#like this is luke in that cave. we don't need to see under their helmets because we know it would just be their faces under there.

[maidenvault]

I'm convinced the writers were so caught up in the symbolic storytelling they were doing with CX-2 that they didn't really think about the ways that portraying him as the dark reflection of one of the Batch would seem to telegraph that it's Tech, who's always been kind of a foil for Crosshair as well.

For instance, the choice to show or not show a character's face is often very meaningful in this show - Crosshair wears his helmet most of the time as an Imperial, while Cody takes his off when he's trying to get Governor Ames to listen to and trust him. So I understand the choice to never show the faces of the particular CX clones who represent what the Batch would be if they were nothing but soldiers and totally stripped of their humanity. But because we did see the faces of other CX clones and they were just clones, of course it made it seem like they were hiding something.

It's just crazy because I talked about the CX clones as "shadow selves" after that two-parter, obviously a lot of us partly caught onto this, but I never thought that'd be all these guys are. Marie-Claire Gould always does great analysis of the symbolism in TBB on the What the Force podcast, and when she discussed those episodes she went a lot deeper into this idea and kind of blew my mind pointing out the ways CX-2 is meaningfully paralleled with Crosshair even though the similarities to Tech are there, too. I just never expected we'd literally see the Batch fight four of them clearly designed to look like evil versions of themselves. I'm not sure how coherently the Batch facing the CX clones at the end really contributes to their characterization this season and it feels like a lot to unpack when it was just...not what we were expecting.

#honestly i'm really looking forward to what mythologist marie claire has to say because my inclination rn is to think it's kind of.... #antithetical to what star wars is about that they just. kill them. it strikes me as really bleak #like this is luke in that cave. we don't need to see under their helmets because we know it would just be their faces under there. #crosshair #tbb tech #the bad batch #meta #my meta