I did a post about Sanctuary details that I think imply Hunter doesn’t see himself as like an actual real person (at least subconsciously) but I also need to do one about how it shows up in Sanctuary bc If you asked Hunter, he’d tell you he doesn’t buy into the whole kaminoan you’re just a weapon for a purpose thing. he’s the head of tbb of course he doesn’t! He’s not a reg. But the thing is he’s just exchanged “ct 9901 is for tracking and eliminating targets” for “Hunter is for protecting his brothers.” He’s not a real person. Not like the others are.
And it’s a character flaw!!! My favorite thing ever is when a character hates themself so much and disregards their own humanity to such an extent that it becomes a flaw. Happened to my good friend Breq JusticeofToren Mianaai (my other favorite stunningly violent endlessly loving and gentle child-loving war machine learning to be human after being forcibly removed from their life/identity as a tool of imperialism) and it happens to Hunter.
It’s the reason he projects EVERYTHINGGGG onto others. He wants the others to want to stay on Pabu bc he doesn’t want things. He doesn’t have desires beyond keeping his family safe. And so if he wants this it’s not because he’s tired. It’s not because he’s sick of the fighting. It’s to keep them safe. And so them not wanting it as much is a big fucking problem. And why he projects his failure onto Phee (the this is all your fault argument that ends in the brutal tech crosshair comment) bc he can’t fail. They’ll leave him if he fails. He’s nothing if he fails and he might as well not be alive.
It’s why he can’t stand the thought of them separating. In that convo with Wrecker where Wrecker says they want different things, it’s not the not staying on Pabu that bothers him the most. Wrecker emphasizes the idea of them going in different directions bc he knows THAT’S the real problem. Bc if they’re not all together then Hunter can’t be there to protect them so what is he supposed to do?? He’s for protecting them!!
And it’s why he’s so bent out of shape when Phee says he’s not their sergeant anymore. She’s not attacking his pride like she thinks. She’s attacking the entirety of his identity.
People have been sending me your posts and I have been lowkey obsessed, scribbling notes about them at work, re-reading some other Hunter posting, etcetera, etcetera, and I thought I should actually log in and reply to one of your posts. I hope I'm not overstepping by doing so, but I haven't been able to get some of your points out of my head, and wanted to reblog with my own commentary. Plus, I feel fated to find this particular post first because personhood is Hunter's WHOLE THING as a character in the show, and in the book -- as you've said above.
Qualifications: nearly 500k words of published TBB fan fiction, mainly gen w/ Hunter, another 500k words of TBB roleplay as Hunter, this Hunter thread on X, probably more. My point is I absolutely love this man as far as fictional character loving goes.
I know you're re-reading Sanctuary, and your post is specifically about his internal dialogue in said book, but here I'm just gesturing at Hunter as a whole. The book is a valuable part; actually being able to get in his head.
My whole character hypothesis with Hunter is about his relationship with 'strays'. He is an adopter of people who have gone astray: Cut and Suu, Echo, Caleb/Kanan (attempted), Omega. And of non-uniform ideas, given the whole deviancy narrative of CF99. Hunter has no problems disobeying orders, no adherence to Republic protocol, no moral crisis about deserting. If it feels right, and better, if he can help someone, he will do it.
Which is hilarious, to your point above, because once he renders his assistance, he has no idea what to do beyond that. What did he hope to gain from this exercise? He has no idea, as there was no end goal in mind; no want which he was satisfying for himself. You can make the perfectly valid argument that he does these things because he's a good guy, which he is. He cares deeply for others, especially those he considers family. But that's where he stops, as you say, because his function is for others:
As the eldest clone of his (bad) batch, his function is to look out for the others.
As a sergeant of his squad, his function is to protect the team.
As the older brother to his younger sister, his function is to protect her -- literally, the whole show happens because of this fact, from her rescue from Kamino to her rescue from Tantiss.
It's also why Crosshair's dissent hits him so hard as well, because Hunter goes straight to 'is it me?' before he hits any other wall. It's a failure of his function, as the squad splits up, and because did Crosshair split off because of him? Add to that complicated dynamic by having Crosshair assist in Omega's flight from Tantiss in S3; Hunter was not a participant in restoring either of those people back to his squad. So what is he doing, if not his self-imposed job? Crosshair even calls him out on it in the later S3 episode, E05 the Return. Everybody around him knows that Hunter is a herder and is lost without something to herd.
I also like to write about the Collapse of the Republic (proper noun) because it's a character in Hunter's narrative. Slaves as they were, being a commando squad in the Republic's arsenal bought stability and order to Hunter, and all of their lives. He may not have followed orders to a T, but Hunter relied on Republic supply lines, on leads from Command, and on the war needing his brothers' specific sets of skills. And he has absolutely no problem with seeing his brothers as capable in all of this. (Which, sidepoint: it's funny that Hunter has the soul-defining urge to protect, but simultaneously recognises how cool Tech, Wrecker, Crosshair, and Echo are.) It's the lack of structure after the Republic collapses. You see him struggle with this in the background of the show many times. Less-so in the novel, as Phee is the lead-giver and Pabu is the entity he is helping. But after the collapse, there is no backup. From Cut and Suu's homestead, into bounty hunters vying for Omega, into working for Cid... He sees himself as his squad's only line of defense. This freaks him the fuck out, but also empowers him to do everything he can to protect them -- including being overbearing to the point he has to be called out by a third party. Because Hunter's brothers, his sister, they all love him, they appreciate his role in their safety, but also need room to conceptualise their own desires. Something that Hunter has no idea how to do, thus, no idea how make room for others to do so.
TL;DR this long paragraph: the war ending, and the Empire rising, makes Hunter's personhood gauge go from like -10 to -1000.
And I must apologise, for this post feels so disjointed as I've grabbed like, five notepads I've been scribbling in across several days, and it's also a word vomit after 5 years of having this guy living in my brain.
The last thing I wanted to mention was the whump trope and Hunter (in relation to one another). As I saw another post where you said about his enhanced senses as a storytelling device (+1 from me there), and about others' privacy vs. Hunter's pride. The pride stuff stuck out to me in particular. As afterwards, my comment to a friend was:
Which I feel is more eloquently succinct than me writing another paragraph after your post.
All in all, I hope I'm not imposing on you. Feel free to respond, or don't, I just can't put into words how much this niche Star Wars dude means to me and my psyche, so reading other's words about him always makes me feel particularly seen.
Hope you enjoyed the book!
YESSS omg you raised so many good points here and I spent a few days trying to like. coherently respond. and somehow that turned into this whole s1-s2 hunter manifesto bc I also rewatched s1 at the same time. Because god he makes me so so so crazy and you're right. It's allll about the Collapse of the Republic. Because Hunter is more of a function than a person (hunter = protecting his brothers). And he functions very well in the context in which he was created! But when that context and structure is gone, he discovers a big fucking problem.
I saw a criticism of tbb that amounted to “tbb gets boring because Hunter has no character goal” and I disagree with that wholeheartedly. Hunter does have a goal. He says it all the time. He wants to do what’s best for his family. To keep them safe. That’s what he’s for. It’s just that he doesn’t know how to do that. Not anymore. Because there seems to be a flaw in his entire sense of self. It’s small. So small they’ll never notice it. But a direct hit could take the whole station down and brother, Crosshair has turned his targeting computer off.
And this is the tasty part. Because it’s all about choice. I mean. This is Star Wars. It’s always about choice. About how order and control can only ever come in the absence of choice, and how it feels like security and safety, but it’s no way to live.
This was a FEAST I must thank you for the words, and the reply, I very much enjoyed reading through. Was nodding my head along to all of your points. Big +1 to agreeing to Hunter's function and concept (lack thereof) of personhood.
On your noted scope, I always saw it loosely as:
Season 1 was Hunter's season.
Season 2 was Tech's season.
Season 3 was Crosshair's season.
So it stands to reason why you focus on 1-2 plus the book. Crosshair is also a fantastic character, so I enjoy season 3 as well, but the Hunter goodies are in the earlier parts of the show and all of these inferences about Pre-Collapse of the Republic and Post-Collapse of the Republic.
I could ramble on and on so I wanted to hone in on two things in response.
Wrecker's complementary function to Hunter
I love Wrecker. I love all of them, so very much, and it's why I'm still stuck (positively) on this fandom and why I'm still writing for it. But Wrecker is such a great, great character for Hunter to be "stuck with" at the start of S3. Wrecker is, first and foremost, the emotional backbone of the Batch, Echo inclusive. He has the emotional intelligence braincell of the group -- a headcanon made canon by Sanctuary -- and he has a growing vocabulary to enact this throughout the show's 3 seasons. (For those following along at home, I'm not trying to say that the others also don't have any emotional intelligence.) Wrecker loves love, he has a big heart, a big appetite for everything, and he wears it all very much out in the open.
Hunter does not. You said yourself, Hunter's arc takes a nosedive post-season 1. Sure, outwardly. But the background development around the Collapse of the Republic, Tech's death, Omega's kidnappings... That's all very much Hunter shutting down, Hunter becoming more of his self-imposed role as protector.
And these two are stuck together for months, crossed the galaxy five times looking for Omega. Shoutout to @badbatchdalorian for Five as it is a must-read IMO.
Wrecker says in the novel that his home is as a soldier, as well. He functions well with the others. But Wrecker sees what that costs; he has his injuries from pre-canon, he watches Tech die, he watches Hunter all but die from stress. And then Wrecker is more than happy to settle down, as he sees the meaningful, personal change that sanctuary can bring, and that letting go of their old lives is safe. He sees the purpose of attaching yourself to something, to someone, and letting yourself love things. As a soldier -- and a slave -- he conceptualised no such thing, he didn't dare it. But Wrecker did and Wrecker can.
Hunter... cannot. And I enjoy them very much in the book when they speak, and the inferences we can draw from Wrecker witnessing Tech's death (with a sidenote that Tech died of one of Wrecker's phobias).
Then:
2. Your fic!
Thanks for sharing this as well. Absolutely delicious food. Reading between the lines: looks like seizures? That's also one of my favourite tropes and headcanons for him; anything related to Hunter's enhanced senses having drawbacks and truly being seen as ultimately a 'defect'. It has drawbacks and they can cripple him (and the same goes for the rest of CF99).
Looking forward to reading once you're ready. Like, genuinely, actually excited. I need more Hunter whump in my life because he is the perfect character to whump, whether it's pre- or post-Collapse of the Republic. No personhood. No sense of self-preservation related to himself. Desire to protect people, any people, but especially his own people. I can also write essays about this.
And about Crosshair and Hunter -- they are my favourite brotherly duo.
Thanks again for your reply, I seriously had a blast reading, and responding back in the trenches of my own brainrot.
