rambling about tucker, palomo, s12ep2 "hit and run", and the criminally unserious way the show treats what could've been something great below (not to be negative!! i love the chorus trilogy, i think it's worth discussing the little stuff :]) (pictured: green team labeled, i can't expect ppl to remember this episode well bc THE SHOW DOESN'T CAPITALIZE ON IT!!) it drives me up the wall that in s12ep2 tucker gets assigned captain of green team, and on their first mission together (infiltrating a fed outpost with felix) directly gets cunningham and rogers killed when he goes off script looking for data on where the rest of the reds and blues are being held, leaving palomo the only surviving member of green team and...beyond one 30 second scene between tucker and kimball in ep3 it never gets directly addressed again (i can only think of one or two instances where it even gets vaguely indirectly addressed).
the green team mission is the thing that sends tucker into his brilliant development arc, but there's no conversation he has with palomo about getting his team killed. despite the fact we see that palomo cared about cunningham and rogers, palomo not only never brings it up, not only does he seem to not hold tucker accountable for it, there's not even any tension written into his interactions with tucker!! even that absence of response could be very interesting for palomo's character. the rvb ultimate fanguide says he's one of the youngest rebels and has seen far too much. palomo could've been portrayed as being too numb to violence and death all around him so he doesn't even bother to expect any different...but NOTHING was written for him at all!! we don't explore any of that with him. that would be a fine way of handling it if rvb wasn't also capable of being a deeply profound show. i look at the pfl and compare it to the chorus trilogy, and i see that rvb is fully capable of treating other characters that aren't the reds and blues with so much depth and care, while some of the chorus trilogy supporting characters, palomo in this case, are props to be used by the reds and blues tbh. obviously the seasons had different writers, my point is moreso about the depth rvb, the show itself, is capable of and how that depth is not utilized nearly as much with the chorusans. (to clarify, not saying that depth isn't utilized at all, just not as much).
i get that the chorusans are written as very silly, but the chorus trilogy isn't all silliness, there's plenty of serious and dark parts. even the episode i'm referencing, s12ep2, adopts a very serious and jarring tone when shit suddenly hits the fan and cunningham hits the floor, killed by locus directly in front of a invisibility-cloaked tucker while he can hear palomo panicking on the radio about cunningham not responding. this episode is what sets the tone for the entirety of the chorus trilogy. the episode starts off like the army workplace comedy we're used to, until it's very suddenly not. suddenly tucker has the blood of his men on his hands and it's his fault in a very undeniable way. that's what signals to tucker that, while they've spent so much time fighting a fake war, this one is real and requires more of him than he is at that moment, meaning he needs to grow. the captains were given the spiel from kimball in the last episode of s11, that there's this bloody civil war between the locals on this podunk, abandoned planet on the edge of space and the only way the reds and blues are getting out of it together is if they invest their lives in it like the locals have, but this episode, this mission is the exact moment where it finally becomes a reality for tucker. to address cunningham and rogers: i cannot get over how tragic they are. here are these two rebels, stuck on the losing side of a civil war on an abandoned planet, and suddenly they show up. the reds and blues. the famed reds and blues are here!! on their planet!! and, well, they don't really care and don't really want to help, but they're going to!! because they have to. but at least they're going to!! but...it's kinda weird, these guys seem...well, they seem kind of dumb (rogers literally tells cunningham "they all seem kinda dumb" and tucker overhears it on comms). but they're here, and they're famous for being badasses, so they'll follow them. cunningham and rogers will follow tucker into enemy territory on a stealth mission, how cool!! except...tucker is suddenly going off plan. o-okay, that's...weird, but he knows what he's doing, right? he must, right? cunningham will go check on him. he's at the outpost's tech center downloading some data. cunningham is telling him they gotta go, like now, and tucker is actively stalling...and then cunningham drops like a rock. cunningham is shot dead by locus, right as tucker's data is finished downloading, and tucker is crouched underneath the desk with a failing camo unit, and palomo is on comms asking where jason is and...why he's not responding. the plan has gone to shit, and the alarms are blaring, and now they can get out, now that tucker has his data, of course. and now rogers is caught up with some feds while disguised as one, and he doesn't even have the option to run from the active c4 bomb he just stealth-planted without being found out by the feds, and he's dead too. can you fucking imagine being casualties of the reds and blues, of your own captain? they weren't around to see tucker grow, to see the reds and blues reunite, to learn the truth about felix (who was on the mission with them and was the one to trigger the explosion of the c4 that killed rogers to make a distraction so tucker could get out), to see the new republic and the federal army of chorus unite, to see kimball become president, to see the war end...they weren't there. because tucker got them killed for his own purposes. he didn't mean to, but why should it matter to them? he isn't a hero to them like he is to everyone else. and can you imagine being palomo, coming home without the last two members of your team, and having to work directly under tucker? that's why it's so baffling to me that the "hit and run" situation never gets addressed between them. the seriousness of parts of the chorus trilogy make it crazy that there's so much depth unexplored in other areas...not to even get into how the new republic got lucky bc the feds are barely explored!! great, small fic exploring the ramifications of "hit and run" more
