That Scene Where Crosshair Drew His Rifle To Save Omega And Everyone Drew Their Weapons On Him Because

That scene where Crosshair drew his rifle to save Omega and everyone drew their weapons on him because they thought he was going to kill Hunter absolutely gutted me, but I also loved it a lot. Because it showed us a lot about where Crosshair is going, and his relationship with the Bad Batch right now, by doing very little.

Firstly, it showed that Crosshair still cares about The Bad Batch. He knew it would destroy them if anything happened to her. It showed that, on some level, he cares about Omega. He didn’t want her to die. And, most importantly, I think it showed that he still has at least some small sliver of good left buried within him.

However, it also showed that, right now, The Bad Batch does not trust him. They obviously still care about him — you can tell by the way Hunter refused to leave him, the way Omega tried so hard to save his life, the way Wrecker and Tech were hurt that Crosshair never tried to find them just like they never tried to find him. And you can tell by the way they all turn to Crosshair and still offer to take him with them even after everything they’ve done to hurt each other.

….but.

They don’t trust him. And I don’t blame them. Up until Return to Kamino they could excuse Crosshair’s behavior as the inhibitor chip forcing him to do what he’s done. But after Crosshair reveals that his chip was taken out (whether it’s true or not), at this point in time they have to accept that Crosshair chose to attack them. To hurt them. To try and fry them alive in an proton engine. If what Crosshair said is true and his chip is gone, and they don’t know for how long, then that means Crosshair was actively choosing to work against them this whole time. And if Crosshair was choosing to do all of that before, why would he stop now? Especially once he reached safety at the surface of the ocean. It would be so easy for him to just shoot them all, let Omega drown, and take their ship. They see Crosshair draw his rifle on Hunter and have to assume the worst - that he’s going to kill Hunter. Because they have no reason to think he wouldn’t. Hell, in that moment, even my first thought was “what is shooting Hunter going to do” before I realized what he was doing. And I like Crosshair! I want him to be good! I believe that one day he’s going to realize he’s wrong and leave the Empire! But I also recognize that he’s an antagonist, and the Bad Batch has every reason to be wary of him based on what’s happened up to this point and what they know.

I think that moment may have been a big part in Crosshair’s decision to stay behind. Because Hunter and Wrecker and Omega can talk big game about how Crosshair is family and they are willing to take him back and be brothers and sister again. But Crosshair knows they’re afraid of him. He knows they don’t trust him. He knows that if he goes with them, things will never be how they were before. They’ll be looking over their shoulder every time Crosshair sneezes and Crosshair will be walking on eggshells constantly trying to prove to them that he doesn’t want to hurt them. Ultimately, I think choosing not to go with them at this point was the right call. Crosshair needs to redeem himself and prove himself a little for that to happen, and for that to happen he needs to realize that the Empire is wrong. That Crosshair is wrong. And do something about it.

It doesn’t mean that they won’t ever be reunited. It doesn’t mean that they’ll never trust Crisshair again. It doesn’t mean that Crosshair will never realize his mistakes and go back to them. I firmly believe this episode was meant to set up a long-game redemption arc for Crosshair. I think Hunter pointing out that the Empire left him for dead, his interactions to Tech and Wrecker in the tube, and his conversation with Omega in Nala Se’s lab did get through to him enough that the seeds of doubt are planted. You can see the conflict on his face as they’re leaving at the end of the episode. Hopefully with that, combined with how much he obviously still cares for his brothers, he’ll start to realize throughout season 2 that everything he believes about the Empire is wrong. Then hopefully he’ll start the process of making amends and doing the right thing. This episode actually ended up giving me a lot of hope for the future of Crosshair and The Bad Batch.

yes

YES

LAY THAT COMPLICATED REDEMPTION ARC ON ME FILONI YOU GLORIOUS STORYTELLER

IT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE NOW WHY HUNTER AND THE REST ARE TAKING SO LONG TO PICK A SIDE

THIS IS NO ADVENTURE OF THE WEEK WITH PRE-DETERMINED MORALS

YOU TRUELY ARE ALL FINDING YOUR WAY IN THE GALAXY AND I LOVE YOU FOR IT

---

CROSSHAIR YOU STUBBORN CONFUSED SELF-VALIDATING FOOL, YOU'RE A BLOOMING ZUKO AND I'VE NEVER BEEN SO HAPPY TO BESTOW THAT TITLE IN ALL MY LIFE

TECH YOU GLORIOUS ANALYTICAL ODDBALL, YOU'RE MAKING SO MUCH SENSE NOW, I'M SLOWLY BEGINNING TO UNDERSTAND YOU AS A PERSON RATHER THAN A STEREOTYPE

WRECKER YOU OVERZEALOUS SOFTY, I AM DELIGHTED AND DEVISTATED AT YOUR DEPTH

HUNTER YOU POOR CONFLICTED DAD-BOY, YOU'RE TRYING SO HARD, AND I KNOW IT'S ROUGH TO BE MADE TO QUESTION THE VALIDITY OF THE NEW IDENTITY YOU'VE BEEN POURING YOURSELF INTO

OMEGA YOU DARLING SISTER, SPENDING SO MUCH TIME LONGING, WILLING YOUR BROTHERS TO GROW UP WITH YOU, WANTING EVERYONE TO BE HOME AND BELONG

Never speak of canon to me ever again.

I LOVE Omega and Crosshair!!!! He needs to come home and bond with Omega lol!!!! Please for my own sanity and because people are NOT making enough fanfictions with these two...unless I’m just not finding many (only know of three sites that are for fanfiction).

Crosshair is completely fine and chilling with Omega. Canon, who? We don’t know them.

The rest of the batch with Omega:

Wrecker, Tech, Echo, Hunter and Rex

I think I’m gonna give Hunter a do-over for this series, since the first one I did was literally the meme and the others became much more personal, whoops.

Image ID: [ An image of Star Wars characters Crosshair and Omega. Crosshair’s body is facing the viewer, angled slightly towards the right. He is wearing his armor minus helmet. With his right arm he is holding on to Omega’s leg, with his right he is pointing to somewhere to the right. He is chewing on a toothpick and he has the tiniest smile on his lips while speaking. Omega is perched on his shoulders, holding a pair of binoculars and looking somewhere to the right, but not in the same direction as Crosshair is pointing. End ID]

omega’s still the only one who knows it’s not his fault 😔

This hurts more than it should because he wasn’t my favorite character in TCW for some reason but in TBB I felt more of a connection to him! I think it has a lot to do with Omega, their connection even if it’s not blatantly obvious to most, and how she NEVER gives up on Crosshair and seems to be the only one to sense his suffering. (More reasons but I’m sure no one wants to read a long post from me lol)

Not saying the other batchers aren’t suffering but Cross literally thinks he was replaced by his brothers by their little sister who they didn’t even know existed. As well as it seems like Omega has done more in this entire series for Crosshair than the whole batch has! I love anything with Crosshair and Omega!!!! Wish I could find more fan art, fanfictions etc.

Why Crosshair's treatment in the first season of the bad batch hurt so much:

They had to make the less talkative man with the rough personality into the villain. They could have showed that despite his coldness he's just as important part of the family as anyone else. They could have showed what made him behave this way.

He barely got any screentime. How could we understand his feelings if we don't even seen him?

His brothers didn't even try to save him while they thought he was only with the empire because of the chip. This pushed Crosshair toward the empire, even without his chip...

Crosshair was alone. We didn't see him smile once. He didn't have any wholesome moments, he didn't get to be there when Omega first saw hyperspace or try out Mantell mix.

He was broken more and more with each episode he appeared in. His eyes only got sadder and he became someone else during this season. This is not the lighthearted Crosshair who plays with Wrecker and has sarcastic comments. That Crosshair is gone. This season broke him.