#what if tech acquired hearing loss because of being crosshair’s stabilizer

[archivistofnerddom]

Yo, I just had a late night Bad Batch thought / headcanon:

Maybe the reason that Tech has his little recording device set up on the right side of his goggles is because he has hearing loss in that ear and that’s how he compensates.

My reason for that? Because Crosshair using his right shoulder as a stabilizer for making tricky shots. We see this happen during the Bad Batch’s introductory arc during season 7 of The Clone Wars. The comfortable, easy way they do this makes it clear that this is not the first time this happened.

Look at Tech’s head! He just tilts it to the side slightly to give Crosshair more space. The ease with which these two have this dynamic makes it clear that they’ve done this before. Crosshair uses Tech as a stabilizer / tripod when he’s making a tricky high shot. Tech isn’t even fazed by that and clearly accommodates Crosshair.

Now take a look at Tech’s goggle set-up:

That recording device is on the same side that Crosshair used / uses.

It clearly records both visual and sound, as evidence later in the Batch’s intro arc. Tech is able to play back the flying creatures’ sounds to lure them in for help.

No matter how good the guns that the Batch use are (and I suspect that they aren’t using peak GAR weaponry because, well, why give your best to the deviant clones?), no one is going to have a gun fired that close to their ear without suffering some kind of hearing loss. Even if Tech has outstanding ear protection, he’s still going to have some impact, at least to that ear. (And I suspect he doesn’t have top of the line ear protection because, again, the Bad Batch are the defective experimental deviant clones.) Hence, he has a device on that side of his head to compensate for another defect (and to continue with his hobby of recording everything). His brothers are probably aware of this and just say he records everything to hide the fact that HOLY SHIT TECH HAS HEARING LOSS.

And maybe that’s one reason why he’s so expressive with his hands (and good at understanding hand signals). Perfect (or even decent) hearing isn’t required when you speak with your hands.

Anyway, make of this what you will. This notion came to me at a late hour and made my heart hurt.