Curate, connect, and discover
You know what just occurred to me?? When Crosshair said “clone force 99 died with Tech” it implies that, to him, his brothers continued to be CF 99 after HE left, but not after Tech was gone. He was a disposable part of their team, Tech was not. CF 99 could exist without Crosshair. It could not exist without Tech. And him returning did not revive CF 99, because Tech was still gone. So it wasn’t about numbers/size, it was about the people in the squad. Without Crosshair, it’s the same. But without Tech, it’s not. And I just—
Bahaha I think we need a “TBB Playlist” that is not songs that describe the characters or match their vibes, but songs that that would have actually listened to during downtime or long trips
You can’t convince me that Hunter wouldn’t have blasted ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ in the Marauder at some point
It really is so cute and sweet how the bad batch collectively works really hard to teach Omega everything they know, even though (they don’t seem to realize) their knowledge and skill set is literally so unhinged: how to disarm literally any bomb ever, how to hack into any computer, how to steal locate valuable data, breaking and entering, extensive knowledge of every weapon in existence, stealth and reconnaissance. These super soldier brothers suddenly find themselves in a position where they are raising a child, and they don’t know much about raising children, except you’re supposed to teach them right?? So teach her they do, but they go straight from “this is dirt” to “this is how to aim an energy bow, don’t worry about stun settings lol” but in the most heartfelt and genuine way possible because for them, that is the most important thing and that is how she will survive in the galaxy when they aren’t there to protect her anymore. Like Hunter, babe, most dads are out here teaching their daughters how to ride a bike, but sure, you teach Omega the fastest way to disembowel a droid with a vibroblade, that is valuable knowledge
Shep: you know what the best thing about being a father is? Getting to teach your kid the most important life lessons, and watch them use them.
Tech: oh yes, absolutely. I will never forget the deep feeling of pride I felt the first time I saw Omega correctly splice into an Imperial database. Or the joy of watching her re-wire her first bomb. And of course, watching her become more accurate with her laser bow has been a privilege. She is truly a formidable opponent. Not to mention her skills with stealth and reconnaissance, or her growing aptitude as a pilot and mechanic.
Shep:
Shep: well I really meant like, friendship and integrity
Tech: oh. Well, that too.
Do you think that Tech would stay up late at night drawing up plans to get Crosshair back
Do you think he had a secret folder on his datapad titled “Operation Crosshair” where he saved his plans and all the data he uncovered about inhibitor chips and photos and videos of their adventures so that they could catch him up when they got him back
Do you think he had plans that were more or less just kidnapping Crosshair and forcing him to be with them again because so help him, that little toothpick-chewing twerp was gonna like them again whether he wanted to or not
Do you think he had plans where Crosshair simply commed them one day on their secure channel and asked them to come back for him because he’s their brother and he’s gonna come around one day
Do you think he had a specific plan where he died getting Crosshair back because him being part of the family again meant more to him than anything
DO YOU THINK—
“No matter how badly led, ridiculously under equipped, under appreciated, no matter how doomed their mission, they take a bizarre and quite beautiful pride in at least being screwed more than everybody else and doing it with style. They seem to do what they do for themselves. It’s not a job. It’s a calling.” —Anthony Bourdain
This quote just reminds me of the bad batch 💛
*the whole room is dark and silent, Echo is fast asleep*
*all of a sudden Echo feels something touching his leg*
Echo: *bolts upright, sees Tech measuring his prosthetic legs* AHHH TECH WHAT ARE YOU DOING
Tech: *adjusts goggles* oh, Echo, I apologize for waking you. I simply had a stroke of inspiration on modifications to make to your legs and required some precise measurements.
Echo: modifications?
Tech: yes. *begins pulling blueprints out and laying them on the bed* I’ve had several ideas tonight, but I think this one is my favorite.
Echo: that’s great, Tech, but honestly I’m really happy with—wait, are those rocket boots??
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
Okay so between S1 when Echo snatched that trooper doll for Omega, and S3 when he brought her that crossbow, is it acceptable to assume that he would just like…bring her things? All the time?? Sometimes the batch isn’t 100% how he acquires some of the stuff he brings home, but Omega is always so excited when Echo has another gift, and sure it’s not usually something super grand, but it’s just his way of letting her know that she’s part of the squad and the family and maybe part of his way of making up for the fact that she doesn’t really get to be a kid all the time.
I just also think it’s funny how his gifts get progressively more dangerous…first it was like “here’s a doll for you to play with, kids need toys” and then it was like “here’s a lethal weapon, shoot straight”
So like yes, I know that Wrecker and Hunter probably would have teased Tech about Phee, but like. You know that those boys were thrilled. Hunter and Wrecker are just watching Tech and Phee get closer and closer and Hunter feels so soft and happy inside because maybe they really do have a shot at this normal life thing, and Wrecker feels so much pride in his brother for taking the first steps really truly outside of their lives as soldiers and runaways. And I just. AH
Echo: *banging on bathroom door* Hunterrrr, hurry up!! You’ve been in there 30 mins already!!
Hunter: *opens door, comes out of bathroom* sorryyyyy, you know, more hair, takes longer…
Crosshair: *pushes past them both into the bathroom, slams the door shut*
Echo: wha—HEY!! Crosshair, it’s my turn, I’ve been waiting!!
*shower starts running*
Echo: CROSSHAIR!!!
*Summertime Sadness starts blasting from inside*
You can’t tell me that the bad batch didn’t make an epic battle entrance while blasting “Welcome to the Jungle” from the Marauder’s speakers at least once
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*
Where do I sign
give me one season of the bad batch but it's set during clone wars era, so it's just them being a squad together and going on missions and being cool in perfect synchronicity. it can be a mixture of before and after they got echo in their ranks. I just want to see them work together when things were a little more simple, when they were together. my badass 99s. please.
Not me begging all my friends and family to watch The Bad Batch, acting like that show isn’t the reason I cry myself to sleep every night
Tech: *storms into the cockpit* Crosshair, I need you to shoot Wrecker.
Crosshair: done.
Echo: wait, wait, wait. Don’t you wanna know why first?
Crosshair: *cocks rifle* of course not. Might make me change my mind.
😭😭 too soon, OP, too soon. But so truuuuuee
Tech knew Crosshair had changed.
He knew the moment he found "CT-9904" included on the list of clone prisoners.
He already knew, but his theory was confirmed when he discovered that Crosshair had sent the squad a warning message.
Tech might not have known the details, but he knew that Crosshair had changed not only enough to draw the wrath of the Empire down on him, but enough to actually reach out to his family - the family he had walked away from - in an effort to warn them.
Crosshair's nature may still be "severe and unyielding," but his priorities had changed and he now was bending those traits toward different goals (like protecting his family at all costs and not yielding to torture).
Tech may not have seen firsthand how much Crosshair had changed, but he knew that he had.
And since his brother had changed enough to somehow defy the Empire and then reach out to the family, maybe his brother would come home.
Tech would have been so excited to take Phee’s last name
except the problem was, the rest of the Bad Batch took it, too.
It started with Omega. She was out shopping with Tech for one thing or other when he introduced himself as “Tech Genoa” and she just got so excited and bounced up and down and exclaimed, “And I’m Omega Genoa!” And it wasn’t really the time to correct her, except then Wrecker picked up on it and he got so excited because “that’s right, we get a last name now!!” And they just run around the house screaming “Omega Genoa” and “Wrecker Genoa” while a flabbergasted Tech tries to find a tactful way to explain that actually only he gets the last name.
Hunter and Echo of course know how the last name thing works, but they also thinks it’s hilarious, so they start using it, too. First just as a joke around the house, but then it just kinda starts to roll off the tongue, and admittedly, it’s kinda nice having two halves of a name instead of just one. Crosshair thinks the whole thing is absurd, until someone new in town asks him which family he belongs to and he just scoffs and says, “Genoa, obviously,” and he started using it after that.
And that is why Phee came home from an expedition two weeks later to see a hand carved sign on the front of the Batch’s door that reads “The Genoas” and an extremely exasperated but endeared Tech.
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
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
Crosshair: *wakes up, sees the entire city in ruins*
Crosshair: kriff, what were they drinking this time
There are two scenes from the Bad Batch season 1 finale which aren't meant to be funny but make me giggle anyway:
1) Crosshair's pitch to his brothers about joining the Empire. I don't know what marketing classes Crosshair took (and I haven't taken any marketing courses either), but I'm fairly certain most accredited classes don't endorse literally holding your audience hostage before executing the other members of your team to prove to your audience that they can trust you. (Then again, I suppose the Empire actually may approve of such tactics.)
2) After being stunned by Hunter, Crosshair wakes up to find himself in a collapsed Kamino facility and on the verge of drowning, and after being rescued his first words to Hunter are "What have you done??" as if Hunter is responsible. Makes me wonder just what kind of shenanigans CF99 got up to during some of their missions if Crosshair's initial assumption is that Hunter and the squad caused a level of destruction equal to an orbital bombardment.
Watching The Bad Batch has made the Battle of Endor so much more emotional for me. Cuz like. We see the clones continuing to fight, even after the army they were bred into dissolves. They never stop fighting for the republic that NEVER fought for them. They laid the foundations of the rebellion. Endor was THE end of the war that the clones had been fighting from day one. It was the glorious, victorious ending that all our precious clone brothers deserved—and so few of them got to see it. But they also played such a huge role in blazing the trail for the people that DID see it—Ashoka, Omega. They lost so much, but they gave so much, and that’s the clone legacy—boys whose sacrifices and dreams lived to fight another day, even if most of them are marching far away.
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.
Omega: being a sniper must be so nice. Just sitting up high and keeping an eye on things through your scope? You have the chillest job on the battlefield.
Crosshair: *has flashbacks to this one battle where he watches through his scope as Hunter runs head-on into a firing squad of 200 droids with nothing but a knife, while Wrecker is purposely trying to set off every bomb he finds, while Tech takes off not only his leg armor but the rest of his armor too because it’s “getting in the way,” and he can’t even see Echo anymore but alarms just started going off in the Separatist base behind them*
Crosshair: …yep.
Literally…
Crosshair and Omega’s relationship has a different vibe though. Their relationship is less of a “I would die for you because you are my child and I love you” and more of a “I would die for you because you are too good for this world and I am your lowly servant, and if you wanted me to I would fight a war in your name because I love you, now shut up and let me devote my life to you, you little twerp”
Hunter before Omega: alright lads, the odds are -10% that any of us survive this, which means we are in it for a GOOD TIME, in fact, just for kicks, I say we go in with no armor and no guns and just STAB our way through the droid army. If you get shot, don’t forget to take a selfie for the Battle Wound Wall of Fame *does a shot*
Hunter after Omega: okay, so I know we planned to go to on our family picnic today, but I checked the weather and it MIGHT rain later, so I say we avoid the risk altogether and postpone for another day just to be on the safe side. How is everyone doing? Do we have snacks?? Are we warm enough?? Does anybody need a bandaid??? Omega come here, you look like you need a hug—
Hunter before Omega: alright lads, the odds are -10% that any of us survive this, which means we are in it for a GOOD TIME, in fact, just for kicks, I say we go in with no armor and no guns and just STAB our way through the droid army. If you get shot, don’t forget to take a selfie for the Battle Wound Wall of Fame *does a shot*
Hunter after Omega: okay, so I know we planned to go to on our family picnic today, but I checked the weather and it MIGHT rain later, so I say we avoid the risk altogether and postpone for another day just to be on the safe side. How is everyone doing? Do we have snacks?? Are we warm enough?? Does anybody need a bandaid??? Omega come here, you look like you need a hug—
It’s canon that Hunter and Crosshair fought each other all the time (literally), but you know who else probably argued a ton? Tech and Hunter. Not necessarily because their personalities clashed or because they liked to pick fights with each other, but because Hunter’s primary instinct is Protect and Defend At All Costs and Tech’s primary instinct is “if I jump off this narrow walkway between buildings at exactly the right angle onto the back of a predatory winged creature whose distress calls I recorded on a whim when it tried to eat my Jedi general, my chances of survival increase from 12% to 16%” and I really just think that would be a source of occasional conflict
Never gonna get over the fact that Captain Rex spent FOUR episodes with The Bad Batch, during which time:
Tech nearly wipes out a runway construction crew, Tokyo Drift style
Crosshair picks 3 separate fights with regs, including Rex himself (and Rex socks him in the face for it)
Hunter literally looks Rex in the face after receiving orders and says “ehhh yeah no” and then proceeds to charge an approaching enemy squadron head on
Wrecker begs to explode just about every single building they lay eyes on
Hunter confesses to a Jedi general that he’s never submitted a single report in his life
Hunter also goes for a joyride by dangling from the foot of a giant winged beast from a single rappelling line
Tech later convinces them all to jump through the air onto the backs of said winged beasts in the middle of heavy enemy fire after summoning them with his self-made Animal Sound Spotify
Wrecker destroys like 100 battle droids in 3.5 seconds with his bare hands and laughs like a maniac the entire time
Crosshair, rather than let himself be shown up by Wrecker, destroys like 1/6 of the enemy forces with tiny hand mirrors and a single laser shot
The entire batch is sassing each other THE ENTIRE TIME (“don’t worry, Wrecker, I’LL hold your hand” “yeah…it’s a lift” “me and the boys will tag along, just to say I told you so”)
And after all of that, Rex looked at Echo and was like “yeah I think we’ve found your new home” and Echo was just like 😍😍
*Echo and Tech devising battle strategies at 2am on Echo’s first night with the batch*
Echo: —and then, that’s when we would use the cannon to launch wrecker straight into the wall—
Tech: —yes, and at the same time, you and Hunter can be on either side rigging the explosives—
Echo: —which Crosshair will shoot from the other side of the battlefield from on top of the Rancor that we kidnapped earlier—
Hunter: *whispers to Crosshair* this might have been a bad idea.
Crosshair: *sips his coffee* I, myself, have always wanted to ride a rancor.
Something I think we missed out on in TBB S3 was seeing how Hunter and Wrecker’s dynamic shifted after Tech’s death. Because those two were more or less alone together for FIVE MONTHS. I’m sure Echo was around off and on, but he would have been busy with Rex, gathering intel about Tantiss. That five months was probably one of the darkest periods in their lives. They had just lost Tech, they had just lost Omega, they had just essentially lost Crosshair for the third time. Hunter and Wrecker would have gotten each other through profound grief, fear, anxiety, trauma, desperation, regret. Those kinds of shared experiences change how people interact with each other and I wish we had seen a little more of that.