Not Afraid To Admit It In The Slightest Along With Din And Rex

Omg this is beautiful but also so sad, the ending of season one was heart wrenching!

good to have you back, brother

I LOVE Omega and Crosshair!!!! He needs to come home and bond with Omega lol!!!! Please for my own sanity and because people are NOT making enough fanfictions with these two...unless I’m just not finding many (only know of three sites that are for fanfiction).

Crosshair is completely fine and chilling with Omega. Canon, who? We don’t know them.

The rest of the batch with Omega:

Wrecker, Tech, Echo, Hunter and Rex

I think I’m gonna give Hunter a do-over for this series, since the first one I did was literally the meme and the others became much more personal, whoops.

Image ID: [ An image of Star Wars characters Crosshair and Omega. Crosshair’s body is facing the viewer, angled slightly towards the right. He is wearing his armor minus helmet. With his right arm he is holding on to Omega’s leg, with his right he is pointing to somewhere to the right. He is chewing on a toothpick and he has the tiniest smile on his lips while speaking. Omega is perched on his shoulders, holding a pair of binoculars and looking somewhere to the right, but not in the same direction as Crosshair is pointing. End ID]

Shameless self-promotion!

I wrote this little fic a while back and for a long time I thought something like this would never happen in canon but with how season 2 has developed... who knows 👀

Anyway here's some Crosshair and Omega sibling cuteness.

___

There were more troopers on patrol that night. More than they’d expected Crosshair decided as he peered through his scope at the hangar and the few small portholes carved into the rock. At least they were following schedule so it shouldn’t be a problem.

He paused to tap a quick message to Hunter’s comm, just to be safe. His brothers could take on some extra security but it was always better to err on the side of caution if they could afford it. His attention shifted back to the base. The darkness next to him remained quiet though he could hear the occasional shuffling and soft breathing noises. It made him want to roll his eyes.

How Hunter had thought this was a good idea was beyond him. Though in this particular case he had Echo to thank, because of course the brat needed more field experience and of course that experience had to be the kind she had the least of. Like manning a sniper nest.

Karking reg and his military conscience. Maybe next time he was cleaning his legs one of them would ‘accidentally’ get lost and stomped on by Wrecker.

Now, he could look on the bright side. The brat hadn’t deemed it necessary to talk to him yet-

“Hey, how do you do that?”

And there it was. Yeah. Right there.

Crosshair briefly regretted all his life choices as he felt himself bristle. It wasn’t like he wasn’t used to the kid’s presence by this point but her timing was still garbage. Echo was definitely going to miss that leg. He’d make sure of it.

“How do I do what?” he snapped back, chomping down on the toothpick he was currently abusing. He could see her blink at him through the darkness and an image of Tech flashed through his mind as she leapt at to the opportunity to talk:

“Usually when you have a toothpick in your mouth you make a ‘tsk’ sound when you wriggle it around. Like this:”

She leaned back on her haunches and the edge of her mouth curled as her tongue made a sharp clicking sound. Crosshair felt his whole face spasm. Kriffing brat, why was that so accurate??

Oblivious to his mortification, Omega pressed on: “But you’re not doing it now. How do you stop yourself from doing it?”

Really? They were doing this now?

“In case you haven’t noticed,” he bit out, “we’re in the middle of a mission.”

“Yeah, I know. But how do you stop yourself? I thought it was a nervous tic.”

“A nervous ti-?!” His eye actually left the scope and he sputtered before he had the chance to realize what he was doing. When he did, he felt like digging a hole into the gravel and burying his head in it. He was pretty sure Tech had told him of some animal somewhere that did that.

He gritted his teeth and willed himself to calm down. He was not going to lose his temper in front of the brat.

“You ever heard of the word ‘creepy’, kid?” he shot back and glued his eye back to the scope. They were lucky the guards hadn’t moved much in the meantime. If they had and Crosshair hadn’t noticed it he was fully committed to blaming it on Echo. Or Hunter.

As time went by the tension in his shoulders began to unwind. The kid was quiet but didn’t seem discouraged if the air of anticipation was anything to go by. Crosshair on the other hand could feel something chipping away at his resolve under that glittering brown gaze.

He fidgeted for a bit. Then fidgeted some more and knew he was doomed as soon as the thought entered his brain and wiped its feet on the welcome mat.

“You compartmentalize.” She instantly perked up next to him. “You take specific habits and teach your body to associate them with a physical state.”

“A physical state?”

He glared out of the corner of his eye. He was getting there.

“Posture, breathing, heartbeat,” His trigger finger flexed and the chalk-powdered skin caught on the glove’s fabric. “Tactile sensations. Once your body starts recognizing the signs, it puts you in the right mindset.”

Omega had gone completely still by the time he finished and he recognized that dark blotch on her face as her mouth hanging open. Her voice was hushed with awe when she spoke next.

“That is so cool.”

“You know what’s not cool?”

“What?”

“The fact that you’re not compartmentalizing right now.”

There. That should keep her quiet for a while.

A group of guards changed shifts shortly after and Crosshair watched them chatter with each other, helmets bobbing, while the stars marched on overhead. His brothers were still making their way through the base, it seemed. And they’d managed to stay under the radar for once.

Just as the thought crossed his mind, a light appeared in his peripheral vision, somewhere off to the left. He froze as he stopped to evaluate the situation. He couldn’t afford to be unprepared if a shootout broke out so removing his scope from the hangar was out of the question. This meant that his best course of action was to try and judge the light’s position on his own for now.

He pulled away from his rifle and trained his gaze on a suitable section of the rock, a small distance off to the right of the light. Omega’s reaction was slower.

“There’s a light!”

He saw her point her binoculars at it.

“I know.”

“But it’s over there.” She tugged at his pauldron urgently and he resisted the urge to grumble. If she yanked off his rifle support he would have Hunter solder it back on personally.

“I can see it,” he bit out, trying to do his job despite the literal child attached to his armor.

“But you’re not looking at it!”

Crosshair sent a pleading look up at the heavens. Dank farrik, what was wrong with him? He was better than this, he should be able to ignore her.

“Will you stay quiet if I tell you why?”

Her blond curls bobbed with her nod, reminding him of an overenthusiastic cleaning droid with a duster. He glared at her through the darkness.

Then made a show of turning the other way and ignoring her.

“Hunter,” he commed his brother. “There’s an extension of the base that’s not on the holomaps. Direction northwest, into the rock. Careful, there may be more troops there.”

“Roger that.” Hunter’s voice crackled through the connection before everything went quiet again. The Firepuncher was cool as Crosshair adjusted his grip on her. Sometimes he wished his rifle could talk so it could shut up when other people couldn’t. Did that make sense? It made no kriffing sense. Point in case, he could already feel Omega scooch closer to him in the dark and he knew he couldn’t avoid his way out of this one.

“Your peripheral vision is more sensitive to light,” he said, “That’s why you see some things better in the dark when you’re not looking directly at them. Same goes for motion.”

Well, technically most people didn’t have any use for it since their peripheral vision was shit, unlike his, but she didn’t need to know that. It was a hollow victory though. She was practically vibrating with excitement now that she’d learned something new again.

There was a tell-tale shuffle and he all but whined when he realized she was about to ask him more questions.

“What is it now?”

“I have another question” Obviously. “When we were about to head out you put your helmet on before the others. Why did you do that when we were still on the Marauder?”

This time he actually drew away from his scope to press his forehead to the dirt. The pebbles under his chest plate crunched as he heaved a deep breath. “Night vision peaks after 30 minutes of being in darkness. I have a shader function in my helmet-”

___

Twenty minutes later they were still in the same place they’d started.

“If your night vision is better, does that mean your eyes are more light sensitive in general?”

“Yes.”

“So you not only see objects more clearly but everything looks brighter.”

“Yes.”

“Does that make it harder to sleep?”

A pause.

“…Yes.”

A surprised gasp. He was at the end of his tether.

“Are you done?” he asked not even bothering to hide the long suffering tone in his voice. Thankfully, thankfully, she was and just in time as the next moment an explosion reached their ears and the troopers inside the hangar started to scurry around like ants. The familiar sound of a siren followed soon after.

It seemed his brothers had finally gotten to the meat of the mission.

Crosshair smirked as he zeroed in on the guard that seemed closest to the hangar bay door. It was time to play whack a trooper.

___

The mission wrapped up without a hitch. His brothers had commed to report a cleared mission objective and a successful retreat which had prompted their leave of the sniper nest. The base personnel hadn’t bothered to try and find them. They were too busy putting out fires.

He and the brat made it back to the Marauder in blessed silence though Crosshair hadn’t failed to notice the bounce in her step. The rest of the batch were already preparing for takeoff — quite leisurely so, they must have shaken off their pursuers — and Omega skipped to Hunter’s side as soon as he was in sight. Crosshair would have made fun of the mushy look that crawled on his face if he hadn’t done it a thousand times already.

“Well, you look excited.” Crosshair heard him say to Omega as he caught up.

“Did you know that your peripheral vision is more light sensitive than your central vision?” she blurted back, shuffling from foot to foot and barely keeping herself from flailing her arms.

There was a moment of confusion as Hunter processed the information. Then his face slowly split into a shit-eating grin that made Crosshair’s blood go cold.

“Zip it,” Crosshair growled in warning, only making Hunter’s smile grow wider, before shoving past them.

Karma really was a bitch.

Hunter was brave enough to show him that same knowing grin a few more times before the day was over and it made Crosshair wonder if he could finish the skull on the other half of his face using just bruises. Tech would have been proud of how close he came to putting his hypothesis to the test.

Life on the Marauder went on after that. The brat was still annoying but moderately so, just as she’d been from the very beginning. Hardly anything had changed except that she and Wrecker had found a new hobby to entertain them and though he didn’t know what it was, he knew it entailed a lot of yelping and rubbing at sore fingertips.

And Echo? Echo had a new leg. Funny how that worked.

It was only a couple of weeks later that their little stakeout would come back to bite him in the ass. He was getting ready to turn in early, drained after listening to his brothers bicker for what was probably a few hours (no, Tech, Wrecker would not stop eating Mantell Mix for dinner no matter how many times you tried to impart the virtues of the food pyramid to him).

Sometimes one had to wonder if Tech wasn’t an idiot under all that intellect. And if that was the smartest person in their group, then Maker help them all.

His armor came off without much fuss as he stripped down to his blacks. A strap on his left vambrace tried to give him trouble but he had just about gotten it off when the curtain to Omega’s room swished open violently.

Her eyes found him standing next to his bunk and she gave him a brilliant smile. One of those beaming ones that promised an annoyance.

“Crosshair! Are you going to bed?”

He answered her with a scowl. “Why do you care?”

As usual she didn’t seem the least bit perturbed and he watched her dive back into the little room, making a ruckus as she rummaged around for something. “Wait, I think it’s pretty much finished-”

There was a triumphant cheer and she seemed to have found what she was looking for as she was soon climbing down the little stairs, running over to him and pushing something into his hands. He stared at her and then the thing he was holding.

It was a piece of cloth. A small piece of cloth.

He couldn’t be sure and he frowned at the way it felt between his fingers, all roughly sewn stitches and errant threads. At least now he knew what she and Wrecker were up to when the latter shoved half his body through the curtain and they spent hours yelping and whispering to each other.

The puzzle started to make sense when he turned the thing over to look at it proper.

It was shaped like a visor or goggles of some sort, made out of shiny black fabric with biased edges and an elastic string attached to either end. The right side of the mask – because it was a mask, a sleep mask – was decorated with a few shaky strokes of white paint that formed a reticle, which, if he wore the thing, would align perfectly with his tattoo.

Crosshair felt something lodge in his throat.

“Here!” Omega said proudly. “For your eyes – you said they bothered you when you sleep.”

He swallowed as he looked at the mask in his hands.

“Thanks.” His voice was hoarse.

“Do you like it?”

He blinked, determined not to let his voice crack.

“It’s fine.”

“Great! I hope you wear it.” With that she leaned in to squeeze him in a hug before skipping off and disappearing into her room. He was left there standing awkwardly by his bunk.

Part of him knew what was coming. No, scratch that, all of him knew what was coming.

Taking a slow breath, he turned around to face the direction of the cockpit. Every single one of his brothers was looking at him with a variation of Hunter’s shit-eating grin form that day. Wrecker looked about ready to crack up. Echo looked like he wanted to be punched.

Crosshair took another breath and steeled himself as he pointed a single threatening finger:

“Not. A. Word.”

It was said it as quickly as his pride allowed and he hurried to tug the mask over his eyes so he wouldn’t have to watch their stupid faces as they burst into giggles. The chortling didn’t stop after he’d settled into his bunk and he relished the rush of satisfaction when he kicked out his leg and it connected with Echo’s midriff, sending him sprawling to the floor with an ‘oof’. That’s what the bastard got for trying to take a holo.

Now, at least, he could finally go to sleep… and the mask did feel nice. Even with all those crooked stitches.

Yeah, Crosshair could finally sleep now.

“Guys,” Echo wheezed from the floor. “I think I got it.”

“Oh karking hell- ”

___

There’s an actual game of whack a trooper online, go look it up I beg of you.

Breaking down Hunter and Omega’s relationship. Pt 2.

We’re back at it, here with the second post in this father-daughter-space-duo series! You guys responded to the first post better then I expected in all honesty! I didn’t think my insights were viewed as so important lmao. I don’t really think much introduction is needed here, the post itself is very self explanatory.

(Pasted paragraph: I would just like to add a disclaimer here. I am, in no way whatsoever, slating the other batchers for having differing relationships with Omega. I absolutely adore everything single one of the boys, and I think they all have wonderful and unique interrelations with her. Although I may point out these different approaches in comparison to Hunter’s, I am not stating these engages are wrong, just different is all!

I’m going to separate this into a little series- covering each episode in a separate post, which I’ll have tagged as the series progresses. Once I’ve tackled these two, as they’re my favourites, I’m going to move on to each individual Batcher and perhaps a few other dynamics such and Hunter and Crosshair, or Wrecker and Omega! Let me know what you guys would like to see!)

Cut and Run: S1/E2

We kick off this episode with Hunter walking in on Echo inspecting Omega and Wrecker fast asleep on the floor. His face is very relaxed and he clearly finds it very sweet that her childlike curiosity has tired her out. His line, “ha, well this is a first,” while holding a strong gaze in Omega’s direction, suggests that she’s been exploring for quite some time, unleashing her endearing juvenile inquisition in the batchers presence. Hunter continues to claim she’s curious, using the same lighthearted tone he has always used in her regard, sparing the conversation in the medical wing on Kamino. This continues to confirm his gentle approach and concern towards the young clone.

When Echo confronts him over the situation at hand, it’s evident that Hunter hasn’t actually thought about what he’s going to do with Omega, yet by the look of quizzicality on his face. I personally took this as a sign that his initial thoughts were always “we’re going to lay low with her, look after her, while keeping everybody else safe.” It’s clear here that Echo has differing ideas that Hunter hadn’t even began to consider, and I think that’s what perplexes him in this moment. He needs to consider everybody.

The kid is up and awake! (Let the havoc commence aha.) Omega’s reaction to sunlight and dirt is definitely one of my favourite developmental moments of hers, it really sets in place that this little girl may have been an intelligent medical assistant, but she lacks experience, and still needs a guiding hand to help her through this new world she’s never endured before. I’d like to point out that it is, in fact, Hunter who stops to watch Omega’s reactions, and his FACE when she’s playing in the dirt! I’ve never seen such a parental smile on a man so stoic! I feel like I’m repeating myself a lot, but he is so endeared by her! She’s a breath of fresh air in Hunter’s very toxically routined life, and I love that for both of them. When they finally reach Cut’s land, Hunter is the one to pull her back, despite the fact she had to run between Echo and Tech to get to him. And upon Suu and Cut’s arrival, I actually didn’t realise that Omega creeps behind Hunter, most likely because these are strangers she doesn’t know and she feels she needs the protection. This confirms a clear bond between them has already began to flesh out.

There isn’t too much to say about the introduction and inhibitor chip discussion, as Omega spends a decent amount of that time exploring Cut and Suu’s house, but I will just say that it’s a nice touch that she ends up back at Hunter’s side when her part of the conversation is needed, she always seems physically drawn to him. Which brings me to my next point. Upon Shaeeah and Jek’s arrival, Omega once again creeps behind Hunter out of fear, only deciding to approach when formally addressed to do so. *Sigh*, and when Shaeeah pulls Omega out to play, and she halts to ask for Hunter’s permission, which is clearly given through a series of comforting smiles, is a plain indication of a trusted child-parental relationship. I must admit, Hunter’s face is pretty hilarious when everybody practically calls him out on his parental role- it’s just “why are you all staring at me..?” Because you’re acting like a dad, my dude.

Okay! Down to Cut and Hunter’s discussion. It’s a nice touch that Hunter is the first one outside to watch Omega play, swiftly followed by Cut, who, rightfully so, questions her existence. Although instead of explaining Omega’s origin (and by that I just mean that she’s a medical assistant clone from Kamino), he states that it doesn’t matter what the Kaminoans created her for, because she’s with them now, and to be with them she doesn’t need a purpose, she’s just a kid and should be allowed to act like one. Cut goes ahead to tease him over the ins and outs of raising a child, but to Hunter it was a no-brainer, Kamino wasn’t safe, so she was coming with them, as I’ve said previously, he saw NO negotiations. And as Cut says, “I (you) have to do what’s best for them.” This adds sentiment to the narrative of Hunter’s commanding role within the squad and Omega specifically.

So I’m shifting ahead slightly to the ball incident, and I have a LOT to say about this scene. First of all, it’s clearly evident that Hunter is the first to leave the house, along with Cut and Suu following closely behind. Associating this trio together is purposeful on the animators part in my opinion, they intentionally exclusively had Hunter leave with the other parents in the situation, isolating him specifically with that role in Omega’s life. When he finally reaches her, we see the protective hand come straight out to guard her against the Nexu, a typical trait they’ve established between them.

Now we move on to the confrontation. This is the first time Hunter raises his voice at Omega, and immediately she turns herself away from him, curling into her shoulder and making herself small. Omega is going through a lot of emotions right here, she’s afraid, anxious, and she’s being forced to deal with the fact that for the first time, Hunter is mad at her, for something she didn’t even intend to do wrong. Whereas from Hunter’s perspective, he hasn’t acknowledged she’s already in a bit of a state, and instead feels the need to immediately lecture her for her mistakes….although this lasts all but thirty seconds. Upon Cut’s attempts to diffuse the situation by having him pull Hunter away and reiterating that “she’s (Omegas) not a soldier”, his face immediately softens, he forgot for a moment, but now he realises and instantly the features are set in a regretful frown, he clearly feels awful and misrepresented. Hunter continues to observe Cut’s behaviour as he comforts Omega, who seems to take to the attention like a kicked puppy, lip trembling, eyes shaky, shoulders hunched, and I honestly think as Cut carries her away- is the exact moment Hunter realises he isn’t good enough for Omega. (I’ll further out on this in a moment)

I only want to briefly touch upon Omega’s gunners nest scene because I don’t think it has too much impact on her relationship with Hunter, however I would like to address the symbolism. I personally see the removal of her headpiece and the addition of her bangs as a new beginning, attaining the contrasting yellow light of Salucemi in comparison to Kamino, where she would’ve been given her jewel. Considering the episode’s outcome, Omega is no longer the tightly held, quivering little girl from Kamino, and instead she brings a slight unruliness to her aura, a little cheeky, definitely her brother’s sister. Still a sweetheart of course, but with a matter of confidence and boisterous behaviour to her. She seems to bounce out of her sadness quite easily here, as she seems suddenly awkward- yet curious- over Tech’s plan later on.

Furthering out into my previous point about Hunter believing Omega deserved much better in comparison to what he could provide: his conversation with Suu. “Protecting them is what we do.” The realisation on his face when she says this, it’s so…raw, something he’s taking time to comprehend. He heeds her words because he knows she and Cut are experienced in this field, they are better suited for Omega than he and the boys are, he believes he isn’t good enough for her, and this is projected when he insists ‘Mega leave with the family of four. Although Suu questions his sincerity, and he does indeed dodge the straightforward answer, this is what Hunter anticipates is best for Omega. He’s putting her needs above his happiness, no matter the heartache.

Moving along slightly, as Omega and Hunter spend a short period of time away from each other during the ship impoundment, I briefly wanted to touch upon the tone of Hunter’s voice when he learns Omega is on route to their position…by herself in a heavily armed spaceport. His eyes widen in a moment of fear, his voice is suddenly strained, he is struck with another raw emotion, something he frankly can’t obtain right now, and it’s let out in a minor threat towards his brothers- “if something happens to her-“ a clearly indication of worry.

This next point absolutely breaks my heart, the poor dears, both of them. Upon Omega’s arrival, Hunter is left to explain his forced proposal that she should leave Salucemi with Cut and Suu. As usual he completes his little ritual of taking her shoulders and crouching to her level, although this time he can’t quite look her in the eyes, a clear sign of regret and guilt, because he doesn’t want to give her away, he knows deep down she belongs with them, but he doesn’t believe he has what it takes to raise and protect her. The way Omega’s eyes crumple really catches me here, she’s being left, again… All this kid has ever known her entire life has either been abandonment, abuse or isolation, and she’s being passed on to strangers by the only people she’s ever been able to trust, and not only is it clearly breaking her heart, but she’s taking it personally, she thinks she’s at fault, much like Hunter does. Her line: “but, I want to stay with you.” compressed with the quivering tone and her precious accent really aides her desperation here, it conveys her in an adequate and very precise way.

Starting a brief new point to split these up slightly: I bring us to the continuous glances shared between them. Omega consistently looks over her shoulder to Hunter, she doesn’t want her eyes to leave him for one moment, she’s savouring his face, his details, for the very last time. And equally, Hunter is letting go of something he doesn’t want to leave behind, he likes the kid, to the point where his own self depreciation and doubt have been forced ahead in order to protect her, he can’t risk anything at this point. I’d also like to quickly mention how beautifully Omega’s eyes are animated, they intel so much, those precious little doe irises hold such story to them.

Moving on to a little jump cut enduring the batch’s escape and Omega’s return: Hunter’s tone of voice when addressing Wrecker is so pained, and his facials match it perfectly “she’s not com-“ it’s almost as though he’s biting back the urge to sprint headfirst into the gunfire if only to catch up to the little clone before it’s too late.

However, seeing as she’s managed to find her own way back that wouldn’t be exactly necessary. I think it’s a nice point that Hunter is the one to rush to Omega’s aide after she is grabbed by the trooper (flowing a brief flash of concern crossing his face), although Wrecker might’ve been closer, it’s a nice hint to their subtle closer bond. He, once again, crouches to her level although an unnecessary step in the situation, and I see this as another nod to their familiarised dependancy.

Finally, my last point for this episode, is their final conversation within the last few minutes. It’s faint, but the fact that the other batchers are all busying themselves in the cockpit, leaving Omega and Hunter to chat privately, is a very distinct use of separation. It also should be noted that Omega is the one to approach Hunter, this shows a decent level of not only maturity on her part, but trust between them as family, she trusts both him and herself enough to advance on a delicate situation, we even see her hesitate slightly, before pushing forward with a slip of confidence, and that takes a lot of gut from a little kid. She stands her ground, but with compliment. She very much reminds me of Hunter himself in the brig, assertive yet respectful. And speaking of Hunter, his face is just absolutely guilt-ridden when talking to her, because he too made the mistake of attempting to give her away, no matter how much good he thought it would do them both. While Omega is admitting she has a lot to learn in regards to safety and tactility, Hunter is suggesting he has a lot to learn about raising a child and providing the necessary care for her. It’s a brave moment for both of them, to be honest and open, and yet its received extremely well on both ends.

“If this is where you want to be…then this is where you’ll stay.” The admiration in his voice, the admiration in her eyes! They absolutely adore one another, and it melts my heart every time it’s displayed!

I hope you liked my analysis of Hunter and Omega’s relationship in episode two of The Bad Batch! Of course, I’d love to discuss these two with anybody who might be interested, so please feel free to drop me an ask or a DM, and if you’re captivated enough I’d totally recommend looking out for my future posts on the topic!

As always, much love to our ‘Megs and Hunter, thank you for reading! 💛

Part One: Aftermath

I need some Crosshair love!

and some angst!

THIS IS EVERYTHING (NOT CAUGHT UP AT ALL with S3 though I’m sorry). Omega and Grogu are my absolute favorite characters of all time and Cross is my favorite sibling for Omega!!!!

Omega and Crosshair 💖| Star Wars: The Bad Batch

Posted by the official Star Wars account on YouTube.

Yay another Crosshair and Omega post!!! Making my day @animymind !!!!

brother and sister

saving each other

The way that in this scene Crosshair probably went willingly because they hurt Hunter and he wanted to protect the others, thinking that he was worth less anyways I-

I'm sorry if anyone thinks this is reaching but you can see it in his eyes. In any other scenario he would have beaten that reg up. But not now, when they only wanted him and he knew that if he went willingly they would leave his brothers alone.

Here he kind of gave himself up for the others.

Can we just,.,.accept that both Crosshair and Hunter had their reasons for doing what they did?? And honestly neither of them really did anything wrong??

Hunter left Crosshair because he tried to kill them. He didn’t understand anything about the chip, he really thought Crosshair had just lost his mind. And as soon as he learned about it and how to fix it, we immediately jumped to episode 8 where Crosshair tried to incinerate them with a jet engine. He tried to communicate that the chip was affecting him, and Crosshair didn’t care. Hunter couldn’t even get himself or Omega out of that situation unharmed. He had no way to snag Crosshair from his squadron of stormtroopers out for murder. After Bracca, Hunter was focused on getting Omega back because she’s just a kid; she isn’t with the empire, she hasn’t been chasing them down and almost killing them. From Hunter’s POV, the possibility of getting Crosshair to come with them willingly or even at all is looking bleak and even though he knows it’s not Crosshair’s fault, he’s been so overwhelmed with trying to keep the people relying on him safe and right now he doesn’t think Crosshair is relying on him. And honestly, how were they even supposed to know where Crosshair was half the time? He wasn’t on Kamino 24/7 and the Batch isn’t exactly swimming in imperial informants. But that aside, of course he was thinking about Crosshair; Hunter is loyal to a fault and you can just see the emotional pain that flashes across his face whenever Crosshair is mentioned because that’s his little brother and he couldn’t save him and he feels like he failed. Hunter never was and I don’t think ever can be indifferent when it comes to the people he loves. Whether you like it or not, Hunter was trying his best to keep everyone safe and stop running suicide missions because the galaxy was changing and he was trying to change too. He did nothing wrong.

Now Crosshair.

To all of you calling him a Nazi and saying that the animators and writers intentionally lightened his skin just to make a racist show of dominance, stop it. He was referring to their genetic enhancements being superior. That’s it. He’s always hated regs because let’s be fair the regs were never exactly good to him either (AFTERMATH). Now let’s just take a look at how the chip works shall we!! We know from Rex and Wrecker that clones know what they’re doing while under control of the chip and they’re powerless to stop themselves. So we know in Aftermath that the chip was strengthened to an insane degree, and Crosshair could still see himself taking head shots on his brothers and trying to murder them and he couldn’t stop no matter how badly he wanted to. He was powerless. And then the Batch left; at this point he probably understands that his brothers had to go. They’d regroup. They’d know this wasn’t his fault and they’d come back.

Months pass. Crosshair doesn’t know about the solemn looks the Batch exchange when he’s mentioned. Crosshair doesn’t know that they can barely get food for themselves. Crosshair doesn’t know that Wrecker has flat out said he misses him. Crosshair doesn’t know how Tech said “it doesn’t appear he’ll be needing it” with a twinge of sadness in his voice while giving Omega his comm. Crosshair doesn’t know how much Hunter hates himself for leaving and that Hunter was always planning on going back to him someday because someday he’d have the perfect plan and he could save everyone this time. How could Crosshair know?

More time passes. Crosshair probably still has his chip on but he’s still in there, watching himself become more and more important to the Empire. No rescue attempts. Not one. How awful does he have to feel?? They went to get Echo out of Skako with no backup and they didn’t even know Echo and they can’t go back for him? And here’s the Empire, giving him power and some semblance of control. Things are changing fast and now he has nobody but himself to adjust with, and besides, he’s always had an egotistical side so maybe being a commander and putting the regs in their place isn’t so bad to him after all. He’s alone. He adapts or he dies, that’s the job and that’s all he has now.

Onto Bracca!! If Crosshair is telling the truth about getting his chip out, I firmly believe it had to have been after the events of Reunion. It wouldn’t make sense otherwise; “if I wanted you dead, you would be” sweetheart giving the order to have them incinerated and starting to walk away really seems like you wanted them dead and then going from ordering Omega to be executed to telling Hunter that if he cares about her he should let her go and be safe away from them??? You can’t tell me that Bracca!Crosshair wouldn’t have dragged Omega back into the training room and killed her right there just to keep them from choosing her over him. So let’s just assume for now that Crosshair wasn’t lied to and his chip is out (I’m still holding onto a scrap of hope to the contrary because A. there’s no scar B. HE’S STILL HOLDING HIS HEAD and C. my boy isn’t making any SENSE he just killed off a bunch of Imperial stormtroopers to convince the Batch to join his Empire that he cares so much about??) it had to have happened after Bracca I said what I said idc. If the chip is out, I’m sure his head is still an absolute foggy mess because lord only knows what cranking those chips up to full strength several times will do to you, but suddenly he’s realizing that he’s still angry with them. He’s still hurt. He’s still very much alone. Maybe they never cared about him at all.

And don’t get me started on any “if he did any of this willingly he is irredeemable” garbage. How many times did Kallus almost kill the Ghost crew?? I’m sorry, was it not Kallus who ordered the Lasat genocide?? Don’t take this the wrong way, I adore Kallus and his redemption arc was one of the most beautiful things about Rebels but the point is if he can do all of those horrible things for the Empire for years and is still allowed a redemption stemming from realizing everything he thought he was fighting for was a fiction, THEN SO IS CROSSHAIR. With that side note out of the way let’s think about how alone and betrayed Crosshair feels by the Batch and let’s realize that after they left Ryloth, after they left him again, what does he want?? He wants them. He doesn’t want to kill them, he doesn’t want them imprisoned and he doesn’t want to make them pay. He wants to fight side by side with them again, he wants his brothers back. And even though he’s so beyond hope that they still care about him, heck he literally said “don’t make the same mistake twice; don’t make me your enemy” he thinks they were enemies and he still cares about them so freaking much that he went through an entire elaborate scheme to get the whole Batch on Kamino and set up the stormtroopers’ deaths to prove his loyalty that they could have if they just gave him some of their loyalty too. “Loyalty means everything to the clones” is starting to get a really bitter taste innit??

The point of this longwinded rant my friends is to beg y’all to stop being so black and white about these two. They’re both human, they both have made mistakes and have regrets, they’re both trying their best to survive in a galaxy flipped upside down. Things played out how they had to and they’re both victims of the real villain of Star Wars, who has always been Palpatine. The fact that there is so much to unpack with these two characters shows how flipping amazing the writers are!! They’re so layered and complex it’s literally like they’re real!! So please. Stop hating on them so freaking loudly. They’re my boys and they both deserve a warm hug and a nap after the season they’ve had