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mamuzzy · 10 months ago

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MAMUZZY READS HARD CONTACT: Prologue

I said I would write about Prologue + Chapter 1 in one single post, but then I ended up actually having more topics to talk about in this chapter. :) It was quite a new information for me that Hard Contact (2004) came out earlier than the game itself (2005 which is also the year of the Revenge of the Sith) which means...

Hard Contact Prologue is actually the first entry of not just Darman but the Delta Squad too!

What you will find here - First glimpses of Darman - First appearance of the Delta Squad - Comparing the events of the book to the game - Commando Squad culture: Names - First differences spotted between Kal Skirata's and Walon Vau's training method

The prologue is using 1st POV in present tense while the rest of the book uses 3rd Past tense. Prologues being in this format actually became a tradition throughout the series, we see different character's povs in the beginning of each book.

I actually have personal preferences for 1st person compared to 3rd person, so I didn't find this disturbing and honestly, it really helped me to get immersed and invested in right away in the character.

This is the first appearance of Darman (RC-1136), member of the Theta Squad and we see the partial events of the Battle of Geonosis through his eyes. The chapter was short, you don't really get the details about their mission objectives, on the other hand it was a really good presentation of a soldier who only has the current task in front of him, and nothing else and using first person view was actually a good choice for this effect.

Also, the memories of the game's first level and Battlefront (classic!) geonosian mission emerged from the depth of my mind, making me reminded why I ragequit all those years ago. :D It was brutal, it was chaotic and unforgiving.

I really liked this starting sentence. Raw, no-nonsense like Darman himself.

If your are not sure about how much bomb you need, use a lot. :DDD And this P for plenty is also a returning common saying throughout the series. Later we actually get to know that Darman is the demolition expert of the team.

The events of the books and the game differ from each other, but Darman is mentioned, so does their mission objective:

Delta Squad's original mission was killing Sun Fac, chief-advisor of Poggle the Lesser, Archduke of Geonosis, and then they were tasked to finish what the Theta squad couldn't. The game is implicating that Darman's squad was already wiped out by this time.

In the books, they are actually communicating, Darman's squad is just about to break in to the Foundry and the Deltas waited for Theta to detonate. Though he wasn't named, Boss is on the other side of the line:

First conversation between clone babus and they are already bickering. :D I love them so much. Interestingly all the Clone demomen are enthusiastically loves to rearrange architechture (as Boss would say), like Scorch or Wrecker, so compared to them, Darman is actually pretty chill even under the pressure of time and an annoying Delta on his back. :D /affectionate

Because I replayed the first mission of the game just for the sole reason I got myself those quotes, while playing and rewatching the captured video, I realized something: Boss rarely called the team members by their choosen/given names or numbers. Scorch calls him Boss, Sev refered him as 'Eight, Fixer calls him Sir which is already giving away some crumbs about their personality too. But Boss always says Deltas. Clone advisors also refer them as Deltas, or Boss as Delta Lead.

But also referring the other squad as Theta, while Darman calls him Delta.

It really got me thinking about this chapter-starting quote later in the books:

It really got me the thinking that Clone Commandos are not particularly taking pride in individuality or at least it's not the priority.

As four-people they are squad. Alone, they are nothing. If you think about it, the Commando squad are highly elite soldiers and their purpose was together team being basicly a four-men-army and do the jobs a regular trooper can't. They were trained to act together, work together, think together, and encouraged to look after each other. Refering them as a whole is not considered as an insult to their individuality.

Meaning, there is no "I", there is no "you", there is only "we" and "us" as a whole.

I want to talk about this topic in the chapter 1 further because in there there is actually mentioning what is the difference between a Clone Commando and a regular trooper, but regarding names it is already an interesting discovery.

But there is already a difference between Delta and Theta. Though you won't know it from this chapter, but Delta is trained by Walon Vau while Thetas are Kal Skirata's trainees and they are known to had entirely different views on how clone cadets should be trained and handled.

Darman refers the member of the Delta Squad as Delta, but his own squadmates by their names even in the narrative, that's why we know the other Thetas are called Taler, Vin and Jay.

This is implicating a less hierarchical structure within their squad and the only way you know that Taler is the sergeant because he gives the shots. Darman also didn't refer Taler as sergeant.

Out of curiosity I checked if wookiepedia has something more about them, and I was able to find their designation numbers:

- RC-1133, Clone Commando Sergeant Taler - RC-1134, Vin - RC-1135, Jay - RC-1136, Darman (SQUADBABYSQUADBABYSQUADBABYSQU-)

Speaking of designation numbers, Boss's number (1138) is actually an easter egg, a constantly recurring number in the Star Wars universe.

Chapter 1 will have another heartbreaking relevation about the names, so I will continue this there.

As for the rest of the chapter? Darman stays behind with E-Web and watches the rest of the Theta die. :'))))

I hope you enjoyed the first entry of my blogging! ^^

I really didn't think I could actually gather content for the prologue but when I saw on the wiki that Darman's name mentioned in the game, I really got inspired to include the game content as well!

Thinking about collecting and mentioning instances of when Dave Filoni smuggled aspects from Repcomm into the TCW or Bad Batch too.

#republic commando #repcomm #theta squad #delta squad #darman skirata #rc taler #rc vin #rc jay #rc boss #walon vau #kal skirata #clone advisor #mamuzzy reads repcomm #mamuzzy reads hard contact #star wars

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mamuzzy · 9 months ago

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MAMUZZY READS HARD CONTACT: Chapter 1.1

Heyyy, Chapter 1.1 is finally up! Why 1.1, because I talk a LOT and I exceeded the 30 picture/post limit by just talking about the starting scene with Darman. :D

So what you will find here today

-- Geonosis casualties -- Darman’s grief and survival guilt -- Differences and similarities between RepComm Clone Commando lore vs. TCW/TBB Clone Commando lore -- Clone Commando naming culture: nicknames in the military -- Bullies in the GAR: RepComm, TCW and TBB -- Psychology of a Clone Commando

Every chapter has an into quote from various characters throughout the series, and these little snippets usually provide additional lore, information, sometimes relevant somehow to the chapter, in other time it’s just curiosity.

Chapter 1 quote is a report post-Geonosis, where can get the estimated number of casualties the Republic suffered. According to the wookie (legends section), 192.000 clone troopers + 10.000 Clone Commandos + 6 Null ARCs were deployed in the battle.

So according to RepComm and other sources cited in wookie the casualties were… 12.000 seriously injured. 8000 trooper can walk it off. 72.000 remained battle ready. Rest of the troopers died. And out of the 10.000 Commandos, 4982 died in the battle.

Roughly 5000 commando. Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit. I’m mean Jango Fett personally handpicks 100 training sergeant to train the most elite part of the army, the best of the best, those who are supposed to exceed standard troopers. And they were wiped out in the Battle of Geonosis. Just like that.

I was curious about the numbers of the Jedi causalties so I looked it up too. Roughly 200 Jedi participated in the battle. We know from the novelization of the AoTC that 100 Jedi was present with Mace Windu at the Arena battle, and only 20 survived + Windu. Jedi were even less prepared for a full-scale war scenario.

That’s how hard and unforgiving was the battle.

Going further in the first part of the chapter 1, we follow Darman who tries to deal with his survivor's guilt and grief.

Aside from the few glimpses the shows allow us to see, and unless it’s somehow tied to the plot, TCW don’t bother to show us the emotional part of the Clones. Single teardrops at most. But we never see them grieving, mourning their fallen brothers. TBB brought even further the emotional constipation where every potential conflict and in-fighting, expressing of inconvenient-to-others feelings, like sadness and anger were dealt with off-screen.

Most of the media try to choke you with the message that only a bad guy can make you cry, you will only have disagreements with bad guys, and healthy relationship is where you don’t encounter with the feeling of pain, feeling of disappointment toward people you love. While in truth, you feel pain and you feel disappointment, because you love someone.

So seeing Darman actually in pain really heals something in me. It heals me, because it didn’t depicted beautifully, or dignified or socially acceptable. It’s just it is. Raw. He is professional, damn confident during mission. Outside of it? Silent, but truly emotional. And not the beautiful kind. I love it. I love him so much.

It took one impolite bloke for him to snap.

He doesn’t deal with the loss well, not just because of the obvious loss of his pod-brothers (I truly love how the game compare the commando squads as aiwha pods in the intro). He lost everything he had. Safety and security of the presence of the very people who were there since decanting and now he is suddenly out here in the world, completely alone.

I already posted that quote in the prologue but I think it’s relevant here too.

I’m actually very bitter about how people can misinterpret this quote alone just because Kal says it. It’s doesn’t mean that a Clone Commando as a person and living being worths nothing. It means that these squads are trained to be extensions of each other. They trained together, they sleep together, they share meals together, they study together, and go into the battle together, and most importantly, they are very much encouraged to take care of each other and survive together.

If you remember the “Clone Cadets” episode with the Domino Squad (Season 3 Episode 1), the squad failed their first Citadel-test because they chose to leave their injured brother behind.

Darman still can’t accept the truth he already knows.

Survival's guilt is eating him alive ;____;

In this chapter we also see how Darman interacts with other troopers as well.

Not just he never been taught how to live apart. He had never been taught how to live with others. How to find comfort in the masses of his own face who are not his pod-brothers.

But the most heartbreaking…

Having a nickname is truly something sacred, it is something they own, probably the only thing they own, because they possess nothing: not even their weapon and armor is their. Not even their very lives. Having a name is truly something special for them.

A little trivia about how Darman got his name. While there is an in-universe explanation for it in Triple Zero, it’s actually an author blooper.

In-universe, it comes from the Dar’manda: A man without a soul. Manda is a spiritual and philosophical concept, a way of living. It can be the collective soul of the mandalorian people. Those Mandalorians who don’t live according to the Resol’nare and ignorant to their heritage is considered a dar’manda and with it, these people don’t have place in the mandalorian afterlife. And this fate is considered worse than death. Kal thinks, all the clones are dar’manda because they share genes with Jango Fett, they are mandalorians in blood, and yet they know nothing about their heritage.

Now in what alcohol-induced brainfuckery made Kal give this name to Darman is still a mistery to me, but I’d like to think he regrets it ever since. I think the reason behind the naming is actually came from the same sentiment like calling the clones wetdroids. Affection mixed with pity. But I also love the thought that Darman probably just went along with the name for whatever reason, but most likely out of spite. Like spitting in the face of the universe itself. Have I mentioned before I love Darman?

But also about nicknames in the military is an existing thing. Only you won’t get badass names like Boss, or Wolffe or Rex. There is a great probability that you will get a much more embarassing name, or something that reminds of a social fuck-up to haunt you for the rest of your life. I mean... why do you need enemies when you have brothers-in-arms. :D

The Domino Squad gave a name to Echo for constantly repeating orders. Hardcase for being hyper-active. Scorch got his name for burning down his own (and Vau’s) eyebrows during an explosion accident. Omega Squad experienced at first hand why the pilot, Psycho got his name.

It would be interesting to go behind every clone name and brainstorming about how they got their badass attribute names with the mentality of the real military. :D

I really loved this part. Nobody celebrated. They waited for this moment their entire life and nobody celebrated.

Darman still not giving up searching for his mates is still heartbreaking. A commander stepped to him and asked for his NUMBER and also was quite concerned that Darman didn’t answer.

And here Kal Skirata is mentioned!!! *___*

Aaaa so much good stuff in this chapter! Kal Skirata is mentioned here with his… questionable life-counseling advices, which is given with what background he came to Kamino, it’s actually fucking hilarious! Especially along with this one too

... OK HOLD ON.

Sorry, I had to. XDD

On more serious note, it made me wonder when you were created with an exact purpose, you don't stop and question that how else it could have been. When you were born with a role, and they provide you everything that can achieve that goal, it can give a certain comfort. Humans need comfort and safety and there is safety in stability and when there is someone who tell you what should you do.

As much as people wants to be individual and being in control of their lives, the opposite is also true: there is safety in giving out control to someone else.

Back to Darman, again mentioned how he was never prepared what will be without his pod. They trained by the best to be the best, and super highly competent soldiers shouldn’t just die and disappear like that from the existence, right?

And we actually get another interaction between Darman and a standard trooper, a little small talk about gears and weaponry, while the narrative gives us more lore about the upbringing of the commando squads.

Darman already mentioned that other troopers are all strangers to him, and this is also confirming that they were truly isolated. Commandos were trained to work as a four-men-army, but weren’t trained to work and socialize together with others.

I tried to pay attention to the tone here. I wonder if this envy is truly goes for the better gear and not for the sentiment that Darman has is so much better than CT-s.

And the commando’s life is much less valuable than his gear.

Standard troopers were the infantry, the ones who are constantly on the battlefield with highest mortality rate and often no chance to recover their gear. They won’t waste recourses on soldiers who can’t bring it the expensive equipment back intact.

But let’s see how this little small talk about gears and post-battle relief translated in Darman’s mind.

This section is actually really interesting. Because if Darman had some ideas what would a CT think about him, that would mean they weren’t THAT isolated. So they had a little connection. Meeting in the mess hall, or corridors, or seeing each other in the distance. This is only a speculation because we won’t get to know about it from this context. But there is a ground for such speculation, because in Triple Zero we actually get to know that standard troopers sing Vode An as their hymn, dancing the dha werda and understand a little mando’a which they learned from older troopers. Which allows me to think, that the isolation only narrowed down to the training.

WHAT we get to know about this section that Darman has prejudices and thinks that the other troopers has prejudices too. I find this really interesting in psychological aspect. Darman is truly a beautiful character to dissect.

I love how it was emphasized that he DIDN’T THINK he was arrogant. The line between absolute confidence in abilities and arrogance is often very thin.

We get a LOT of lore from this one passage alone. What tasks a Commando is suited for. The nature of training. Commandos trained with LIVE ROUNDS. No. Not the meaning of: Commando troopers had the privilege of using actual weapons with live rounds. No, it means that the training included fully armed enemies with actual weapons that could kill any commando at any moment if they were careless.

This is something that was completely erased from the Canon. I mean… why? To make the breeding of an artifical slave army look more humane? We saw the Dominio Squad training included these simmunitions (yey, I learned a new SW word today!!!), but also I don’t think that the Jedi would have allowed such harsh training continue that takes lives before their actual deployment. And we saw how the Bad Batch (more precisly Wrecker), despite being commandos, freaked out for Tarkin using live rounds against them at that examination. Sure, they aced it after they realized they actually have to take it seriously. But the reactions told me that using live rounds during training is not something usual.

Darman doesn’t seem to have superiority complex for me. More like he was truly aware of his own abilities. He didn’t think he was better because he wasn’t a standard trooper. He think he was better, because he trained hard for it. Fucking hard. Because we don’t see the trooper’s actual reaction, we don’t know what that envy is actually, it’s all Darman’s speculation.

BUT. Not every CTs are cool with the commandos. While searching for more lore, I encountered this quote from the game:

Bullying is not uncommon in the clone army.

Again, Domino Squad. They were verbally bullied by other squads for not perfoming well on the exams. Which is indicating a highly competitive environment with little to no reward. Oh. Yeah. There was reward. In Repcomm, a commando could live another day, because they actually survived. In TCW, the worst that could have happened with failed or defective trooper is being assigned to maintenance duty just like 99. I mean… 99 is the living proof that in TCW decomission by death and killing off defected units are also not a thing anymore.

TBB had actually physical bullying as well, guised as a stereotypical high school banter with foodfight. Kids shows usually don’t have the balls to depict actual bullying that cannot be solved by the power of friendship, or the victim cannot be comforted with the power of friendship. Also without making it as a joke. Don’t worry, I loved this scene, it was actually very hilarious. But the topic of bullying is really hits close to home. Kids are cruel in groups.

Also this scene where they wanted to make sure if there is something wrong with the regs:

Tech: Excuse me, Trooper, what division are you from- Trooper: *shoves him* Step aside. Tech: Well, they seem the same to me.

Not too much scene from TBB broke my heart but this one did. This could mean they were indeed ostracized and bullied even before the activation of the inhibitor chips.

I think TBB got inspired a lot from the clone lore of RepComm. In TCW the Bad Batch was close to the RepComm depiction of commandos, the confidence that scoured the the edges of arrogance, and usually they started all the bickerings, while CT-s (Jesse and Kix) were the ones with prejudices but they had some kind of professional respect for them.

In The Bad Batch, they were depicted as victims for being different, and CT-s didn’t have any professional respect for them. But TBB in general had writer inconsistencies because the batch behaved as the plot demanded: one time they are truly badasses, but most of the time they are totally incompetent even as a team, which totally throws out the whole Clone Commando four/five-man army mindset out of the window. (If someone is in doubt, I love the Bad Batch - The TCW version. The Bad Batch series is dead to me after season 2.).

Returning back to track, I think it is a common knowledge that Clone Commandos are treated more superior compared to CT-s. Only we, the readers know that this treatment doesn’t come with luxury life. What we know, that Clone Commandos were told they are special and they were destined to do a lot more than CT-s.

The Republic Commando game intro already told you this. (I transcribe it because I have picture limit/post. But also… No way I try to upload a video for a 2000+ words tumblr essay again :DDD)

Taun We: Welcome, little one. This is your first day. Your designation will be RC 01/138. Taun We: We expect great things from you. Taun We: …You have been born into dangerous times. A sharp mind can be the key to survival… Taun We: …but, as often as not, it will be you inherent physical traits that win the day. Taun We: And in that regard, you will be superior to your more common brethren. Taun We: For you are a commando, an elite unit, something truly special. Taun We: Your weapons. Your armor. But most importantly, your brothers. Taun We: The Aiwha of our world hunt in pods to bring down much larger prey. So too shall you join with three brothers and become fierce hunters for the Republic. Taun We: … Now join your pod and embrace your destiny as their leader. Join Delta Squad.

I’ve found another quote from Kal Skirata about their training:

And here is one from Walon Vau.

According to these quotes, Clone Commandos were taught to think this way. Not just they are better than standard clones, they are better than any natborn soldiers ever lived.

If I remember correctly (if I had found the exact quotes in the books, I will return to this), Kal’s training method explicitly included that the commandos (and Null ARCs) had to believe they are capable of everything, so they will push forward even when all the odds are against them. You would think this is truly naive, “you can do it if you believe in yourself” but Kal used psychological conditioning to make them tougher, stronger in mind, more confident while also exposed them to such training exercises where they could prove those not just empty words.

While Walon was more physical in his methods that often was considered torture. If they could survive Walon’s training, they could survive EVERYTHING. They wouldn’t fear an enemy because Walon Vau is always worse. If they fuck up a mission, Walon Vau comes after them, even after Vau is not in the picture.

Found another quote from Darman, which confirms that Clone Commandos are considered much more valuable than any other troopers.

Clone Commandos were put into cryostasis between missions so they won’t age and they won’t wear out. I don’t think there is anything enviable about the Clone Commandos.

In the last part of Darman’s scene, we get more of his survivor’s guilt.

...

And I put the last one in quote because I exceeded the limit. I can't even use the divider again. :D

So this was the aftermath of victory. He wondered how much worse defeat might feel.

And I think I’ll cut this short here. This chapter still includes the first appearance of Etain Tur-Mukan, our second protagonist, and the introduction of Fi and Niner so I will write about the continuation in a separate post. ^^

#mamuzzy reads hard contact #darman skirata #kal skirata #walon vau #theta squad #delta squad #the bad batch #domino squad #the clone wars #star wars #repcomm #republic commando

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