I LOVE how they managed to portray Rex resisting Order 66 as long as he did as, rightfully, a heroic act of willpower and love–without ever implying that willpower and love alone would be enough to resist. That other clones just didn’t care enough or try hard enough.
Rex didn’t resist better than the others because he wanted to more, or because his Jedi meant more to him than the others. Rex was able to resist because alone of the GAR, he understood exactly what was happening.
He’s stammering Fives’ name for a reason. He used SIDIOUS’ name, not “my lord” or “Chancellor Palpatine”, for a reason. He knew Fives discovered something awful about the chips, he was never convinced they were just ‘emotional inhibitors’ and he trusted Fives’ judgement in thinking there was something more going on. Furthermore, thanks to Ahsoka’s conversation with Maul, he knows that there’s a Darth Sidious around who’s been controlling this war and has something to do with Anakin.
(That Rex knows everything Ahsoka knows is confirmed with that Council call; by having him comment that she didn’t comment on it, the writers let us know that they’d discussed it between them.)
Because he knows exactly what’s going on, knows that it’s programming and the chip and a Sith Lord with evil plans to destroy the Republic, he’s able to maintain a few seconds of lucidity because he knows the thoughts and decisions in his head aren’t his own.
If he hadn’t had that advance knowledge, he might have been able to recognize that it was weird the way he didn’t question this–we’ve seen other clones in comics and such express that idea–but he wouldn’t have had the context to recognize those decisions as originating from something outside himself. He would have thought he was making that choice, the same way the others did.
Similarly, the way they allow Ahsoka to believably fight her way free–without implying that she’s smarter, more skilled, or quicker on the uptake than the countless Jedi who were slaughtered during Order 66.
Ahsoka survives because Rex has a few seconds to realize what’s going on. Because he’s lucid enough, while succumbing to the chip, to interrupt the two troopers raising blasters silently behind Ahsoka’s head.
If Rex hadn’t been able to snap “No! I’ll do it,” in that moment–that’s Felucia. That’s the exact silent encircling move we’ve seen once before. If Rex hadn’t been able to give Ahsoka those precious few seconds of processing time to realize what’s happening, she would have died exactly like Aayla.
And if she’d been standing in the open like so many others, those few seconds of warning wouldn’t have mattered. She wouldn’t have had the vents to escape to, and eventually one of those blaster bolts would have gotten through. It was luck and Rex’s coincidental insider knowledge that saved her, in the end, far more than skill.
That’s how it should be. It was done very, very well.
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