I feel so bad for the guy that had to be Tech’s flight instructor on Kamino. Just like imagine feeling happy and secure in your job as a clone cadet flight instructor, and then this scrawny little clone who’s about five years younger than the others in your class with giant round goggles and his hair standing on end from shorting out Kamino’s entire electrical system on a dare marches up to the flight simulator, looks at you, and says, “Look, sir, let’s not kid ourselves here. There’s nothing about flying you can teach me that I don’t already know. I’ve read every flight manual ever written and can recite the specs of any standard ship in the galaxy. My enhanced mental abilities allow me to process information from multiple sources faster than you can even remember what you ate for breakfast. I’m already a better pilot than you will ever be, so just give me the score that we both need to be done with each other and let’s move on with our lives” and then slams on the gas
So anyways, I’m still not over Tech
I love that Din Djarin has a mustache. Like who is that mustache for?? Nobody but himself. He loves that thing. Probably smiles at it in the mirror
Cut literally told Hunter “you need to take care of your people” and then Hunter turned around and gave them the best care that has ever been cared in the history of ever
Examples #56,282-56,285 of Hunter being an exceptional older brother/leader:
- Noticing Crosshair's continued hand tremor, but being discreet about it
- Noticing how close Crosshair and Omega have become
- Drawing a hard line on Omega being anywhere near Fennec, but also...
- Giving Omega an important mission of her own: talk to Crosshair about the hand tremors (because he knows Omega needs something to do AND he knows Crosshair needs to stop avoiding the problem)
I wasn’t a die-hard Tech Lives believer (more of a “I HOPE Tech Lives” believer) but the end of the show has me grieving hard all over again, so here’s my little ode to Tech based on things I’ve noticed about him from rewatching the show:
Tech LOVES his brothers, and he genuinely misses Crosshair. When he has his heart to heart with Omega in the ipsium cavern, the way that he mentions Crosshair—even though that wasn’t even really what they were discussing—shows how often Crosshair is on his mind, so much so that he can’t really talk about people leaving and changing without bringing him up. When they get the Plan 88 from Crosshair, Tech is vocal and insistent about doing whatever they can to bring Crosshair back—because “he is still our brother.”
Tech is incredibly moral. Not that he’s any more moral than I think generally TBB is, but he’s not afraid to speak up when he sees something that he disagrees with fundamentally. “The systematic termination of the Jedi is a big one for me.” “There’s a fundamental different between taking fire in battle and being used for target practice.” Even in just the first episode, we see how firm his opinions are, based on what he believes: that people are people, that HIS BROTHERS are people, that they deserve better, that there is such a thing as right and wrong.
Tech may be practical, but that doesn’t make him any less crazy than his brothers—in fact, I would argue he is one of the more unhinged members of the bad batch. His plans and ideas see everything factually, factoring in risk not as an emotional factor but as a numerical one. He knows their skills, and what they are capable of, and he pushes them to those capabilities, even if the resulting strategy is absolutely insane. The best part is, as insane as he may be, his brothers trust him, because, as Tech himself said, he is seldom wrong.
Tech has a beautiful sense of wonder and awe for the world around him. How many times do we see him go wide-eyed as he encounters something that absolutely fascinates him—even if that thing is a Zillo beast that just ate an entire Imperial crew.
Tech is INSANE. Not unhinged, like I said earlier, but skill-wise, ability-wise, he is an absolute powerhouse. I will forever be grateful to the writers of TBB who gave us a techy, intelligent character who is not your average scrawny computer guy that we get in action movies. You have to have a lot of guts to be the guy in your squad who turns your back on the fight to bend over a computer and hack into a file or break an encryption or alter the programming—already a delicate operation, but with the added risk of getting shot with your back turned. He frickin wields double blasters so that he can shoot more clankers more efficiently (if that’s not practical Tech, I don’t know what is). He DOESN’T WEAR LEG ARMOR SO THAT HE CAN CARRY HIS TOOLS WITH HIM INTO THE FIELD. In “Faster,” we see his hand inching towards his blaster, ready to defend and protect the second it’s necessary—and you know he would’ve beaten anyone to the draw. He fought a group of Imperial troopers!!! With a broken leg!!!!!
Tech was amazing, and I hate that he’s dead, that we never got to see him grow old, that he never saw Crosshair again. But WHAT A LIFE HE LIVED.
I love the implication in TCW S7 that the other clones have heard about CF99, but it’s all just rumors, random pieces of gossip and information. Because with an army of that size, information is bound to get distorted, especially when it comes to an elite force like The Bad Batch. An elite squad of clones that performs special and black ops missions with a 100% success rate?? Are you sure?? I heard that…
And even better, I bet the batch encourages all of the rumors and even spreads some themselves. Those droids that were ripped to pieces?? Yeah, Hunter did that with his teeth. Crosshair? One time he took out an entire legion of droids from twelve kliks away in the dark and the seppies didn’t even know until morning. Wrecker once rigged a chain reaction explosion so masterfully that it blew up an entire tectonic plate on the volcanic planet they were on. And the only reason Tech hasn’t hacked into every Separatist database on the galaxy and destroyed them on the inside from his datapad is because he’s too busy saving entire star systems with piloting skills that rival Anakin Skywalker’s.
Season 2 Bad Batch’s wardrobe change has so many fantastic implications:
I bet Tech quit wearing armor first, man literally never wore leg armor, I fully believe that he just walked off the Marauder one day in his cute little vest and ignored everyone’s stares
Wrecker probably got jealous though and was like “Hunter why can’t I not wear armor” except he literally doesn’t have any other clothes. So Omega is like SHOPPING!!
Echo, frankly, was concerned, but Omega was so excited about it that he just gave up
Hunter, at some point, saw a red scarf and was like “…I like this. a lot”
Finding clothes that fit Wrecker was like IMPOSSIBLE. Hunter tried doing the alterations but all the seams ended up crooked. They really missed Crosshair for that part
Shopkeepers kept asking Hunter, “Why are you buying clothes for your droid???” Which made Echo very salty, except the shopkeepers were usually so mortified at their mistake that they would give the batch a huge discount (“this is just Pantora all over again” “come ooooon, Echo, you’re really helping us out here” “fine, but next time, I am worth 60% off!!”)
Omega, again, was VERY excited (“I’ve never picked my own clothes before!”) and the boys definitely got carried away making sure she had EVERYTHING (“Omega, come here and pick out a raincoat” “Omega, do you have enough socks??” “Look, Omega, this is a nice sweater, you like sweaters, right??” “How fast are you gonna grow?? That’s it, we’re buying jeans in every size”)
Not that they didn’t customize their armor before, but now that they are dressing themselves in civilian clothes their own personal styles really come out. That is when they discover that Tech is actually extremely fashionable, and Hunter is literally a mountain hippie man
The more that I think about the early episodes of TBB S3, the funnier they get to me. Like
First we have Crosshair, who is really getting to know Omega for the first time. His only real interactions with her in the past have involved his brothers being EXTRA protective of her, so in his head Omega is probably just this poor, scared, naive little kid. And then one day she just pulls up to his prison cell and is like “what’s up, loser, we’re getting out of here” and then proceeds to sneak him out of a high security government lab under the nose of the emperor himself (she knows our battle plans?? Of course she knows all of our battle plans, that’s a normal thing to teach a 12 year old…) Not to mention the fact that Omega gambled in a bar and won more credits than either of them had probably ever seen in their lives, so that they could bribe the space TSA into getting them off world (WHY does the kid know how to gamble). Not that Crosshair is in any position to judge someone’s parenting, but he has QUESTIONS.
Omega, meanwhile, is for the first time getting the full Crosshair Experience, complete with every bit of sarcasm, snark, and sass that the man has been bottling up on Tantiss, and she is not having it. No, Crosshair, I don’t really know how to fly this shuttle, why don’t you quit your backseat flying and get your butt up here and do this yourself? No, Crosshair, we cannot open fire on civilians in an airport, I thought that was just an inhibitor chip thing for you. No, Crosshair, we are NOT LEAVING OUR MAN-EATING HOUND ALONE AND UNSUPERVISED ON A RESIDENTIAL PLANET.
And then you have Hunter, who hasn’t been thinking clearly for five months and who probably is living off a diet of spiked lemonade and sour patch kids (to match the bitterness inside him), who went from thinking “oh yeah we’re gonna settle down on Space Greece” to “Wrecker, that one crime syndicate called us back, if we murder this one guy for them then they MIGHT give us some info on Omega, wheels up in 10”
And poor Wrecker finds himself as The Responsible Adult for the first time in his life, which is incredibly confusing and a little bit scary and Hunter, you are TOO CLOSE to the edge of that cliff!! He’s never really believed in vegetables before but Echo says they’re good for you so he spends every moment that he’s not trying to keep Hunter from starting a second interplanetary war over the disappearance of his kid attempting to convince Hunter to try an apple or something.
And then it all culminates in this very tense, dramatic moment where they’re all staring at each other and Omega is like “yay now we can all get therapy!” and Wrecker is like “Echo come back I can’t do this on my own anymore” and Hunter is like “you can’t commit fratricide in front of the kid, you can’t commit fratricide in front of the kid” and Crosshair is like “TAKE YOUR SCARY CHILD BACK” and if that’s not peak Bad Batch then I don’t know what is
People who can write, I definitely want a fic of the entire batch having it out in the training room hahaaaa
I totally agree with everything, if I’m allowed to add:
The first time Echo witnesses their “conflict resolution,” he’s shocked and def pulls the older brother card to get them to chill out
However, it takes approximately two days for Echo and Tech to have a sass off that rivals those of Tech and Crosshair (Crosshair enjoys it wayyyy too much)
Hunter knows that pulling rank is a sure fire way to shut down any argument with Echo, but Echo is so obedient about it that it makes him feel bad, so he doesn’t.
Wrecker is scared to argue with Echo. Crosshair is too, but he won’t admit it. That makes their arguments extra salty
Thinking about Hunter and Crosshair resorting to throwing hands and Tech and Wrecker bickering has me cooking up some headcanons about their methods of… ✨conflict resolution✨
Tech and Crosshair have a sass off/roast fest (Hunter has to intervene like 90% of the time, Wrecker pulls out the popcorn)
Hunter and Wrecker have staring contests to rival that of Jedi padawans trying to mind trick each other
Wrecker and Crosshair throw things at each other while having a shouting match
Hunter and Tech actually have logical arguments like sane human beings, but with a whole lot of gnashing of teeth because most of the time they both have really good points and they’re stubborn af (strategist vs genius, you know?) (every once in a great while Hunter gets frustrated enough to pull rank lol)
If three of them have issues, no. 4 tells them to either stop being morons or take it to the training room
If all four of them have a problem, well… that’s what the aforementioned training room is for lol
No literally that conversation would have been pure gold. Wrecker is completely exaggerating the romance, Omega is all giggly, Hunter is trying to be mature and keep things under control, and Crosshair is just floored
we were absolutely robbed of this followup moment:
Phee: Any friend of Brown Eyes [Tech] is a friend of mine.
Phee: [turns around and starts heading for her ship]
Crosshair: [turns his head to Hunter with the most confused look ever on his face]
Crosshair: [mouthing silently to Hunter] "Brown Eyes" ???
Let's be real here for a second:
The first thing he did when he got out of cryo was taking them through the cooling vents and across a foot-wide space PVC pipe a thousand feet in the air to escape.
They didn't even make it all the way to "jump without question onto a semi-wild flying animal's back" before the Batch was making plans to keep Echo for themselves.