Thoughts about The Marauder in the new TBB "Sanctuary" novel
Spoilers below the cut:
I'm certainly not the first person to bitch about the inconsistencies in the Marauder's layout between the TCW/TBB series and the "Sanctuary" novel.
None of these features were ever seen in the show before, and don't work logistically or thematically to varying degrees.
Admittedly, I only read the book once, so please correct me if I get some of the details wrong.
Hunter's private quarters
For instance, all of a sudden, The Marauder has private quarters for at least Hunter. I can't remember if it says anything about the other brothers getting their own quarters too.
But there are two big problems with this:
Where are these quarters in the layout? There is no space on The Marauder. That's kind of the whole point. It's an attack shuttle. It was made for combat, not for comfort. The only area in the entire ship that seems dedicated to rest is the single bunk bed in the back of the ship, and even that only sleeps two at a time. And it's in a common area -- not a private room.
If any of the brothers have a private room, why didn't they ever give it to Omega? She's a growing preteen girl on a ship full of men and she's never had her own room before. That was the whole point of Wrecker turning the rear gunner's mount into her room. There are no private areas on the Marauder, so he had to put up the curtain in the rear gunner's mount so she'd have some semblance of privacy.
Seriously, did writing/editing team watch the show at all? Did they get any notes from the showrunners on these things?
The rear ramp and armory
Admittedly, these two things don't bother me as much, but I wanted to mention them briefly. This is the part I'm the most fuzzy on, so correct me if I'm wrong.
But, in the novel, there's a rear ramp that people can use to go in and out of the ship. Never heard about that before.
I'm positive the Marauder does have some cargo space below the main deck, but I don't think we ever see or hear anything about accessing it from the main deck. It has to be accessed from the outside.
Also, there's now an armory??? This is probably the easiest for me to believe. No doubt they were carrying weapons on board. They had to. But we never see it, so I don't know where it is in the layout or how it was accessed. Was it on the main deck? Was it in the cargo hold?
Logistically, you'd probably want to keep some stuff on the main deck that you can grab easily, and then keep the heavy stuff underneath.
The galley and dining area
But the other big thing that bothers me is the new kitchen and dining table we've never seen or heard of before. Apparently, the dining area is big enough to fit five people and still have room left over for their 'missing members.'
Again, where is this area in the ship's layout? There is no room. It is an attack shuttle.
Plus, you know the Kaminoans wouldn't give a shit about ensuring comfort.
It was probably a little nicer on a large Jedi cruiser, for instance, where they'd have to have a galley and mess hall for a crew of hundreds of clones and their Jedi commanders.
But the Marauder was assigned to The Bad Batch, who only had four members initially; and unlike the Regs on the Jedi cruisers, they were special forces.
Their missions were about getting in and getting out as quickly and effectively as possible. They wouldn't have the space for a dedicated galley on their attack shuttle. Also, the Kaminoans probably expected them to die pretty quickly. No need to give them all these extra comforts when they're just cannon fodder. :(
Moreover, based on the characters' dialogue during the events of the TBB series, the group was still surviving off rations rather than regular food, despite not being GAR soldiers anymore. Rations are mentioned a few times in S1, when they're negotiating with Cid, and then again in 3.11 when they're packing up to leave Pabu.
"Real food" seems to be a luxury during the series. That's why Omega and Wrecker loved getting Mantell Mix every time they finished a mission, and why Pabu was ultimately so appealing to them.
In 2.13, they actually got to sit down and eat a full meal at a real table together for like the first time ever, rather than just scarfing down rations at a console between missions.
Pretty sure the only time we see or hear about "real food" on the Marauder is in 3.05, when Omega wakes up and Wrecker says that Shep and Lyana delivered more fruit.
So, I get what Giles & co. were trying to do with the final meal together, but I think they missed the mark thematically.
Final Takeaway
Giles basically tried to have The Marauder feel like an RV. Like, you can live out of it, but with a big family, it's not exactly ideal. Plus, after being on the run so long, it'd eventually get old.
But in reality, The Marauder should feel more like a fucking tank that TBB tried to retrofit into an RV as best as they could. Again, it was made for war, for stealth missions, for smash-and-grabs, etc.
If anything, we should've been hearing how cramped and crowded it is, especially with two adult passengers and a newborn. We should be like "OMG, they were living out of this thing for a year?!?! No wonder they wanted to settle down on Pabu! Give these poor clones a real house, stat!!"
I mean, if you saw a group of three or four guys and their 12yo sister climbing out of this thing, saying, "Yeah, we've been living in this for the last year," you'd be fucking horrified.
I know it's not an exact equivalent, but it's closer than what we got.
EDIT / ADDITION: And the fact that I found the Marauder’s interior layout with a quick Google search tells me the editorial team either didn’t do its job or didn’t care. Which is frustrating, considering how many fic writers pour over every detail of the show to get their fics right, and then the canon novel team is like, “Screw continuity! Let’s give the Marauder a completely new layout!!”
One final note: I don't outright hate the novel, and I do want to read it again because I don't feel like I gave it a fair shake the first time around. But on this issue, I doubt I'll change my mind.
Okay, so I I was on wookiepedia, not writing, and ended up on the page where it tally's everyone's kill counts, and saw this:
And I thought, "That can't be right" and looked into it further, and it only had her Season 1 kills.
So, naturally, I went on Youtube and found this video that details the Bad Batch's kill count for all 3 seasons, and it puts Omega at ~21.
Then I realized that the video fail to calculate the casualties caused by the zillo beast, for which Omega is directly responsible, and I looked up the bit of dialogue in which Scorch reports the number of troopers that were taken out by the zillo, which he said was a total of "2 divisions".
Now, according to Wookiepedia, one division consists of 5,000-10,000 soldiers.
So, in total, at the tender age of baby ~13 years out of the tube, Omega's REAL kill count is somewhere along the lines of approximately 10,021-20,021 (clankah's included).
andulkaphoto
origamiaround
theartofmadeline
jbbartram-illu
tangentwithtanner
germansingergirl
