*Echo And Tech Devising Battle Strategies At 2am On Echo’s First Night With The Batch*

No literally like I’m obsessed with these two

Also I personally headcannon that Crosshair did latch on to Echo really fast, but he would never admit to it. Like from day one he would totally die for Echo, but it was a long while before he would let himself say anything remotely unsarcastic to the reg because psh, he’s no softie (yes he is)

I’m definitely super obsessed with Echo and Crosshair’s relationship if you couldn’t already tell but above all I’m so interested in the ‘firsts’.

The first time they exchanged any sort of gift or the first time they shared something personal with each other. Their first hug. The first time they fought really bad and turned the ship into a war zone for a few days. The first time one of them took the other’s side in an argument. The first time they had to patch the other up after an injury and realized how scared they were to lose each other.

What did that look like? Did it take a really short time or were they tip toeing around each other for a few weeks? Did Crosshair latch onto Echo super fast like I tend to headcanon or did it take some time before he started to feel comfortable around him? Did Echo butt heads with Crosshair in the beginning? Still sometimes? How do they work through disagreements? Who was the first person Echo shared any sort of personal emotional thing with? Was it Crosshair or someone else? When was the first time he told Crosshair something like that? What was it? When was the first time they were able to joke with each other or make fun of each other? What’s their favorite way to spend time together and how did they find that out?

What’s something that only Crosshair knows about Echo and vice versa???

Just. The two of them navigating getting to know each other and finding out they have some very big things in common despite how standoffish Crosshair is and how strong willed Echo is. The two of them forming a strong bond and still being able to call each other out on shit when needed.

Just. Crosshair and Echo.

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

I headcanon that Crosshair actually writes in the most beautiful cursive. Like shockingly beautiful. Very perfectly slanted, even letters. The others probably tease him about it a little (“you write like a GIRL”) but secretly they love it because it’s just so NICE.

The Bad Batch’s favorite underrated movies when they were cadets:

Tech: Atlantis, because let’s be honest, he totally daydreamed about discovering and saving a lost civilization as an eight year old

Wrecker: The Iron Giant. Innocent yet emotionally intelligent kid, giant super strong robot, explosions—that movie is so Wrecker coded, except he definitely cries at the end and the rest of the batch has to be up all night consoling him (“the whole point is that the robot LIVES, Wrecker” “b-b-but they never see him again…”)

Crosshair: Treasure Planet. Like can we all agree that deep down inside, Crosshair is just a Jim Hawkins, aka angsty teenage boy that needs some Love and Attention. Except he would rather die than admit why that movie resonates with him

Hunter: Brother Bear. Mountains and wilderness?? Check. Brothers?? Check. Bears?? Check. 8 year old Hunter literally just wants to be a bear

I said this to a friend once about Mandalorian S3, because I saw/heard people shipping Din and Bo-Katan and like. Idk if I really get the romantic vibe from them but I do get the “married for no other reason than tax benefits and are completely fine with that” vibe. Din wants to go bathe in the water of their obliterated home planet for moral redemption? Bo-Katan is like “ugh fine but you have to let me navigate.” Bo-Katan wants to take back their obliterated home planet? Din is like “do it homie, I’ll bring my kid, it’ll be fun.” No romance. Just support and tax benefits. It’s lowkey such a vibe

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

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)

Echo’s First Moments with TBB, Part 2

Echo: *wakes up in the middle of the night, hears loud crunching noises, stumbles out into the cockpit of the Marauder* Hello???

Wrecker: *freezes, dozens of empty cookie packages around him, a cookie halfway in his mouth*

Echo:

Wrecker:

Wrecker: *holds out a cookie* don’t tell Hunter.

Echo:

Echo: *accepts cookie*

I wanna know how Hunter became the leader of the Bad Batch. Like, not saying any of the others would have been better, I just mean, there were only four options: a sassy little iPad kid, a trigger-happy man bear, the problematic guy with the toothpicks, and Space Rambo. We can’t assume it was because he was the least chaotic, because nothing could be farther from the truth. In TCW season 7, Anakin asks him who they report to and he’s just like “idk man, if I knew how to fill out a report maybe I’d try and find out” and when Anakin gets snatched up by that lizard dragon thingy, the first thing his brothers do is get set up so that Hunter can windsurf behind it like a maniac because apparently that’s something he tends to do. In TBB S1 when Omega starts that food fight, Hunter tries to de-escalate the situation for approximately 3 seconds before throwing hands. All of his interactions with any sort of leadership involve a minimum of 70% sarcasm. The man has a blaster to shoot droids and chooses to stab them with a knife instead. He left cadet training and the first thing he did was get a massive face tattoo of a skull.

Like, I’m trying to imagine how that conversation went and all I can think of is, “Sir, it’s time to promote one of the members of Clone Force 99 to sergeant.” “…*long sigh*”

I think something that makes Tech’s death so tragic is the sense of invincibility that we had associated with Clone Force 99 up to that point.

They sure didn’t have plot armor—we’ve seen them get injured before, and we all know how Star Wars isn’t afraid to kill off a character—but think of all the things we’ve seen them survive: Hunter literally falling off the side of a mountain, getting shot in the chest; Tech getting hurled into a wall by Wrecker when he was under the influence of the inhibitor chip; Wrecker wrestling a rancor; surviving live rounds in a battle simulator; nearly getting roasted alive in an engine. What’s more, we’ve seen how absolutely UNHINGED their plans are, and yet, during the war, they had a 100% success rate and had never lost a single member of their squad. For a group of clones, that’s about as invincible as it gets.

And yet, in the end, they weren’t invincible. Tech was dangling from a single grappling line off a rail car that was only still dangling from the sky because Wrecker and a single connecting cable were holding it there. Neither he nor Wrecker could move without sending the rail car over. The others couldn’t move to safety unless the rail car miraculously reattached itself or ripped away. If anyone could have seen a miraculous, brilliant, crazy way out, it would have been Tech.

But he couldn’t. He saw the inevitability of what had to happen. And Tech, practical Tech, shot the connection himself when Wrecker couldn’t, because they couldn’t see that inevitability, or they couldn’t accept it—one last time, he had to help them understand.

Crosshair was right—Clone Force 99 DID die with Tech, because Clone Force 99 was invincible. Until they weren’t.