouldn't have the space for a dedicated galley on their attack shuttle. Also, the Kaminoans probably expected them to die pretty quickly. No need to give them all these extra comforts when they're just cannon fodder. :(

Moreover, based on the characters' dialogue during the events of the TBB series, the group was still surviving off rations rather than regular food, despite not being GAR soldiers anymore. Rations are mentioned a few times in S1, when they're negotiating with Cid, and then again in 3.11 when they're packing up to leave Pabu.

"Real food" seems to be a luxury during the series. That's why Omega and Wrecker loved getting Mantell Mix every time they finished a mission, and why Pabu was ultimately so appealing to them.

In 2.13, they actually got to sit down and eat a full meal at a real table together for like the first time ever, rather than just scarfing down rations at a console between missions.

Pretty sure the only time we see or hear about "real food" on the Marauder is in 3.05, when Omega wakes up and Wrecker says that Shep and Lyana delivered more fruit.

So, I get what Giles & co. were trying to do with the final meal together, but I think they missed the mark thematically.

Final Takeaway

Giles basically tried to have The Marauder feel like an RV. Like, you can live out of it, but with a big family, it's not exactly ideal. Plus, after being on the run so long, it'd eventually get old.

But in reality, The Marauder should feel more like a fucking tank that TBB tried to retrofit into an RV as best as they could. Again, it was made for war, for stealth missions, for smash-and-grabs, etc.

If anything, we should've been hearing how cramped and crowded it is, especially with two adult passengers and a newborn. We should be like "OMG, they were living out of this thing for a year?!?! No wonder they wanted to settle down on Pabu! Give these poor clones a real house, stat!!"

I mean, if you saw a group of three or four guys and their 12yo sister climbing out of this thing, saying, "Yeah, we've been living out of this thing for the last year," you'd be fucking horrified.

I know it's not an exact equivalent, but it's closer than what we got.

Final note: I don't outright hate the novel, and I do want to read it again because I don't feel like I gave it a fair shake the first time around. But on this issue, I doubt I'll change my mind.