#analyzingsw

after Rex & co. leave Teth, you can see Rex having a private moment of grieving in the back of the ship

maybe i'm super late to this party lmao but ever since i read about this fan theory, it's really stuck with me. have y'all heard this one before or...???

so i've always believed that Anakin was intentionally called away from Umbara by Palpatine... but only because Palps was trying to get Rex and/or a good chunk of the 501st killed, to push Anakin closer to the dark side.

but what i never considered, until recently, is that Pong Krell was also intentionally chosen by Palpatine as the one to temporairly take over -- primarily as a "test" for Order 66, but also to test Krell himself.

could a large group of clones take down a single Jedi knight/master? how does Palps test that? how about taking the 501st legion away from Anakin "i care a lot about my men" Skywalker and placing them under the authority of Pong "i could not care less about these creatures" Krell in a major battle? who else, except probably the 104th, would be most likely to fight back against an anti-clone general?

simultaneously, it was a test of Krell himself, who openly admits in the end that he was trying to impress Dooku to become his apprentice -- something Palpatine very likely knew about.

in the end, as always, Palpatine comes out on top. either Krell succeeds, proves himself a worthy darkside apprentice, kills a lot of clones and sets off Anakin, OR Krell fails, as he did, and Palpatine loses nothing... and either way, Palps learns how ineffective or effective a group of clones can be against a skilled Jedi.

a fun little research project i've been working on -- mapping out the locations visited by [members of] Clone Force 99, as seen on-screen in their Clone Wars Season 7 arc and The Bad Batch show itself. i really wanted to see where these locations were in relation to each other in the big, wide, Star Wars galaxy.

click on the map images to enlarge them in new tabs/windows; hopefully you can read the planet names better that way!

the full list of locations -- known, and unknown (ie. not on the map) -- are listed below, along with my resources and other notes. enjoy! 😊🗺️📌

takes place only about a year(?) after Order 66;

has not one but two Jedi who are Order 66 survivors;

was created and developed by Dave Filoni;

and we haven't had an Order 66 flashback yet?!?!?!?!?

Dave? Dave?! are you feeling ok?? what's wrong??? this isn't like you!! 🤣

i can't help but compare it to The Clone Wars and its ending. how it was a show about lots of different people, but in the end, it was Ahsoka & Rex who closed out the show after seven whole seasons. and - arguably - they too were the most fitting for TCW's final goodbye.

now of course, there are some logical arguments for this. 1) Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padme's fates were already depicted in ROTS. along with most of the main Jedi. (rip😭.) they literally created Season 7 to finally show us what happened to Ahsoka and Rex specifically leading up to, and during, Order 66. 2) both Ahsoka and Rex were Dave Filoni's babies. he created them for TCW, of course he'd want them to feature prominently in its finale.

and that logic applies to Omega and Hunter as well. Omega was created for TBB. Hunter was created during TCW, but once that spinoff show was a reality, as the leader of the Bad Batch, of course he was going to be one of the show's biggest focuses. of course they'd logically be the ones to close it out.

But! logic aside, like i said, it's genuinely fitting that these pairs close out their respective shows, for other reasons. they each act as our guides throughout their shows. we meet them in the very beginning, and we see what they've become at the very end.

Ahsoka and Omega provide the points-of-view of the growing, learning, maturing [pre]teen, covering the before and after of Order 66. they both have to grow up faster than normal, and try to survive a chaotic, fast-paced, dangerous lifestyle, where their 'family' primarily consists of soldiers.

Rex and Hunter provide the leader and clone points-of-view. they also, in their respective shows, do their own growing and learning, but from the solider perspectives. Rex has to learn about what loyalty and obedience really mean, while Hunter has to grapple with his squad falling apart, a rapidly changing galaxy, self-reliance, etc.

i think each of them provide that extra "edge" or "push" to their more cautious counterparts. whereas leaders like Hunter and Rex are more conservative decision-makers and have lines they prefer not to cross, i feel like both Crosshair and Howzer [by S3] are willing to tiptoe and cross those lines if the situation calls for it. (remember Howzer pushing Rex to up his interrogation on the captured CX clone? then also pushing Rex to bring Crosshair in for further questioning?)

i also think both of them have tight inner circles of trust and hold their trust close to their chests; they don't just take people at their word, they absolutely need to see proof for themselves. (we see this with Crosshair's realization/acceptance about the clones' fate during 2x12 and Howzer's realization that Crosshair has changed in 3x07.)

unfortunately, Howzer doesn't have a lot of screentime, so don't know him that well. hopefully, a new "clone rebellion" show post-TBB will fix that, and we might see even more similarites between these two.