When You Remember How Long It Has Been Since You Stood Beside The Person Who Made All The Sacrifices

Cody, in one corner, throwing hands and going absolutely feral on a commando droid, releasing some pent up emotion via clanker violence

Crosshair, in the other corner, giving Cody the “can you just STOP FOR A SEC AND HELP ME” eyes

Only thing I'll accept is Cody is never seen again in Bad Batch and he reappears with his own live action show since we're doing all the character study mini series.

I will also accept Cody-centric Obi-wan Kenobi show season 2.

Here’s what makes me the most upset about Cody’s experience with his chip basically revealing that the clones truly think they chose to kill their Jedi and that their free will wasn’t taken away:

I could make a whole separate post about the implications it has for Cody, Bly and Wolffe for example, but what makes me the most upset is Anakin’s role in it all.

It was bad enough that he thoughtlessly uses the 501st to slaughter the Jedi at the temple, proving that their sentiency was less important to him than his own selfish choices.

But now we know that all those men spent their last moments alive believing they were freely choosing to kill the Jedi. It must’ve been so confusing for them because their realities were just rewritten by those stupid chips and Anakin didn’t even think about how it could affect them. It probably didn’t even occur to him.

Cody’s look when Crosshair calls the Jedi traitors is everything because it gives us a glimpse into what the clones who didn’t know about the chips feel about what happened.

I personally think this is one of the cruelest things Anakin does in the entire franchise and we never talk about it. To be complicit in denying a group of people who trust you their humanity and their free will just to fulfil what you want is unmistakably evil. Using them to kill a different group of people who trust you makes it so much worse. There were two betrayals taking place simultaneously.

Those poor men will have spent their final moments (because I’m assuming not many made it out) not only being used as tools by the man who insisted he cared for them, but also feeling the responsibility of it being their choice too when it absolutely was not.

rwrb quotes that make me go feral:

Alex throws his head back and laughs handsomely, loud and false. "Go fuck yourself"

"Hardly enough time", Henry says

(page 36)

"I had a magazine with his face on it at my desk, once, because I was in it and he happened to be on the cover.

"You stared at it for an hour"

(page 59)

He stares at the screen, at his own message, for a few seconds too long, suddenly afraid it was a stupid thing to say. He shakes his head, puts the phone down. Locks it. Changes his mind, picks it up again. Unlocks it. Sees the little typing bubble on Henry's side of the conversation. Puts the phone down. Looks away. Looks back. [...]

He would really appreciate it if Henry would stop proving him wrong.

(page 72)

"Okay", Alex says.

"Okay", Henry agrees.

"Okay", Alex says again.

(page 83)

"Christ, you are as thick as it gets", he says, and he grabs Alex's face in both hands and kisses him

(page 107)

In his head, he tries to cobble a list together in a panic, gets as far as, One, Henry's lips are soft, and short-circuits

(page 108)

and texts Alex at weird hours of the night: You're a mad, spiteful, unmitigated demon, and I'm going to kiss you until you forget how to talk

(page 158)

Alex's heart goes so fucking weird that he has to put his head in his hands for a full minute

(page 160)

He rolls onto his stomach, considers, and very deliberately says "Baby".

It's become a thing: baby. He knows it's become a thing. He's slipped up and accidentally said it a few times, and each time Henry positively melts and Alex pretends not to notice, but he's not above playing dirty here.

There's a slow hiss of an exhale across the line, like air escaping through a crack in the windows.

(page 166)

"I miss you", Alex says before he can stop himself.

He instantly regrets it, but Henry says, "I miss you too"

(page 173)

And through it all, Alex realizes with a start: He has friends now

(page 201)

I'll be damned but I miss you

(page 203)

"And you are good. Most things are awful most of the time, but you're good"

[...]

Henry kisses his mouth over and over again and says quietly, "You are good"

(page 230)

"Oh my God, I thought you were getting into international relations or something"

"I mean, technically-"

"If you finish that sentence, I'm gonna spend tonight in jail"

(page 233)

"Would it make any difference at all if I told you not to see him again?"

"No"

(page 234)

History, huh? Bet we could make some

(page 241)

Should I tell you that when we're apart, your body comes back to me in dreams? That when I sleep, I see you, the dip of your waist, the freckle above your hip, and when I wake up in the morning, it feels like I've just been with you, the phantom touch of your hand on the back of my neck fresh and not imagined? That I can feel your skin against mine, and it makes every bone in my body ache? That, for a few moments, I can hold my breath and be back there with you, in a dream, in a thousand rooms, nowhere at all?

(page 242)

Goddamn, I love him. It keeps coming back to him, and it's getting harder to look into Henry's soft smiles and not say it.

(page 261)

"So glad you flew here to insult me-"

"I fucking love you, okay?, Alex half yells, finally, irreversibly

(page 271)

He tells his too-fast brain: Don't miss it this time. He's too important

(page 275)

When Alex was a kid, before anyone knew his name, he dreamed of love like it was a fairy tale, as if it would come sweeping into his life on the back of a dragon one day. When he got older, he learned about love as a strange thing that could fall apart no matter how badly you wanted it, a choice you make anyway. He never imagined it'd turn out he was right both times

(page 280)

At cruising altitude, he takes the chain off his neck and slides the ring next to the old house key. They clink together gently as he tucks them both under his shirt, two homes side by side

(page 291)

I thought, if someone like that ever loved me, it would set me on fire

(page 300)

"You and me and history, remember? I'm never gonna love anybody in the world like I love you. So, I promise you, one day we'll be able to just be"

(page 312)

on the map of you, my fingers can always find the green hills, wales. cool waters and a shore of white chalk. the ancient part of you carved out of stone in a prayerful circle, sacrosanct. your spine's a ridge i'd die climbing

(page 320)

He takes a breath. "But the thing is, jumping off cliffs is kinda my thing. That's the choice. I love him, with all that, because of all that. On purpose. I love him on purpose"

(page 344)

He called Henry the North Star once. That wasn't bright enough

(page 399)

He would have taken Henry's face in both hands and kissed him hard and deep and on purpose and said, "Take anything you want and know you deserve to have it"

(page 407)

Henry's smiling so wide and bright that Alex thinks his heart's going to break trying to hold the size of this entire moment, the completeness of it, a thousand years of history swelling inside his rib cage

(page 414)

the bad batch 2 bingo

1.cody dies (i hate this one)

2.echo tells omega about fives

3.crosshair saves their asses

4.wolffe show up/is mentioned

5.omegas "purpose" is revealed

6.cody "good soldier" vs free will rex

7.fulcrum at least mentioned (dave cant last long without mentioning ahsoka in a show)

8.fennec

9.they run into boba on one of the jobs

10.that holo of cody rex and domino twins

my 100% brutal and honest reaction to house of sky and breath after finishing it:

that book broke my back, cured my ear infection, cleared my skin, gave me more acne, killed me with a heart attack, revived me with lightning, spit in my face, and slapped me on the ass and said "good game"

and i wouldn't have it any other way

You know what makes us different from battle droids? We make our own decisions. Our own choices. And we have to live with them too.’

Codycodycodycodycodycosycodycodycodycodycodyco

Taylor is receiving a Doctor of Fine Arts, honoris causa from NYU and will be speaking at the commencement for the Class of 2022! Long story short, she survived. Congrats, Taylor! 🎓🎉

📷: Beth Garrabrant