#sad clone hours

[phantom-of-the-501st]

Let's talk about the 501st

Sorry, this is going to be depressing again ;-;

-----

We all know that the story of the clones is heartbreaking but I want to talk specifically about the little "inner circle" of the 501st. There's the whole battalion, many of whom are unidentifiable and have identical armour, but then there's our little group of chaotic boys that we all know and love. And I want to talk about the evolution of that circle.

Obviously we have Rex, the leader. No matter who's there, he's the one that's looking after this little circle of chaos. He's the one that's there till the end, which means that he unfortunately gets to watch this depressing little story unfold.

Pretty early he picks up the Domino Twins. Along with Jesse and Kix, these two kind of create our little circle of regulars. These are the ones that are obviously very close to Rex and there's a great camaraderie between them. (Of course there's also our boy Cody but I'm keeping this strictly 501st). While we don't necessarily get to see them altogether, these are the ones that we really get to know as Rex's right hand men.

But unfortunately, this inner circle begins to break pretty early on. During the Citadel mission, Echo is lost and not only have we lost one half of the Domino Twins, but there's now a hole in the circle.

By the time we reach S4, there are some new additions: Tup, Hardcase, and Dogma. These guys become the younger brothers of the group, Tup and Hardcase becoming particularly close to now-Arc-Trooper Fives. And of course we have the wonderful trio of Fives, Hardcase and Jesse on Umbara.

The circle has grown and shifted from when we first saw it, but it's still there. The small group of regulars that we love to see.

But then it begins to really fall apart.

Hardcase sacrifices himself.

Dogma is arrested.

Tup dies as a result of his inhibitor chip malfunctioning.

And Fives is killed trying to tell the others about the truth.

Everything is falling apart.

We're losing the circle.

Then there's hope! Echo's alive. One of the first members of this ragtag group is back.

But he doesn't stay.

He's no longer who he once was. Those brothers (that circle) that he knew are gone. And he makes the difficult decision to join Clone Force 99.

By the end of S7, we've lost Kix too. Jesse and Rex are all that are left.

And then it happens. Order 66.

Rex has to bury Jesse. He has to bury the last of the inner circle aside from himself. He has to say goodbye to the ones that he relied on the most. His closest brothers.

We watched this group grow. We saw it change. Echo, Fives, Jesse, Kix, Hardcase, Dogma, Tup...

Now it's just Rex. The last man standing.

It's all gone.

They built a band of brothers.

And the war took it away.

[sumarbrandur]

When the Empire is more established and the number of clone troopers in active service start to dwindle it's obvious that they don't intend to take care of their veterans as they toss them out like broken toys. Peregrine is quick to spit on that bullshit and finds work as a mercenary and bounty hunter out of necessity. He grows his hair and beard out like he always wanted to but couldn't since it was against regulations. By the time he meets his brothers again in the ranks of the rebellion, Gyrr laughs at how wildly different he looks. He's grown his hair out almost down to his waist and his beard is in a neat braid to match his hair.

The moment he sees his General alive, he breaks down in tears and begs for his forgiveness. Aries kneels down in front of him and gives him a soft keldabe kiss, telling him that he wasn't at fault. Peregrine puts his head on the Jedi's shoulder as he continues to cry and let out all the regret and guilt he carried for all those years.

When he calms down, Gyrr asks him if he wants to fly together as Falco Squad once again. Kestrel and Merlin are honored with the birds they paint on their fighter jets.

[phantom-of-the-501st]

Do you guys ever think about the fact that Tech is the only member of The Batch to see exactly what the Techno Union had done to Echo?

The others have seen the aftermath. They know what the TU did to his body.

But Tech is the only one who actually saw what they did to him. He's the only Batcher that saw the stasis chamber and the wires and Echo's condition when he first came out of that chamber.

[clonehub]

Rex normally does his best to be there for his men, but often time he finds it difficult to connect with them. He loves all of them, of course, but he often struggles to empathize fully or mix with his men.