To Me, Cody is fundamentally--
1: "If you loved your brothers, you wouldn't have put them at risk."
2: "It's hard to be the one who survives."
3: "You were right. The wind conditions are too strong for jetpacks."
There are so many good Cody lines I know I am missing many of them ("Rex wha-- What the heck are you doing?" vs. "Rex is a smart man." and calling other troopers who are literally the same age as him "kid" and everything about his occasional banter with Obi-Wan) and also even when he's just shouting orders or breaking down the situation on the battlefield his ease and confidence-- and annoyance when he isn't being listened to-- are HUGE character defining moments. This is a man who knows what he is about. But! These are the lines I latched on to and extrapolated all to hell, because these lines have so much context.
1: This is the only thing he says to Slick. This is the only part of Slick's little rant he refutes. He doesn't say anything about the slavery bit, or the Jedi bit, or freedom and chains. He says-- "If you loved your brothers, you wouldn't have put them at risk." This tells me Cody is someone who feels the responsibility of care for his brothers very keenly. He loves them, so he's not going to put them at risk. They're fighting a war, they're literally in between battles in this scene, so he can't negate all the risk. But in this specific context of Slick trying to betray the Republic and going on about his brothers being enslaved, the risk isn't the battlefield. The risk is the betrayal. The risk is the bid for freedom. The risk is putting one person's happiness over the safety of the group.
Rex sneers a bit, says something about duty, clearly thinks Slick is just delusional. Cody is calm and serious the whole time. Slick tried to save his own skin and didn't care who got hurt in the process. Cody can't stand for that. Maybe they are slaves, maybe the Jedi aren't totally blameless in that, maybe Slick is saying everything Cody has thought to himself alone in his officer's quarters as he tried to make sense of his place in this galaxy, but Slick committed the one unforgivable sin and put his brothers at risk with his actions.
2: This is just. This whole moment. Trying to be there for Rex and this is all he can offer. We survived. And it's hard. And that's it. They have to live with everyone else's deaths. They have to carry that loss with them.
This feels very-- a moment where they mourn their rank in a way. They work closely with two Jedi, and while everyone is at risk on a battlefield they have a much better chance of living through it because their rank affords them visibility and priority. Obi-Wan is going to look for and save Cody first. Anakin is going to look for and save Rex first. That is probably a good part of why they made it as long as they did, honestly, and this feels like a moment of solidarity and sympathy. We lived, and our troops didn't.
To me it says a lot about Rex and Cody's relationship, the way Cody is something of a mentor and the way they are both siblings and fellow officers. Cody offers this bit of wisdom as both a sibling and a fellow officer. This is something he internalized early on, from the way he reacts and then cuts short his reaction to the deaths that happen around him. This is the burden he's carried all through the war. And he's trying to help Rex to carry it now.
3: Ok this is just. This is solely because he sounds so disappointed. So disappointed. He wanted Obi-Wan to be wrong so bad. He wanted to fly his jetpack. He just. He just wanted to fly his jetpack. Or maybe he just wanted to be right, I don't know which is funnier. It's probably both.
This is just the moment of-- ah. Yes. Technically this guy is in his early to mid twenties. He's a genetically modified super soldier. He's never been anywhere in the galaxy where he wasn't in danger for his life. He's gotta get his kicks somewhere (somewhere besides being obnoxious by calling other troopers his own age "kid") and it might as well be here. He might as well develop an affection for his jetpack. Why not. He's gotta have one stupid and reckless hobby.
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