#tantis

Guys I cannot get over this...I have been on the Crosshair brain rot for a week straight and I just need to word vomit about this.

@miss-musings said it best but I want to say it again.

Crosshair was abandoned by his brothers. NOW BEFORE YOU GET MAD HEAR ME OUT!

This is not me shitting on the rest of the batch, this is not me saying "teehee I'm a Crosshair girly aha 😍" (I can't believe I just wrote that) This is me explaining my point of view about what happened with Crosshair and his little excursion with the Empire.

First things first. Yes - Crosshair was gunning for them, Yes - Crosshair was trying to get them to join the Empire. Was he a bad guy? For a while, yeah. If you don't acknowledge that then there is no point in defending him at all. He was a bag guy, accept that. But then he did better.

But let's get to the bulk of it. The rest of the Batch never went back for him, sure they told him to "come back to them" whenever they did meet up, but they never actively went looking for him like they did with Omega and Hunter. They never went to find him, to save him and knock some sense into him.

They just went "he made his choice...oh well"

Crosshair actively sought them out several times. I wasn't just when he was ordered to. If they were ever hinted about - he offered to take the mission, if they bumped into each other (like on Ryloth) he tried to talk to them. Sure, he was asking them to join the wrong side. But he still wanted them to be together.

He wanted them back, he felt abandoned.

Yeah he made the wrong choice siding with the Empire but I get the feeling that that was to do with the fact that he was afraid of losing his purpose. He saw what was happening to the Clones and he knew that he had to continue to be loyal and useful if he wanted a purpose as a soldier.

I think the idea of being useless frightened him. Which is why he stayed with the Empire.

Eventually, when he was joined on Tantis by Omega I can assume that she ended up visiting him almost every day (based on the way they talked inside and after Tantis) He was quite mean to her considering she was just trying to seek comfort and stick to the only person she could trust in that place (that is another can of worms I don't have time to open). He constantly was mean to her, rude, saying horrible stuff to drive her away.

Why?

Because after all he had done he didn't believe he was worth her time or the risk. He didn't think that after all he had done trying to kidnap her and gun for his brothers that he deserved her kindness.

But Omega is just that awesome that she clung to Crosshair anyway, she knew he was worth it despite everything.

No, not even despite it. She loved him anyway because he was her brother, and she knew what he must've been through to get to where he was now. (Omega is a queen)

But again, this actually shows how much he cares about his family because he's like "I made a mistake, I miss my family, but I don't expect them to ever want me back" (which falls in line with his argument with Hunter later down the line)

There are several other things he did to show that he cares about them

Getting ready to defend Omega whilst she was gambling with that officer

Despite her giving him all the money he still went and followed her to where Batcher had been taken

He made sure that no matter what she got back to Hunter and Wrecker.

When CX-2 followed them to Rex's secret base and they were running through the woods he made sure that she was keeping up, had her gear on her and was prepared.

Like it's obvious how big his capcity to care is.

Then after his fight with Hunter he says this

Crosshair: Hunter? I... I thought I knew what I was getting into with the Empire. I thought I was being a good soldier. Hunter: Nobody really understood what was happening back then. Crosshair: I've done things. I've made mistakes. Hunter: I have regrets too, Crosshair. All we can do is keep trying to be better. And who knows? There just might be hope for us yet.

HE ACTIVELY ADMITS HIS MISTAKE!!! Yeah, he was an idiot choosing the Empire, even despite what I said about him being scared, he chose the Empire. BUT HE KNOWS WHAT HE DID, HE ACKNOWLEDGES IT AND HE APOLOGISES.

This is more of a head canon than anything else but I still think it has some truth to it. Crosshair struggles to convey his emotions and he doesn't know how to directly say what he means. So things get lost between his brain and his mouth and it come out in frustration and his brothers take it as anger or an attack.

Him saying this was a huge step considering he's never said anything in such a sincere manner before.

Anyway I've rambled on long enough but I needed to say this because its been on my mind for ages.