certified clone chaser

1. Anakin didn’t care for the clones and was callous with their lives;

2. The clones not just from the 501st but other battalions also hated him for it,

3. He was an incompetent selfish General.

Meanwhile Anakin and the Clones:

“Oh, these men. He loved them. “It means we’re going in hot and wild, no plan but this: blast those kriffing Sep ships out of my sky.” Fireball grinned with ear-to-ear ferocity. “It’ll be our pleasure, General.” The rest of Gold Squadron was listening, their focused attention and absolute belief in him as warm and as reassuring as his mother’s hand on his back.

Under his careless confidence, she sensed a hint of that unhealed grief. The loss of greenies Vere and Ince during the Jan-Fathal mission … the loss of other Torrent Company clones since then … his pain was like a kiplin-burr, burrowed deep in his flesh. Anakin had a bad habit of nursing those wounds, and no matter what she said, tactfully, no matter what Master Kenobi said without any tact at all, nothing made a difference. He hurt for them, and always would.

He was so proud of them—and at the same time so afraid. The brutal reality of combat meant the odds were they wouldn’t all come home. They knew it, too, but no one would read that in their faces—faces that were at first glance, to the uncaring observer, identical. But he knew them as individuals, and he loved them for themselves. He could list each man’s scars, recite each man’s quirks, describe each man’s idiosyncratic hair. Close-helmeted, in full body armor, he knew every one of them by his walk. Blindfold me and I’ll tell you who laughed.

I’m so lucky to have them. Please, don’t let me let them down.

Wingnut’s fighter was struggling, pitching; its starboard stabilizer shot, his R4 unit a smoking ruin—and the droids were gaining—gaining— No. No. Not Wingnut. He only joined us a month ago. Grimly determined, he plunged his own fighter into the vultures’ path

“And Ahsoka …” He felt his heart thud. “Tell Rex—tell all of them—that anything less than a full recovery is unacceptable. Tell Rex I—” He had to stop. Obi-Wan was in earshot, and they were not supposed to care so much. But Ahsoka cared too much, too. She didn’t need to hear the words. “I will. Don’t worry.”

“I’m not,” he said tightly. “I’m afraid Anakin is—” With an effort he stopped himself. Whatever irritation he might be feeling with his high-handed former Padawan, it wasn’t appropriate to vent it at the admiral. Yularen was looking at him closely, an odd and unexpected sympathy in his deep-set eyes. “He’s upset about his lost pilots,” the admiral observed. Only a fool forgot he was a smart, perceptive man.

“I think—” Anakin kicked his heel against the polished marble floor. “I think I hate it when I can’t stop my men from getting hurt. From dying. I think—” “What?” he prompted, when Anakin didn’t continue. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter.” “It matters, Anakin,” he said gently. “What you think matters.” Anakin flicked him a look. “You’ll just lecture me about attachment. Again.” Careful, careful. He’s not your Padawan anymore. “It’s true,” he said, after a moment, “that I sometimes wish you were more … moderate … in your feelings. But it’s also true that your men follow you with such enthusiasm and loyalty because they know how deeply you care.”

When they didn’t think she was listening, they referred to Rex and Coric and the others as units. Units. They weren’t units, they were men, living breathing laughing hurting brave and reckless men, who would lay down their lives for her and for one another without ever once stopping to think first and she loved them for that. So did Anakin. And Master Kenobi, well, he respected them. But the Kaminoans? No love. Not even respect. Just pride.

“I’ve seen Rex and Sergeant Coric. They’re not awake yet, but they look okay.” The Padawan winced. “Sort of. And I got to visit with some of the other troops, too. Nala Shan says everyone who’s going to die has died, so—that’s good news.” Heedless of his audience, Anakin covered his face with his left hand—his organic hand—just for a moment. Then he let it drop. His eyes were bright. “That’s great news, Ahsoka.”

- Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth by Karen Miller

The clone pilots were fully engaged, looping through a dogfight so tight that their ion trails looked like a glowing ball of string. “Oddball’s in trouble. I’m going to help him out.” “Don’t. He’s doing his job. We need to do ours.” “Master, they’re getting eaten alive over—” “Every one of them would gladly trade his life for Palpatine’s. Will you trade Palpatine’s life for theirs?” “No—no, of course not, but—” “Anakin, I understand: you want to save everyone. You always do. But you can’t.” Anakin’s voice went tight. “Don’t remind me.” “Head for the command ship.” Without waiting for a reply, Obi-Wan targeted the command cruiser

- Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover

Not only did Anakin care deeply for them, it was common knowledge that he did. Obi Wan knew it, Yularen knew it, Ahsoka knew it, the Clones knew it most of all.

oh god I can’t stop thinking about Grievous gloating in front of the Jedi Order about how he’ll always turn their own technique against them and they can’t win, and then Master Windu says “true, but what are you going to do against THIS” and Grievous expects a super-secret and dangerous weapon, but Windu just brandishes a polite and gentle Jedi and he’s like “??? what is this little man going to do? suggest to talk about it calmly and offer me tea?” (Obi-Wan looks a bit offended because yes, sometimes he does suggest that) 

Fandom: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) Rating: Explicit | No Archive Warnings Apply Category: M/M | Words: 640/? | Chapters: 1/10

Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi

Summary:

Snapshots of Cody and Obi-Wan's developing relationship, detailing the first time they share each of 10 different kinds of kisses — from the perfectly innocent, through the achingly romantic, to the downright filthy.

Tags: Keldabe Kiss, Minor Injuries, Hand Kisses, Head Kisses, Cheek Kisses, First Kiss, Nose Kisses, French Kissing, Neck Kissing, Back Kisses, Thigh Kisses, Pre-Relationship, Developing Relationship, Getting Together, Kissing, Sex, Romance, 10 Types of First Kisses, Snapshots, Fluff, Mutual Pining, During the War, Post-War, Order 66 Didn't Happen, Happy Ending, POV Alternating

CT-6119 served throughout the Clone Wars as an interrogation and intelligence operative attached to Republic Intelligence via a liaison framework rather than standard military command. Although administratively a clone trooper, he was never fully integrated into frontline units or Jedi-led formations. Instead, he operated in a detached capacity, reporting directly to Republic officers and intelligence handlers. This arrangement effectively removed him from both Jedi oversight and regular clone command culture.

kissing a clone and seeing them squirm bc wdym ure kissing them. the affection and love that they've only seen in holodramas and maybe in the people they protect, but never towards them.

the first time someone helps one of the clones to take off their armor. . imagine. brain.exe no longer works. someone’s hands gently peeling those plastoid pieces off.

holding hands with a clone in front of their legion/squad/division for the first time must have been so much fun to watch. their brothers are all elbowing each other as they watch whoever it is squirm, pretend whoever is holding their hand doesn’t exist, or just having heart eyes the entire time. maybe they trip over something.

kissing a clone’s hand. you start with small brushes against their skin, barely noticeable and work your way up their fingers before kissing their hand oh so softly as they’re freaking PANICKING on the inside bc wdym ure kissing there! they kill droids and separatists with those!! why does it feel so good!!

teaching any of the clones how to cuddle was probably a mixture of the best feeling ever or the funniest because them not knowing where to put their hands, arms going numb, & both trying to make sure the other isn’t uncomfy so many of the clones would let their arms go numb if it meant whoever they were with was comfortable or falling asleep…

Now posting, for the @cloneshippingbigbang Squad 11

So There's This Guy

by @catbuir and @elsaanna007, with art by @mock-arts and @anstarwar

Rating: E, 18+ Tags: cloneship, cloneshipping, Echo/Fives, friends to lovers, nsfw, mutual pining, first kiss, first time, masturbation, oral sex, orgasm delay/denial, smut, explicit sexual content, hand jobs, sexual tension, resolved sexual tension, clone trooper culture, clone troopers deserve better

Check it out on Ao3 - and check out Anstarwar & Mock's art on Ao3 too!

The war is over!

Jesse, Kix, Echo and Fives live together in an apartment on Coruscant. 

Echo finds himself in a new romance with a beautiful woman named Hehna. After finding himself lacking in experience, Fives offers to help him out with advice and practice. Unfortunately for Fives, this awakens some feelings he thought were buried deep and he doesn’t know what to do about them. He decides to put them aside and be happy that Echo has found someone.

Fives’ advice does help Echo become more confident with his new girlfriend, but something is holding him back. His thoughts keep returning to his best friend and he’s not the only one who notices.

Disclaimer: I am speaking as a Chinese-American so my thoughts reflect that background. Definitely do not take this as a comprehensive thought piece on immigrant parents, there are better and smarter writers than me on this topic

A common HC I see in TCW fanfic is that Alpha-17 had a hand in raising the CCs (Cody, Wolffe, Fox, Bly, and Ponds most frequently) beyond just training and graduating them from the ARC program. Like he was actively acting as an older brother figure and teacher from a very young age. The exact relationship varies, but common themes include him being extremely harsh during training, gentle with them in other times, and emotionally repressed/does not like expressing vulnerability.

The way he's written kinda reminds me of immigrant parents. Everything they do in regards to their kids comes from a place of good intention. Immigrant parents want their kids to succeed and have a better life than they did just as Alpha-17 wants the CCs to survive the war and to successfully lead and guide their men. But immigrant parents can encourage their kids in very harsh and potentially traumatizing ways (tiger parenting comes to mind, given my background) leading to a lot of kids having tense relationships with their parents. I can imagine Alpha-17 doing the same with the CCs, where he's very harsh with their training (pushing them beyond their physical limits during training, verbally berating them, beating them bloody during sparring) for the sake of making sure they survive.

I can't say for certain, but I suspect it's a combination of the fact that immigrant parents often come from a cultural background where such parenting is the norm. Given that the Alphas were raised by awful Mando trainers and Kaminoan scientists, their view of what the appropriate way to raise kids is probably extremely skewed.

This leads to complicated feelings from the kids. As adults, we can usually understand why our parents are the way they are. We can recognize and be grateful for the sacrifices our parents made for us and understand why they were so harsh on us as kids. And there are plenty of good moments where it's clear our parents loved us. But we also remember the way our parents treated us in pushing us towards success. We remember them being hard on us to the point of tears and we don't want our kids to be raised that way.

I can imagine Alpha-17 and the CCs having a similar tenuous relationship. Alpha-17 were hard on the CCs because he wanted them to survive Kamino and the war. And the CCs recognize that. But it doesn't stop the CCs from resenting the Alphas for what they put them through during their training.

It's not an exact parallel of course. For one, immigrant kids usually aren't in a situation where poor performance can lead to their death like the clones were lol. And there's also a lot of nuances that I haven't covered like collectivist vs individualist culture (I can definitely imagine the clones having an extremely collectivist culture out of necessity), the effects of trauma, the fact that the Alphas would likely be kids raising kids, survival mentality, etc (i'm not that well-read on this kind of stuff and would not be able to write comprehensively on the topic. again there are better and smarter writers than some rando on tumblr yapping about clones).

said this in the tags of another post but i'm still thinking about it. because i think this is what bothers me about a lot of clone and jedi fanon, like plo koon as wolffe's dad or cody and obi-wan as an old married couple. neither the jedi nor the clones have a culture where those roles are A Thing. there is no "this person is like a parent to me," or "i love them so much wish we could be together always and forever."

lol so a month or so ago I went on a... this-adhd-med-I'm-trying-is-actually-making-it-worse?!!-induced fixation rabbit hole and possibly wrote out like 30+ pages about clone culture/worldbuilding. During which I realized the clones would probably have NO sense of amatonormativity, like at all

Why would they be ingrained with the same standards and expectations about relationships/marriage/nuclear family etc that we are familiar with when their exposure is primarily limited to:

1. Jango who requested a clone of himself to raise as a single father

2. Kaminoan scientists who reproduce via cloning

3. Bounty hunter trainers who agreed to cut contact with their families and live on a secret isolated planet for 10+ years

4. Jedi generals who are separated from their birth families, raised communally, and swear off marriage

And that's not even to mention their indoctrination

Chuchi: And what happens when you're too old to fight? Clone: That's not a scenario we're trained to think about

Like the aspects of amatonormativity and compulsory sexuality/romance that come from societal pressures and an idea of "purpose." The belief that "love/marriage and having a family is the most important and fulfilling path" or whatever. That is not something that would show up in an environment like Kamino, which depends on and enforces an entirely unrelated set of expectations. The clones are trained and conditioned to value their singular purpose as expendable soldiers. They'd probably be specifically discouraged from thinking about those things, to the Kaminoans it would just be a distraction, most of them won't live long enough for it to be relevant anyway. (Not to say that none of them would ever end up wanting those things, just I think generally operating from a baseline of disinterest/low-priority)

I think this is part of why idk how I feel about what little of Rep Comm I've read. Like the whole Kal'buir thing, I get it for the nulls whomst he literally adopted but for the others? There's a difference between a father and a trainer, even if he's a nice one. And I guess it just feels like "fixing deficits" rather than letting clone culture be different than ours (same with like transplanting them into Mando culture/heritage, giving them all girlfriends, and curing the accelerated aging)

also pulling this out of the tags because once again, shaking your hand:

#our norms are not their norms#and it's so much more interesting to explore theirs instead of pigeonholing them to conform to ours#(esp when our norms are dumb too anyway)#so yeah more aroallo jedi please!

i think alloaro is/should be the "expected norm" for the jedi honestly.

#I also just love the idea of clones raising younger clones/tubies not as their children but as little brothers -- #like numa was calling waxer and boil “brother” the whole episode yall#and omega always refers to the batch only as her brothers not dads

my hc for clone family structure is based entirely around sibling relationships and military hierarchy. all clones are brothers but big brother = person in charge of keeping you alive = commanding officer. nothing to do with age, a designation based solely on rank and/or the nature of the relationship. to be a big brother means to hold responsibility for someone, either by the choice of making a friend and deciding to take that role in their life or by getting promoted into a position of authority. cody is the big brother of the entire 3rd system army, but also be decided to be a mentor/big brother to rex in particular because he liked rex and wanted to teach him some things to help him survive. (in this way i think they could be an interesting parallel to the jedi, in that mentor type relationships are the most important/form the basis for how people become connected and take care of each other.)