#a trooper's tale

[highgroundanimations]

Thank you The Bad Batch & everyone involved for this wild & amazing journey full of joy, tears, awe, new friendships & beautiful artistry! You'll forever be an inspiration. 🫡 🖤❤️🖤

[boggsart]

Here’s what I’ve been cooking up in the past month🙂‍↔️

Credits go to @highgroundanimations for creating 3 of my most favorite characters ever ( and thanks for letting me bring my vision to life 🫶🏻)

[chocmarss]

Jesse was one of the oldest clones to be involved with the 501st so it hit me right in the chest when I realised that he was one of Rex’s men in helping Anakin train Ahsoka to fight off their enemies earlier in the war, and Jesse was there trying to kill her under the chip’s orders at the end of S7, where she and Rex were fighting for their lives before they were able to escape in the end. Jesse helped her escape from himself, even if he didn’t know it in the beginning. and ohhhhhh I cannot do this, fellas

[itzshrike]

Okay okay we already got tales of the Jedi and are getting tales of the empire but are we forgetting something? 🤨

[morethansky]

The TBB finale posits that Echo is a foil to Darth Vader, and I am eating it up! Hear me out.

The doors open on Echo. The doors close on Vader. Past the threshold in both scenes lie the dead bodies of their enemies, who belong to the two key opposing factions of this era. Vader wreaks havoc on the rebels on behalf of the Empire. Echo wreaks havoc on the Empire's stormtroopers on behalf of his rebel cell.

Echo walks toward us, and in the following scene, he bends down to retrieve a weapon. Vader walks toward us, and in the next scene (at least in the trailer), the Inquisitors, who are his weapons, bend down to kneel before him.

Anakin was a hero in the war, risking his life by leading his clone battalion from the front to help them make it through. Then he was put under the thrall of the Sith. When that happened, he killed his own people—the Jedi.

Echo was a hero in the war, risking his life in hopes of helping the Jedi escape the Citadel. Then he was put under the thrall of the Techno Union and the Separatists. When that happened, he caused the deaths of his own people—the clones.

Anakin lost his right arm in a feat of reckless courage, when he rushed ahead to take on Dooku alone (Obi-Wan: "No, Anakin, no!"). Echo lost his right arm in a feat of reckless courage, when he rushed ahead to fight the commando droids alone (Fives: "Echo! Look out!"). Vader and Echo are also two of the characters who have suffered the most extreme bodily harm and survived.

Anakin had a slave chip put in him when he was a baby. Echo had an inhibitor chip put in him when he was a baby. Echo was eventually liberated. Anakin spent the majority of his life enslaved.

Vader recruits and trains the Inquisitorius, which includes Jedi children he tortures into serving the Empire. Echo recruits clones for his rebel cell, and trains a clone child who, inspired by his teachings, joins the fight against the Empire.

At the end of Vader's story, he does a good deed by ruining Palpatine's plans, and dies. At the end of Echo's story (for now, I pray), he does a good deed by ruining Palpatine's plans—and lives.

[nikxation]

Don't think about the fact that the whole "stun" training literally became a recurring game for Ahsoka and the clones, one they seemed to do and enjoy pretty regularly. Don't think about the fact that Anakin trained Ahsoka to survive Order 66 and Ahsoka trained Vader's Fist (the remaining 501st) to kill Jedi.

Don't think about the fact that Rex instantly stuns Ahsoka within seconds even though "it took them 5 minutes that last time". Don't think about the fact that when Order 66 happened, Ahsoka immediately tried to take down Rex first before she could get him separated because she knew he was the biggest threat.

Don't think about Ahsoka walking into a room of clones who all painted their helmets with her facial pattern to honor her. Don't think about the horrifying perspective of walking into a room with those same men, in those same helmets, now pointing guns at you her. Don't think about how small and outmatched and hopeless that perspective felt.

Don't think about shiny Jesse yelling "sorry commander" when he was the first to stun her. Don't think about him ultimately leading the charge against her during Order 66. Don't think about his helmet over a grave.

Just... Don't do it.

[brrmian]

something that so many star wars fans somehow fail to realize is that george lucas always intended for the fall of the republic to be a completely unavoidable tragedy. that’s what makes it such brilliant storytelling.

placing the blame on just one party in the galaxy-wide farce that was the clone wars just isn’t interpreting the story the way its writer intended. neither is saying that all players should be held equally accountable. i don’t think the jedi were at fault for the state of the republic, and (despite the fact that he did horrible things) neither was anakin, on a galactic or governmental scale.

the real villain is palpatine, who shaped the government into a corrupt system by his own hand. the blame for turning a democratic republic into an authoritarian dictatorship (which it was long before it became the empire) under the noses of thousands of incredibly corrupt politicians must be placed entirely on him, and him alone.

by the end of the war, the jedi council recognized that they had already lost the ability to hold onto what it truly means to be a jedi. in their prime during the days of the old republic, the jedi knights were “the guardians of peace and justice.” they’re meant to as diplomats, peacekeepers, mediators, and public servants. when the clone wars began, they were essentially forced into being soldiers, generals, and quasi-politicians by palpatine and the senate. all of those things are antithetical to the jedi’s beliefs, but they had no other choice.

placing even the smallest bit of blame on the jedi for anything leading to the republic’s downfall—and their own—is not only unfair, it’s factually incorrect. the jedi order is a monastic organization. they have no say in the senate and no voting power. saying they’re corrupt, when in fact they were just as conned by palpatine as the rest of the galaxy, is victim-blaming and scapegoating.

palpatine shoved the jedi face first into fighting the war, and pretty much threw the clone army into their laps on top of that. the jedi had no say in the matter, and they certainly had no say in the war itself being started, either. because he controlled both sides, palpatine was able to make the CIS and the republic declare war on each other even though its citizens wanted the same outcome: political independence and survival. if not for palpatine’s schemes, the separatists would have been allowed to secede peacefully, the republic would have continued existing, and the war would have been completely avoided. but that was unfortunately not the case.

so in a galaxy thrown into an unavoidable war by its own secret dictator, with an army of sentient slaves suddenly at their command, and the risk of billions of deaths at the hands of the droid army imminently approaching, what do the galaxy’s official peacekeepers have no other choice but to do? be peacekeepers. why wouldn’t the sworn defenders of the galaxy be out on the battlefields trying to end the war? if they sat in the temple and did nothing, they simply wouldn’t be jedi.

the jedi were forced into a lose/lose situation. every religion and organization has faults, but that doesn’t place any blame on them for the catch-22 they were trapped into falling for. when the clone wars started—and the key point here is that it never should have in the first place—the jedi still needed to be jedi. unfortunately for them, that meant having positions of power not meant for them being thrust upon their shoulders. they couldn’t drop the burden, because that meant actively choosing not to save lives—but the other option, becoming soldiers despite the tenet of their beliefs that dictates they shouldn’t, was no better.

see what a cruel trap palpatine set? it’s like a fish being caught in a fisherman’s net. the net is spread out across the ocean floor, and the fish swim above it, not knowing that the trap is waiting to be drawn in around them from below. in the end, when the net starts to tighten, dragging them closer to the surface, they can’t swim fast enough to escape from the middle to the edge—and to safety—before the net is completely tied. it’s the cruelest kind of trap: the kind that gives you just the right amount of time to think you can escape while being sprung just quick enough to make actually escaping impossible.

in the end, the order actively chose to fight the war because they needed to. there was no other way to continue on as who they were. militarizing the order was not the right choice in a vacuum, but this was not that; this was a situation in which every galaxy-changing choice was the wrong one. the jedi knew they were making a decision that drew them farther away from their beliefs, but it was the lesser of an infinite list of evils, and they didn’t see the walls closing in on them until it was too late.

lucas himself has even said that the order was not corrupt or decaying from the inside, nor did they make a series of bad choices that ultimately led to their own destruction. they were always just trying to do the right thing—but unlike literally everything else in fiction, the jedi order’s death was completely unaffected by any of the choices they made. no matter what they did, they were always going to lose. the fall of the republic wasn’t caused by its defenders choosing what they saw as the least bad choice. it didn’t come down to any decisions, political or not, that the jedi council made with the limited tools that they had. it certainly didn’t come down to one emotionally unstable twenty-three-year-old’s slow descent into insanity, either. the republic and the jedi would still have been destroyed with or without anakin’s unhinged nervous breakdown.

anakin, just like the order, the republic, and the separatists, was taken advantage of by palpatine. even if a person’s choices are their own, they don’t exist in a vacuum.

anakin would have made better choices if not for palpatine, but he didn’t. the jedi order would have kept the peace if not for palpatine, but no matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t. the republic, and democracy with it, would not have crumbled if not for palpatine. not the order, not anakin, not the separatists, and not the republic.

in the end, they were all just pawns in a decades-spanning plan, one that none of them saw coming until it was too late—and by then, it was already irreversible.

[gamelpar]

star wars: *releases new media*

me, face pressed up against the screen, starved and dehydrated: clönés?

[sokadraws]

I made this... Dunno why... But I really like it🥺

so cute🛐🛐🛐

[avengersstopbreakingmyheart]

Jesse's little "Sorry Commander!" reblog if you agree

[highgroundanimations]

Time for a little sneak peek of Tukk Tales' work-in-progress previz animation, cause why not. 😁

I know I've been a bit quiet about it lately (mostly cause I was busy moving to a new city & other life/work stuff) but I'm still plowing my way through this ambitious love letter of a project as determined as ever! 🫡

[boggsart]

So, I fixed the phone at the start cuz I admit the old one wasn't the most intuitive choice 😬. Also, this is my first time doing a walk animation, and of course, I'm not totally happy with how it turned out. But honestly, I don’t think I’ll ever be completely satisfied with anything I do but at least that mindset keeps pushing me to get better. Once again, all credits go to @highgroundanimations for letting me include all his bois in this project 🫶🏻 Good news: I only have Fox and Cody left to animate for the menu, and then I can finally start working on the game trailer. I’ve also completely remodeled my clone models, fixing all the mistakes (and the major inaccuracies lol), so now I can finally use them in Unreal. I’m a bit bummed I couldn’t animate this one with the new models, but I’ll make up for it in the trailer (or at least I’ll try, lol). Fox and Cody’s menu animations will use the new models, so yay for that (and they look so good i can't wait to show them) 😁

Here's one for Tech

Here's one for Hunter

Here's one for Rex

Here's one for Echo Here's one for Wolffe

——————————————————————

taglist: @callsign-denmark @techwrecker @dahscribbler @lightspringrain @dreamsandrosies @brainless-tin-box @thecoffeelorian @luzfeather @burningfieldof-clover @99tech99 @theglitterdark @fangirl-goes-nova @foundenterprisefamily @fanfictasia @jedi-hawkins @megmegalodondon @lifblogs @photowizard17 @isthereanechoinhere96 @inthemiddle0feverywhere @namechange-mykidfoundmyblog

[dinbeskarbaby]

Two perspectives.

[gospelofme]

Okay so theory time

If we don’t get anymore Rex, Echo, Wolffe, or Cody in the last three Bad Batch episodes…

Then perhaps that means they’re saving these for Tales of the Clones. And that they’ll announce that series after The Bad Batch series finale. Those would be perfect episode ideas.

Rex: how he established his underground network to save clones who wanted to ditch the Empire

Echo: his work with Rex and perhaps detail why he isn’t in Rebels, Rex may well have left him in charge of the network after retiring.

Wolffe: how he came to leave the Empire and join Rex. I see this being a considerably more complicated thing than him simply meeting up with Rex again one time.

Cody: what happened after he left Crosshair and went AWOL?!

All of these would be good episodes, there is more than enough material available for writers as well.

[monako-jinn-stories]

Okay but what if, next they do Tales of the Clones? I will actually scream and cry and throw up and shit all over my walls

[lothcat-lothcat-lothwolf-run]

Dave filoni? More like Dave FELONY!

I’m very angry at this man for making me sad every day