Today I want to talk about this piece of shit and his most memed line "Who knew clones were so paternal."
At this point the "Anyone who watched Star Wars" jokes have been done to death so I'm gonna overthink because that's what a creative writing degree taught me to do.
Before we begin, I have a family in Palestine's go fund me pinned on my blog. if you can I invite you to either donate or spread it around, every little bit helps. Thank you and back to my bullshit.
Viewer Omniscience occurs when an audience is given multiple perspectives at once, it is both a tool and a downfall to character nuance. While it can have many positives such as providing multiple perspectives from large casts of characters or characters who get separated, i want to focus on the negatives. Aside from it being funny, why does Royce Hemlock's line give us that reaction?.
Simply put, we have seen Star Wars, hemlock has not. We've played the Cal Kestis Saga and watched old men Rex, Gregor and Wolfe interact with Ezra Bridger. We were there for the Innocents of Ryloth and the whole of bad batch and the clone who was kind to Boba before he was betrayed. Hemlock was not, he was off on his mad scientist shit. He doesn't know about any of these events. The only clones he interacts with are his experiments and Emerie. there's not exactly a lot of opportunities to see the Mandalorian adoption instinct in action. Frankly, it would be weird if he did know that clones are prone to picking up any kid they see alone for more than five seconds.
It's not exclusive to this meme either. let's take Azula for an example. There are some in the fandom who expect her to intrinsically understand that everything she has been taught is wrong. Zuko was able to understand that colonisation and child abuse is bad so why couldn't she?. What they forget is that Zuko had three years away and tons of chances and his mother carefully contradicting some of his lessons as a child before he even started to realise it was wrong. Even then he has moments where he falls back, resorts to the same toxic patters of thinking he was raised with. Azula never had any of those chances, she never had anyone to point out that Ozai was in the wrong. She didn't have any independent sources to tell her that so why would a teenage girl be able to break the cycle when she doesn't even know she's in one to begin with?
It's common for people in fandoms to get bogged down by the details they already know, even when the character's don't. This lead to some of the very common debated in the SPOP fandom. We get both Catra and Adora's situations handed to us on a silver platter, served with a side of popcorn for our viewing pleasure. Catra and Adora do not. They are in their situations and can only know what has been revealed to them and what they believe. In the first episode, Adora didn't even realise that Catra and herself were both being abused (or at least she didn't classify it from that perspective because she was in it not an observer.) When she leaves she doesn't know that Hordak and Shadow Weaver continue to abuse Catra. how could she? Even if we say she would believe it if she found out she's not seeing it, none of her Rebellion friend are willing to consider that that might be a possibility and any avenue for her to be told is cut off.
In that same vein, when the two are reunited and in a position to learn what the other is going through they don't. They don't communicate and they don't have all of each other's information so they're out of sync. Adora falls back into her old patterns of being the protector or expecting Catra to tell her everything because that's what she knows. Catra slips into her pattern of pushing people away because, it's what she believes will protect her, that makes her mean. Adora isn't aware that, while she was away, any times Catra tried to reach out and forge new bonds massively backfired and that she's feeling incredible guilt as well as realising that her attempt at sacrificing herself failed but she still saved Glimmer and trying to work out what that means.
When they get to removing the chip, they're so out of sync that Adora doesn't realise that Catra is truly afraid for her life and ends up treating her like a brat. Catra doesn't realise that bringing Entrapta in to remove the chip isn't a holier than thou punishment from Adora. it's her being pragmatic and making sure that Catra's sacrifice of trying to save Glimmer and keep them out of Horde primes clutches isn't in vain because they decided to save her. It's only when Adora admits her helplessness and agrees to let Catra go and Catra forces herself open despite everything she's learnt since Adora left the Horde that they even begin to learn the other's story.
In the Clone Wars, a clone named Fives discovers the inhibitor chips in all the clones. When he tries to reveal this information he is not believed by anyone because he is the only one who experienced everything that he experienced. Anakin and Rex did not, Shaak Ti did not so when he comes out claiming things that seem impossible they believe he's crazy. it doesn't help that any evidence he could show them is in the hands of people with a vested interest in keeping it hidden. Any other way he could prove it would require a level of trust that Anakin and Rex are not primed to give him based solely on how the incident was reported to them. We know he's right but from Anakin's perspective; another one of his men just went insane, is acting erratic and paranoid and tried to kill his long time mentor. He may have compassion for him and want to help him but he doesn't believe him. We know where this goes but, to Anakin, Revenge of the Sith is months away.
I bring all this up to say, audiences can get cocky when it comes to information we already know, to the point where we assume character's not knowing something is bad writing or a sign that they're abusive or stupid or incapable of changing but all it is, is realistic world building. People keep things hidden, people aren't always placed in the exact position to learn everything all the time and they're never free from biases and emotional judgements.
So, yes, everyone who's watched Star Wars knows that the clones are building found families on main but Hemlock is not someone who's watched Star Wars, he's just a character in it.
