Why Crosshair Is The Most Realistic ‘Star Wars’ Villain
Image Source: Disney+
“Empires need enemies. They need a justification for all those weapons...for all those soldiers. A reason for their subjects to be afraid, so the people will tolerate a level of control they would never otherwise allow.”
This is a line from the Archivist in the second issue of Star Wars: Hidden Empire where she explained how the Empire created enemies for its people to rally against so they would not oppose the Empire’s control over their lives. This is fundamental to many fascist governments in our own world. In order to sustain their power, dictatorships direct their subjects’ anger towards a scapegoat so they will be complicit with their own subjugation and loss of rights. In the Star Wars galaxy, this manipulation tactic is no clearer than with Crosshair.
Crosshair started out by doing what most people working in a fascist government do—their jobs. Upon hearing about Order 66, Crosshair took a different path from the rest of the Bad Batch by following through on the command and trying to kill a Jedi Padawan. In turn, Hunter helped the Jedi escape and falsely reported his death. However, this charade did not work for long as Hunter’s disobedience was discovered shortly after his team failed to take out the Partisans on Onderon. As a result, the Bad Batch was imprisoned on Kamino. But noticing Crosshair’s loyalty, Admiral Wilhuff Tarkin decided to have Crosshair’s inhibitor chip amplified to strengthen his loyalty to the Empire. However, this is only part of the reason why he stayed.
RELATED:
Even after having his chip removed, Crosshair continued to serve the Emperor primarily due to his resentment towards his old team. Feeling betrayed by his team’s disobedience and abandonment of him, Crosshair stayed with the Empire mainly to get back at the clones who he felt had failed him. Utilizing this to his advantage, Vice Admiral Rampart actively encouraged Crosshair and his need to get back at his former team. Having him focus on Clone Force 99 gave Crosshair a personal reason for remaining an Imperial as his new position would give him the authority to either kill the Bad Batch or even bring them into the Empire alongside him. However, he ultimately failed to do both in the Season 1 finale.
In the recent episode "The Solitary Clone", Crosshair has fully embraced Imperial service and is even willing to kill innocents in order to maintain the Empire’s grip over the galaxy. By using his hatred of the Bad Batch as a scapegoat, the Empire was able to convince Crosshair of their cause and make him accept their ruthless methods as a means of getting back at the ones he truly hated. This is how a lot of average people get recruited into hateful online spaces that target marginalized communities. They are told that certain people and figures are the ones making their lives miserable and they can only be rid of them by aligning themselves with toxic causes and individuals. As they embrace more and more of the group’s behaviors, they eventually come to see the group’s way as the only way.
Image Source: Wookieepedia
Crosshair is the most realistic villain in Star Wars because we see people like him every day. He is not a powerful Sith Lord or a cybernetic bounty hunter. He is a regular person who thinks what he is doing is for the good of everyone and himself. But much like the dark side, that promise of things getting better is ultimately an empty lie that leads only to suffering.
READ NEXT:
Latest News
Featured
