#rancid potato royce hemlock

[heyclickadee]

You know what would be hilarious?

And by hilarious I mean I would punch several things (and then break my hand because I’m not that good at punching)?

If Tech’s goggles weren’t even that broken when Hemlock found them. Like—if the lenses were just scratched up a bit, too much to be used to see but not actually broken, and then Hemlock had to pause outside the door to Cid’s parlor and step on them because he realized he needed to make it look good.

I mean, I don’t think that’s what happened—I think Hemlock found the goggles and nothing but the goggles, and that Tech or whoever found Tech had to ditch them because they were broken (and because there was potentially glass in some less than ideal places).

But it would be funny if Hemlock broke them for show.

[heyclickadee]

I don’t know what to do with the way Shep explains that a lot of people come to Pabu looking for a clean slate and, in so doing, puts a clean slate on the table in Hunter’s and the rests’ eyes, and the way Hemlock offers Crosshair a clean slate an episode later, except that Shep’s offer is genuine and positive and that Hemlocks offer is, if not an outright lie, a prevarication that’s true from a certain point of view and a nightmare version of a clean slate at best.

[heyclickadee]

Here’s the haunting thing about Hemlock using clones’ names and calling them imperial property in the same breath. Most of the time, when we hear an imperial refuse to use a clone’s name, it’s a dehumanization tactic. They don’t see the clones as people. They’re just equipment. Expensive, outdated equipment. But I think Hemlock sees it differently. Hemlock probably does see the clones as people. But I don’t think people matter to him. Not even a bit.

[heyclickadee]

Tech's Alive, Part Two: The Goggles, AKA Why, "No body, no death," Is Especially Applicable Here. (Content warning for discussions of death)

I think everyone's mentioned how suspicious it is that the only physical evidence we have for Tech's "death" are his goggles, which are presented to Hunter as evidence by Actual Rancid Potato Royce Hemlock. And I think everyone's also pointed out how suspicious it is that the only thing Hemlock could supposedly salvage is also the flimsiest part of Tech's kit--not any of Tech's armor, just his goggles. And that the goggles are actually in better condition than we might expect; the lenses are broken, sure, and the rims are a little banged up, but they aren't crushed, and the band is still intact. And since they're something Tech wore under his helmet, they're also something that couldn't have just come off, unless Tech's helmet was either knocked off (maybe possible) or removed. Either way, it implies that Hemlock is possibly either lying about the goggles being all he could salvage, and that he did find more, or that the goggles are the only physical evidence he has of Tech's death as well.

So, yes, Hemlock's untrustworthy, the goggles are weak physical evidence of Tech's death at best, but we ought to also look at Hemlock's character as well as his motivation for presenting that evidence. Hemlock is a sadistic son of a bitch who isn't just willing to use pain as leverage--he enjoys it. I mean, we all saw the way Hemlock gloated over Crosshair dropping in that cloud of toxic gas. We all saw the way he smiled when they started torturing Crosshair again. The man is cruel and twisted and, honestly, I don't think I've hated a Star Wars character more. If someone doesn’t kill him by the end of the series I’m going to climb into the tv and do it myself. 

Anyway. 

Tossing Tech's shattered goggles at Hunter's feet is torture. Those blasters held at Wrecker's head are torture, too. It's just that instead of using a literal torture droid, Hemlock is using Hunter's guilt and grief as a rack and thumbscrew to force Hunter to comply with his demands. He's banking on the idea that Hunter cares about his brothers and feels deeply responsible for everything that happens to them(1), that he's reeling from losing Tech, maybe even hoping he's still hurt from losing Crosshair, and that losing another brother--Wrecker--would be too much for him to handle. So he takes the knife in Hunter's chest and twists it. And, it works! To an extent, anyway. Hunter puts his blaster down, and allows Hemlock to take him prisoner. Would he have ever handed over Omega? Whatever Hunter did? No, but Hunter was also hoping that Omega had gotten away in the ship with Echo at that point.

But, anyway, the point is that Hemlock is using Hunter's emotional pain in order to get his way. And if the writers wanted to convince us that Tech was really dead and gone for good, they could have done so in a far more effective way that would have actually allowed Hemlock to twist the knife even harder.

Hemlock could have just had his men bring Tech's body out.

In fact, I suspect that Hemlock would have brought Tech's body out, if he had a body to show. The fact that he didn't tells me that he doesn't have one; he's either got Tech alive, or he found the goggles by themselves and doesn’t have any more physical evidence than we do.

And I'm guessing what you're thinking; it's a kids' show. They can't do that, that'd be way too gruesome, especially since, if Tech really did hit the ground at terminal velocity, his body would be too broken too show. Especially since Tech is a main character and someone we’ve spent two season with—they can’t show him like that. Of course, yes, that's true. So, they could have done what Star Wars typically does with bodies; show it at a slightly obscured angle, or completely intact, but limp. Crosshair spent the a lot of the last several minutes of The Outpost kneeling next to the body of a character he (and we) cared about. Or, to cut down even further on how graphic it could be, they could have brought him in on a stretcher, covered in a cloth, but with a hand sticking out from under it, so that we (and Hunter and Wrecker) know it's him. They could have even brought him out in a body bag, completely covered, and had Hunter look inside and informed us that it was Tech via Hunter's reaction. All of those things, especially the last two, would have been completely in line with the show's inexplicably intact TV-Y7 rating (seriously, how??), would have complied with Hemlock's characterization as well as his motivation for showing any evidence of Tech's death at all, and would have allowed the writers to actually convince the audience that Tech really is dead and gone for good.

Except that the writers didn't do that. Hemlock doesn't bring Tech's body out. Just the goggles. So we, the audience, are stuck with no body. No real physical evidence. And so, frankly, are Wrecker, Echo, Hunter, and Omega.

Because here's the other thing about the goggles: It's not just important that Hemlock's the one to bring out the goggles, or that that's all he brings out. It's also important that the batch didn't have the goggles in the first place.

You see, I don't think Hunter and the rest have seen Tech's body, either. Their train car crashed through the station on one of the higher peaks a good half mile or more away from where Tech fell, meaning that they would have had to climb down that mountain and up and around the smaller mountains and hills below the train line to find him, and that was something that would have taken time. That was time they didn't have. They basically had to get out of dodge pretty much immediately, because they were actively under attack, all seriously injured, and because Omega was DYING, so they had to get out and get her help as fast as they could. They didn't have time to even start to look for Tech(2).

Besides the urgency of needing to save Omega, though, the thing that really convinces me that Hunter, Wrecker, and Echo never actually saw Tech's body is that they didn't have the goggles in the first place. Had Omega woken up to Wrecker already cradling Tech's goggles in his hands, then I wouldn't be writing this. We wouldn't have seen the body, but we would have pretty concrete evidence that a character we trust had. And that still wouldn't have been completely concrete evidence, but it, again, would have been a way for the writers to convince the audience that Tech really is dead and gone for good.

But, again, the writers didn't do that. Instead, they pass over at least two opportunities to have shown us a body, or to have at least shown us that a character we trust saw a body, and leave us in a situation where the only physical evidence Tech's death is both inconclusive and presented by a character we've been given every reason to hate and distrust, and whose motivation is to use that evidence as a way to emotionally manipulate the heroes. Which means that they're either trying to convince us that he’s dead and really bad at their jobs, which is possible, to be fair; or they know exactly what they're doing and are giving us just enough ambiguity to latch onto once we get over the initial emotional shock.

(1): I think Hemlock could have sussed this out about clones in general just through observation, but...I am going to consider the possibility—the possibility, mind you!—that Crosshair did eventually break. Just a little bit. Not anything too specific, not anything willingly, but he might have let slip that Hunter cares a lot or something. And to be completely clear, if he did, I'm not going to blame him. It’s not his fault if he did. They probably tortured him for days.

(2) I do wonder if one or more of them may have thought that maybe, just maybe, Tech lived, but that they had to make the choice to leave anyway. And if they did? Leaving anyway to save Omega would have been the right thing to do. I don't have kids, but my sister does, and if we got in a car crash and she had to make the choice between checking to see if I was okay and saving her kid, saving her kid is exactly what I would want her to do.

(Tumblr give me a way to write footnotes, I am begging you.)