clone-trooper-vortex

[clone-trooper-vortex]

[clone-trooper-vortex]

AITA Clone Edition: Part 1

AITA for banning my vod from the communal fresher after he stole the last of my conditioner?

I am the youngest trooper in my squad (9 M), and sometimes I feel like my vode don’t take me seriously. They’re always ruffling my hair, calling me a kid, and one time my vod, let’s call him Softcase (12 M), wouldn’t stop giving me the kids menu when we went out to try natborn food (the nuna nuggets weren’t half-bad). But recently, my other vod, Sixes (11 M), has taken it too far.

As clones, we don’t have a lot to call our own, but I’ve always put a lot of effort into my hair, compared to the average trooper. It’s not easy to get it looking this good, and most clones with longer hair don’t care for it nearly well enough. But after saving my shore leave stipends, I’ve been able to afford a nice hairbrush (only brush while damp) and some higher quality shampoo and conditioner. I’ve figured out how to ration it to make it last— sometimes our shore leave can be a little unpredictable, and I’ll stock up on extra if other battalions are willing to trade, but for now, what I have is all I’ve got.

That being said, if one of my brothers wants to try it occasionally, I’m happy to share. It’s fun to have common interests with my vode, but sometimes they’ll take a one-time thing as blanket permission.

A while back, Sixes asked if he could use my conditioner, and I let him— again, once is totally fine. But then he’s using it the next day, and the next. One day, I walk into the fresher and find him shaving and using my conditioner to style his goatee, using way more than necessary for his facial hair.

I confronted him about it later, explaining that conditioner was meant for hair, not goatees, and that maybe he shouldn’t use as much of my conditioner, especially without asking me.

I thought I’d told him no more, but maybe it got lost in the conversation, but a few weeks later, easily two weeks before our next scheduled shore leave, I go to take a shower after running drills and when I go to use my conditioner, it’s completely empty.

Again, I keep track of my haircare supplies, and I should’ve had enough for at least another week and a half, but it was all gone, and I had a sneaking suspicion about the culprit.

When I confronted Sixes about it, his only response was a sheepish “Whoops,” before making his exit. I’ve seen him since then, and he’s shown zero remorse. My vod asked him if he was afraid of retaliation, but he just laughed, clearly not understanding the gravity of the situation. He thinks it’ll blow over, but I’m not letting this one go.

Did he tell me that my conditioner was running low? No. Did he attempt to replace it, or even leave an apology note saying, “Sorry, I’m a di’kut and I used up all your conditioner”?

No, he did not.

He left the container, empty, with the rest of my fresher kit, and I only realized it was empty after doing my entire haircare routine, leaving me without any way to retain the natural oils in my hair. I had frizzy hair for the next two days, until I managed to trade for some travel conditioner. Two days!

I don’t know how he sleep at night.

I asked around, and I’m not the only one Sixes has “borrowed” from. I put my foot down. Enough was enough.

My other vod, Catma, works in admin, and he knows his way around the access logs. Apparently there’s a precedent for limiting certain crew’s access to specific portions of the ship in cases of repeated infractions, and it barely took five minutes to get Sixes banned from our bunkroom’s assigned fresher. It’ll take special approval from the Captain to get it removed, but he’s on our side at the moment.

When Sixes realized what had happened, he tried to get it removed, and then he tried to use other vode to sneak past or leave the door open, but they weren’t having it. Now he’s trying to convince me that I went too far, but I am done.

Do I care that the next nearest freshers are three hallways over in the shinies’ barracks? Nope.

Do I know how much longer it takes him to get ready in the mornings when he’s being swarmed by overeager shinies asking for recommendations on how to impress command enough to get chosen for ARC training? Serves him right.

What do you think? AITA for inconveniencing my vod only half as much as he is inconveniencing me?

[clone-trooper-vortex]

Say hello to Dien. Standard trooper. Dark sense of humor. Otherwise normal guy. He named himself after his shitty drill sergeants dead wife.

[clone-trooper-vortex]

i want to be very kind when i say this because i know exactly why it happens, and like, the people who do it are clearly trying to Do It Right/protect themselves from being accused of whitewashing the clones

but when people complain about tcw whitewashing the clones the issue is not just 'make them darker'

temuera morrison's skin tone isn't especially dark, although it does vary over the course of his career, from fairly pale to a sort of medium tan

and then i frequently see people who are clearly reacting to 'tcw whitewashed the clones (and youre racist if you draw them looking white)' and they draw him much, much darker

to be clear this isnt an attack on any fanartists. im not saying anyone is doing anything morally wrong. all im saying is that there is tem, and then there is the tcw clone model that doesnt look much like him, and then theres a new third guy that sort of takes the clone model and makes it darker? and usually adds a loose fluffy curly hair. maybe. sometimes its still straight

the issue with the tcw clone model really isnt the skin color. these guys grew up on a planet that has sun maybe 8 days out of the year and they live in armor. the issue is that the art style makes already makes EVERYONE angular and skinny gave the clones extremely sharp features, and tem has more rounded features. the clone model nose is wrong. the clone model has completely straight hair. when tem grows his hair out it's a pretty tight curl.

he doesn't grow his hair out very often, but here's the top duckduckgo results for him in Adventurer (1986)

again, this isnt a moral judgement. no matter how you draw the clones. im not telling anyone to change anything. its just a phenomenon i keep witnessing

[clone-trooper-vortex]

"The Light Side being good and the Dark Side being evil has no nuance!"

Why though? Neither side is inherent, they're choices. Does a difficult choice between good and evil not sound nuanced to you? Does the choice between a painful path and the complete erasure of who you are no sound fucking nuanced to you?

The Dark and Light Sides are a binary choice between good and evil, and… that's great! The morals are simple, but the nuance is not in the basic and very simple morality (murder bad), it's in the circumstances that make adhering to your morals difficult.

Is Anakin Skywalker wanting to do good but not being able to because that would mean not having what he wants not nuanced to you?

Is Asajj Ventress —an assassin, a Sith Acolyte, a bounty hunter— letting a girl go because she doesn't want her to lose her family like Ventress did, even though that would cost her a lot of money she needs to survive not nuanced to you?

Is Dooku wanting to fix the corruption of the Republic and ending up being worse because he believes he knows best not nuanced to you?

Is Darth Vader choosing right for once in his life and becoming who his son needs him to be not nuanced to you?

Is Cal, Kanan, Obi-Wan and all other Order 66 survivors remaining good and kind when everything's against them not nuanced to you?

Is Luke seeing the good still left in Space Hitler and forgiving and loving his father the Sith Apprentice despite everything he's done not nuanced to you?

Is Finn choosing mercy and defiance of the First Order despite being kidnaped, indoctrinated and brainwashed by them not nuanced to you?

Is Rey being good and choosing not to let her bloodline define her not nuanced to you?

Is Ben Solo choosing evil despite everyone around him being good not nuanced to you?

Is Han Solo, a selfish man, choosing to go into a killzone to save his friends not nuanced to you?

Is Mace Windu commiting high treason to save the Republic regardless of what happens to him not nuanced to you?

Is Ezra Bridger being selfish and thinking of himself but choosing to be selfless when he realizes how much that means not nuanced to you?

If we go to Legends:

Is Jacen Solo becoming a monster because he wants to spare his daughter from a horrible fate not nuanced to you?

Is Jaina Solo killing her brother to save the galaxy not nuanced to you?

Is Cade Skywalker seeing the Force as a tool and being dragged into evil more and more not nuanced to you?

What does nuance mean to you anyways? Do you even know what that means or are you just trying to be edgy?

[clone-trooper-vortex]

Cut Lawquane was absolutely a Commando

Ok, crazy theory time.

I think Cut Lawquane was a Commando, or least a Commander. But going with Commando for now. But I don't think he was a rank and file clone trooper.

All of the clone troopers i think should be shown as exceptionally trained, but Cut Lawquane showed incredible skill, even though we saw him compared to Rex the entire episode. Evidences are below:

A) Rex is both a Captain and one of the oldest of the CT's, but the entire time Cut acts as his equal and perhaps even elder. He doesn't talk quite down to Rex, but it reminds me of how people act when they're just a grade apart. Not like they know everything and the other knows nothing, but there is a definite difference between them. Also he instinctively recognizes Rex as a Captain, but is not phased by that at all.

B) He disables Rex, the Captain Rex, with a farming tool in zero seconds flat, and does it without hurting him.

C) He recognizes Commando droids, which are typically only used in special assignments. And he also knows that it takes a headshot to pierce their armor. On Rishi it was Captain Rex who recognized them and said they were brand new. So for Cut to already know exactly what they are, especially when he's been out of the war for months, at least implies he could have been on high stakes missions before right in the beginning of the war. Which is also why I'm leaning Commando instead of Commander, because it's more Commandos who go on missions while Commanders are still often with general forces.

D) He has a highly developed sense of individuality and creative thinking, which was encouraged more in the special forces than general troopers.

E) Cut also says, specifically, "everyone I cared about, my team, was gone." Commandos are specifically trained to work in groups of four as a cohesive team. additionally, with these commando units being so tightly knit, the feelings of complete loss could have played a large role in Cut's desertion.

F) Cut and Rex play a game of dejarik, and while the winner is not shown, by the end they're both down to the last piece, which shows that Cut is around Rex's level when it comes to strategy. And Rex is so good at strategy that Marshall Commander Cody, who the commanding officer of around 36,000 men, considered Rex to be one of the best they had in that regard. Not to mention that Cut is impressed with Rex too.

G) Cut has 3 blaster type weapons that are probably the weapons he had on him when he deserted: an older rifle, a blaster carbine, and a DC-17. Now, it makes sense for a farmer to own a rifle, and the blaster carbine is a general GAR blaster. but the DC-17 is the same blaster pistol that Rex uses, that we have only seen used by ARC Troopers, Captains, and Commanders.

H) This is probably the most obvious one of all, but Cut is an incredibly good fighter. Even our beloved ARC troopers Fives and Echo struggle to take on a few. Cut takes on 20 and lives (granted the droids are not top form but its still impressive). He makes three headshots in a row with his rifle in less than three seconds, and the next three kill shots are all headshots as well. he also throws a wooden rafter-beam off him (that might be dad-strength tho) and hits a metal droid with a wooden chair hard enough to break both of them. he also punched one of them in the face hard enough the droids eyes flashed red (and then slightly regretted it, but it didn't look like he broke his hand either).

I) Cut hadn't been fighting for at least several months, since he deserted almost right after Geonosis. so as incredible as his skills are, he had probably been even better before, so just think about that for a moment.

Edit: i forgot to put this in because it wasnt in The Deserter, but by bad batch he already has gray streaks and a receding hairline. guys an old teenager for sure

So, Cut is a highly trained and skilled fighter in both hand to hand combat and blaster combat, he's at least as old as Rex and is not intimidated by his rank at all, he was in a specific team and felt like everything had no meaning after they all died, he has the weapons of an officer, had seen enough of commando droids to recognize them and their weaknesses, is Rex's match in strategy and combat while being more independent.

All of this points to Cut being anything but a regular CT, and as far as I'm concerned he was absolutely a Commando.

[clone-trooper-vortex]

clones and avoiding behind studied. Refusing to be understood by those outside their society. One guy straight up lies to a civilian and says he has a hivemind with every single other clone in the galaxy that's why they get orders so fast. No they don't need comms he's never even heard of that.

[clone-trooper-vortex]

put my spring break to a good use

[clone-trooper-vortex]

sometimes you can tell when somebody who likes a ship just likes one of the characters and is simply using the other half as a vaguely ooc vehicle to make content for their fave which is whatever. not against the law. until the other half theyre using as a vehicle is YOUR fave. and then you want to explode them with your mind

[clone-trooper-vortex]

rewatching swtcw and the way Rex talks to Ashoka sometimes makes me emo bcs it’s like,,, he clearly wants to respect Ashoka now, and Rex generally respects rank, but when you’re suddenly about to crash-land into another ship with no pilot and a 14-year-old girl standing next to you, you can’t help but call her “kid.”

Hey kid— maybe a little softer than usual. Because this is a child. A child in a war. But she snaps back at you, “I KNOW, I KNOW, I’M HANGING ON” like she can’t believe you feel the need to mention anything at all. And you remind yourself… yes. Yes, she’s fine. she survived general grievous. she’s meant to be a commander. Her own Jedi master just jumped off a falling ship two seconds ago to get onto a flying droid. She’s got a lightsaber. She has the force. You’ve seen her jump off ships herself and one day she will be a Jedi Knight.

She’ll be fine

[clone-trooper-vortex]

time travel AU where r2d2 is the one who goes back to the clone wars but not in the standard ‘same body new memories’ way. now there’s just two r2s running around the galaxy: one trying to kill the chancellor and another that could be easily convinced to kill the chancellor. their meeting wouldn’t have any time travel ramifications besides doubling the number of r2 units trying to kill the palpatine. this efficiently doubles as c3po’s personal hell.

[clone-trooper-vortex]

I love Huyang, but if I could change one thing about his character I think Star Wars should have mentioned his age way more often.

Think about it for a second: Huyang is the oldest character we know in the show.

I guess you could argue that the Father is older or that Bentu is older, but can we even count those? They are basic gods in the Star Wars Universe, Huyang however it's "just" a droid. Nothing make him more special that C3-PO or R2-D2, yet he's older than Yoda.

In fact he was Yoda professor at some point. Huyang teach Yoda how to build his lightsaber.

Honestly I think it would be a lot more fun if he lost notion of time on a regular basis, like I wish he treated Yoda (and Ahsoka on the Ahsoka's series) as kids both for comedy relief and to show how many centuries older than everyone he really is.

Imagine if in The Gathering arc he briefly interact with Yoda like "Oh, young Yoda! Bringing another of your fellow younglings for build their sabers I see" as if he did it for the first time yesterday. And probably would feel like it was yesterday! Come on, my grandma thinks I was 12 last year, I sure Huyang would mess up dates was well!

And the younglings all being confused like"Did he just called Yoda young?". It would be fun and cute!

[clone-trooper-vortex]

Anakin asks Rex what life was like on Kamino and rex says "first, we'd wake up and say the pledge of allegiance to the Republic --"

"the what?"

"the Republic pledge? The Pledge of Allegiance?"

"what."

"hand on your heart, swear unending fealty to the Republic and its citizenry, to protecting its freedom?"

"rex that's not a thing that exists."

[clone-trooper-vortex]

imagine if anakin's having the nightmares about padme dying in childbirth and he still thinks she needs to be saved but instead of killing people about it he locks tf in and goes to Sith Medical School

[clone-trooper-vortex]

I don't like this idea I sometimes see in fanon/discourse that the Jedi encouraged or taught the clones to be individuals and if not for the Jedi this wouldn't have happened.

The clones are individuals.

It's an inherent fact.

Like irl identical twins/triplets/etc have the same DNA and they are obviously individual people. It's the same for the clones. You wouldn't say that twins only have distinct personalities, opinions and such if their parents encourage it. The same way you wouldn't say that about non-twin siblings, or just any person. Because appearance and genetics do not define who a person is, for anyone.

And in-narrative their individuality is an inherent fact too, in that they are all unique in the Force.

The Jedi may have helped the way the clones view themselves in a self-worth sense, their leadership may have allowed for more expression by not restricting it, but they didn't create that individuality.

Treat them like individuals and value their lives as such, yes. Make them into individuals and teach them how to be individuals, no.

[clone-trooper-vortex]

it's fucking crazy to me how high-ranking obi-wan is during tcw. letting this guy spearhead an ATTACK BATTALION is like handing dwight d eisenhower a rifle and a bangalore and letting him storm the beaches of normandy himself. absolutely batshit INSANE

[clone-trooper-vortex]

You know what we majorly missed out on with Tatooine? A planet full of sand?

Stained glass

Theres so much sand lying around and tons of machinery to make heat with. On a planet with two suns it'd be wildly gorgeous.

Yet everything looks like this?

Imagine these plain white buildings with huge colorful windows.

Family portraits, great battles, intricate patterns, decorations.

Glass gardens of flowers and birds, jewelry thats beautiful and affordable.

The possibilities are incredible!