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Some Hunter thoughts I can’t articulate worth shit right now but I’m going to try anyway:
There’s something about how much more withdrawn Hunter is and yet doesn’t just disappear out of everyone’s lives in season two, and I don’t know what. He’s still making calls, mostly to not get involved and keep their heads down, but those are still decisions, still trying to keep what’s left of his family safe, still trying to find ways to put food on the table, still being Omega’s dad and having an active presence in her life. He’s still going through the motions of his role.
But he doesn’t talk much, not even to Omega. All those sweet one-one-one conversations he had with her last season aren’t nearly as much of a thing. Part of that’s just because of the practicalities of storytelling; this season had more emphasis on Omega’s relationships with Echo and Tech, so a lot of those one-on-one parent-child conversations went to either Echo in the first half of the season, and Tech in the second. In fact, the only direct parent-child conversation Hunter has with Omega this season (not the only conversation he has with her, just the only one that’s one of those, “Something difficult’s happening, let me help you talk it out,” talks) is is the one at the very end of the season for which neither Echo nor Tech are present, because Echo needed to be alone and Tech’s…MIA. But it’s more than just the shift in character focus.
A lot of the Omega side of The Bad Batch story is told from Omega’s point of view. Not exclusively, there are definitely a lot of scenes and even entire episodes from other perspectives, and Crosshair is pretty much the point of view character of all the Crosshair stuff, of course, and it’s not the same as it would be if the Bad Batch were a first person novel with Omega as the narrator character, but the show does hover around Omega’s perspective a lot, at least. And one thing I do kind of like about this is that it means there’s stuff happening that we don’t see, or that we’re not seeing right now, anyway. Even if we didn’t assume that Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, and Echo were having conversations out of Omega’s earshot, we’re given enough context clues and bits and pieces (and one occasion the entirety) of conversations Omega does overhear to know that that’s the case and to sometimes get the gist of what those conversations were about. The shift in Tech’s attitude from “Replacements” to “Cornered” (from being hellbent on finishing that brain scanner, which they would need if they did go back and get Crosshair, and being the first to pipe up and say that Crosshair’s chip is probably influencing his actions in one episode to sadly noting that Crosshair won’t be needing his comm device in the next) implies that the group had a conversation about the Crosshair situation that Omega (and we) didn’t hear—or that Wrecker, Tech, and Echo realized that Hunter wasn’t going to talk about it and discussed that amongst themselves. We can guess from the interactions between Hunter and Echo this season (as well as that, “Remember what I said,” line which is so frustrating in the best way because what?? What did Hunter say to Echo???) that the, “We should be doing more,” conversation didn’t stop with the one Omega overheard.
The conversations Omega—and by extension, we—don’t hear are probably mostly the more adult ones. And by adult, I guess I should clarify—I don’t necessarily mean the “adult” in that sense, though those conversations probably happen, too. I mostly mean the difficult conversations, about the darker side of the war, how bad their situation could get, Echo deciding to leave, how close they are to flat broke, how many meals they’re going to have to skip so at least Omega can go to sleep with a full belly, that sort of thing. It’s not that they’re trying to keep Omega in the dark, exactly. Their lifestyle doesn’t allow for that luxury. But they are trying, and Hunter’s really the one trying the hardest, to build Omega a childhood out of whatever scraps they can. And part of that, for Hunter, anyway, means keeping some conversations out of Omega’s earshot.
And honestly the last few paragraphs are just a long winded way to say that because a lot of the show hovers around Omega’s perspective, if we see Hunter talking to and around Omega less, that probably means he is talking to her less in universe. This is probably off base, but I kind of think the reason is pretty similar to the reasoning I gave for why they have some conversations out of Omega’s earshot above. Hunter’s really just…not having a good time in season two; he’s depressed at best and his hunker-down-and-ignore-the-star-war-of-it-all attitude comes across as a mix of guilt (over the Crosshair situation) and trauma response. He’s lost and buckling under the pressure to lead his squad in through this strange new reality, and I honestly think that he just doesn’t want Omega to know how bad things in his head are, because she’s a child and he’s her dad/big brother and it is not her responsibility to deal with his problems (1). But he’s so, so bad at faking things, and Omega’s a perceptive kid, so instead of keeping up appearances and trying to pretend that everything’s fine all the time, he withdraws. Just a little bit.
And don’t get me wrong, it’s not a season three Kanan Jarrus situation, where Kanan has to adjust to a new disability and can’t, so he falls off the face of the map (2). Hunter’s still extremely present in Omega’s life, still quizzing her on her homework, still making sure he’s there to catch her when she throws herself off a ledge, still there to look all sad and jealous when Omega starts copying Phee but trusting Omega enough not get in the way of her make a new friend, still there to grab Omega and make sure she doesn’t die in the cable car crash, and so on. He’s always sure to be there whenever she needs him. He just…doesn’t talk with her as much. He moves a quarter-step into the background. And I have some kind of feeling about that, but I’m not sure what it is.
1. This is totally off topic, but this actually one of the things I really liked about Stephen Universe, just…in reverse. I had a hard time getting into the first few seasons of the show (I know, I’m sorry) because the adult characters all sort of talked to Stephen—and each other, but mostly Stephen—like they were all trying to win at therapy, and it kind of drove me crazy. Aaaaaaand then I got to the movie and Future and it turned out that that was kind of the point. Every adult in Stephen’s life sort of used him as a live-in therapist, and it really messed him up and made it difficult to heal from his own trauma.
2. Just to be clear, I’m not dogging on Kanan here.
#the bad batch#hunter bad batch#this is way too many words for me to say ‘Hunter doesn’t talk as much in season two and I like it but also I am#sad?#am I sad about it?#melancholy?#it’s something#I don’t even know what I’m doing here with this
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What are the fish silent about? What is the sky crying about?
Krasnodar, Galitsky Park.
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a day late to my 6 years on t anniversary ✨🏳️⚧️ a short comic about looking back
#trans pride#transmasc#comics#autobio comics#transgender#this reads a little more melancholy than I meant it to!#I think I forget how far I’ve come#like oh yeah this rules actually my body’s changed so much#also I grew my hair out and I’m less blond now#anyway I love being on testosterone :)#life saving magic potion that makes you hot and happy#my art#Magnus post art at a reasonable hour challenge (impossible)
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That little house you see in eye exams.
#comic#comics#house#digital art#idk how to really tag this#melancholy#vision#vision test#art#artists on tumblr
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#cause everytime either of them roll around posts about suffering and melancholy SKYROCKET on my timeline lol#also WOW this spread more than i was expecting#lmk if i should make it again in january to give both the recency bias advantage#my polls#polls#tumblr polls#january#august
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A bus is basically the classic thing to wait in the rain for
#it is Cold#also every time I listen to the Cure I remember the bit in Lisa Frankenstein where she's like they help you emotionally#like they are a very good band but I don't think From The Edge of the Deep Green Sea is imbuing me with anything but melancholy#welcome to night vale#Well tangentially but like You Know
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Edna St. Vincent Millay, from a diary entry featured in Rapture & Melancholy; The Diaries of Edna St. Vincent Millay
#lit#edna st. vincent millay#quote#diary#words#typography#dark academia#fragment#selections#writings#rapture & melancholy#p
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they should invent a way to hug your online friends who live so so far away
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noo don’t cry about july ending and the time passing, just remember the july poem :)
#end of the month melancholy is so real#the feeling that i’ve gone another month without achieving anything or bettering myself just punches me in the gut every time#but its going to be okay#i think#not les mis#poems and quotes#morgan harper nichols
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Susan Sontag wrote that "Depression is melancholy minus its charms." For me, living with depression was at once utterly boring and absolutely excruciating.
John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed (Harvey)
#The Anthropocene Reviewed#John Green#Essays on a Human-Centered Planet#depression#mental ilness#living with depression#melancholy minus its charms#mental illness#the Anthropocene#nonfiction#nonfiction quotes#page 134#susan sontag
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passage
#sky children of the light#sky cotl#skyblr#season of passage#tumbling troublemaker#oddball outcast#melancholy mope#overactive overachiever
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part of a sadness
#just thinking about how simon’s world is reflected in fionna’s#not just the characters but feelings too#just that deep melancholy#fionna mirrors that albeit the sadness is caused by a different reason#YET THEY’RE THE SAME TOO!#the feeling of being stuck…and that feeling of longing for something (or someone)#questioning ‘will it ever get better’#they resonate with me so much#this is all based on the hints we get that fionna and cake exist in Simon’s mind and how cake literally escaped from it in the last episode#it just got me thinking and i got emotional and#yeah#my art#adventure time#at#fionna and cake#fionna and cake spoilers#fionna the human#fionna campbell#simon petrikov#cake the cat#adventure time fionna and cake#adventure time fanart
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DO YOU KNOW THIS CHARACTER?
#dyktc polls#polls#haruhi suzumiya#the melancholy of haruhi suzumiya#category: animation#category: series
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Imagine, if you will, an alternate universe where Optimus Prime’s alt mode is a VW Beetle BUT he still has the semi truck smokestacks!
(Inspired by true events).
#references are life#digital art#macaddam#macadam#transformers#the root mode design is a mish mash of designs I liked from different continuities#He may be short but he is still a force to reckoned with on the court#optimus prime#vw beetle#fanart#transformers fanart#tf fanart#The man needs a hobby besides melancholy#tf optimus prime#tf#transformers g1#tf g1#tf rid15#tfp#tf mtmte#tf idw#mostly just tagging where the different design choices originate from#I’m a sucker for bayverse!op flames ok
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