Dogma (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
inflexecutioner) wrote2020-02-24 10:06 pm
inflexecutioner) wrote2020-02-24 10:06 pm
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User Name/Nick: Isabelle
User DW:vibishan
E-mail: y’all know how to reach me lol
Other Characters: Shuos Jedao
Character Name: Dogma
Series: Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Age: Chronologically, he’s probably…..9 or 10??? Developmentally he’s that 17 yo jarhead who’s in over his head and it hurts to call him an adult, but.
From When?: After he is taken away to be reconditioned and/or executed after he murdered Pong Krell.
Inmate/Warden: Inmate. Dogma tries to turn Fives in to Pong Krell, which he well knows would lead not only to Fives’ probable execution for insubordination, but to the totally unnecessary deaths of many other clone troopers when Krell’s (deliberately) suicidal bloodbath of a plan is implemented without Fives’ intervention. When Fives insists that his execution is unjust and the firing squad all deliberately miss, an enraged Dogma demands they follow orders. When Krell’s absolute treachery is revealed, Dogma still tries to stand against the other clones on his behalf.
Although Dogma himself insists that he is motivated by loyalty and obedience, the truth is that he’s acting out of pride and fear just as much, and the same is true when he later kills Pong Krell. Even though this is, in some ways, a truly heroic act, he doesn’t do it because he’s improved morally, and he’s still potentially as liable to lash out violently at someone who doesn’t deserve it if he feels threatened or insulted, as someone who does.
Arrival: Dogma was taken from his execution without his knowledge or consent. He will be very confused.
Abilities/Powers: Dogma is a genetically engineered supersoldier, but like, meant to be canon fodder. His endurance, reflexes, metabolism and baseline strength are at least at the farthest end of the human bell curve, and he’s been subjected to constant high-stakes training his entire life, so he knows how to use his body (and a variety of weapons) for maximum efficiency and violence. He was also trained in tactics, however, he has been deployed only as a ground grunt, and never held command; his actual wartime experience consists of following orders (mostly) scrupulously and not dying.
Personality: Dogma is a bunch of glass shards grinding against each other in atrench coat suit of plastoid armor pretending to be a traumatized young boy pretending to be a soldier trying to be a zealot. Dogma is what the Nervous Overachiever looks like in a mass-produced super soldier. He’s a neurotic heap held together with rote drills and baling wire. Dogma is a creature of desperation, brittle and already cracked by the time he arrives on the barge.
Dogma’s commander, Captain Rex, describes him as “Uptight, but loyal.” This turns out to be something of an understatement all around. Repeatedly, at pivotal moments, Dogma insists that they Must Follow Orders, even after their commanders outright despicable treachery is revealed. Clearly he has been a stickler most of his life - it’s how he got his name. But Dogma doesn’t do this because he just loves rules. He’s a slave who has reacted to his own powerlessness, and the constant threat of death or reconditioning, by attempting to assert some measure of control in one of the only ways he could be sure was, if not safe, at least approved of. His insistence on following orders and perfectly abiding by every regulation is his way of trying to protect himself. While he knows that following orders won’t protect him from the chances of war (and, indeed, following Pong Krell’s orders in particular is clearly going to drastically increase the chances of dying), it’s magical thinking, not rational. If he’s just good enough, if he’s perfect enough, if he does exactly what a Good Clone Trooper would do - then he’ll be safe. If he can just be perfect, maybe he’ll be okay.
In fact, being a Good Clone Trooper, according to Dogma’s own twisted platonic ideal, is more important to him than following orders, if the two come into conflict. For all that Dogma is set up as the one blindly following Krell, he’s actually introduced disobeying an order: after a nasty battle, Anakin tells him to go get some rest, and he insists that he is fine. Dogma not only doesn’t react to orders like a compulsion, he quite clearly evaluates them for himself - in this case, Anakin’s order doesn’t match what he thinks he’s supposed to say/do/be, so he tries to demur. Dealing with his conditioning will definitely be a major issue for Dogma, but he’s not under any outright compulsion - other than a lifetime of warping pressure and his own particular bad coping mechanisms. No other clones act like Dogma does. In fact, the evidence suggests his actual brainwashing vis-a-vis the Jedi is weaker than average. It shows in his first scene with Anakin, and in his last: he’s capable of shooting Master Pong Krell in the back, when Rex, one of the most independent clones, can’t bring himself to do it while facing him. Dogma isn’t the Perfect Clone Trooper, and some of his obsession with following protocol or obviously stupid orders is less real faith in the Jedi and more overcompensating. A Good Clone Trooper wouldn’t need rest, but a Good Clone Trooper would march into overwhelming and terrible odds because a Jedi General Said So. So that’s what he does - and what he tries to force onto every other clone trooper on Umbara.
Despite all this, Dogma is actually less of an asshole than he seems. He’s easy for the viewer to hate - Pong Krell is so cartoonishly evil, and Fives so obviously right, that Dogma betraying his brother to the corrupted Jedi is appalling. His insistence on following orders long past the point of absurdity is deeply frustrating. But it betrays just how deep his fear and confusion go - and before things build up to the crisis point, Dogma is actually not particularly bossy or assholish. He argues in favor of trusting that Krell knows what he’s doing - but only as one voice in larger, open clone conversations. For the most part he keeps his head down. He’s more of a nervous goody-two-shoes than the zealot his name implies. He’s a kid trying to do what’s right, who knows he’s scared and clueless, who wants someone to trust. And while he tries to give Krell the benefit of the doubt and eventually doubles-down on it in the horror of everything that happens, the person he really trusts is the highest-ranked clone trooper, Captain Rex. He follows Rex’s lead when Rex tells him to obey Anakin, when Rex strongly implies that he should not tattletale on Fives, and when Rex tells him to stand down at the very end, when he attempted to hold his fellow soldiers at gunpoint as they tried to hunt down Krell. When Rex tells him, gently, that he’s got it all wrong, he crumbles.
It’s fear that leads him to try to reveal Fives’ insubordination, and genuine affection that has him pushing Tup to come along, when he could easily have slipped out and told Krell on his own. “We’ll be complicit,” he tells Tup, but the primary issue is fear, not guilt; he concludes with “Do you want to be court-martialed?” (emphasis mine). He’s really afraid that they’ll get in trouble just for knowing about something that goes against orders - and to be fair, at that point Krell had made it more than clear that he was a hardass who demanded perfection and absolute obedience. When Rex gets in their way, rather than find away around him out of earnest moral principle, Dogma backs down.
But under all that, Dogma does have his pride, and this is the source of his very worst moments. Dogma’s absolutely furious expression during Fives’ stirring speech about the humanity of the clones is salt in the wound. Dogma is, in that moment, an absolutely vindictive little shit, even if the immediate battle forestalls him from doing much about it. He has a place of power in overseeing the execution, and Fives’ speech is stealing and tarnishing ‘his’ moment; worse, when the squad to a man sides with Fives, Dogma feels humiliated. It’s not that he wants Fives to die, really - he doesn’t care that much about Fives sneaking out to take out the enemy’s air support - but he hates that Fives undercut him so completely. And worse - he did it by acting completely unafraid of all the things Dogma is terrified of. And it’s that same humiliated pride that pushes him over the edge to kill Pong Krell, stealing Fives’ own weapon to do so after being relieved of his own. Krell humiliates him directly, calling him the greatest fool of all for trusting Krell and following him. When Krell turns his taunting on Rex, Dogma’s one trusted touchstone, Dogma snaps.
Dogma truly believes that he is trying to do the right thing, to be a good clone trooper. But he has none of the other clones’ faith in the larger Republic or Jedi systems. He doesn’t believe that a smart tactical choice will be rewarded over pure obedience. He believes that guilt by association will be enforced and punished. He acts out of fear and tells himself it’s devotion, and when the two come into conflict, he becomes an unpredictable mess. He has people he cares for - Tup and Rex - but he only has very limited ways of expressing that, some of them less than great. And while it’s not constant, he has a stern core of bitter pride, honed over a short, harsh life of constantly struggling to live up to impossible demands. When that pride is wounded, he reacts with anger and violence.
Barge Reactions: He might spend a while thinking the barge is Very Weird Reconditioning though and not at all sure he’s actually dead. He is going to be very bitter and confused but also secretly (lol) reassured by Fives’ presence. He’s going to try to do his ‘keep his head down and behave’ inoffensive thing, but will probably end up breaking down and lashing out sooner rather than later. The barge is completely foriegn to him on almost every conceivable level, and he’s going to be so frustrated he could cry at being thrust into a situation he so profoundly doesn’t understand. He’ll be deeply resistant to the idea that he can be redeemed or forgiven, even as he swings back and forth on what it is he thinks he should be sorry for. Post-killing-Krell, he’s especially volatile - he wants to be a Good Clone Trooper, but also he Murdered a Jedi, but also it WAS the Right Thing To Do to protect his brothers, so basically he doesn’t know up from down even in his own identity anymore. He’s a 10-pound mess in a 5-pound helmet with a sick tattoo.
Path to Redemption: Dogma is going to need some scaffolding. That is, before he can bust out of his shell and make independent moral decisions, he’s going to need someone to be steady for him, and gently correct him when he’s spinning out or wildly mis-prioritizing. He needs someone he can trust in Rex’s place so that he can relax enough to make any decisions of his own at all, and he needs someone to model for him HOW to make good decisions - like, to talk him through the thought process. And he needs proof that he can fuck up and be held responsible, but not be destroyed for his mistakes. Dogma is a hard worker and he wants to be good almost more than anything, but he’s terrified, traumatized, and conditioned in ways that make that complicated. A good warden doesn’t need to coddle him - frank feedback and clear assignments will work wonders with Dogma once clear rapport is established. He’ll need someone solid enough for him to rely on them, but flexible enough to change their approach over time as his capacity for independence improves.
Deal:
History: Boom.
Sample Journal Entry: an thread
Sample RP: some threads
Special Notes: idkmybffgun
User DW:
vibishanE-mail: y’all know how to reach me lol
Other Characters: Shuos Jedao
Character Name: Dogma
Series: Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Age: Chronologically, he’s probably…..9 or 10??? Developmentally he’s that 17 yo jarhead who’s in over his head and it hurts to call him an adult, but.
From When?: After he is taken away to be reconditioned and/or executed after he murdered Pong Krell.
Inmate/Warden: Inmate. Dogma tries to turn Fives in to Pong Krell, which he well knows would lead not only to Fives’ probable execution for insubordination, but to the totally unnecessary deaths of many other clone troopers when Krell’s (deliberately) suicidal bloodbath of a plan is implemented without Fives’ intervention. When Fives insists that his execution is unjust and the firing squad all deliberately miss, an enraged Dogma demands they follow orders. When Krell’s absolute treachery is revealed, Dogma still tries to stand against the other clones on his behalf.
Although Dogma himself insists that he is motivated by loyalty and obedience, the truth is that he’s acting out of pride and fear just as much, and the same is true when he later kills Pong Krell. Even though this is, in some ways, a truly heroic act, he doesn’t do it because he’s improved morally, and he’s still potentially as liable to lash out violently at someone who doesn’t deserve it if he feels threatened or insulted, as someone who does.
Arrival: Dogma was taken from his execution without his knowledge or consent. He will be very confused.
Abilities/Powers: Dogma is a genetically engineered supersoldier, but like, meant to be canon fodder. His endurance, reflexes, metabolism and baseline strength are at least at the farthest end of the human bell curve, and he’s been subjected to constant high-stakes training his entire life, so he knows how to use his body (and a variety of weapons) for maximum efficiency and violence. He was also trained in tactics, however, he has been deployed only as a ground grunt, and never held command; his actual wartime experience consists of following orders (mostly) scrupulously and not dying.
Personality: Dogma is a bunch of glass shards grinding against each other in a
Dogma’s commander, Captain Rex, describes him as “Uptight, but loyal.” This turns out to be something of an understatement all around. Repeatedly, at pivotal moments, Dogma insists that they Must Follow Orders, even after their commanders outright despicable treachery is revealed. Clearly he has been a stickler most of his life - it’s how he got his name. But Dogma doesn’t do this because he just loves rules. He’s a slave who has reacted to his own powerlessness, and the constant threat of death or reconditioning, by attempting to assert some measure of control in one of the only ways he could be sure was, if not safe, at least approved of. His insistence on following orders and perfectly abiding by every regulation is his way of trying to protect himself. While he knows that following orders won’t protect him from the chances of war (and, indeed, following Pong Krell’s orders in particular is clearly going to drastically increase the chances of dying), it’s magical thinking, not rational. If he’s just good enough, if he’s perfect enough, if he does exactly what a Good Clone Trooper would do - then he’ll be safe. If he can just be perfect, maybe he’ll be okay.
In fact, being a Good Clone Trooper, according to Dogma’s own twisted platonic ideal, is more important to him than following orders, if the two come into conflict. For all that Dogma is set up as the one blindly following Krell, he’s actually introduced disobeying an order: after a nasty battle, Anakin tells him to go get some rest, and he insists that he is fine. Dogma not only doesn’t react to orders like a compulsion, he quite clearly evaluates them for himself - in this case, Anakin’s order doesn’t match what he thinks he’s supposed to say/do/be, so he tries to demur. Dealing with his conditioning will definitely be a major issue for Dogma, but he’s not under any outright compulsion - other than a lifetime of warping pressure and his own particular bad coping mechanisms. No other clones act like Dogma does. In fact, the evidence suggests his actual brainwashing vis-a-vis the Jedi is weaker than average. It shows in his first scene with Anakin, and in his last: he’s capable of shooting Master Pong Krell in the back, when Rex, one of the most independent clones, can’t bring himself to do it while facing him. Dogma isn’t the Perfect Clone Trooper, and some of his obsession with following protocol or obviously stupid orders is less real faith in the Jedi and more overcompensating. A Good Clone Trooper wouldn’t need rest, but a Good Clone Trooper would march into overwhelming and terrible odds because a Jedi General Said So. So that’s what he does - and what he tries to force onto every other clone trooper on Umbara.
Despite all this, Dogma is actually less of an asshole than he seems. He’s easy for the viewer to hate - Pong Krell is so cartoonishly evil, and Fives so obviously right, that Dogma betraying his brother to the corrupted Jedi is appalling. His insistence on following orders long past the point of absurdity is deeply frustrating. But it betrays just how deep his fear and confusion go - and before things build up to the crisis point, Dogma is actually not particularly bossy or assholish. He argues in favor of trusting that Krell knows what he’s doing - but only as one voice in larger, open clone conversations. For the most part he keeps his head down. He’s more of a nervous goody-two-shoes than the zealot his name implies. He’s a kid trying to do what’s right, who knows he’s scared and clueless, who wants someone to trust. And while he tries to give Krell the benefit of the doubt and eventually doubles-down on it in the horror of everything that happens, the person he really trusts is the highest-ranked clone trooper, Captain Rex. He follows Rex’s lead when Rex tells him to obey Anakin, when Rex strongly implies that he should not tattletale on Fives, and when Rex tells him to stand down at the very end, when he attempted to hold his fellow soldiers at gunpoint as they tried to hunt down Krell. When Rex tells him, gently, that he’s got it all wrong, he crumbles.
It’s fear that leads him to try to reveal Fives’ insubordination, and genuine affection that has him pushing Tup to come along, when he could easily have slipped out and told Krell on his own. “We’ll be complicit,” he tells Tup, but the primary issue is fear, not guilt; he concludes with “Do you want to be court-martialed?” (emphasis mine). He’s really afraid that they’ll get in trouble just for knowing about something that goes against orders - and to be fair, at that point Krell had made it more than clear that he was a hardass who demanded perfection and absolute obedience. When Rex gets in their way, rather than find away around him out of earnest moral principle, Dogma backs down.
But under all that, Dogma does have his pride, and this is the source of his very worst moments. Dogma’s absolutely furious expression during Fives’ stirring speech about the humanity of the clones is salt in the wound. Dogma is, in that moment, an absolutely vindictive little shit, even if the immediate battle forestalls him from doing much about it. He has a place of power in overseeing the execution, and Fives’ speech is stealing and tarnishing ‘his’ moment; worse, when the squad to a man sides with Fives, Dogma feels humiliated. It’s not that he wants Fives to die, really - he doesn’t care that much about Fives sneaking out to take out the enemy’s air support - but he hates that Fives undercut him so completely. And worse - he did it by acting completely unafraid of all the things Dogma is terrified of. And it’s that same humiliated pride that pushes him over the edge to kill Pong Krell, stealing Fives’ own weapon to do so after being relieved of his own. Krell humiliates him directly, calling him the greatest fool of all for trusting Krell and following him. When Krell turns his taunting on Rex, Dogma’s one trusted touchstone, Dogma snaps.
Dogma truly believes that he is trying to do the right thing, to be a good clone trooper. But he has none of the other clones’ faith in the larger Republic or Jedi systems. He doesn’t believe that a smart tactical choice will be rewarded over pure obedience. He believes that guilt by association will be enforced and punished. He acts out of fear and tells himself it’s devotion, and when the two come into conflict, he becomes an unpredictable mess. He has people he cares for - Tup and Rex - but he only has very limited ways of expressing that, some of them less than great. And while it’s not constant, he has a stern core of bitter pride, honed over a short, harsh life of constantly struggling to live up to impossible demands. When that pride is wounded, he reacts with anger and violence.
Barge Reactions: He might spend a while thinking the barge is Very Weird Reconditioning though and not at all sure he’s actually dead. He is going to be very bitter and confused but also secretly (lol) reassured by Fives’ presence. He’s going to try to do his ‘keep his head down and behave’ inoffensive thing, but will probably end up breaking down and lashing out sooner rather than later. The barge is completely foriegn to him on almost every conceivable level, and he’s going to be so frustrated he could cry at being thrust into a situation he so profoundly doesn’t understand. He’ll be deeply resistant to the idea that he can be redeemed or forgiven, even as he swings back and forth on what it is he thinks he should be sorry for. Post-killing-Krell, he’s especially volatile - he wants to be a Good Clone Trooper, but also he Murdered a Jedi, but also it WAS the Right Thing To Do to protect his brothers, so basically he doesn’t know up from down even in his own identity anymore. He’s a 10-pound mess in a 5-pound helmet with a sick tattoo.
Path to Redemption: Dogma is going to need some scaffolding. That is, before he can bust out of his shell and make independent moral decisions, he’s going to need someone to be steady for him, and gently correct him when he’s spinning out or wildly mis-prioritizing. He needs someone he can trust in Rex’s place so that he can relax enough to make any decisions of his own at all, and he needs someone to model for him HOW to make good decisions - like, to talk him through the thought process. And he needs proof that he can fuck up and be held responsible, but not be destroyed for his mistakes. Dogma is a hard worker and he wants to be good almost more than anything, but he’s terrified, traumatized, and conditioned in ways that make that complicated. A good warden doesn’t need to coddle him - frank feedback and clear assignments will work wonders with Dogma once clear rapport is established. He’ll need someone solid enough for him to rely on them, but flexible enough to change their approach over time as his capacity for independence improves.
History: Boom.
Sample Journal Entry: an thread
Sample RP: some threads
Special Notes: idkmybffgun