merrinbatch

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HELP i was watching rebels and came across the funniest frame of zeb

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Echo! - (The second one is a censor/warning I made, lol)

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At long last! The boys are back in town!😭💙

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More neon clone troopers, now featuring Fives and Echo!

See Dogma and Tup here

Fives' helmet is, of course, extremely extra, but Echo is the one with the different shade of blue like a diva so really, which of them is worse? Also, gray is a very hard color to do in neon 🤣

Enjoy! Feel free to download or use these, please just credit me if you do!

All backgrounds are CC from pexels.com!

[merrinbatch]

They're both safe and back with their brothers. 💜

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Needed some fluff Space Mom and Dad.

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Messy sketch of more Gale bruises and blood ❤️‍🩹

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just some clone meetings we deserved 🫶

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Some of Gale’s ✨Best Puns✨ collected by the amazing @senualothbrok from this massive audio clip, and featuring ADORABLE GALE CHIBIS drawn by her!!

As usual, all layout & design nonsense provided by yours truly. Magic provided by Gale. Book copies arriving at your local Sorcerous Sundries soon, email Gale’s publicist tara@waterdeep.com for more info.

[merrinbatch]

https://chng.it/XvsTMtKRR7

[merrinbatch]

This may be one of my favorite drawings I’ve ever done of Gale. Full stop. I had never imagined drawing him as a pirate but after a request on Instagram by a fellow artist, I had to, so here we are and now I can’t get away from the idea what a beautiful pirate he’d be. 😂💜 And of course Tara deserved a spot on that ship as well. Enjoy. 🤭

(I’ve used a screenshot of William Turner/Orlando Bloom from Pirates of the Caribbean as the reference and inspiration if anyone feels the pose is familiar)

[merrinbatch]

I think people consistently forget how very religious Gale is. Dude isn’t just talking about Mystra because she’s his ex. He quite literally worships her and has since he was a pretty young boy. The man is just as (or possibly even more, as he is her Chosen) devoted to Mystra as Shadowheart is to Shar and Lae’zel is to Vlaakith.

Now, I’m a preachers kid from the southern US, so I not only am familiar with being highly religious, I’ve been entrenched in that culture for most of my life. Gale talks about Mystra (as his goddess and not his lover) with all the rapture and fervency of a born-again theologian.

It makes “with you I forget my goddess” so much more poignant. He’s the equivalent of a highly ranking religious scholar who happened to be a child prodigy in religion. His entire life for as long as he can remember has orbited around Mystra and the divine. And now, floating on the astral sea itself, all he can think about is Tav.

[merrinbatch]

[merrinbatch]

Gale is surrounded by weirdos and the only sane creature in camp is Tara

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mandatory pre-mission hugs from the papa batch (ಥ﹏ಥ)

[merrinbatch]

adding echo, tech and omega!

here's the first three (x)

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Remember in Season 1, Episode 1 Aftermath, Tech says "I am merely stating a theoretical hypothesis based on factual data?" Well, that's what I did, I made a "logical conclusion." From Lama Su coming back when we thought he was dead to the infamous "domicile," it was all factual evidence that was meant to push us in a direction of hoping that Tech would return and that CX-2 could be the way he does it. I'm not stupid, and neither are you. There's an underlying reason that I love Tech not based on just his handsome looks. I don't claim to have an exceptional mind like him and I don't intend to convince anyone that CX-2 was Tech, but I do want to explain how it could be construed through the way that character was presented that he could have been and none of us were wrong or "losers" to think so as well as the possibility of Tech's return in general.

45 69 Reasons and more well on the way, lol...

General reasons: *Tech is never seen actually dying. *Hemlock being untrustworthy source of death certificate. *The return of many thought to be dead characters in past Star Wars from Darth Maul who was sliced in half to Lama Su - the door closed on him and we thought he was getting shot by troopers only to show up alive later and this happened in The Bad Batch itself. *CX-2 is shown walking toward the 'light' after dropping off Omega, symbolically toward a future redemption. @astrovoidy *Height change on starwars.com *The word 'dead' danced around on official sites and by BB employees *the similarities to Winter soldier @on-a-quest *the cryptic tweets that showcased reborn characters like Gandalf *The official poster of CX-2 shows him in 'good' light. @eriexplosion *other people in professional settings like New Rock Stars on youtube thought the same exact thing *the large focus on CX-2, over multiple episodes *misleading title of last episode "The Cavalry Has Arrived" *Tech being smart enough to find a solution *If Season 2 could be compared to Empire Strikes Back, Tech was taken from us the way Han Solo was, but Han Solo was returned so surely Tech would be as well *no one expected a main ensemble character permadeath *the fight with Crosshair music had hints of "The Sacrifice" in it *Tech’s whole big conversation with Romar was about culture and memory, and he helped Romar restoring a data repository. Between the implication that Tech would have lost his memories and Phee saying, “Tech’s brain was the databank, not mine,” you could easily see that as foreshadowing for Tech getting his memories back. @heyclickadee *All the little one line reminders and goggles shots up through episode twelve only serve to make the audience want Tech back. They aren’t closure, they’re reminders of his absence. [Tech never being quite mourned.] @heyclickadee *The goggles are lit, or look like they’re lit, in every scene they’re in except the last one, which sure makes all those earlier shots deliberate. @heyclickadee

Physical and character similarities: *the shrimp posture *the kick in the fight similar to droid kick in S1E1 *the similar hand to hand combat style *the shooting accuracy- ipsium cave/ plan 99 *the elegant deliberate movement especially of hands and fingers *the animated head and body when speaking *the helmet – even has his hairline @jorolle *the viewfinder similar to Tech's and utilized just as often *the pouches(!!!) *the limberness and agility *the confident capability *the crouching/getting on one knee - Tech is an infamous croucher! *the deviant nature – ignoring orders *the technology know how *the flying – some say the turn on Teth was a Tech Turn *the extraness of tool/weapon twirl *armpad like Tech's datapad @wolveria *CX-2's ship has similarities to the Marauder @wolveria *Tech CC-9902 / CX-2 - both end in 2 @wolveria *We are reminded this season that Tech was especially good at decryption. What do we see CX-2 doing on Phee’s ship? Yeah. @heyclickadee *Season two went out of its way to establish that Tech has a high pain tolerance, is a good close range fighter (he won a life-or-death fight with a guy when he had that broken femur), quick processing speed, and is an excellent shot. All skills we see CX-2 exhibit. @heyclickadee

The 'British' accent, speech inflection, pronunciation. and vocabulary (this alone is enough to onvince anyone...): 'You better get back HERE." - "I know the girl is HERE." "The fifth IS Omega." - "The girl IS alive." "Who are you?" - "Who are you?" "Naveecomputah." - "Neveecomputah." "DOMICILE." - "DOMICLE."

Cinematic framing similarities: *the limping *the coming out of the water @lilacjunimo *hooking the rappel hook rappelling down was like dangling off the rail car *the boulder moving *helmet viewpoint from CX-2 in finale, only BB members ever had that

Conjectural situations of suspicion: *the beef with Crosshair *the constant surviving *the pausing when choking Crosshair *the pausing to look at Phee *The implications that Crosshair seems to know something about CX-2 (he wants to get out of dodge when he knows CX-2 is coming), and the intense lingering guilt Crosshair feels—and which is never dealt with! It’s still there through the finale—implying he knows or suspects it’s Tech. @heyclickadee *“Whatever they did to you, whatever you’ve done, you’re still one of us,” offered by Rex towards the CXs @heyclickadee *Crosshair’s character arc this season being partly about realizing that anyone can change and that no one is really beyond saving, which would have continued going somewhere if he thought CX-2 was Tech and considered him beyond saving, but then changed his mind and realized he needed to try. Notice that he does not engage CX-2 in 11 like he did in 7, and that this comes after his revelation about giving people a chance in 9. @heyclickadee *CX-2 is even more Tech like in 11 than he was in 6 and 7. This implies that he could be starting to wake up, and that almost killing Crosshair triggered that. He doesn’t kill anyone except one of his own guys on Pabu (or Phee) even though it would make his job much easier. He even has Hunter and Wrecker in his sights and moves his aim to not shoot them directly. @heyclickadee *Crosshair has no way to know that the CX’d clones come out different and that their identities are erased unless it happened to someone we know. In fact, there’s not reason for the CX plot to exist unless that horrific thing happens to someone we know. @heyclickadee *The first episode of the show starts out with Hunter covering for someone who supposedly died in a fall. In fact, there are direct parallels in the lines: “Where’s the Jedi?” “I stunned him when he jumped. He didn’t make it.” vs “Where’s Tech?” “Omega…Tech didn’t make it.” I’m not saying Hunter was covering for Tech; I am saying that is the only place in the script where we see those phrases matched up. @heyclickadee *Tech being CX-2 would have fit in perfectly with each member of the batch experiencing a traumatic loss (and regaining) of agency that correlated directly to who and how they are as people. @heyclickadee Foreshadowing lines: *More machine than man, percentage wise at least. *Better late than dead. *See you around, Brown Eyes. *Tech's not gone. *The operative's gone rogue. *Romar saying he's a survivor and Tech's look at him. *Don't go running off with any pirates or smugglers. @heyclickadee

Abandoned storyline reasons: *The romance with Phee, surely it wouldn't be abandoned!? 🙄😡 *CX-2's death being anticlimactic *The finale seeming rushed and incomplete *Actors saying there were script changes *CX-2's accent in the finale was not only like Tech's as it was in previous episodes, it wasn't even a clone accent (wtf was that) signaling a script change

@wolveria made a great analysis here with her Tech-Genda ! @heyclickadee gave great evidence, more in comments!

Having said that, here are some reasons it may not have been him: *Too many characters coming back from the dead. *The way he says 'clones' in Infiltration was more reg accent. *Tech's line in the cave to Omega which "was a big one to me” in retrospect: "I am aware that you miss him, but we have to adapt and move on." As for the intentions of the writers to either have been forced to change the script, but can't admit it due to NDAs or if they truly meant for CX-2 to be Crosshair's foil which to me was unnecessary and unclear, especially with all of the evidence above, at least they could have made him talk and move like a reg. Making him talk and walk like Tech was, to be frank, cruel on top of a cruel we already experienced in Plan 99. I think this is the last time I'll personally address Season 3 or the finale unless to support other commentators/creators and for my own fix-it and art and writing. And I look forward to seeing everyone else's works as well and hope no one gives up this beautiful Batch or fandom as I almost did. Canon seems done with him, he belongs to us now. 💜 And if anyone has anything I missed (I'm sure I'll think of more myself), feel free to comment or reblog with that addition or a link to your own post and/or I can edit the OP to include. Also, don't feel like you can't make your own post about this subject! But I do hope this maybe helped anyone still dealing with the 'aftermath' like me, to know you're not alone, and you did not read too much into it. (In retrospect, I can't believe they killed him though, lol. What the kriff were they thinking!?! #too handsome to die #too awesome to die)