( How has Rex's image/perception/thoughts of Ahsoka changed form when her met her to now? )
//cracks knuckles ok kids buckle up this is going to be a long-ass ride
The first thing he notes is her A R R O G A N C E. She's BOLD and BRASH and sets his hackles RAISING when she passes comment on RANK. Though even then, there's a part of him that H U R T S for her. She may be a few years his senior growth acceleration but she's too YOUNG to witness the MASSACRE he knows will follow the advancement of the Klanker's energy shield. She has such an INNOCENT VITALITY in her eyes and the thought of that FADING has a sickening kind of dread settling cold and leaden in the hollows between his ribs enough has already been lost to war. But even the butchering at Christophsis can't crush the LIGHT in her and the smile that graces his lips as he listens to her recount her rescue of the General is the most genuine he's worn in WEEKS.
There's a kind of protectiveness - she's one of them now - that flares up inside him as time goes on Naboo, the VIRUS, cements that. She's as willing as he and his brothers to lay down her life for this GREATER GOOD they're battling for and it garners his respect as much as it breaks his heart. He sees the same potential for GREATNESS in her as he did in Echo and Fives on the Rishi Station, and he'll be DAMNED if it's crushed out before it has time to truly FLOURISH.
She's like a B R O T H E R to him ; bound by something other than BLOOD but by no means less HEARTFELT and every battle they survive, every teasing jibe and smile they share only adds to this unshakeable BOND. She's the first real friend he's had that doesn't share his face and he knows he'd be as willing to place himself in front of a blaster bolt for her as he would a fellow clone. Not that he'd need to. She's a force to be reckoned with and though he'd never give her the satisfaction of admitting it ; her skills never fail to evoke a burst of AWE ( and PRIDE ) in him ( even when she and the General threw him from that wall ... ) She possesses a kind of STRENGTH belying of her youth and small stature but regardless of how many Klankers she butchers to bolts, that protective urge never falters.
It's more than that, though. He's used to being D I S R E G A R D E D as cannon fodder - EXPENDABLE - to watching his brothers suffer the same fate, but Ahsoka ... Her COMPASSION, her willingness to LISTEN elicits an affection in him unrivalled by even his LOYALTY to General Skywalker.
