#gremlinreflections

(I couldn’t find a gif of them in the cockpit and don’t know how to make one yet, so we’ll just have to use our imaginations)

There are a lot of reasons to love this episode. For starters, it’s the first time we meet the Domino Squad. It’s also probably their first real battle. Of the Dominos, Hevy was instantly my favorite. He was confident, brave and most importantly he loved his brothers. He loved them so much he wasn’t willing to let one of them make the choice to detonate the tabana fuel. The first time I watched this episode, I cried when he stood there, staring at the vent and I realized he wasn’t going to follow the others to safety. I miss him. Pour one out for Hevy, Cutup and Droidbait…

This episode is also one of the first times we get to see Rex really showing off! Working separate from Skywalker and Tano, it really gives us a peek at his preferred leadership and fighting style. He is creative and willing to take risks, and he is also very focused on keeping his brothers safe. I admire Rex for a lot of things, but this is the most important for me. He understands that he’s working with less experienced men, and though he doesn’t coddle them, he also gives them all the tools and instructions they need to succeed. He listens to their input. He believes in them. I think this is what makes him such a good leader. Being able to depend on the men around you to be just as competent as you, and helping them to live up to that expectation; that is the true strength of Rex’s character.

The GremlinScribbles side blog can be found here

Can we please take a moment to appreciate Wrecker so far this season?

He has clearly been making an effort to be less obtrusive and more responsible. He was very quiet about incapacitating that poor clone in S2E1, and in S2E4, who was it that pointed out they didn’t have any racing experience? He didn’t even menace the baddies until it looked like there might actually be a fight!

One of my main gripes about Tech has been how underdeveloped his character is. He’s the smart one! He’s got a big, beautiful brain and an ego to match. Occasionally, he behaves a bit robotically because of how direct and literal he takes things. I don’t think I’m the only one who has felt like that. It seems to me that the writers realized it too, which is why TAY-0 is the perfect person to contrasted against Tech in this little character study of an episode.

TAY-0 was quite capable of doing his job. He was the current champion racer when we are introduced to him. Cid wouldn’t have bet so much on him if she didn’t have every confidence in him. We’ve seen her do it with Omega, and she clearly thought she would win that wager with Millegi. Not only is TAY-0 a competent Pilot, he is also relatively intelligent. He knows how to fix his speeder, and how to re-assemble himself. He even has a certain sense of art, though that isn’t really explored. He is very similar to Tech in that he has an inflated ego. This is likely from all the praise and popularity his skill as a pilot earns him in the races. However, TAY-0 has one glaring flaw: he’s inflexible.

The move where the two rival pilots who trap their opponent and saw into their speeder is not a new strategy. The announcer and the crowd all know what’s going on when a pilot gets trapped between these two in the tunnels. TAY-0 has seen these rivals do this likely several times, and yet he is incapable of adapting to the situation when it happens to him. In addition to this, when Tech is attempting to repair him, TAY-0 insists that Tech is doing it wrong. He cannot imagine the possibility that there might be another, possibly even better way to re-assemble himself. And this inflexibility is why TAY-0’s ego comes off so gratingly. He behaves as though he knows best in every situation because he is a great racer! There is no need for him to learn anything from anyone else!

Tech is already a magnificent pilot. We have witnessed him flying the Marauder in ways that rival Anikin Skywalker’s ingenuity. He has probably gotten the Batch out of more tight spots than you could count on all you and your closest friend’s fingers and toes combined! In contrast to TAY-0, however, Tech has the humility to admit when he doesn’t know something. He does not claim that his experience piloting the Marauder makes him just as good a racer as the droid. Instead, he recognizes that this is a different skill, and spends time familiarizing himself with it before he decides he can do it. And once the race is over, he does not soak in the praise that the racing fans pour on him. He savors the glory for a moment, accepts the praise, and moves on.

This is not something I ever thought I would say, but Tech’s humility is what makes him a compelling character. He can be a smartass. He can be annoyingly correct. This actually put me off the character in the first season. I was not a big fan of Tech. But he can also be endearingly eager to learn. S2e2 even foreshadowed the closer look at Tech’s humility we were going to get by allowing him a moment of revelation when Romar points out to him that the Serennians had existed before they became Separatists.

This is the Bad Batch’s emotional support Wrecker.

He is strong and an extremely competent soldier, but he’s also an emotional centre for his team. He is the one who tally’s the Batch’s successes and collects their battle trophies. When Omega joined the group, it was Wrecker that welcomed her the most openly, creating a space for her on the ship and spending time teaching her how things work with the Batch. He is always making sure his family gets to safety first. When Crosshair leaves, he is the first one to start trying to pick up their broken pieces. He is always asking what’s next, offering his support however he can. Wrecker is the Batch’s emotional center.

This is the moment I knew Omega was officially my favorite character.

Why? Because she stepped off the ship onto a new planet for the first time ever, and the very first thing she did was grab a handful of dirt. Guys, how many of us went out into our backyards as kids and dug holes? How many of us needed to get our feet buried in the sand of every dry creek bed they came across while hiking? How many of us poured water in the flowerbed just to watch the soil dry into flakes and crack? And then immediately throw the clods at whichever unfortunate sibling happened to follow us outside? Anyone else make mud pies and mud potions with leaves and berries and grass?

The boys have done everything possible to prove to her that she’s important to them, and Hunter especially has told her outright on multiple occasions. They couldn’t be any clearer! Near the end of S1 it looked like she was starting to internalize it. She had every confident that the Batch would come for her when she was kidnapped by Cad Bane. She was willing to go back to Kamino, the place of her worst nightmares, in order to rescue Hunter. The reason she was able to be so brave was that she knew Hunter had faced his own worst fears to rescue her before. It seemed like she was starting to come to terms with the anxiety.

But with how the S2 opening episodes went, I’m starting to think it might be something she’ll deal with for the rest of her life. She internalized Echo’s statement about the Batch’s situation being her fault so quickly. In her mind, there was no possibility that he hadn’t meant it in a bad way. He was only stating a fact. She took it as a judgement on something she couldn’t possibly help. Her abandonment issues must be very, very close to her heart. She may even consider it a part of her identity…

This is another aspect of Omega’s character that I relate to very deeply. As somebody who also has deep seated self-worth and abandonment issues, seeing Omega’s struggle with it has been particularly cathartic. Her progress from seeing herself as not worth their time to taking comfort in and trusting that her friends would rescue her was one of the most uplifting themes of S1. The fact that she had started to come to terms with her fear, only to relapse at one, singular comment… it hurt. I cried. Especially because the comment came from Echo: someone who Omega perceived as a steadying, grounding presence (we see him holding her hand while they travel through rough environments in several episodes of the first season). I have also had complete breakdowns about my worth because of an offhand comment made by someone I trust.

I hope this season continues to show her improvement. I want to see Omega realize that she doesn’t need to be useful or unburdensome to be worth loving. I want her to start relying more on her brothers emotionally as she becomes more physically independent. I want her to be so loved and full of love that even when those fears fret at her, she can comfort them and not give in to them.

At first glance, it looks like a pro-Imperial piece. With the imposing form of the AT-AT filling the whole frame, pushing the words to the margins, it leaves that enormous amount of negative space in the middle. I think it is showing off the intimidating scope and power of the Empire. The “might makes right” message it pushes is certainly the core of the Imperial philosophy. Essentially submit or be made to submit. It makes the viewer feel small and helpless and watched, all things which the Empire uses to control the population.

My question is: why? The Empire is a utilitarian organization it doesn’t matter if the people believe in their cause, so long as they serve. They don’t need to convince people that their rule is right so much as it is absolute. Because of this, the sloagan “there is no such thing as too much force” makes no sense. Besides that, any reasonable person understands that there is such a thing as too much force. Tightening a bolt too much will cause it to lock, disciplining a child or pet too harshly will cause them to fear or resent you, and subjugating a people who do not want to be ruled by wiping the majority of their population out, decimating their home world and forcing the remainder into slavery will breed rebellion.

I think this might be a cleverly disguised piece of rebellion propaganda asking people to seriously question the Imperial rule. Other Imperial propaganda posters use imposing figures with next to no negative space and push the words to the forefront. This is because negative space is a waste and the words convey the main message: the simplest and most direct way of communicating the point. This poster conveys most of its message through the image and uses very little text. What is stated is mostly philosophical rather than instructional, another impracticality. It begs the viewer to look at the brutalist excess of the Empire and come to the conclusion that it is the unjust rule of a man mad with power.

But that’s just an interpretation. I thought I’d ask the opinion of some folks actually experiencing it.

(Edit: I forgot to link the artist’s website. Sorry! They have a bunch of really cool posters, btw!)