#I really want to get to the scructure and narrative ones because those hold up better

[heyclickadee]

Tech’s Alive, Part Three: Ace

I’m gonna level with y’all right off the bat: This going to be one of the more cracked entries in this series. The next two I’m writing focus are both a lot more grounded more on structure and narrative, and they’re going to hold up a lot better. THIS is me awake at 3 am waving my hands at a conspiracy board and making a wild attempt hail mary throw that probably means nothing. Buuut I’m going to bring it up anyway.

So, it always struck me as kind of weird that Romar calls Tech “Ace” back in “Ruins of War.” And it’s not that the nickname doesn’t fit. “Ace” is a slightly old-fashioned nickname you give to someone who’s extremely skilled at what they do, and Tech is. Ace technician? Yeah. Ace pilot? Oh hell yes. Tech is so gosh darn competent in his role that, yes, he’s about as much as an ace as you can get, so the nickname absolutely works. So it’s not that it’s strange for someone to call him “ace,” it’s just that it’s strange coming from a complete stranger like Romar, because Romar has no real way to know that about Tech. It would be one thing if Romar started up with that nickname after Tech fixes his data storage…cube…thing, but he actually calls him “ace” for the first time directly before that.

I do think that there’s a perfectly good watsonian explanation for why Romar uses this nickname. Either he heard Echo, Tech, and Omega talking and picked up that Tech’s an ace pilot from their conversation, or maybe Echo or Omega called Tech that out of hand, and Romar thought it must be Tech’s name. To be honest, though, I’m really not as fussed about why Romar addresses Tech as “ace” as much as I’m interested in what it’s meant to signal to the audience.

My initial impression was that it’s meant to be part of a pattern of clone characters being called by their names only by other clone characters, and everyone else failing to do so, either because they don’t realize clones have names (which might be the case with Romar, at first anyway), because they’re trying to avoid getting attached (Cid), out of affection (Phee, who does actually introduce them by their names at one point), or as a sign of disrespect and dehumanization (every imperial character except Hemlock, whose use of the clone’s names is every kind of messed up keep their names out of your mouth sir). I think that’s still at least partially the case, because multiple things can be true at once, but in light of the finale, I think there’s another possible meaning to it.

So, in cards, and in poker specifically, the ace can be a pretty important card. I should probably acknowledge that not every association between “ace” and the ace in cards is positive—the ace of spaces, for example, is associated with death, and I don’t think that’s necessarily irrelevant even if Tech is alive—but I am going to lean hard into the more positively applicable ones here. In some versions of poker, each player is dealt a card that only they can see, and which is placed facedown in a hole. Because ace is high in poker, an ace in the hole can mean a winning hand. The term “ace in the hole” has colloquially come to mean a hidden asset or advantage that can be brought out when the right opportunity presents itself. Which could potentially be applicable here, because Ace

(Sorry, I just really love this screenshot. He’s so flabbergasted.)

Fell into a really freaking big hole:

Tech fell into the clouds—literally into mist, figuratively into uncertainty. They obscure his ultimate fate to us, and to the other characters. He’s not just gone, he’s hidden. A very literal “Ace in the hole.”

Now, whether or not that means Tech will be brought back by the writers, and whether that means he’ll be brought back at a moment that provides an advantage(1) to Hunter and the rest, is pretty up in the air. This may not be anything at all. But it was a thought I had, so I figured I may as well share it.

(1): Okay, but, like, “the eagles are coming,” but instead of eagles it’s Tech as air support. I can see this happening