Saga The Face Behind the Helmet - DDC 2016

Findswoman

Thank you, Findswoman, for the review. Again, I can only speak for my own part, but I am so thrilled someone recognized "In Flanders Fields". It's such a touching, poignant poem; and you're right -- I do see Kix as having a kind of softer side, a bit more nuanced than some of his brothers. I just always picture the part in the Umbara arc where, in the face of hopeless odds, he loses it and just starts shooting at the scavenger rays. Being a medic who has no one to tend but the dead . . .

And no, it's not weird to say you admire his response That's what I was going for. Again, many thanks!!

 

Wow, this latest double entry starts with a bang. The image of troopers cooking their meal in upturned helmets is truly a haunting one. You both do an amazing job at depicting the dazed, shell-shocked troopers who just can't cope anymore with the situation.

Another element that was interesting when looking at both of of your diary entries was the commonalities and differences between Fives's and Kix's musings about being a clone and being a trooper. They both note how individual clones are unique, and yet belong to a wider entity, but each one in his own way.

Lastly, what you both emphasised very subtly is the difference between the clones and their non-clone officers. They are two very different people, but one can also see how they don't relate to their troops in the way Fives and Kix relate to their brothers. The situation described in your two diary entries is so harrowing that it was a relief of sorts to see Anchor being in charge. On the one hand, he did let discipline deteriorate (although how he could have done otherwise is a big question mark) but on the other hand, the fact that his presence alone gets the exhausted clones to somewhat straighten up is a sure sign that he's doing something right.

 

While I have no idea where the two of you are, as you almost went in hiding this month, I hope this continues.

Until then, a belated review.


Fives

This is getting grimmer and grimmer as it goes. Eating carcasses from helmets that may or may not belong to the fallen comrades. And the way AT-TEs are parked, there is a feeling of impeding doom. And Fives is 100% right in his assumptions that these people's hopes were crashed. They were bred for a task and when they fail at their tasks, it's more than just being held hostage - it's having failed at their whole life, as it is.

And their rebellion against the Jedi seems to be growing. While I can get that the Jedi cannot be everywhere and that they're fighting on many fronts, this is precisely what Palpatine wants when it comes the moment to execute order 66. The public may find out about how the army was treated and then every single action on the Emperor's behalf will be hailed and justified.

The fact that Greaser didn't even acknowledge Fives at first contributes to the overall hopelessness and depression. The symbol of dominoes falling is used in a completely different way here.

The very ending, with "you aren't going to eat that" sequence reminds me of something you probably did not read and watch, but if you did, correct me: ex-Yugoslavian books and films about WWII. You see, partisans - or, as we call them here, partizani - were even executed for eating almost anything. There's this short story called "Kašika" (Spoon) where a frail individual starves to death and there was a flashback of the time when they found stalks of spring onions in his bag and almost killed him for having stolen it and wanting to eat it. Imagine that, he stole zero-calorie food.

Either way, I'm starting to find more and more things to relate to, at least remotely, in this DDC and I love it that the two of you got me to step out of my comfort zone and shed some of my prejudices.


Kix

I didn't recognise this poem, so thanks for letting me know about it. We tend to focus on regional literature when it comes to more recent wars and cover worldwide history of literature, so somebody from this area can't possibly know that much about all things Anglophone, nor they should. Frankly, Anglophone folk should be reading more stuff that's not in English.

This is super-disturbing, yet Kix's logic of suddenly getting obsessive-compulsive about cremating those bodies, so he would not look at their remains and seeing the dead eyes stare at him while he's, in some way, not able to give them any answers so as to what is going on...it all makes sense. Wars take people beyond anything they thought they could feel. No matter how one tries to honour these particular dead and make their deaths meaningful, the whole sad state of affairs on Infernon and overall hopelessness are swallowing everybody and everything.

And Kix's point of view makes it clear that the newer folk could attack oldbies, something that Fives was not upfront about. I can't even imagine where their rage comes from, but the idea of them seeing a value system that isn't really there, it just screams trouble.

Another thing that shines (no pun intended) through both of these entries, but is more poignant in this one, is Jesse being the straight man and the last ray of hope to both protagonists, whether they would like to admit it or not.