the shit rex specifically faces in the umbara arc is so interesting to me. we start off with rex saying dogma is wound tight, but loyal, anakin replying "he kind of reminds me of you." and rex clearly doesn't seem so sure/happy about that, replying with a low and noncommittal "maybe, back in the day." this is all about dogma feeling the need to adhere to the rules religiously, not allowing himself to do anything that might go against the perfectly obedient and useful soldier idea in his head. whatever is asked of him, he can do that and more.
and then we see rex meet krell, and anakin leaves. krell immediately starts degrading rex and ordering him around in unnecessary ways, and rex listens without hesitating at all. it's obvious that it strikes him as weird, and he doesn't like it, but he doesn't push back. he makes excuses for krell's demands. tells fives it doesn't matter what krell asks, he's the one in charge. respect him anyway. he lets krell order them to continue marching after twelve hours, and he tells them all to obey.
he KNOWS that krell's plans will get a lot of them killed. they're overworked and exhausted and following horrible strategies. and rex doesn't challenge the orders. you can tell that he hates them and disagrees with them and knows they are bad and that extra lives are on the line but his call is to defer to authority anyway. he tells fives he "raised (his) objection" but... his pushback was so weak. he Barely tried. he won't debate fives on it even though fives is right.
fives stands up for rex when he finally goes against krell's plans, and only then does rex offer any resistance TO krell himself. and as soon as krell gives rex the illusion of caring about his opinions, rex goes right back to being willing to follow his orders. even when faced with dozens of their battalion voicing their anger and concern, rex's solution is to pull fives aside and tell him to be on rex's and krell's side. to convince everyone to just obey. fives calls him out and he doubles down. it doesn't matter how many of them die if they win. it's not what he was made to believe by the kaminoans, he just honors his code. which is meaningless! because fives is asking him what his code actually is. and he can't answer because he knows whatever it is, it's not this, but he can't bring himself to defy krell.
he orders kix to leave the wounded, kix says he sounds like krell, and rex obviously takes this as the insult it's meant to be. he finally makes his own call and things work out, krell calls it luck and dismisses the loss of life on part of the clones, and rex again gets angry without doing anything about it.
when krell tells them to move toward the capitol regardless of missiles and rex tells the battalion this, fives obviously protests, and rex asks him "what can i do? i tried to reason with him. these are our orders." literally NO ONE but dogma agrees with krell or rex throughout the entirety of this arc and rex still fails to get it. he continues to back krell's plans that will mean massive loss of life rather than risk being court martialed. he says it's about honor, and when fives says there's nothing honorable about it, he again goes back to "it's not our call".
rex's closest friends in his battalion fucking mutiny and he still doesn't get it and still doesn't stop backing krell's calls until AFTER the three of them take matters into their own hands. even then he still tries to keep it within the rules, telling krell they went on his orders, stopping dogma and tup from reporting them, then trying to take the blame and receive the punishment for fives and jesse. when krell commands their execution, rex tells them that krell does have this authority, that he tried to convince krell he should receive the punishment instead "but he wouldn't let me" and when fives points out that krell is using rex for the respect he has from the other clones, rex just says, "i won't let him get away with this."
for what it's worth, i truly DO NOT think that everyone failing to go through with the execution at the last second was something rex had planned all along. with what he said to them right before leading them out, his expressions just before and after everyone shoots, i think at this point he was still feeling obligated to respect the chain of command and was just relieved that even his words wouldn't make those in his command go through with the execution. only after this does he actually start to show some spine for real. and like, i get it, to an extent. rex understands that if it were to come down to krell vs the 501st in an open fight because of their inability to agree, it would likely be a very hard win, and would likely come with severe punishment.
but he continues to listen to krell after this. despite all of the evidence, he doesn't really question it when krell tells him to be prepared to shoot at people who wear clone armor. even though his subordinates have said MULTIPLE times by now that they strongly feel krell just hates clones and does not care about their loss of life, and there is a pile of evidence and even a good amount being directed at rex himself, he still doesn't question it. and then the 501st and the 212th just start killing each other! and only after this does rex actually, finally get it, and make his decision.
i think what it tells us about rex is that, even this far into the war and with this much experience, he still will not put his knowledge before an authority figure making a bad call. he is not the person he thinks he is when he tells anakin he's not like dogma anymore. he makes a litany of horrible judgment calls because he still can't bring himself to oppose superiors in a meaningful way, and it costs the lives of a lot of his subordinates, and a lot of cody and obi-wan's subordinates. people he knows die and he has to know that they died because they respected him enough to follow krell's orders even when none of them agreed with krell.
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