#SW speculation

[inquisitor-apologist]

Reva anon again! Yeah, you probably would win, lol.

Seriously same on hoping we’ll see her again. I think that would be a reallllyyy interesting thing for the New Republic to figure out how to handle, especially given what little we’ve seen from the Mandalorian and maybe Ahsoka. Ngl, I’m not sure it would go well for… anyone (i feel like Reva would just maybe eventually decide to just fuck off and lay low until they stopped worrying about her if they did fuck up bad), but could be interesting. I think anyone trying to recruit her for Empire stuff might get a little stabbed, but idk.

While I would love to see her and Luke jnteract (i feel like they’d talk for HOURS once they met) I could also see Luke being Vader’s/Anakin’s kid being something she might not want to deal with given what happened when he was 10.

….oh, never mind i actually think that would be an interesting as hell meeting. Luke would be like “???? Hold on i know you. Hang on, I need the whole story because my aunt and uncle did NOT explain at all.” And they’d probably get along well tbh. I think Reva mighttt be a bit skittish at first but maybe not, but if they could get to talking that would be so interesting.

Anyways! LOVE HER SO MUCH AND REALLY HOPE WE GET MORE OF HER!!

(…now that I’m thinking, maybe she’ll show up in Jedi: game 3? That would be a bit near.)

Absolutely, I think Reva is one of the characters with the most interesting futures in current canon. Her relationship with the New Republic has got to be pretty shaky after everything she’s gone through wrt bad governments, so I could totally see her working with the Rebels up until the restoration of the Republic and then slipping away.

However, I am very interested in how the New Republic would handle an ex-inquisitor (especially with the creepy Imperial rehabilitation program we see in that one weird Mando episode), so I’d love to see them do something with that. But anyone trying to talk her back into the empire would 100% die, she is done with the fascist shit.

I’d kill to see how she, Luke, and Ahsoka interact at the temple on Ossus though. I think Luke, who has tried so hard to believe in redemption and coming back from the Dark Side would really enjoy talking with Reva once they get over the attempted murder stuff. I do think she and Ahsoka would get into it with the whole Anakin apologism she was doing in Ashowka

Never played Jedi: Survivor and unfortunately probably never going to :( (my console was too old for it, and now I’m boycotting), but from what I understand Cal and co are very much working with the Path now, so that would be a natural and interesting place for her to show up

Honestly I’m ok with her showing up wherever as long as they bring her back and do her right. My traumatized queen <3

[starwarsanthropology]

Canon genders the clones, both individually and collectively, pretty aggressively. They're men, brothers, boys, sirs. Omega is notable for being the "female" clone, to the point where she's not recognized as a clone in a meaningful way.

But the clones grew up without gendered social groups! Despite how clones are gendered by external factors, gender is functionally a nonentity in their lives until they meet civilians, and civilians do a load of other weird shit anyway.

So why do they still use gendered language?

My argument is that feminine language isn't used as a gendered form of address, but as a form of address that reflects a specific kind of power dynamic and relationship between parties.

Given the structure of the clone army, the only people a vast majority of young clones interact with who could insist on being called ma'am are exclusively kaminoans.

The kaminoans view clones not as autonomous subjects, but as property. They have and expect complete control over their lives and actions. Incidentally, the female kaminoans we see (such as Nala Se) tend to demonstrate an even more proprietary perspectives on the clones.

You can question a sir, like your superiors or trainers, at your discretion, but you can't question a ma'am. A sir is someone who has power over you, but is somewhat responsible for you. The have personal accountability to you in some way. Sirs are responsible for men under them. A ma'am is someone whose power over you is absolute, an authority without accountability, who is not beholden to you but that you must obey. You are tool or a number to a ma'am.

And when you bring clones out into the wider galaxy, I'm not sure anyone would figure it out that quickly.

Say you're a new jedi general. You meet your men, and they address you as "ma'am". Maybe you correct and move on, figuring that they've grown up surrounded by thousands of identical men and aren't great at guessing genders based on social and appearance cues. Scuttlebutt has your forms of address spread through the men by the end of the day, and you don't think about it again.

The clones, on the other hand, take this correction as he/him jedi stating that they want to work with them and suppourt them despite having so much power over them, which fits with both what they know of the jedi and, most often, their leadership style.

She/her jedi (see Shaak Ti especially!), clones maybe treat a little more as absolute authorities. This gendered divide in behavior gets met with, "hm, maybe they're just not used to women." For many jedi, they eventually switch to calling them sir as well, especially as they build rapport.

For Shaak Ti specifically, she is an absolute authority as the representative of the Jedi on Kamino, not just as a figurehead but as a decision maker and educator. Even as the clones grow to trust and love her, she's a relatively distant and all-powered figure. She has near total authority over them, and clones might ask for help or suppourt, but there's no social obligation for those requests to be met, she's just kind. It's compassion, not duty.

Senators, there's a good mix of different factors that make it confusing. "Senator" is always an acceptable form of address if you're not sure how'd they react, even if they should be ma'ams by default, but they're either trying to build rapport for some reason or genuinely want to work with you when they say to call them sir, regardless of the actual power dynamic at play. The she/her senators that respect the clones are in the same boat as Shaak Ti: Padme Amidala may care about clone rights, but I am still just one of hundreds to her and she has no personal accountability to me. Her position is such that she should not and cannot owe me anything. Same with Riyo Chuchi, Mon Mothma, etc. etc.

And a civilian that insists on being called ma'am or sir is going to be an asshole either way, and they technically have power over clones without personal accountability or responsibility for them. It works.

Finally, Palpatine.

He's a slimy rat fuck who pretends to be affable and kind, so of course he's going to laugh and say, "Oh, no, call me Sir!" when you call him ma'am. He is not personally accountable to you, and he does not care about you, but it helps his image and it helps him manipulate people to pretend, so of course he's making you use sir to build false intimacy despite the fact that he's the ma'am of ma'ams, both in power gaps and lack of accountability for his treatment of clones.

So having clones using sir vs ma'am not as a reflection of gender but as a reflection of power? Yeah, I think it works.

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

(Not sure if this idea has been floated already, I'm relatively new to tumblr)

I'm convinced the finale is going to have plenty of callbacks to the Bad Batch's intro story in TCW (I mean, we've already gotten a few callbacks).

So...

Since Tech was the one who directly helped Rex find and retrieve Echo, and then carried Echo through the shafts...

What if Echo is the one to find Tech and carry him out of Tantiss???

[kiffobaby]

Star Wars The Bad Batch: Mild Spoiler

What if Tech really is dead (pls god no) and the significance of putting Lula with Tech's goggles is foreshadowing Wreckers' death (pls for the love of all no)

I know that Lula has become a symbol for Omega but just please no

[moonlit-clary-sage]

I have this wretched headcanon that the Krykna molt like tarantulas, meaning that sometimes, on Atollon, you'll see these huge legs sticking out from behind a rock only to find that they belong to an empty husk. I like to imagine a scenario where Sabine and Zeb find one while out on patrol. Sabine thinks it's very fascinating and wants to study the shape and structure (as most of the exoskeleton would be in tact,) meanwhile Zeb is comming Hera trying to convince her to move the whole base immediately. Zeb is even more horrified when Sabine explains that the Krykna isn't dead, but still out there and is now even bigger then the shell it left behind.

[milling-around]

The Bad Batch Finale and Joel Aron’s cryptic tweet

Okay so Joel Aron, Director of Cinematography Lighting & VFX at Lucasfilm, tweeted this:

Initially, I thought that this was going to be the runtime of S3E15 The Cavalry Has Arrived. This episode being longer would make sense as it’s the finale of the show and it’s close in length to S1E1 Aftermath. However, I saw a screenshot floating around the other day that says the runtime of the final episode “spans 24 to 25 minutes”.

If this episode is the typical length then this timestamp must be referring to a different piece of media. The question is, what media? In an effort to determine what could happen in the finale, I went to that point in the films to see what I would find. None of them strike as much fear in me as what’s happening in A New Hope.

The Phantom Menace - Anakin has just won the pod race and they are celebrating his victory.

Attack of the Clones - Jango Fett and Boba Fett have just attacked Obi-Wan with seismic charges.

Revenge of the Sith - Anakin is looking out over Coruscant from the Jedi Council room. He has just revealed to Mace Windu that Palpatine is a Sith.

A New Hope - Before leaving to disable the tractor beam on the Death Star, Obi-Wan delivers a line which may foreshadow what’s to come in The Bad Batch.

Empire Strikes Back - Luke is trying to lift the ship out of the swamp on Dagobah.

Return of the Jedi - Luke, Han, and Chewbacca, along with the droids, are captured by the Ewoks.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Anakin and Ahsoka are heading towards Tatooine to deliver Jabba’s son back to him.

At 01:09:56:01 in A New Hope, or as close to it as I could get (Disney+ sucks) this is what we see:

Sorry it’s a photo of my computer, I don’t know how y’all take screenshots of Disney+.

“Your destiny lies along a different path from mine.”

Many people have been theorising that the show could end with the Batch and Omega surviving but being separated, either by choice or by circumstance. This line from A New Hope, as well as the fact that Omega’s voice actor, Michelle Ang, has described the ending as “bittersweet”, definitely make that a solid theory.

Maybe I’m barking up the wrong tree though. There’s also speculation about whether Omega is force sensitive, so maybe Luke using the force in Empire Strikes Back is the real clue. Despite Ventress not believing Omega to have a high m-count, and her not being one of Hemlock’s designated m-count specimens, we have seen characters with a low m-count who were capable of wielding the force. Sabine Wren, for example.

Still, Omega being force sensitive doesn’t prevent the theory that she gets separated from the Batch from being true. It could actually be a reason for that separation because she may pursue training or decide that her proximity to the Batch endangers them.

But wait, there’s more!

At this timestamp in S1E1 Aftermath, Omega is on the Marauder with the Bad Batch (minus Crosshair) and they’re setting off on what will be her first big adventure. Omega’s Theme is playing and she’s gazing out at space with child-like wonder. While they’ve just parted ways with Crosshair, the overall feeling in this scene is hopeful.

If the tweet is referring to this episode, it could mean that we get a wholesome Bad Batch family moment. Whether Tech is there or not may rely on CX-2 being unmasked. Perhaps it’s bittersweet because Tech truly is dead or because he’s alive but they cannot save him from the Empire. Or maybe it’s bittersweet for a whole host of other reasons.

Honourable mention

@kiffobaby also looked into what is happening at this timestamp if you combine the runtimes (including credits) of all episodes in clone relevant story arcs and didn’t really find anything of note. If credits were removed then it would put at us a different point in the arc, however it’s unlikely that we’d be looking for a timestamp in an arcs combined duration anyway.

If you’ve read this far, I love you and don’t worry, we’re almost done.

Secret 16th episode?

Seasons 1 and 2 each had 16 episodes which leads me to speculate that this timestamp could actually be the runtime of the final episode, a secret 16th episode.

Is it likely? No. Can I dream? Yes.

[space-blue]

Acolyte theory stuff...

In the trailer and in the youngling training scene, Sol says this:

Close your eyes. Your eyes can deceive you. We must not trust them.

And it REALLY jumped at me, due to my theory that Mae was not actually there with Osha on that gangway. They both think she fell to her death, but has been shown running through the forest on fire, and also the next day is neither injured nor even singed.

We also have Yord tell Osha that the Sith "gets in your head and stays there", which Osha replies with "My mother could do that".

We have this yet unseen shot of all of them with black eyes, so I think we're yet to see the witches "true" work.

There's also a shot of Kelnacca attacking Torbin, and Torbin getting on a speeder at night. There's no way of knowing though if Torbin is defending or attacking, or if Kelnacca is black-eyed in this shot or not.

We have a lot of hints that Qimir was actually there that night. He expects Sol to remember him. He thinks Sol has "hiding his face", which could mean lying to Osha.

The way he speaks about his inner darkness, I wonder if the witches' power reveals the real darkness hidden inside their heart or something?

Also!! While Torbin went on to isolate himself and feels awful enough about it all to commit suicide over it, Kelnacca has been studying the witches' symbols, crazy old man style :

It's the same design Mae has :

Clearly Kelnacca has been obsessed with it since then, so it has to be relevant somehow. It's possible that the Jedi fucked up by interrupting the ritual.

Finally... There's obviously a theory that Mae and Osha will actually switch. And I kind of agree. Rewatching episode 4 today with friends, I noted how Sol once again asked Osha to have faith in Mae. He does so in episode 2, and in 4 he says "but she remains your family". Implying she should make her peace and believe in her.

And MAE does that to Osha. Even after accusing her of being brainwashed, she's so overwhelmed with their reunion, she embraces her fully. She follows Sol's lesson more than Osha, who again displays very black and white thinking. She's extremely binary against Mae. And there she twists her arm and calls her a criminal, even though she could have soooo easily asked Mae to be understanding and to help her get Sol to the ship and at least hear him out.

Osha is constantly unable to forgive. I think she's going to get Qimir's twisted version of events, and Sol will give Mae his version, and each will fall into place.

Now that being said... Sol will have bad spaceship issues (next episode most likely, from the trailer shots of the ship tumbling through space ice and Sol piloting) and since he and Mae both heard the word "Sith", I don't actually like their chances of survival.

Osha will become acolyte, and Qimir and her will found the knights of Ren or whatever. The real mystery being WTF happened on Brendock.

[webtrinsic1122]

AHSOKA SPOILERS:

Is it just me or does the statue of the Daughter, while broken - looks like it’s not the Daughter at all and it’s younger Ahsoka? Cause I swear that looks like lek hanging down and not the daughters hair.

[smolbean-17]

They’ve been doing a lot of lingering and powerful shots of Hunter lately.

I don’t know, it kinda feels like they’re gearing us up to say goodbye to him.

[shiversdownyourspleen]

I wasn’t expecting it, but Rampart being an absolute dumbass is quickly becoming one of my favourite characters he’s a DICK but it’s to the point where I’d also be genuinely sad if he dies

Honestly his banter with the Batch in the jungle was the best part of this episode

Like this man went from the KILL list to being one of my favourite supporting characters how did this happen

Anyways go watch episode 14 it’s a ton of fun and makes me absolutely dread what they’re gonna do to us in the finale

[ninjadeathblade]

Why didn't the Empire stop Nala Se's access on her datapad? They know it's stolen, it would make sense for them to shut down her access with a long range signal.

Unless of course they have something planned.

Now that the datapad has been powered up again, the Empire might be able to track it.

In the trailer Rex says "I thought the end of the war would mean the end of losing more brothers. I was wrong." (or something I didn't check before making this post)

Did Rex lose Echo after Hemlock tracked the datapad?

Is Echo going to be making another sacrifice for a group of brothers to escape and live to fight another da

[findafight]

I think there's something deeply interesting about the Clone troopers learning Mando'a from the trainers, and passing that on to each other. It's probably not a full language, not at first. They only got the basics from the trainers, but they take loan words from Basic, and then from other worlds they're stationed on. It gets passed down to the shinies, evolving and changing quickly. It's a living language, and it has different accents, different words taken from different languages depending on where the troopers speaking it have been for the longest. It's not hidden, not really. The Jedi actively encourage it, though Kaminoans have never wanted it to spread. But it's a remarkable thing, how quickly it changes and how precious it is, for clones to have something that is It morphs into something unique and theirs.

And then, order 66 happens, and clone troopers are phased out and replaced by recruited, but some sources have them training together/training new recruits, and so they pick up on the language as a kind of military slang or code. But it's still a language, still taught and spoken, though more covertly, more carefully even as the clones are slowly decommissioned, but their language is passed on through imperial stormtroopers.

Even when the New Republic seems to have defeated the Empire, there's still Grand Moffs, there's still Stormtroopers, and the First Order rises. And yet somehow, stormtroopers keep this language alive, even though no one who speaks it now knows where it came from, or why only troopers speak it.

Eventually, all those kidnapped children grew up not knowing anything but the first order, and fear, and whispered words under bedcovers that the higherups can't understand. Sometimes they call them natborns and they don't know why. Sometimes they call each other vod'e and don't know why. They know what it means, (it means brother, means sister, means sibling, it means something deeper than that) but not why, not the how. They just know it's a secret. Some of them know songs, and some of them don't get a chance to learn them before they're heard by higherups and whoever knew it was reconditioned and it was lost.

When the First Order falls, troopers who escaped try to find their vod'e, find their family, and along the way they also find decedents of Clones, who speak a language similar to theirs. Who know the words that First Order troopers have only whispered to each other and speak them in the open with their families without fear. Who know all those songs that were so precious and dangerous and more. And they discovered their shared heritage, shared history, through the language the clones built for themselves.

[kiffobaby]

(Very Mild) SPOILERS:

Star Wars: The Bad Batch

Episode 9: The Harbinger

I have something to say about Mount Tantiss.

Here is a photo of Mount Tantiss;

And here is a photo of Pabu in the most recent episode;

When the episode first showed the shot of rainy Pabu, I did not even recognise it as Pabu for a fraction of a moment. I thought we had scene changed for a split second.

I could go in depth about the way the lighting and weather is reflecting our characters but I am not as articulate as some of you, and I know many will be talking about this (which is fantastic and I can't wait to see what you think). Just know that the lighting and shadows on characters is reflecting their headspace, and weather also brings atmospheric examples of the turmoil the characters are facing.

What I'm stuck on currently is how Pabu has parallels/shares similarities to Mt Tantiss.

On top of the visual comparison, to Crosshair and Omega, Pabu probably also feels like prison to a degree.

Omega had freedom to move around the same way she could on Tantiss, but doesn't have the freedom to actually go anywhere/do anything.

Omega feels that she left her brothers behind and that she could have done more. She is now on Pabu and feels she cannot do anything to help yet as she doesn't have answers and her brothers are protecting her.

Crosshair has more freedom than he did on Tantiss but as he is sticking with his brothers, he also cannot leave.

The others, to a degree, are also probably still watching him for signs of betrayal (betrayal is a strong word, deviance is probably better)

Even if they had a plan to help, they are essentially still 'trapped' here until they figure out what is happening with Megs and how to keep her safe.

Mt Tantiss to a degree has the same 'stuck on an island' feeling because the environment and wildlife outside of the main area you see the characters is dangerous. This keeps them in the one place, the same as being surrounded by ocean keeps you on the land.

I think the visual parallel is helping to remind us that while our characters are safe right at this moment, the Harbinger has only brought more uncertainty and insecurity.

My thoughts are all over the place right now so this may not make sense. I'm still processing the latest episode. But absolutely let me know what y'all think about this and if you can articulate your thoughts better.

And feel free to tell me all of your thoughts about everything.

[inquisitor-apologist]

Out of all of the MANY missed opportunities and shit in the Ahsoka show, I think one of the biggest was not exploring the really unique time period that the galaxy is in at all.

Like, think about it. The Ahsoka series takes place in ~10 ABY. The Rebellion is gone. The Galactic Civil War is over. The New Republic has established itself. The last Imperial remnants have been driven all the way out into the Outer Rim. People are rebuilding. The First Order and Imperial resurgence is still pretty far off.

The galaxy in Ahsoka is about as peaceful as it ever gets in the main timeline. And they do nothing with it.

What does peace feel like for Ahsoka, who was forced to fight literally every war in the past ~35 years just for being force-sensitive? (Drafted into the Clone Wars, fighting for survival during the Imperial and Rebellion Years, probably returning to the fight in the Civil War because she’s one of the last Jedi/trained force-sensitives) How does she deal with not having a fight she needs to help with? How does she move on from an entire life of exhausting, terrifying war? How does she look at the Jedi coming back, knowing that they’ll never be the Order she chose to leave at 16? Does she want to come back, but not know how? Is she afraid of returning because she knows that there’s no one left to recognize her?

What about Hera, who dedicated her entire life to a war that’s won? The ongoing struggle that defined her childhood, her teenage years, the first two decades of her adulthood is… over. The Republic she fought for, the Republic she gave everything to restore, is restored. How does she adjust to serving in peace? Does the reality of the New Republic compare to the ideal she did it all for? How does she look back on a whole life as a soldier, knowing that it can be over now, if she wants it to be? Is she even able to accept that it’s over, or is she constantly looking for the next threat, the hidden, upcoming war?

And Sabine, who sacrificed her teenage years to the Rebellion, probably her 20s to the Civil War, how does she deal with living on a Lothal that’s long since moved past the need for a protector, in a galaxy that’s completely unrecognizable without a battle to fight? Does she look back at the Rebellion, the Rebels years, as the good old days? Does the rest of her life feel empty and dull without the constant rush of a desperate, uphill war? How does she reconcile a New Republic without Mandalore? How does she feel about the future she always envisioned missing the people she rebelled for in the first place?

But no, Felony was like: Ahsoka sad :( and unemotional bc Vader. Hera smart and 💯% justified about Thrawn. Everyone else just stupid and hates her. Sabine conflicted bc Not Jedi & misses Ezra. Whole family dead 💀 but let’s not focus on that.

Like, come on.

[itzshrike]

Yall I kinda wish that the mystery assassin clone isn’t going to be tech. Love that guy but I want it to be another clone that fulfilled his plot and was never seen again. I know that there’s a 99.999% chance that it is him tho and if it is imma gonna cry and be happy that he’s alive. But like, what about all the other clones who are missing???