#but unless and until it happens in canon this is my primary rebel rex headcanon

[arianeemorythethird]

possibly controversial rex opinion: my favourite version of his inevitable confrontation with vader is the one where he already knows who vader is.

look, I love the brutal angst of rex not knowing the truth until he's actually face-to-face with vader too - but we already had that story. that was ahsoka's story. and it makes sense, for her character, that she didn't want to believe the evidence in front of her until she had to, until anakin confirmed his identity to her face. of course she held onto her childhood idolisation of anakin as long as she could, because the last time she saw him she was still a child!

but rex? I think it's fair to argue that rex wouldn't have the same reaction.

rex, when confronted by hints there was something horrifying about the clone chips - more horrifying than what everyone already knew about the clone chips, which was already pretty fucking bad - doubled down and kept digging, he wouldn't let it rest.

even when he was afraid of the truth, he was afraid of his own ignorance more; i think he'd behave the same way when he started noticing hints about vader's identity too.

and I think rex was in a better position to notice those clues than anyone alive except obi-wan, who already knew. he'd spent years working side by side with anakin, he was close enough to anakin to know a lot of his secrets - and close enough, too, that he would have wanted to find out exactly how anakin died.

was it at the hands of rex's own men? that would be a horrifying thing for rex to have to face, but I think he would face it, he'd be desperate just to know the truth. because after everything he'd been through, not knowing was the worst thing, for rex.

and what would have happened if rex tried to find out what really happened from one of the 501st men who stayed with anakin after rex left?

...someone who'd marched on the temple with anakin before he got the mask?

...yeah.

in a way it would make rex's character in rebels even more poignant, and not only because his silence would mean he'd been trying to protect ahsoka from a pain he could tell she wasn't ready for. what would it mean for him, to be able to talk about anakin with such affection again, the way he did in rebels?

I have to assume that, offscreen, he'd gone through the same journey that ahsoka is going through now in the live action show - one that accepts the full scope of who anakin was, the monstrous killer but also the trusted, beloved friend. anakin had been that friend to rex, even if it wasn't all that he was.

but also, I think it would have taken years for rex to come to that point - years of meditating on all his trauma on seelos until he could come to accept it - and the thought of rex and vader meeting again before that, when rex was still young and confused and grieving and full of rage and all he had to keep himself going was the righteous truth...

it would hurt, but on some level it would be so satisfying.