For This Final Bad Batch Eve, I Redrew My Very First Bad Batch Fanart. When I Had Drawn This Screencap

For this final Bad Batch Eve, I redrew my very first Bad Batch Fanart. When I had drawn this screencap from the first episode, I was still trying to figure out how to draw the boys. Armor was not my strong suit back then. But now, I actually love drawing it.

Its been three years of one of the best TV adventures I got lucky enough to be part of. This show started as an escape for me, I was so isolated when it first premiered, and this clone family made me feel less alone. Its funny, as we watched these "surface level character archtypes" evolve, I evolved along with them. Im in a much better place in life now, with my own found family supporting me.

I'm going the miss The Bad Batch, I'm going to miss seeing Omega growing up. But the thing I will miss the most, is this incredible, insane, hilarious fandom we have grown to be. You all are so wonderfully creative, funny, and supportive. I hope everyone stays connected after the show ends. You all have made Star Wars fun for me! I love you all and I cant wait to see what the future holds for us!

Bedtime Stories

I’m multishipping garbage, so I decided to write a little TechPhee fix-it piece because they deserved so much better. They’ve also got a newborn.

Phee was pulled from the gentle sea of sleep by the precise staccato of a familiar whisper. Before giving birth to Aroha, she had been a heavy sleeper, but having a newborn had somehow made her more prone to waking at the slightest noise, her brain filled with one phrase: “the baby”. Phee rubbed the sleep from her eyes and rolled over towards the source of the sound. A broad, scarred, brown back topped by a head of grey-streaked auburn hair cut through the moonlight flooding through the window, and Phee felt warmth down to the very pit of her stomach.

She sat up and scooted towards the opposite edge of the bed. When she reached her husband’s warmth, she rested her chin on his shoulder. Tech glanced up from the quiet bundle in his arms and turned to Phee, stealing a quick but scorching kiss from her parted lips.

“The baby okay?” asked Phee, reaching down and stroking an old, silvery scar that ran like a ravine across Tech’s left pectoral.

“Yes,” he replied, still whispering, “Aroha was sound asleep. I, however, was not.” It wasn’t uncommon for Tech to pick their daughter up from the bassinet beside their bed in the middle of the night, and it had been like pulling teeth to get him to admit that his dreams were the catalyst.

“Another of your dreams?” asked Phee, reaching down to run a gentle index finger along Aroha’s chubby cheek. The newborn’s eyelids twitched, but she remained lost in slumber.

“The one with the needles and the electricity,” said Tech, his voice cracking. He pulled his daughter closer to his chest and took in a tremulous breath.

“Oh, Brown Eyes,” Phee said before tilting his strong chin towards her and kissing him deeply. She felt a tear escape her eye. When the kiss broke, Phee stroked the side of Tech’s neck. “It’s all over. You’re on Pabu.”

“Sometimes, I am prone to forgetting,” said Tech, his voice colored by guilt for horrible things that he didn’t remember, and yet had been forced to do.

“I know,” replied Phee, only to be interrupted by a shrill cry.

Aroha’s wide, brown eyes opened for a moment before a shrill cry for her mother erupted from her toothless mouth.

“She’s hungry,” said Phee as she plucked the baby from her husband’s arms, lifted her shirt, and allowed Aroha to latch on and feed.

Tech turned around and looked at his wife and daughter with a warm smile, and the motorized components in his prosthetic arm hummed as he adjusted the silk bonnet that sat askew atop Phee’s locs.

“You are beautiful,” he said, “so is little Aroha. She has your smile.”

Phee’s heart lept as though she were a schoolgirl talking to her first crush, “she’s got your pretty eyes, Tech. What were you talking to her about tonight?”

Tech took Phee’s flesh hand in his cybernetic one. It was warm. “I was simply telling young Aroha the tale of the Prince in the Cursed Mask and the Pirate Queen whose kiss broke the spell,” he said.

Phee hummed and gave Aroha a smile, “how’s it end?”

“Just like this,” said Tech.

Older Tech. Full image below.

Tech lives. And my autocorrect always wants this:

Tech loves.

pspsps techgirlies, i saw your man on pabu

Finding myself needing a different type of Tech support after the end of TBB.

Part of the reason I thought there was no way Tech wasn’t coming back was because of how little his “death” impacted the plot of the show. The writers really decided they had to get rid of someone for “stakes” and then forgot about him. I kept thinking, “But they saw the last season of Rebels, right? Surely they know how to make a perma-death mean something.” And when there was no grief, barely name mentions, and no real plot motivation, I was convinced that was because he was coming back, since SURELY they wouldn’t treat the death of a main character as if he was just someone who showed up for one episode.

And then I realized I was wrong. They treated him worse than that. And that hurt.

I have seen the opinion floated several times that Tech's sacrifice ultimately turned out to basically be meaningless since the mission failed, they didn't save Crosshair or find Tantiss, and Omega was captured. To each their own opinion, of course, but I STRONGLY disagree with this take.

Okay, so, (surprise surprise) I'm a HUGE fan of Tech (literally since the moment he first graced our screens, it was favorite-at-first-sight). I wanted so badly for him to have survived. I didn't want him to be CX2 at first, but then the parallels just kept cropping up, but then it turns out he wasn't. I have now accepted that he really isn't coming back, but still wish the writers had allowed for more cathartic/healing moments by purposefully honoring Tech rather than doubling/tripling down all season long on the wrenching pain of the Tech-sized hole in the family.

But I cannot share the view that Tech's sacrifice was pointless.

Tech died on a mission he had pushed for in order to have the chance to save his brother.

Tech knew the mission was risky - OF COURSE he knew - but he wanted to take the chance, he didn't want to leave Crosshair behind when it turned out that Crosshair's choice to stay with the Empire had landed him into trouble.

Tech went to fix the rail car because he couldn't let his family remain sitting ducks for the Empire to shoot down.

Tech severed the connection and sacrificed himself to give his family a fighting chance.

The mission could either end in failure to rescue Crosshair, or inevitably end in the entire family dying. Tech chose the former option.

Tech sacrificed himself so his family could live - and regardless of the trials and hardships they faced afterwards, that sacrifice WAS meaningful. (Shoutout to my girl Omega for taking an awful situation - being captured - and seizing the opportunity to fulfill Tech's final goal of saving Crosshair.)

Their life on Pabu would not have been possible without Tech's sacrifice. Crosshair's freedom and life would not have been possible without Tech's sacrifice.

So, devastatingly painful as Tech's death is, it is only because of him that his family lived. And that is more than enough to make his sacrifice meaningful.

Now if only the show could have acknowledged this a little more clearly...

Also I despise Saw Gerrera even more than I despise Cid.