talizorahs | helo572

The all of the Bad Batch!

There was no 2IC before Echo because the position was never required. The Batch will give and receive orders under any prerogative because they all trust each other implicitly. Echo was only awarded the rank of corporal to further protect him from the Kaminoans, who were no doubt eager to get their hands on him post-Skako. Of course, Echo has more-than earned the position through his own merit, but within the squad's day-to-day, having a 2IC barely changes anything.

Crosshair gave himself his own tattoo while he was quite young. It was an act of rebellion, something so close to his eyes, which he was made for.

Wrecker was the squad's requisitions manager during the war. He also continues resource managing through into the Imperial era, with budgeting assistance coming from Tech. Wrecker enjoys the responsibility of keeping them all stocked and fed. He's good at it, and knows what people want without them having asked for it.

Hunter's bandana acts as a sensory dampener of sorts, as Tech-nology, or as the simple comfort of having a sensation close-by to focus on.

Wrecker is profoundly deaf on his scarred side.

Tech's Coruscanti accent is from speech therapy. (I think I saw this earlier in the thread, not copying, I refer to it in some of my fics as early as 2022.)

Crosshair is the cuddliest of the 5 brothers. He will deny it if ever asked, but he likes to Touch, just on his own terms. Which is most of the time.

Also, some things I previously had as headcanons got canonised by the novel, like Wrecker's emotional intelligence, how Hunter's senses work, Tech being an adept fighter, Hunter and Echo's dynamic, Hunter and Crosshair's dynamic... I love this series man.

hunter: passive suicide risk and moderately self-destructive behavior in every imaginable way. he invented self sabotage. something remotely good happened well what if it was actually secretly terrible. you know that guy who goes to work every day and goes home and thinks about how bad his day was and does nothing else and then goes to work again. yeah that guy

tech: losing interest in things and trying to still do things and be interested in things and it's not working and he hates it here and he thinks he should be able to be normal and do the thing and he sucks he was made/trained better than this how can he be a passable soldier/brother/whatever if he's stupid like this and it just gets worse from there

wrecker: gets quiet and withdrawn. sometimes he tries to fake it and be goofy, but that just makes everyone more concerned, so he kinda gives up on that. he's so lonely even though he's got his awesome brothers who he loves but it hurts and he has to fight every day against the worm in his head that says he'll be a nuisance if he seeks comfort from his loved ones

crosshair: it can be hard for everyone including himself to tell, but the main tell is that his number of serious fights and bullying incidents increases. he's just worse to be around. and that creates a feedback loop where he hits rock bottom and starts digging. they say you can't break bedrock well this guy will find the glitch so that he can drop into the void

echo: his snarky humor gets progressively more upsetting in content and you have to call him out on it to make him reflect on the fact that he's actually sad. he really doesn't want to think about it. he reeeeeeeally doesn't want to think about it. yeah he's anhedonic as hell no that isn't a problem as long as he can keep functioning and all that

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!!

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.

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.

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.

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!!

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.

‘Stoked to finally post this piece I did for my dear friend @talizorahs to go with their Clone Bang 2025 fic! It’s a Bad Batch Avatar the Last Airbender AU, and in true Helo fashion it’s fantastic!

The False Herald

Written by: @talizorahs

Proofread by: @theeasternempress

Created for @clonebang Team 16

Read Chapter 1: Prologue here!

Chapter 10: The Garrison

The air is thin here, but it hums faintly with chi—fractured, dissonant, like a melody missing its final note. It grates at the edges of Hunter’s senses. The cold of the evening seeps into him, but it’s not the reason he shivers. Every instinct tells him this place should be holy, that the mountain itself was once alive with spirit. But now, it feels hollowed—emptied by violence so vast that even the air seems reluctant to return.

Echo moves past him, boots crunching over the track. He stops at the edge of the path, staring up at the ruin. His face is unreadable in the fading light.

It’s been an absolute joy working on these 3 pieces with you both, @talizorahs and @theeasternempress ! I hope they look incredible paired with the story! 🎉🥳

The False Herald

Written by: @talizorahs

Proofread by: @theeasternempress

Created for @clonebang Team 16

Read Chapter 1: Prologue Here!

Chapter 7: The Flight

But then he follows her gaze and sees them:

The False Herald

Written by: @talizorahs

Proofread by: @theeasternempress

Created for @clonebang Team 16

Chapter 1: Prologue

In ages past the Avatar rose unbroken, cycle after cycle, nation after nation.
From water to earth, from earth to fire, balance was kept
though the Nations would falter.

In the days before our glory, the Avatar was Rwoh, 
Of stone and soil, yet even she could not shield the world from decay.

Then was Anakin born, the destined flame.
He who was raised from bondage, chosen by the Emperor’s wisdom
The truest son of the cycle
of Fire.