#Star Wars analyses

[phantom-of-the-501st]

Fives Thoughts

Sooooo I literally just made a post being like 'here are some fun bits from Umbara because the arc is depressing and I don't wanna talk about the sad bits' but uh... I had thoughts in the last 15 mins and now I wanna share them. 😃

And of course tagging as usual for people I'm interested to hear opinions from: @saturn-sends-hugs @inkstainedhandswithrings @the-bi-space-ace

It's been a while since I watched these story arcs back-to-back, so a lot of the character development is really showing atm. And one I find interesting is a shift in Fives between The Citadel and Umbara.

Fives has always had a bit of a firey personality, but up until this point he's been a little bit held back with that passion for the most part. And I'm gonna touch in something that @novaceleste and @spaceyjessa spoke about in their podcast (@coffeeandclones I was just listening to it the other day and they talk about some interesting points. Defo recommend you check it out. Also #JusticeForDroidbait2024) because it really is the basis for this whole point. Despite Fives being the brasher, slightly more hardheaded personality, and Echo being the more by-the-books one, it's Echo that tends to do a lot of the talking when authority is involved. When they speak to Shaak Ti, it's Echo that takes the lead, while Fives is a little more hesitant.

And when they first meet Rex and Cody, Fives automatically introduces himself as CT-27-5555, despite being very open about his displeasure of being called that throughout their training. He has this louder personality but he tends to draw into himself and panic slightly when put in front of authority.

However, he still has these more fiery moments, like during his speech in ARC Troopers. When he's put in a fight, that spark within him comes out full force. "My blood is boiling for a fight." That's what drives Fives. That's where that passion comes from. He always wanted to make ARC trooper, to prove himself and to demonstrate that fire in the fight.

And yet when we get to the Citadel, he's surprisingly nervous. Echo seems to be fairly on board with everything, he's listening intently, he's down with the plan. But Fives is rather hesitant and doesn't seem totally enthused about the whole thing. They've made ARC trooper, they're being included in a specialist mission, the things that Fives so desperately worked for. But now that they're here? He's really not comfortable with it.

And I think that Fives' passion and drive is so prominent in the heat of battle because his adrenaline is going, he's got the energy to burn and so that's when we see this fire in him. But in the quieter moments, the meetings, the in-between fights? He's nervous. Those are the moments where he can sit on it and really think about what they're up against. And what becomes really apparent is that Fives is absolutely terrified of the thing that fuels his fire. The thing he worked so hard for scares the absolute shit out of him. And for good reason.

But it's never been so much of an issue because he had Echo. Echo, who's more level headed, who feels comfortable with plans and formats and authority. He could be the comforting presence that Fives needed outside of battle, while Fives could be the spark in it. They're like fire and water. They keep each other regulated, balanced.

But then The Citadel happens.

And watching the Umbara arc, I noticed that Fives doesn't have that very noticeable fear. It's not that it's absent, it's just that it isn't so obvious all of the time. Of course, some of that is going to come with experience, he's been an ARC for longer, he's know Rex for a while so there's slightly more comfort with that level of authority, but he's definitely more consistently confident than he was before.

So my suggestion is, what if that comes as a result of losing Echo (at least in part)? He doesn't have that calming presence anymore, the one to balance his nerves. He doesn't have someone to stand firm beside him or take the bigger step for the two of them, so he's had to learn to do that himself. I think part of it is natural growth that comes with experience (to quote Rex: "experience outranks everything") but I do also think it comes with no longer having that constant other half. Fives has had to learn to balance himself.

Like I said earlier, a lot of this links back to stuff said in Nova and Jessa's podcast, so I'd recommend checking it out. But I just wanted to add my extra thoughts on it, having just watched Umbara, because it definitely stuck out to me on this rewatch.

[robotsandramblings]

Star Wars: The Bad Batch (2021-2024)

↳ first & last shots of each season

((yes this is EXCLUDING the CW intro from ep 1, the recap montage from s3 opener, etc.))

time to overanalyze these images!! my favourite!!!

1.01 Aftermath v.s. 1.16 Kamino Lost

open nature v.s. confined metal infastructure

the sinister nature of both situations: we open with the battle on Kaller, which quickly turns into Order 66. we close with Nala Se being brought to a mysterious Imperial building because of her "scientific talents".

the lack of colour, the dullness and dreariness, in both scenes

also the "cold", chilly, lack of warmth vibes of both places

2.01 Spoils of War v.s. 2.16 Plan 99

bright colours v.s. dreary, depressing; dark, sinister

((perfectly fitting considering we start Season 2 with CF99 on a more "fun" lighthearted mission on this beautiful tropical island; Tech is alive, Omega is safely with them.

then we end Season 2 with Tech dead, Omega captured, and Crosshair also as a prisoner being tortured and experimented on. depressing INDEED.))

the optimism, hope, bright outlook of Ep 1 v.s. the foreboding, bleak outlook at the end of Ep 16.

visually it's a very stark change, exactly like what everyone in CF99 experiences from ep 1 to 16.

(even Crosshair, arguably. no he doesn't feel "brightly happy" about his situation in ep 1, but he's still firmly with the Empire. and then by season's end he's risking his life to protect Omega & his old squad and winding up as a prisoner of torture and experimentation. a stark transition of his own.)

3.01 Confined v.s. 3.15 The Cavalry Has Arrived

though you can't see it, both shots feature a lone spaceship -- a shuttle flying into Tantiss the prison v.s. Omega flying her mini-Marauder away from Pabu to join the Rebellion.

Imperial v.s. Rebellion in this first v.s. last shot

the differing pilots in those ships -- the Imperial pilots flying around because they're ordered to v.s. Omega flying off to the Rebellion because she freely chose so

[writingmonet]

Domino Twins + elements & (some) meanings

[engagemythrusters]

he doesn't even know kanan is coming and hes just calling for his dad bc he's scared :( i have no analysis to make. just :( to feel

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

I've seen referenced several times a paraphrased quote attributed both to DBB and to Jen Corbett of Bad Batch that the show's creators ultimately decided to kill off Tech because they couldn't make season 3 work otherwise.

Hmm.

I rarely read interviews from creators about a storyline because I prefer to let the story tell itself and let the interpretations come as they will based on what the narrative itself presents. But in this case I looked up the quotes/interview simply because I had to know how in the blazes they came to the conclusion that a storyline HAD to involve Tech (or any Bad Batch member, for that matter) dying.

I have... thoughts. Lots of thoughts. RESPECTFUL thoughts, because I truly do think the writers/directors of this show are absolutely BRILLIANT (which is partly why I had such a difficult time during season 3 and it has taken quite a bit of reflection to come to terms with it... But I needed to come to terms with it because I love it so much I want to enjoy all of it in the future!) But fair warning: if you prefer not to read a post if the post's author isn't 100% in agreement with the show's creative choices, then this might not be the post for you.

Reference: https://www.starwars.com/news/brad-rau-jennifer-corbett-the-bad-batch-season-3-interview

Quote #1: “When we first started this show, we had hoped that we could get three seasons to tell this story," executive producer and head writer Jennifer Corbett tells StarWars.com. "We kicked Season 1 off with Order 66 and the team trying to figure out where they fit in the galaxy. We knew Season 2 was going to be a little bit darker, because we knew that the team was going to lose in some way. As the season progressed, it became clear that the way for them to lose is to essentially have the team be fractured. That's what happens when we lose Tech, and then also with Omega being taken by the Empire.”

I find the choice of words here - particularly "fracture" and "lose" - to be interesting. This is the quote that made me realize my original (starting in season 1) hopes for where the themes of the show would conclude had apparently never been in line with what the show was aiming for. The show's definition of the team "fracturing" and "los[ing] in some way" apparently had to include death and only came in the season 2 finale; whereas I considered the team to be "fractured" within the first 10 minutes of the pilot episode - as soon as Order 66 came through and Crosshair was susceptible to the inhibitor chip, the team was broken. And they weren't ever truly whole in the first place, given that Order 66 occurs before they meet Omega. For me, the team lost big time as soon as the show started.

So, while I went through the entire show (yes, I kept hoping Tech would come back in season 3) hoping the themes of family and never leaving family behind would conclude in at least one instance of this little clone family being whole and truly united again - considering the fact that they were broken since "Aftermath" - I realize now this hope was nigh impossible to fulfill given that the show didn't consider the team fractured upon Crosshair's departure and therefore felt the need to not only break it apart further, but break it permanently.

Quote #2: “There were a lot of conversations that went into that [killing off Tech], and we even tried to talk ourselves out of it many times, because he's such an important character to the show, to all of us and the crew, and we know he is important to the fans,” Corbett says. “But what we're showing in Season 2 is that the galaxy has changed and the Empire is now very powerful in the early years. So we were trying to be logical in the sense that, the Batch keeps putting themselves in these positions and, ultimately, there has to be a time when they do lose."

I can respect this decision, though (as I stated above), the entire show pretty much involves the Bad Batch losing in one way or another and personally I don't care for the idea that the only real way a team can lose (read: "stakes") is if death is involved. But that's just me, and I can get over this personal hang up.

Quote #3: Throughout, they’ll feel the loss of their brother. “It affected a lot of the logistics,” Brad Rau, executive producer, says. “The very mathematical logistics of how we normally would have the team operate was massively different without Tech there. But emotionally, the most important part, the way that the loss of Tech affected Omega, Hunter, Wrecker, Echo, and Crosshair, even throughout the whole season was, I wouldn't say heavier than we expected, but was definitely very heavy.”

I'm gonna be blunt: when first watching season 3, I felt the emotional impact of the loss of Tech for most of the squad was sorely lacking, and this is the main reason why I kept hoping right up through the epilogue that Tech would somehow show up.

Every. Single. Allusion. To. Tech in season 3 hit like a ton of bricks right to the gut. @eriexplosion described it extremely well (paraphrasing) as picking at a wound and not letting it fully heal. After some reflection following the series finale, I came to the conclusion that this might be because the Tech mentions were meant to show how the Batch - Crosshair in particular - were still feeling about the loss, and (in hindsight) it seemed that Crosshair felt deep guilt and pain over Tech's death all the way through season 3. (Heck, I now see Crosshair having a moment to honor Mayday early on but never truly honoring Tech as yet another indication that, while Crosshair felt grief over Mayday, he must have felt even deeper grief compounded with guilt and remorse over Tech that led to him essentially avoiding the subject.) So I guess it turns out my conclusion fits the original intention of the creators.

Thing is, since we don't ever see any actual catharsis or healing for any of the Bad Batch members (Omega is the closest we get to it, and even that's a stretch), this aspect of the show does NOT land well for me - really, many times during season 3 it came across that the only real impact Tech's absence had on the team as a whole was that Hunter had to deal with datapads and decryption was harder. (There have been fan comments that if Tech had been around in season 3, the entire storyline would have been wrapped up in two episodes (and I actually rather agree with this) - but this headcanon/focus still only emphasizes Tech's role/function on the team, not his impact as a brother.)

Again, upon reflection I am quite willing to give the narrative the benefit of the doubt and say the excruciating emotional pain inflicted with every Tech mention was intended to show the impact of the loss on his family; but it was SO difficult to watch season 3 when this wasn't made clear from the get-go. And given that (based on reddit discussions I've seen) half the audience seemed to think the Bad Batch had long since moved on because "stoic soldiers/they have other priorities" while the other half thought the Bad Batch hadn't moved on and were avoiding the subject, I truly do think this ended up being a murky point - and it shouldn't have been.

This is where we get to the hill I will die on and my ONLY major criticism of the show: if Tech "had" to die and stay dead, there should have, at bare minimum, been a scene - even if it came at the end of the finale - where Tech's entire family finally had a chance to meaningfully acknowledge and honor Tech, even if it was brief such as Crosshair had with Mayday. If there had been any moment before the finale for any of Tech's brothers to honor and/or memorialize him, the contrast between that cathartic moment versus how the topic had been treated before/by his other siblings would have been more than adequate to cement early on the idea that the squad was still feeling the loss of Tech as an individual and a brother, thereby clarifying the show's intentions. And a moment for Tech's ENTIRE family (and friends) to honor him, even if it came at the end of the finale, would have closed out the dangling plot thread of Crosshair still feeling guilt and grief over Tech.

Anyway, while this interview didn't much change my own conclusions of how season 3 played out and what could have been done better, I am glad I read it since it provided at least a modicum of clarity as to what the show's intentions actually were - even if those intentions didn't always clearly come through in the narrative.

[margindoodles2407]

The Comprehensive List of Margin's Star Wars Character Analyses

On the heels of my publishing of the Domino Twins Dissertation I thought it would be prudent to make. You know. An actual list

Published Works*

(*in publication order from most to least recent)

The Domino Twins Dissertation

The Commander Cody Postulation

The Crosshair Dissertation

Can The Bad Batch Cook? An Exploration

Fun Fives Facts: An Analysis

Star Wars is a Love Story: A Thesis in Brief

The Dogma Dissertation

A Fives Analysis: High Fantasy Star Wars Edition

Heliophilic Clones: A Discussion

On Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and How Love Can Turn to Hatred

Pending Works (Unpublished But Getting There)

The Fives Thesis (AKA How I Will Be Getting Into College)

The Captain Rex Essay (I Have Thoughts (tm))

The Commander Fox Essay (I Still Have Thoughts (tm))

The Hunter Analysis (Eldest Siblings Of The World Unite)

The Wrecker and Tech Analyses (The Forgotten Youngest Children. We Love You)

@seeking-elsewhither @whyoneartheven behold. my very serious academic writings

[mypoorlittlemaulmaul]

Will Wilson, Dawn of Maul, 2009.

[shiversdownyourspleen]

SPOILERS FOR THE BAD BATCH PREMIERE

Okay non-spoilers first

so…

HOLY SH*T HAOSHPWPKWJSI

Each of the three episodes makes for an awesome start that really builds on its core cast with a really solid tone that pulls you in and Crosshair is a standout as always!

Okay so spoilers

Two words

Project. Necromancer.

That entire scene in the third episode with Palpatine’s visit to Tantiss was executed so well and seeing the labs open up to a straight up SITH CULT room absolutely FLOORED me

The entire reveal was amazing and Ian McDiarmid still being able to play perfectly evil Palpatine after literal decades is amazing I love that man

And a STAND OUT so far is the Omega and Crosshair duo, all their interactions and the dynamic between them feels so real and both Dee Bradley Baker and Michelle Ang are great VA’s

Seriously what a great start to the season gang, we did it

[by-glass-and-waves]

For my second playthrough of Outlaws, I decided to take my time through the game and found a few sidequests involving droids. I'm still early in the game, so I might add onto this. They're just small observations though. Spoilers as always:

There's the broken motivation actuator quest on Toshara: Kay: Why don't you help him? Guy: Not my droid.

And Kay helps this rando droid anyway, just like how she helps ND-5 even though he "isn't her droid". It's a nice early game parallel to ND-5's quest towards the end.

Then there's finding the droid who went blaster happy on pirates on Toshara. The Pyke who made the request was pretty pissed with the other guy for losing them. And at the end of the quest: Pyke: He's just a droid, but he's the only friend I've got (or something along those lines).

While I didn't write down the dialogue for this one and haven't gotten to it on this playthrough yet, there's the quest with the droid outside the cantina on Tattooine as well. The droid is waiting for his master to leave and waited for months? cycles? until Kay gives him the guy's ID. With that, the droid tells Kay that he was his only friend.

These sidequests present themselves as parallels to Kay and ND-5's relationship as partners/friends while acting as foils to Jaylen and ND-5's relationship where ND-5 is considered his property. Kay would go to extreme lengths for ND-5, while Jaylen would write him off and find a replacement.

Then there's an encounter with a droid waiting out a mark who locked himself into a building on Toshara: Droid: My mark is organic. They'll have to leave at some point. Kay: Do you think your sensors are broken or something? Droid: I can sense that you are lying.

A parallel to the end of the game, perhaps? Or maybe this is a stretch. ND-5: I won't get tired. I will never give up!/I am anticipating your every move. Kay: I'm trying to scramble your sensors. ND-5: I know you're lying, Kay.

[briliantlymad]

A lot of the people doing sw analysis are either

"Anakin is the only one wrong"

Or

"Anakin did nothing wrong"

It's funny cus both sides keep taking potshots at the other for not understanding the source material when in fact they're both extreme and wrong. I be scrolling through the tag and I can make out when someone makes a post in response to the other but neither @ each other shsjsjdjdjd

Must be nice. Not being able to understand that characters can be multidimensional and that plot developments can be influenced through multiple factors.

[timeladix]

the fact that lakinda thinks that thrawn is playing some big, elaborate scheme to hurt the irizi and xodlak families by gaining more honor in battles?? and- and bc he s getting more important asssigments?? our blueberry military genius?? the one that is at the same time the most oblivious chiss in the whole ascendancy to politics?? really?? i m literally mortified i m sorry i can t....

[alabyte]

«People in the fandom are too strict and unfair to [INSERT CHARACTER NAME]» but no hear me out let people dislike characters the same way they like some.

They may have a reason not to like these characters. Their reason may seem completely insignificant to you. You may feel that reason is unfair to the character. But that's the damn man's personal opinion.

Heck, a person might not even have a reason. He doesn't like them - that's enough. As long as that person isn't trying to get everyone else to dislike the character, back off and let the person dislike what they don't like.

Let the people dislike characters for the love of Force.

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

Currently running an elimination game for Bad Batch episodes on Reddit, and have made it a rule for myself to not personally comment on any of the posts just to keep my own biases out of the picture for now...

But I gotta admit, we're on season 2, and I'm sorting through the votes thinking - "If y'all redditors don't keep "Faster" and "The Crossing" AT LEAST in the top 8 then y'all better prepare yourselves for a deluge of analysis posts from me about those two episodes in particular because you obviously don't appreciate them as much as you should." 🙎‍♀️😂

(Pretty sure "The Outpost" and "The Solitary Clone" are gonna be safe for a while so we're all good there.)

[chaoticchickadee]

I always find it so hilarious when jedi antis version of a fix it is to send their jedi fave to mandalore to “prevent brainwashing” like babes…. you really think the die hard warrior culture famous for infighting and accusing each other of not being “real mandalorians” based on minute differences is gonna welcome free thought and questioning of their ideals? Like I’m not even anti mandalorian or whatever, but the tendency of jedi antis to worship mandalorian culture just baffles me. Granted, I’m not super familiar with legends!mandalorians, so perhaps someone more familiar with Star Wars lore like @gffa could elaborate but from what we see in canon, mandalorians tend to stubbornly stick to their dogma regardless of the circumstances before them and are pretty resistant to change, something the antis constantly accuse the jedi order of being.

[mxtxfanatic]

omg so sw is my other obsession besides mdzs, so i have Opinions on the whole "who in wangxian would go dark side" question, and i'm sorry if you are sick of hearing about this but i have nowhere else to scream. so basically, in my view, wwx is the more likely of the two to use dark-side techniques, because lwj would obviously not be that motivated to even look past the orthodox path. but the problem with these discussions is that there's always a light side = good, dark side = bad mentality that sw itself doesn't seem to share. like it LOOKS blacknwhite on the surface, but it's actually not!! the pure, light side jedi are just as incorrect in their usage of the force as the pure, dark side sith are! i think wwx would see this, and he would start incorporating techniques from both the light side and the dark side into his use of the force and of course end up maligned by the orthodox (jedi) followers of the force. but the force can do So Much, and wwx is such an intelligient guy as well as an inventor, i can't logically see him not looking into the immense possibilities of the force without pulling from both sides

Oh no anon, rant away! While I never watched any Star Wars movie and don’t plan to after how Disney and fans treated John Boyega, I will say that I’ve watched Quinton Reviews tackle the movies’ themes of fascism and complacency. (If you haven’t seen them, they’re really great and not his 5+ hour long videos, if that’s not your thing lol) So going purely off of his analysis, I would agree that neither side is purely good/correct or evil/bad; they just each have the potential to be depending on the material circumstances that they derive their authority from.

So adding that to mdzs: Wei Wuxian isn’t “tempted” into the unorthodox path because he was swayed by power; the only reason why he went that route is because he was in a life-or-death situation. However, his theoretical path was first brought up to challenge Lan Qiren on his high horse so that he could get out of class where he was being unfairly picked on. In a Star Wars au, I think that a Jedi!wwx would still bring up the dark side as a means to challenge the “accepted canon” of the force, but he probably still wouldn’t use it unless forced to. Not sure if there could really be a sw-equivalent situation that would force wwx to go to the “dark side” for his own safety… And we’d also have to accept that the rest of the cultivation world would be considered Jedis, the Jin would be knowingly working with Sith in full public view, and the rest of the Jedi would do nothing about it because it maintains a status quo.

Anyways, seriously, go watch Quinton Reviews if you haven’t, particularly his analyses of the prequel films.

[elizabethwydevilles]

Call me nuts, but if it's reasonable to interrogate the real life implications of the rise of the Empire (and it is reasonable, SW has always been political), I think it's perfectly reasonable to examine the real life implications of the Jedi order's practices or Naboo electing teenage girls as Queens.