This is such a strong scene in The Clone Wars.
Many disabled people fear to be a liability for the people around them and some of them start to overcompensate to prove to themselves and others that this is not the case. This is especially true for those who acquired their disability like Echo and have to learn to live with the new situation.
I love that Star Wars gave them representation with someone as strong as Echo ♥️
“Eh, excuse me, Generals.“
Rex isn’t happy about Echo crashing the briefing, look at his face and body language (dropping his shoulders, shrugging slightly to apologize to General Skywalker when he leaves to approach Echo). He knows / thinks that Echo needs more healing, physically and emotionally, but Echo has different plans.
Notice how Echo doesn’t look at Rex and tries to march past him - he knows exactly that his Captain doesn’t approve. But Rex doesn’t let him get away with it. Echo‘s eyes widen in a short moment of surprise when Rex physically stops him but then he looks down, disappointed, afraid that his chance to prove himself is taken away from him. Finally he looks Rex in the eyes. Notice how his eyes move first before he tilts his head back up which gives him a rather submissive and pleading look before he finally decides to face his Captain and stand up for himself.
“Echo, I‘m sorry, but I just don’t think you’re ready for battle yet.“
“I am not a liability, Rex. I‘m the best chance we have to take back Anaxes.“
Look at Echo‘s face when Rex tells him he’s not ready yet 💔. Look at his disappointment when he breaks eye contact for a fraction of a second before he looks back into Rex‘s eyes and tells him that he’s not a liability.
A liability… Who put that in his head? Maybe it was himself. Maybe when Echo says out loud that he is not a liability he does it to hear his own words and to stop feeling this way. 💔 As a clone his worth was always strongly defined by his physical strength. The other aspect of his performance was his tactical and strategic knowledge. Now he has physically changed and his tactical and strategic knowledge is of no use anymore since the enemy had access to his brain. He needs to redefine his worth. And he wants to start now.
Rex probably knows that Echo is also running away from the images in his head that keep on popping up in the loneliness and boredom of his bed in the medbay and while it would technically be better for Echo to take his time and process everything, trauma therapy isn’t a luxury you can afford when you’re at war. And Rex also knows that he’s biased, worried for his brother whom he just got back. Rex‘s eyes show us that there are a lot of things going on in his head until he finally decides to look over to the Generals who have less personal involvement.
When Master Windu finally approves, Rex should let go of Echo, but something’s stopping him. It’s hard for him to let go of his friend and it takes Echo to firmly look into his eyes and ask “May I?“ for Rex to finally let him pass.
Echo immediately uses his scomp arm to show the Generals and Rex his plan. And while I think it was appropriate in that very scene to show that Echo doesn’t mind using his new body, I am also glad that they didn’t overstress the whole scomp thing in The Bad Batch and didn’t fall for the supercrip trope.
Still the scomp arm remained as a constant reminder of Echo‘s disability, one of the few examples in Star Wars where they resisted temptation to sugarcoat a limb difference with a prosthesis that makes him look “normal“.
Kudos to the top tier animation in this key scene in Echo‘s life and the representation they gave to people who have to find their place after a life changing injury.
Star Wars isn’t always perfect but sometimes it is.
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